Where Is Everybody? Where Are All The Wiz Devs?

[trayvyz]

This post seems to be a bit troll-y but I just have to ask... Where has everybody gone? Where are all the devs? Since I got my Wiz in May (and some time before that) there has not been a single (major) emulator update and only one or two homebrew games came out, which is quite disappointing... I also feel that traffic in this forum has dropped a bit. Has the Wiz died out already? Is there any hope left for this poor little handheld?
I'm perfectly satisfied with my Wiz already, but I just feel it's a pitty that it doesn't get enough attention, because it's a great value-for-money device despite its flaws. I don't want to speak badly of the Pandora, I just feel it's not targeted to the audience that would buy a Wiz. It's way too expensive and way too DIY for most users. Anyway, I hope the Caanoo will get a bit more attention (from GPH also) than the Wiz, although I doubt it, given the mistakes they have made (again)...

Please excuse my pessimism, I don't mean to offend anyone, I'm just feeling a bit disappointed and helpless, given that I can't contribute to the community myself... Does anyone share my feelings?

Thank you

 

[crow_riot]

gp32spain.com's competition is still up and running - and there's a lot of money in the price pool. so i think "wiz devs" are keeping their stuff secret and attend the competition. at least i would do so

 

[bowz]

I think that there have been some homebrew games released lately, and I'm pretty sure they'll be alot more when the gp32spain's deadline hits.

Also, what emulators do you need? There's pretty much an emulator for any games you want to play except PS1 games(which is debatable whether it's even possible).

 

[t money]

can't speak for others, but i'm still hard at work on escape from zombie city. the thing is that it takes time to make games. even simple games can take several months to make, and weed out the bugs.

 

[Optimistic]

Wiz development is pretty much dead. I was happy to get a better port of the FCEU a while back, however and it was also nice to see a rRootage port. It would be nice if a few of the emulators would be improved. The GBA and the SNES emus need some work to get more games up to full speed, for example. Oh well, it plays most everything that I want and I like it more than the GP2X, so I'm happy.

 

[torpor]

My Wiz got no love since Pandora arrived. I yearn for the WLAN Adapter to launch.

 

[u9i]

working on a game... but missing an artist

I think we will see a lot of nice stuff come august.

 

[Pobega]

working on a game... but missing an artist

I think we will see a lot of nice stuff come august.

That's always my problem with game development -- it's so hard to find good sprite artists. :[

 

[DaveC]

working on a game... but missing an artist

I think we will see a lot of nice stuff come august.

What kind of game is it?

 

[u9i]

Ehm, I would call it a spaceship flying cave exploring puzzle solving shooting game... or something like that.

That sounded a lot like Press Play on Tape - Man With a Gun check it out

 

[Exophase]

All of Wiz's development happened on GP2X. From a user's perspective Wiz is a great upgrade since it fixes/enhances a lot over GP2X, but from a developer perspective the platform isn't very different. The CPU is pretty similar plus a bit of a speed boost, the software environment is pretty similar, the controls are almost the same in terms of types of input, the resolution is the same.. so there's nothing really new to do. Emulators got pretty optimized for GP2X, got ported to Wiz, and that was all that really needed to be done.

About the only really new thing the Wiz offers is 3D, but emulators usually don't benefit from it and the platform doesn't easily attract 3D games from homebrew devs since they require heavier artistic assets. A PS1 emulator that uses the 3D would be nice, but that's kind of a lot to expect.

 

[torpor]

3D on the Wiz is just as plausible as it is on the Pandora .. I think the Wiz and Pandora cross-development pool is not yet pissed in, anyway ..

 

[Exophase]

3D on the Wiz is just as plausible as it is on the Pandora .. I think the Wiz and Pandora cross-development pool is not yet pissed in, anyway ..

And I don't see any real compelling evidence that there'll be a number of original 3D games for Pandora either. As for ports, Wiz is much worse off because as an ES 1.1 part without very high capabilities there's much less you can actually port to it.

 

[DaveC]

Ehm, I would call it a spaceship flying cave exploring puzzle solving shooting game... or something like that.

That sounded a lot like Press Play on Tape - Man With a Gun check it out

That sounds like "Gravity force" to me

 

[u9i]

^^
Gravity Force is certainly an inspiration, although Pixel Junk Shooter (on playstation network) much more so. There is not much gravity, and it does not contribute to the game play in the same way as in Gravity Force. But yeah... i need to remove gravity from the name

Btw, here's some off-topic entertainment: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=k41em4dr30g