Wiz Pictures From The Ifa

[EvilDragon]

Hiya folks!

I'm posting here straight from the GPH booth at the IFA.
I did take a few pictures of the booth and of the Wiz, hope you enjoy them.
Click on the pictures for highres versions.

Here's the booth:





Want some of those?



What's really cool is that there exist cover stickers. They feel like it's a real case - and look cool.
I especially like this one. I called it the "EvilDragon"-Edition :lol:







Now, I also playtested the Wiz a bit. The size is fine for me. The battery can be easily replaced. The OLED display is pretty colorful and sharp.

Size comparison:

The two DPads do feel weird at the beginning - but pressing two buttons at once is pretty easy (as long as it is not pressing the upper and lower or left and right only at once, that's impossible. You'll always press all 4 buttons at once if you try that... I can't think of a game which uses such weird button combinations though).
After a few minutes playing you really get used to it and you don't think about it being a second DPad anymore.

I can't say much about the firmware yet as it is not finished and I don't know where it will be optimized. At the moment, they get daily updates.

I'll keep you informed and will answer your questions

 

[Hahahoj]

Thanks for review

 

[gruso]

Looks great, it's really growing on me. Obviously they've applied a lot of the lessons/feedback from the F100/F200. I'm sure the community will adopt it with open arms once all the initial gasping and hollering dies down, and the Wiz and Pandora will coexist happily.

Thanks for the pics ED.

 

[x68000]

Brilliant report ED! It really does appear to be quite promising .

So what is your opinion on the left hand d-pad? is it a big improvement over the f200?

 

[sbock]

Thanks for the nice pics and the infos. Looks all very good to me. I can't await the release....

 

[jakshep2]

omg the wiz looks better than what I thought. the "EvilDragon" edition rules. I want one now. perhaps someone should make skins for the pando.

 

[Don Miguel]

ok. i'm satisfied with the visual part of the WIZ

thank u 8)

could you clear out about the future WIZ accessories: bluetoothe, wifi, sdio, ext stuff

^_-

 

[Guyfawkes]

I'm liking the look of the Wiz much more with the real photos close up, the ED design looks very nice! I am still not sure about the d-pad for buttons though, that would be something I have to decide if I get one.

 

[EvilDragon]

Brilliant report ED! It really does appear to be quite promising .

So what is your opinion on the left hand d-pad? is it a big improvement over the f200?

Sound is much better than with the F200 and the DPad is really playable this time

 

[nubie]

I can't help myself, wiz . . . Booth. . .


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I do like my wiz in a booth (Urinal, omg :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: )


OK, so it looks fine. I cannot see purchasing it if the firmware is a F*cked up as the GP2X's (weird binary blobs taking memory all over the place, strange settings on the cache that made apps perform poorly)

I am very concerned that they are screwing up the I/O again, partially confirmed by the 2.5mm jack instead of a 3.5mm jack. And the adapter is not included in the box? That would be a major fail right off the bat.

I NEED to know that a reasonably priced USB dongle will be available (preferably with 200-300mah from internal wiz power). $10 at the outside. It will be barely acceptable if another poorly designed connector like the GP2X is used, it is not nearly robust enough for its bulk.

Further USB Keyboard support should be STANDARD.

If you have any say at all with them, include a REAL FILE MANAGER in the firmware. I need to rename files, create new folders, and preferably edit text files (aka batch files/shell scripts) on the unit without tearing out my hair.

I don't have high hopes for the things I mention being fixed, but I can dream.

 

[dsraa]

Very Interesting.......its begining to appeal to me..........but not enough for me to buy it......yet.

I really do see it as a split from the gp* series, simply becuase of its design, as well the as the name "The Wiz".....seriously why would you want to carry something around called the WIZ? It sounds like one of those failed ideas from the 80's.

I seriously thought they were gonna do a gp3x.

BTW Nice pics, ED.


DSR

 

[Grz-]

Looks very cool and nice news for the dpad, i'm happy, i think ill buy one.

 

[EvilDragon]

Some not-so-good news... I just tried an SNES emulator right now.
I didn't even manage to get through the first level with those DPAD-Buttons - definately something that NEEDS to be fixed.
I'll show them, maybe it's not too late.... otherwise, we need to fix that ourselves...

 

[zxxgp]

Some not-so-good news... I just tried an SNES emulator right now.
I didn't even manage to get through the first level with those DPAD-Buttons - definately something that NEEDS to be fixed.
I'll show them, maybe it's not too late.... otherwise, we need to fix that ourselves...

That is not good news. I was looking forward to seeing how they would work as the normal buttons.

 

[anexanhume]

Some not-so-good news... I just tried an SNES emulator right now.
I didn't even manage to get through the first level with those DPAD-Buttons - definately something that NEEDS to be fixed.
I'll show them, maybe it's not too late.... otherwise, we need to fix that ourselves...

Ugh, not good news.

At least the dragon edition looks sweet.

 

[mindlord]

Thank goodness for some actual tactile feedback. I was certain that the A-Pad* would not work out, but didn't want to vocalize until someone who actually touched it could comment. I see no possible way to hit three buttons without hitting the fourth. Perhaps they could cut it into four pentagon shaped buttons that all sit very close together, still looks and acts like a pad, but each button could be hit independently. I've seen that configuration used somewhere else before and it looked relatively comfortable.

* Since the left pad is for Direction (D-Pad) and the other pad replaces the action buttons I suggest we call the right pad on the Wiz the A-Pad. And don't you lefties go complicating things by saying, "But Mindlord! You could swap the controls in software and make the left one the A-Pad and the right one the D-Pad."

 

[jmetal88]

The simplest fix for the pad buttons would seem to be just splitting them along that 'x' that's already stamped in the middle of them. Wouldn't be much of a mod at all, and would separate all four, although I don't know how comfortable that would be.

 

[sam fisher]

The simplest fix for the pad buttons would seem to be just splitting them along that 'x' that's already stamped in the middle of them. Wouldn't be much of a mod at all, and would separate all four, although I don't know how comfortable that would be.

I suggested something similar to GPH a while back but got no reply about it.

 

[elan]

Thank You for nice photos.

I emailed too .
Well there will be lot of X-Cut button mods for sure.
Or I hope better will be 3th party buttons...

Anyways It looks very nice with that dragon sticker.

 

[jbrodack]

Some not-so-good news... I just tried an SNES emulator right now.
I didn't even manage to get through the first level with those DPAD-Buttons - definately something that NEEDS to be fixed.
I'll show them, maybe it's not too late.... otherwise, we need to fix that ourselves...

Please try and get them to use actual buttons like every other system. Everything else is fine or really good but the action buttons need to be easy to use. Even if they have to slightly delay the system they really need to fix this since no one will want one if the controls are impossible to use for gaming. The original gp2x joystick was flawed but at least it was usable for everything we needed.