Wiz : Worth The Money ?


Terraforme

Terraforme

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Good evening, gentlemen.

First of all, I'd like to apologize if this topic does not fit this category.
Second of all, I'd like to apologize for my english as you may find this post to be pretty weird, since I'm french and it's getting pretty late around here (1 AM).

Now, let's get to the main point of this topic. ;)

I discovered the GP2X Wiz around a month ago, and fell in love with it immediately. However, 150€ (=~210$, =~125£) is a huge amount of money for a 17 years old guy like me, and I would not like to spend my money on it unless I'm 100% sure I won't have any regrets.

So, as you may have guessed at this point of my message, I have a few question for you Wiz owners and I hope you'd be kind enough to give me some answers.
  • Does it have good quality hardware ?
  • Is there any problem with the firmware, like, something causing a Wiz-fashioned BSoD ?
  • Do you need to use a SD card with the Wiz, or is the built-in memory enough to enjoy it ?
  • Can you run Final Fantasy 5 (SNES) decently ?
  • Can you run Final Fantasy 6 (SNES) decently (I guess that you can't as it uses mode 7) ?
  • Can you run Illusion of Time - aka Illusion of Gaia - (SNES) decently ?
  • Can you run Crusader of Centy (Megadrive/Genesis) decently ?
  • Can you run Dungeon Magic (MAME ?) decently ?
  • Can you run Mega Man 7/X/X2/X3 (SNES) decently ?
  • Can you run Bahamut Lagoon (SNES) decently ?
  • Can you run Kirby Super Star - aka Kirby's Fun Pak - (SNES) decently ?
  • Can you run Nethack ? (I know it has been ported to GP2x, but can you use it on a Wiz ?)
  • Can you run SRB2 and Doom decently ?
  • And finally, can I buy it from http://www.adictron.com/ without any worries ?
Please excuse me for asking such stupid things, but as you may see, I am pretty worried about the Wiz's emulation abilities...
Once again I hope that you'll be kind enough to answer some of my questions, and if not, well thank you for reading me.

Cheers !

~ Terraforme
 
I don't know what SBR2 is but most of the titles you listed run fine, and more of them will run better in future. Mode 7 games don't run poorly when the wiz is overclocked. Most of the SNES titles you listed run perfectly well. Doom *for the snes* runs poorly, as does starfox. The doom port for wiz runs very well.

If you're really unsure, GP2X's are going for a lot less on ebay right now.
 
. Well, I do not check all of roms in your list, but I'm sure most SNES and Genesis roms are run smoothly.
. Doom runs great (also Quake) and SRB2 is good but little bumpy - too fast, few frames skipped, hard to control.
. You can use built-in memory but, I strongly recommend you buy a SD. It's not so expensive (rather cheap).
. The build quaility of Wiz is quite good, but screen (2.8') is smaller than GP2x and PSP


Welcome to the community :)
 
[*] Does it have good quality hardware ?
The buttons all work, nothing's fallen apart on me. I've dropped it from my shirt pocket onto cement, and it didn't even reboot.

[*] Is there any problem with the firmware, like, something causing a Wiz-fashioned BSoD ?
The original firmware still works fine for me, and so far I haven't seen any weirdness.

[*] Do you need to use a SD card with the Wiz, or is the built-in memory enough to enjoy it ?
I would get an SD card, as the built-in memory is a little unstable and could be problematic.

[*] Can you run Final Fantasy 5 (SNES) decently ?
Full speed if you overclock a little, which is possible with the new versions of the SNES emulator.

[*] Can you run Final Fantasy 6 (SNES) decently (I guess that you can't as it uses mode 7) ?
Full speed if you overclock a little, the flying sequences/mode 7 will be a little choppy but nothing terrible.

[*] Can you run Illusion of Time - aka Illusion of Gaia - (SNES) decently ?
Yes.

[*] Can you run Crusader of Centy (Megadrive/Genesis) decently ?
Though I haven't tried, the genesis emulator seems to run everything fine, including wolfenstein 3D

[*] Can you run Dungeon Magic (MAME ?) decently ?
Not sure about this one.

[*] Can you run Mega Man 7/X/X2/X3 (SNES) decently ?
With a little bit of overclocking. Yes.

[*] Can you run Bahamut Lagoon (SNES) decently ?
Yes.

[*] Can you run Kirby Super Star - aka Kirby's Fun Pak - (SNES) decently ?
Yes.

[*] Can you run Nethack ? (I know it has been ported to GP2x, but can you use it on a Wiz ?)
Not sure about this one.

[*] Can you run SRB2 and Doom decently ?
Yes and Yes, fullspeed (I don't even think and overclock is required.)

[*] And finally, can I buy it from http://www.adictron.com/ without any worries ?
No clue.
 
Terraforme posted on Jun 22 2009 said:
Please excuse me for asking such stupid things, but as you may see, I am pretty worried about the Wiz's emulation abilities...
Once again I hope that you'll be kind enough to answer some of my questions, and if not, well thank you for reading me.
Click to expand...
Cheers !

~ Terraforme

The Wiz is able to run all of these things well. The hardware is good enough for the above questioned games the only issues would be with the emulator software. Right now the emus are mostly early ports from the GP2X. They already run a bit faster than the GP2X now and will only improve with updates.

It has an OLED screen which is a novelty among handhelds right now. The OLED will give superior black levels and contrast, no ghosting, and much better viewing angles than the GP2X, PSP and other LCD handhelds.
 
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Wow, amazing... :eek: Thank you so much ladies and gentlemen ( :p ) for your answers !
As soon as I have enough money (early July), I'm getting a Wiz for sure ! :)
 
Well when I bought my GP2X F100, I certainly loved the system, with its open source potential, emulation and gMenu2x, but it had some serious flaws with it, namely the analogue stick and the battery life.
For a long time I had actually thought my system was bricked, because my rechargable batteries lost a lot of life and weren't useable on the GP2X anymore.
See, batteries stopped working at about 50% life, it was that bad.

If you've read anything about the recent firmware updates, you'll see there's issues too like over-writing the Uboot which is a VERY bad idea, and introducing a number of problems.
 
Right, right I'm getting my terms mixed up.
The joystick was always a problem for me, it was bad for emulation and just a silly idea in general.
 
Yeah, of course I know what you mean. I like the F-100 joystick (especially with the masters himself DaveC cap™). Of course the joystick from the Neo Geo Pocket is the non plus ultra, but I always prefered joysticks over dpads. Arcade gamer from hour one... ;)

Regards,
Stephan
 
Joysticks undoubtably have their benefits, but the Gp2x Joystick was ill-conceived in my opinion, like I said unsuitable for emulation, and at times just uncomfortable and inaccurate.
I mean it's a bit of a problem if you can somehow press UP and UP-right at the same time, isn't it?
 
RupeeClock posted on Jun 22 2009 said:
Joysticks undoubtably have their benefits, but the Gp2x Joystick was ill-conceived in my opinion, like I said unsuitable for emulation, and at times just uncomfortable and inaccurate.
I mean it's a bit of a problem if you can somehow press UP and UP-right at the same time, isn't it?
Click to expand...
Yes, the diagonals sucks...
 
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Well, I'm getting worried again : by browsing this board, it looks like a lot of people are having problems with their Wiz... Defective USB cable, bricked on firmware update, etc... :eek:

Does anybody actually have a problemless Wiz ? I'm talking about BIG problems, of course, not about little bugs.

PS : On another subject, can it run Day of the tentacle/Monkey island using Scummvm ?
 
Of the two firmware bricks I've read, one was the result of a battery dying, WHICH IS WHY YOU NEVER UPDATE USING A BATTERY. The other one was a design mistake that overwrites the UBOOT, which is largely unnecessary and very stupid to do in the first place.
If you receive a Wiz now it should be on version 1.1.0 anyway.
As for the cable, they're sending replacement cables, so you'll probably get one of these when you buy one anyway, or you can ask for one.
 
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