Your impression on the GP32

[tnt]

Since I have heard of this handheld I'm playing with the thought of buying it but I am not certain how good it is as I have never read any reviews.
What might be interesting for me is the ability to play mp3s (or even Ogg Vorbis files) and to download games via internet. I also read that SDL lib was ported to it what's cool because I have worked with this lib before on Linux and Windows.
So can you give me some comments how good the emulators for the gp32 are and if it is usable as a portable media player? Is there a good documentation so it is easy to develop programs for it on my own? Is it possible to write drivers for the USB interface to connect a keyboard, for example?

Thanx for your help!

 

[Klown]

Why not look around these posts and the main site for a good idea stranger

 

[taras]

>So can you give me some comments how good the emulators for
>the gp32 are and if it is usable as a portable media player?

The emulators are very good. The GB/GBC emulator is almost perfect. The SNES emulator is slow for some games, but others work great. The Spectrum, Atari ST, Atari 800, C64, NES, Master System, PC Engine and other emulators are all very good to excellent. The homebrew games are often good and the SCUMMVM port is good, which lets you play things like Monkey Island (and hopefully Beneath A Steel Sky in the next version).

The portable media player element is also good, if you buy the GP Cinema software (around US$8/£5) you can watch divx/xvid movies, and the built in MP3 player is OK, but can be replaced with a free software mp3 player.

>Is there a good documentation so it is easy to develop
>programs for it on my own?

If you've coded before, then yes. I was fairly accomplished in VB and had a working knowledge of PHP, and managed to work out how to code in C for GP32 in the space of a few days. If you already know C, then it should be very easy. There is an official SDK with examples available and stuff can be compiled using GCC.

>Is it possible to write drivers for the USB interface to connect a keyboard,
>for example?

No idea. Some people are making keyboards, but they connect them through the EXT port. The USB port isn't powered, so any USB device would have to be self-powered.

 

[tnt]

ahh thx that's quite interesting... I'm really considering to buy one. Do you know where I can get it for a low price (and low transport costs) in Germany / Europe ? I didn't see anyone selling it on ebay...

 

[TandeM]

www.gbax.com should be fine.

 

[trooper]

Yes, What he said. , www.gbax.com

Trooper

 

[NeoAP]

There is a great review by Prophet at this adress: http://www.retrogames.com/gp32flu_review_1.html. It got me hooked.

 

[tnt]

I ordered mine today at lik-sang.com, so you will hear from me soon *g*