Why Is There So Much Hostility

[Daz_Genetic]

I'm just wondering why anytime anyone mentions other handhelds, especially those newly anounced or in production, there is a lot of negative reaction towards them.

I collect all handhelds, good or bad, so I have hands on experience with pretty much every handheld console out there. And any that I don't have are on my shopping list right now. At the moment the GP32 is definatley my favourite, but you can still find me playing on my GBA pretty often, and when emulators just don't feel right, I'll take out the Sega Nomad.

Both the PSP and the Gametrac look very interesting in their own right, and the DS sounds more promising everytime I hear more about it (apparently it has a touchscreen now). It seems that companies are starting to realise that gamers don't want to be tied to their televisions while playing games, and it just can't come soon enough.

That is why it upsets me how quickly most of you write these systems off without giving them a real chance. Most of you give the excuse that they won't be open source, but that is just plain crap. Whether they are open source or not, does not mean they won't have a development community. The GBA has an even bigger development community than the GP32 and Nintendo has never officially supported it. In fact, Nintendo would probably rather see the back of it. The Dreamcast, Xbox and even the PS2 to a smaller extent, all have an active home development community. Sony is actually the only company of those that actually does support the homebrew scene. Their Linux kit actually comes with development tools for creating PS2 games and apps.

More than half of the GP32 community seems to diss the GBA at every available opportunity. Yet everyone seems to eagerly anticipate the GBA emulator. Is there some sort of double standard there? Sure the GBA is a lower spec system on paper, but with some amazingly clever hardware features and obviously even cleverer programmers, the GBA has seen some games that even put half of the PSOne software library to shame. Recently I've been playing Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed and Need For Speed: Underground. Both these games are really amazing graphically, and gameplay wise. As good as the GP32 is, it will never see commercial games with the depth and gameply of the type seen on the GBA. That is without the chance of an emulator. But since the sound and soundtrack plays such an important part of the gaming experience for me, often emulators and roms are just a waste of SMC space for me.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I just wanted to get that off my chest, and I hope some others could also offer up their own opinions on the matter.

 

[ralp99]

people are immature. since there's been consoles, it's always been a case of "our system is better than theirs!" and that's just plain retarded. Pretty much cause people are pissed that they can't afford to buy all of the systems, so they convince themselvs theat the other ones suck, heh heh.

this place isn't so bad. I don't think THAT many people diss the GBA. Ok, Ngage definitely had it coming but when the Zodiac showed up a lot of people actually fled to their camp.. (don't know if they are too happy about it now though)

i think you'll always get attitudes like that no matter what, or where. Mac vs PC. 3DS Max vs Maya (sorry, sorry!). People want to feel that they are better and more special than "the other guys.." Ah well...

 

[Memnoch]

Ngage definitely had it coming

Man I thought this was a good response till I got to this line. Oh well.

EDIT

Good topic Daz. I agree with your points. The next few months is going to be a very expensive time with so many good handhelds coming out (although I'll always keep my beloved GP32).

 

[rcx21000]

Methinks it's because no one has enough money for them....

Grrr... The Zodiac is utter crap!!! :angry:
The Gametrac is too!!!!

But my opinion would change if I had 6 or 7hundred euros Feel free to donate them to me.....

 

[Alpha2]

Obviously there is the matter of not being able to afford all of them, although I'm sure more thanhalf the people here have owned or currently on one or more GBAs anyway.

But it's the same things as when system wars heat up, the Xbxers say the PS2 is crappy and behind the times and PS2ers say the Xbx is an overrated heap. these wars will never end so long as people can only own one system. If they put their money behind something they want it to survive and prosper and continue to be valuable and to that end they will make every attempt to say the "comeptition" sucks all manner of enter euphemism of choice for penis.

Of course there ARE very reasonable reasons for concidering an opposing system to be crap. Be it the likelyhood of poor software support, hardware specification short commings or the fact that it just sounds like a dumb idea. Anything coming out now with lackluster video playback, and garbage games is going to get hammered by the PSP and possibly the DS it's just FACT. The thing is the Zodiac and Gametrac are just comming around and will have to face teh PSP in just MONTHS but the GP has been out for 2 years and has a decicated following, that obviously does not want to be diminished.

 

[Swiss_Cheeseman]

Fanboyism. However, the n-gage got everything it deserved. A truly pathetic peice of shit. Bad design, under powered, and piss poor games.

The Zodiac, however, looks wonderful, as does the upcoming Sony handheld, and the GBA is still a good 2D handheld with a huge range of great games.

 

[moz]

i got a zodiac and a GP32.

i find myself playing the GP32 more than the zodiac.

i use c64 NES SMS Atari ST emulators

 

[ShadowHarlequin]

Good topic nice one
I must admit to dissing some consoles sometimes, however i dont even own a console except the GP32.

I think its not really down to the hardware much but to the programmers, i like the GP32 because of the emulators but also the fact that its open source hopefully means that bedroom coders will try to make some original game concepts, i think thats what makes a console great.

Although seeing some of the graphics that are being done on the PS2 at the moment is VERY impressive considering how old it is now.

Id never by a GBA though, but i do wanna play the games, just dont fancy the console itself.

Hmmmm just a few of my thoughts, laterz then...

 

[Memnoch]

A truly pathetic peice of shit.

Prime example of the hostility Daz was on about. Fool.

 

[Bohica]

I agree - there will always be this battle of systems. T'was like that when I were a lad when over the Spectrum and C64. With the odd pathetic Dragon 32 user thrown in

Personally, I've just added a Clie NX80V to my collection. It's my first Palm OS device and very nice too - although not quite up to the GP32's standard when it comes to emulation.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Can I just add that a part of the perceived hostility is actually just dissappointment. I bet most people on these forums would be quite happy to buy and use whatever the next console is that comes along if it could do all the things we currently want the GP32 to do (GBA emu, PSX emu, etc).

If the NGage had actually been a top peice of kit, I'm sure it would have had a better reception. When I first heard of it, I thought it sounded awesome - but then I saw one, tried to play one, and then the penny dropped.

At the moment, the GP32 is the best platform for me - as far as it goes. When something better comes along (in price, power, etc.) we'll all jump ship just like we always have done. If that wasn't the case, we'd still be using Lynx's and Gameboys...

 

[khephren]

Some good points there Daz, but I also think you will find many of the other forums are a hundred times worse. At least here you CAN get some interesting debate about different machines (well,sometimes!) without being called 'lamer' , 'gay' or another hundred imature insults.

I think the reason many people get so paranoid about other machines is:
a) they can't afford them at the moment b)they are scared their coders will leave
c)they are worried their new investment will be worthless soon and last (but not least) d)they like the community, and are worried it will vanish, and they would have to join one where people are like the first example.

I'm looking forward to the Gametrac, I just wish they would increase the screen size a little, which is a justified wish in my opinion.

 

[Q-Wi-Q]

hey, the GBA is a great system, I've owned one ever since they got out, and I played a lot on it . However, I'm getting pretty fed up with Nintendo's marketing: they release a system, then they release it AGAIN with adition of FLU, and then they only port games to it -_- they treat their great machine like it's just a peripheral of the Gamecube (I owned one, I traded it for a GP32, haven't regretted it for a second yet)... and NOW they're gonna make a NEW handheld... think: if nintendo only makes let's say 8 games for 2 systems a year, and now they'll have three systems all of a sudden, how do you think it will evolve? They will drop the GBA. End of discussion. nintendo makes great games, but they always piss me off :/

(yes there are other great games on the system - my fav is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but they're too rare :/)

edit: I feel ripped off by nintendo, I owned a Dreamcast, a Playstation and a Gamecube (and GBA back then), and I had to trade one of three for my GP32 which I own today, and I picked the cube... nuff said on my behalf

 

[r0lf]

Yep, basically i agree with everybody thus far...

it's classic fanboyism, it's human nature, and really for the time I have been watching this board it's not really that bad.

(I'm a slashdotter, you don't know truely hostility and fanboyism until you've had to moderate a few threads there)

You could grant the gp32 community a little more credit though, for starters most of us took a blind leap when we bought our GP32s. There were scant reviews or information (in english) when I first looked into it. Nobody I knew had one, and I'd never seen one. I guess i am just pointing out that for the most part we are open minded people. A good portion of the posts to the 'nGage/GBA sucks' threads were informative at the least. Hell when i picked up the nGage here for the 1st time, i was thinking it looked like the coolest thing since velcro undies, despite having read heaps of posts here telling me it was a moron's turd encased in frozen carbonite. (FWIW, it took about 30 minutes for me to draw the same conclusion - but i think i gave it every chance impress me).

Probably not super productive to this thread, but i had a spare 20c and nobody else to tell.

 

[MojoJojo]

I am seriously thinking about getting a GBA next paycheck....

It's not just the great games available for it. My friend has one and a gamecube so be able to do some crazy link up stuff with it. The SP has a nice light (no dimmer though), built in rechargable battery, and folds up nicely so you can actually carry it around in your pocket. If you ignore the actual hardware specs and software, it's just a far nicer handheld ergonomically.

Sorry, just thought I'd share that with you peeps. I admit I may have come off a bit hostile to other consoles, especially in the PSP thread. I think there my irritation was more at people taking the specs seriously...

 

[TeDaDeS]

Well GBA is standard not for homebrew games, thats the difference...

But is has nice games, the GP32 has almost nothing of that.
On paper the GP32 could be way best, but it just isnt.
Cause the coolstuff is in development. h34r:

 

[GiG]

I play videogames since I was 5 (now I am 25), and personally I think I can say that the commercial games for GP32 are... my god, it sounds like a suicide in this forum, but I think they are 90% trash, sometimes with good graphics, but trash in the gameplay, this is my opinion as a coder and as an artist.

Anyway......... I love GP32, is this weird? No, it is not, as the real soul of GP32 is the community and the homebrew software. Then the GP32 is not a simple game-machine, it is a generic piece of hardware.

I own GBA too, and PSX, Saturn, SNES, NeoGeoCD, XBox, Dreamcast, PS2, and I had GB, MegaDrive and N64: imho all these systems have a lot of great games, even if almost all systems have their faults.

 

[Antiriad]

Got to say its going to be interesting to see how things pan out over the next 18 months between the Tapwave Zodiac, Nintendo DS, Tiger Telematics Gametrac and the Sony PSP.

I think Ill wait and see which ends up with the best emulation scene but stick with my GP32 in the meantime! Rushing out to get a Zodiac right now just because its the latest thing may well prove foolish when the other three become available.

 

[Swiss_Cheeseman]

A truly pathetic peice of shit.

Prime example of the hostility Daz was on about. Fool.

I have no problem being hostile when someone/somthing deserves it. The n-gage was one massive design flaw. There was simply nothing good about it.

Please dont make me list everything, you should be able to find a list somewhere else.

Ah fuck you

- The OS was never made for games. The largest flaw is of course the "insert card the size of your thumbnail behind the battery and battery cover". I mean, fuck, that is just idiotic.

- Sidetalkin'!

- The screen is horrible, with bad colours, stupid aspect ratio, and low resolution.

- Horrible marketing campaign targeted towards MAD RICERS that own computer generated cars (I think)

- Not exactly the most comfortable handheld, phone buttons to not make good game buttons.

- The fiddly, slow interface to actually play the games. Again, the fault of the OS.

- Theres like, 10 games, and its been a while since it was released.

- It can run 3d games, but they play horribly slow, and the low resolution doesn't help.

- Memnoch likes it.

As you can see, the hostility is more than warranted. I could have designed a better fucking system.

 

[Octavious]

well, we all say that, not meaning it, usually, because its those other markets that leave the knife in the back of the gp32 and twist it deeper when good things happen for them and not us. We usually don't mean it, but we just say it because this is a nice layed back ( lol, spelling) group of people, for the most part

so, its kinda like a big joke, i guess

~Octavious