The WIZ, successor of the GP2X

[mos6507]

The Wiz actually has a smaller screen than the GP2X?? It's OLED so that's cool, but WTF?

[SRGilbert]

The Wiz actually has a smaller screen than the GP2X?? It's OLED so that's cool, but WTF?

WIZ: Size: 4.76" x 2.4" x .70" Screen Size: 2.8"

 

GP2X: 5.65" x 3.26" x 1" Screen Size: 3.5"

 

The Wiz looks to be designed for maximum portability, something I can appreciate. The screen is just a little bit smaller than the GBA or the DS, so I consider that a fair trade.

[+Random Terrain]

The screen on my GBA is too darn small. That's one reason why I hardly ever use it. Makes a good emergency light if the power goes out, though.

[SRGilbert]

The screen on my GBA is too darn small. That's one reason why I hardly ever use it. Makes a good emergency light if the power goes out, though.

I'm guessing the Gameboy Micro would be out of the question for you then! You want to see small?

Edited October 4, 2008 by SRGilbert

[Noelio]

That's a bit bigger than a Gameboy Micro

 

My micro measures 101x50×17.2 mm

The WIZ is spec'd at 121x61x18 mm

 

Looks interesting, I'm always interested in cool handhelds.

 

That's a REALLY stupid name though!

 

I agree on the stupid name!!! No offense against the Koreans but this is not the first stupid name i've heard!

 

My brother brought me back a carton of cigarettes from there years ago and, believe it or not, they were called "This". Seriously@! "This".

Edit to add: I also remember that he had another carton called "it". "it"!!!

 

Sounds like someone learning java programming language might have had something to do with cigarette branding too lol. Then again, "Wii" is an extremely stupid name too though not so stupid since we've been conditioned and warmed to it by a great product and hearing lots about it.

 

EmuWiz, VidWiz, RomWiz, RetroWiz etc might be a better choice. Oh well... It's done now. Pandora on the way to me!!!

 

I L O V E the GP2x though, so if this machine is any better, it's well worth it as a budget swiss army knife emulator handheld.

 

I suppose that in a world where just about everything is copyrighted unused brands are hard to come by.

 

Take band names these days for instance.

Edited October 6, 2008 by Noelio

[Shinto]

Anyone heard any news on the redesign? I'm dying to see some pics and get an updated release date.

 

I was able to extract the below picture from the official Wiz homepage which shows the new split button configuration. Not quite what I was hoping for.

 

[SRGilbert]

Anyone heard any news on the redesign? I'm dying to see some pics and get an updated release date.

 

I was able to extract the below picture from the official Wiz homepage which shows the new split button configuration. Not quite what I was hoping for.

 

 

Yeah, I noticed that yesterday but I wasn't sure if it always looked like that or not. It's not exactly what I had in mind either, but I think I can live with it.

[Texasmame]

Many more pics here, etc. and plenty of vids on Youtube.

 

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-d1-49-en-70-2z59.html

 

 

Don't think they are even officially out yet, tho. . .

Edited November 24, 2008 by Texasmame

[mimo]

Now delayed until February '09!

And who knows when the Pandora will actually be finished (canceled my pre-order as it is looking very doubtful for this year)

[mos6507]

With that kind of packaging there better be a new RPG for it.

[SRGilbert]

Holy crap, it's finally available at Playasia! I'm waiting for a few good reviews and for the other GP2X stuff to be ported over, but it's here.

Edited May 13, 2009 by SRGilbert

[TwinChargers]

Anybody heard of the Dingoo A-320? Seems like its similar to the Wiz or GP2X and its only $80 some bucks on dealextreme.com. I apologize if it is something completely different and unrelated since I don't know too much about these products, but it seems like it could be a much cheaper alternative for someone looking to get into a portable multi-gaming console. Heres the link-

 

Dingoo A-320

[Flojomojo]

Anybody heard of the Dingoo A-320? Seems like its similar to the Wiz or GP2X and its only $80 some bucks on dealextreme.com. I apologize if it is something completely different and unrelated since I don't know too much about these products, but it seems like it could be a much cheaper alternative for someone looking to get into a portable multi-gaming console. Heres the link-

 

Dingoo A-320

The Dingoo has a little bit of a following with people working on updating the included emulators -- do a search for "dingoo scene" to see what's going on. The reviews I've seen say that the built-in emulators are like this: NES and GBA are pretty much perfect, Neo-Geo and Capcom are OK, and the SNES and Genesis emulations aren't so great. I have a ton of GBA games I'd love to finish, and carrying them in a tidy package like this is appealing to me, and the price is right. I'm waffling on whether or not I really need another game box though. If I saw it for sale locally for under $100 I'd snap it up in a moment.

 

The Wiz is more than 2x the price but should be a bit more powerful, probably doing SNES and Genesis emulation at full speed. The support community should be better too -- hopefully with the usual MAME, Doom and Quake ports, perhaps even running the old GP2X code natively. It seems uncertain how much support it will really get.

 

A DSLite with an R4 card, IMHO, would be more versatile than either of these, and a whole lot cheaper.

 

Apparently the thing to watch is the Pandora, but at the prices they're asking, a netbook would probably be a better choice. I'd hate to lose something that expensive and fragile-looking.

 

Update: head-to-head video of Dingoo and Viz, as shared above by Texasmame!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-33IdcH3Wb8

Edited May 14, 2009 by Flojomojo

[TwinChargers]

Wow, after looking at that youtube review Flojomojo posted, that Dingoo is looking like one heck of a deal!

[Esper Wizard]

I got my Wiz two days ago from the gp2xstore. Here are my first impressions:

 

It is a little bigger than I expected. I can carry it in my pocket, but with the leather carrying case it feels as bulky as my first iPod.

 

Even though the surface is glossy, it has a slight texture on it, so it doesn't attract fingerprints much. The red on the console looks metallic, which did not look like that on any of the photos. It's cool, though.

 

I made a mistake while installing the screen protector, so the bottom of the screen is not covered. Once I start a game I don't notice it, though.

 

The screen is very bright.

 

I have seen the diagonal line a few times, but it doesn't bother me that much.

 

The touchscreen was way off until I calibrated the screen. Now it's way better (still not perfect).

 

The d-pad doesn't feel as good as the one on my Game Boy Micro. I'm having trouble changing directions in games like Ms Pac-Man.

 

The buttons are a little too close to each other, but I can get used to it.

 

I like the fact that I can rotate the "portrait" games like Ms Pac-Man and Burger Time so they take up the entire screen. That alone justifies the purchase of the console. Of course, that makes the controllers harder to use, but who cares.

 

I cannot judge how easy are the diagonals to perform, because as far as I know, you cannot reconfigure the button configuration in MAME4ALL, and I'm used to the Neo Geo CD controller. So I cannot do the special moves in games like Fatal Fury Special. If anybody knows if the buttons can be reconfigured, please let me know.

 

Speaking about Neo Geo games, the Wiz does not have enough RAM to load some of my favorite Neo Geo games, like King of Fighters 98 and Last Blade. A shame. You also have to overclock the Wiz so there is no slowdown on Neo Geo games, but that doesn't bother me. At 700 MHz Neo Geo games don't have much slowdown.

 

Some games have too much detail to be really "viewable" in such a small screen without hurting your eyes. Metal Slug is almost like that. Money Puzzle Exchanger is definitely hard to see in such a small screen. But there is no way in hell I would like a larger screen. This is my first GPH console; one of the main reasons why I never had a GP32 or GP2X was because I thought they were too big.

 

The strongest feeling I have about the Wiz is that it feels like a PC, not like a console. I stayed until 3 am the first night after I got it configuring the games in MAME so they ran properly, and I'm not done. Some games like Gradius, Gradius II, Moonwalker, and Mortal Kombat don't run properly or at all, even though the package I got is supposedly complete. But what I lose in plug-and-play I gain in customability. Once I finish tweaking it, I will only have games I like there. I am happy with it and see myself taking it with me for years.

[SRGilbert]

Thanks for the review!

[Reaperman]

Update: head-to-head video of Dingoo and Viz, as shared above by Texasmame!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-33IdcH3Wb8

holy cow, that's review sounds like a Dingoo commercial. The head-to-head was a totally one-sided beating.

I'm not an emulator fan, but those 'dingoo original' games look like great fun.

 

I'm putting it on my buy-me list for sure. Not so much my 'run out and buy now' list, but my 'maybe it will be cheaper or better by the holidays' list.

Edited May 20, 2009 by Reaperman