Open Source Handheld Gaming

[Otokoshi]

Just wondering if anyone has checked out the GamePark GP2X-F100

Link

Ever since I got my PSP, sure I've enjoyed it, but I hate Sony's limitations with it.  I have loads of old console games... loads!  I still have Knight Rider for my Atari lying around somewhere.  So what if I want to go retro and take it on the road?  I completely understand them wanting to stop PSP emulation...duh.  But I have classic games on my Genesis and SNES I'd like to have with me on the go.  Well, enough of my bitching about Sony's limitations.

The GamePark has already released its source code for its media player and a SDK.  Users have already created emulators for the SNES, Genesis, MAME, Atari, ScummVM and more.  The device uses SD cards for data storage.  You can even plug it into a TV to playback a Xvid or DivX file.  Some reviews I have seen have a gripe with the build quality of the product.  This is making me want to wait for possibly a revision or newer model alltogether.  I just wanted to see if anyone had this product and their impressions of it.  If you don't have it, please share your opinions on it. 

[Darkness]

It looks pretty cool. I'd like to see a GBA emulator and some wireless connectivity. Then I would definitely buy one.

[Jari]

Don't have it, but it certainly is very interesting and has lots of potential.

Sure, I wish that some things were better; bit more polish as in; slightly prettier looks, no sound distortion if you turn up the volume... things like that. And that the SNES emulator had better compatibility.

Anyway, from what I've heard from people who had the predecessor, GP32, it seems that they really liked it. Of course, these are not your average PSP/DS-owners, but a very select folk, so they'd be more likely to put up with some minor issues the console might have had.

So, all in all, if I had extra money to spend, I'd certainly consider it. It even has fMSX, so... 

And like Darkness said, wireless connectivity would be very nice. Combined with a platform that supports Open Source, all kinds of cool things might happen.

[The Skillster]

I have been keeping my eye on GP32 for some time (reading reviews, checking on the latest models) and it probably gets revised more often then any other handheld (recently they upgraded the CPU speeds - there are 2 models to choose from now).
From what I gathered is that it is great for "homebrew" software like  emulators etc. But dont expect it to play FF7, It has the power of a mid range PDA and thus emulating a PSX is tough, but if you like SNES or Megadrive then your in for some fun.
Due to the fact it is so "open Source" there wont be a lack of software or lack of development in software on this machine.

[Borde]

Actually Jari, even the NDS has an fMSX port . Too bad it doesn't work that good...
Nice machine, certainly. Probably it can't handle a PSX emulator, but maybe a port of Q-GEARS...  who knows!? jejeje

[Cyberman]

Borde
Well after spend about 2 hours reading the information for it.
1) It has more horsepower than the NDS and less in other ways.  They used a STANDARD ARM archetecture chip for the coprocessor instead of the custom one offered by Nintendo.  It's a two edged sword.  However it does mean it has MPEG4 stream processing and error correction capabilities built in. Thus XVID Dvix movies v.264 etc. will be able to play on the console without much modification to the base software.
2) It has a USB host interface on the expansion connector so you can add a high speed USB hub too it as well as mount USB drives to it. It has a lot of hardware options as a consequence, unfortunately to get VGA output you might have to hack the board (because the expansion connector doesn't bring that out let alone much of anything else).   It does have a boring and lame RS232 style port (mutter) and JTAG (good for debugging with GDB and ARM's tools).
3) they offer the SDK using DEV C++
4) it has 64Megabytes of INTERNAL RAM (IE 8 times that of the NDS)
5) it uses SD card's for storage this limits your games to ... 8 gig.. (Cough cough).

The biggest negatives are there limitations on the external expansion port.
The only way to ADD more SD cards is via USB, which as I said is LAME.
Bringing out the SPI interface alone would have been great, since one could at least have LOW speed (IE 3mBps instead of 12.5mBps) SD interface for game data saving or data reading etc.

Cyb