Worth It To Invest In A Caanoo?


I have finally made my decision; this based on a number of factors such as: long-term stability hardware and software-wise, current support by the community, and financial viability; I have decided once and for all to take a gamble and buy the Caanoo from ThinkGeek... I'll have the money by next week...
 
i got the caanoo from thinkgeek about 2 week ago and haven't found any real problems with it other then the sd card not showing up all the time or hangs at gph screen,
i've heard just needs to be reflashed. been playing with my caanoo almost nonestop so much to do and so much that can be done. do have few problems with snes and few psx games
but with all the hard work from the coders/porters only gets better everyday.

thanks everyone for your time and hard work
 
After getting back into my wiz, and wanting a system to fall back on in case it fails (my wiz is one of the launch consoles), I just took the jump myself, putting in an order with play-asia. Thinking about getting one of the $100 thinkgeek wizzes as a backup as well, despite the mixed results with pocketsnes.
 
New Developments: I just got over $140 from Gamestop by trading in some old games; I am also getting another $100 by Friday of this coming week... Now I ask, should I opt for the Wiz now and get the Caanoo in the event of getting the Pixel Plague; or should I opt for the Caanoo from the get-go?
 
zeldarocks said:
New Developments: I just got over $140 from Gamestop by trading in some old games; I am also getting another $100 by Friday of this coming week... Now I ask, should I opt for the Wiz now and get the Caanoo in the event of getting the Pixel Plague; or should I opt for the Caanoo from the get-go?

I should be getting my Caanoo today or tomorrow and will report on my experience shortly thereafter. I'm coming to the system as a bit of a skeptic, since when it was announced I would have preferred GPH stick with supporting the Wiz. Just based on observation of the boards and download page comments it feels like the Wiz library of software is currently far more polished than that of the Caanoo.
 
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zeldarocks said:
New Developments: I just got over $140 from Gamestop by trading in some old games; I am also getting another $100 by Friday of this coming week... Now I ask, should I opt for the Wiz now and get the Caanoo in the event of getting the Pixel Plague; or should I opt for the Caanoo from the get-go?

there's been a lot of hints and tips and what not about that now - so i think we can't help you making this decision right now. both devices have their pros and cons, so you could just get both if you have the money :)
 
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Basically no matter which one you get you're going to be pissed off at some niggling problem it's got and wished you got the other one. That's human nature... and also the fact that GPH are incapable of improving one thing without screwing something else up. ;)

Really, don't worry about it. 95% of the stuff you're actually interested in (ie emulators and the more popular homebrews) will run just as well on both consoles, and while both consoles have issues it hardly matters once you're playing.
 
u9i said:
Are you serious? Did you just ask again which to buy? Are you really this indecisive or do you just enjoy the conversation? hehe
I truly am undecisive; as the poster above me surmised, I see strengths and weaknesses in both handhelds: with the wiz, I get substantial compatibility but an unreliable screen; with the caanoo, I get low compatibility but a reliable screen...
 
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It seems like the Wiz screen issue is rare, and the OLED really does look nice. Turn on the auto-off feature in the settings and you won't have to worry about burn-in, which shouldn't be an issue after a few hours of gameplay anyway. If anything the issue with the Wiz as designed was the shallow d-pad with oversensitive diagonals, which bothered me at first but feels so natural to me now that I don't notice it at all.

Again, I say this without experience with the Caanoo (which I'll toy with this afternoon). But the wiz is great. Awesome emulation on it is a reality, not a probability. I'm not buying my Caanoo out of dissatisfaction with the wiz (or with my F100 MK II). Quite the opposite.

If you just want point-blank advice, considering the concerns you've laid out, I'd say get a thinkgeek wiz at the awesome $100 price tag.
 
Dang... I just hacked my PSP and am amazed at the quality of the available emulators for it... Even with my newly-hacked PSP, should I get an Open Handheld?
 
zeldarocks said:
Dang... I just hacked my PSP and am amazed at the quality of the available emulators for it... Even with my newly-hacked PSP, should I get an Open Handheld?

If emulation is all you're interested in, probably not.
 
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SML said:
zeldarocks said:
Dang... I just hacked my PSP and am amazed at the quality of the available emulators for it... Even with my newly-hacked PSP, should I get an Open Handheld?

If emulation is all you're interested in, probably not.

Not really, the only reason I got a caanoo was so I could play seiken densetsu 3 on the go. I do find the caanoo more comfortable than the psp though. I prefer the screen too even though it's smaller.
 
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zeldarocks said:
Dang... I just hacked my PSP and am amazed at the quality of the available emulators for it... Even with my newly-hacked PSP, should I get an Open Handheld?

Damn.. you just keep going, don't you? Where's the fun?
 
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Having played with my Caanoo on and off most of the day, I'll say that I still prefer the Wiz, but that the analog stick is actually pretty easy to use as a dpad (I can get specials and supers off in KOF quite easily with it.) The emulation is better than you might think. There's an audible hiss when I'm in the menu of Pocketsnes, but with overclocking (750mhz was what I tested) Megaman X and Castlevania X both ran very well. Didn't try any mode 7 games. Strangely, Picodrive seems not to support my copy of Popful Mail, which runs perfectly well on my F100.

I'm still exploring the homebrew on the Caanoo. I like "Jump to the Moon" quite a bit, and of course that's gameplay you won't get with a wiz or Pandora. Is there a labyrinth-clone out for the Caanoo that I've missed? It seems like a natural choice.
 
zeldarocks, your loss is my gain! Two backup wizzes coming to a good home at almost the same price together as the console went for at launch.
 
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