shep Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Since Sony isn't going to allow me to put emulators on my PSP soon (without having to run a bunch of downgraders and junk) I think I may order one of these once my Credit Cards bills are paid off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted December 28, 2005 Author Share Posted December 28, 2005 Since Sony isn't going to allow me to put emulators on my PSP soon (without having to run a bunch of downgraders and junk) I think I may order one of these once my Credit Cards bills are paid off. 990480[/snapback] I was using my PSP as my primary emulation platform. But the GP2X is so good now, even with the early build emus that this has changed almost overnight. I highly recommend the GP2X at this point. With the caveat that this machine is for enthusiasts - NOT for the rank and file PSP/DS/GB crowd. Users will need to be able to read and follow directions, and be prepared to do such things as firmware upgrades. It is not - nor is it meant for - Joe Consumer. But damn it's a blast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted December 31, 2005 Share Posted December 31, 2005 remowilliams: Any idea if your GP2X is one of the earlier ones? What is the serial number? I've heard that there have been some (minor) modifications in later runs, but I'm still not entirely sure what the situation is. I still haven't ordered yet since Lik-Sang cancelled my order, but I likely will sometime next week. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted December 31, 2005 Author Share Posted December 31, 2005 remowilliams: Any idea if your GP2X is one of the earlier ones? What is the serial number? I've heard that there have been some (minor) modifications in later runs, but I'm still not entirely sure what the situation is. I still haven't ordered yet since Lik-Sang cancelled my order, but I likely will sometime next week. --Zero 991641[/snapback] My first unit was from the second batch, and had no problems at all except for the damn non functional headphone jack (which was a fluke and not related to the original badly soldered jack problem) My second unit is second or third batch and has been working flawlessly. They did make some adjustments AFAIK after the first batch - the case positioning problem that was affecting the stick throw was fixed, LCD timing adjustments were made and the headphone jack issue was fixed. I've got to say, I really love this thing. I was just playing some Galaga and then played some Autoduel, Beach Head II, Archon II and MULE (A8), then got some Shinobi time (Genesis) and Blazing Lazers in (TG16). Even got Duke Nukem 3D running today. Awesome. Skeezix says he has an initial build of CaSTaway complete and is waiting for his GP2X. And I just read someone is in the process of trying to port Stella. At this point the only thing I can see that you might get annoyed at is the stick or the LCD. There's a love/hate thing with people and the stick. Though it's performance really does seem to depend alot on the code that people use with it. And some people are bothered by the LCDs "scanlines" and some aren't. I do see what they are talking about, but it doesn't bother me and running the tweak utility and changing one value makes a big difference. Overall, it's not perfect. But it's really, really good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted December 31, 2005 Share Posted December 31, 2005 I got some 2500 nimh batteries and a 1hr charger in preperation for this battery muncher. But I have two questions. Does a charger have to be rated for 2500's in order to be able to charge them? When looking at chargers. Some only mention up to 2200. Is there a difference between a regular charger, 1/2 hr charger, 1 and 2 hr chargers? Or do they all pretty much charge at the same speed. I thought the advertising was funny on the one package. It said it is a 1hr charger but the chart lists 4 2500's as taking 80 minutes. They conveniently include 4 2100's which happen to charge in just over an hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted December 31, 2005 Author Share Posted December 31, 2005 AFAIK the charger has to be rated for the capacity of the batteries. I would imagine results from undercharging to bad things otherwise. I've been using my 15 minute charge 2000mAh C3s and been getting 3-4 hours from them. Not too shabby. I just ordered a set of four 2700mAh batteries and a charger from J&R for $19.99. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted December 31, 2005 Share Posted December 31, 2005 Wow... they are up to 2700? The ones I just got are 2500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Well with the recent release of MESS with Atari 7800 AND Colecovision emulation. As well as the current Atari 800 emulator. I think I'm gonna be in hog heaven. My GP2X should arrive this week, as well as a BLU for collection reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Well, apparently my GP2X is in the mail. Not sure how long it'll take to get here, but I'm sure I can count on Canadian Customs to leave it in their warehouse for a good month or so At least that'll give me some time to find a place that actually has sane prices on SD cards... I can't seem to find an actual store around here that doesn't have them priced at twice what I could get them for online --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 Well mine came in the mail today along with a GPU BLU that I ordered. Unfortunately the BLU cannot overclock to 166 . No biggie. It's mainly to replace my crappy FLU and too hold me over on some things until the GP2X completely surpasses the GP32. Plus it doesn't eat batteries for a snack like the GP2X. GP2X is pretty small for such a battery sucker. I've yet to load anything on it, just tested it, plus tried it with my power adapter (works great). It has 1.2.0 firmware which is pretty much the latest firmware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted January 14, 2006 Author Share Posted January 14, 2006 (edited) Well, apparently my GP2X is in the mail. Not sure how long it'll take to get here, but I'm sure I can count on Canadian Customs to leave it in their warehouse for a good month or so --Zero 999231[/snapback] Skeezix (author of CaSTaway and now OutcaST) got royally boned waiting for his GP2X to come through into Canada. which meant we all had to wait an extra 3-4 weeks for OutcaST! I've yet to load anything on it, just tested it, plus tried it with my power adapter (works great). It has 1.2.0 firmware which is pretty much the latest firmware. 999991[/snapback] If you have problems with some SD cards, you may want to go to 1.2.1 - as 1.2.0 has issues that way. Don't wait to load it up - there are tons of great emus out there now! The GP2X has quickly become the handheld for emulation You should also both be looking for a 10mm round solid plastic bead. You can drill a small hole in it and replace the hideous stock joystick cap. You'll thank yourself instantly! Edited January 14, 2006 by remowilliams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 (edited) ok. I'm getting there.. It just took me a little while to figure out how to change the skin for my desktop, set the NAND to read only, and have the lcd tweaker and stereo channel swapper to load on boot. I got the atari 800 emulator running dandy. I even got the 7800 mess emulator to work, but the Coleco one is eluding me. The file selector shows NOTHING. If I press the A button it just exits. Note, this is the version that supports the TI/99 so it should be the most current. So anyways, that is where I'm at for the moment. Edited January 14, 2006 by Shannon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telengard Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 ok. I'm getting there.. It just took me a little while to figure out how to change the skin for my desktop, set the NAND to read only, and have the lcd tweaker and stereo channel swapper to load on boot. I got the atari 800 emulator running dandy. I even got the 7800 mess emulator to work, but the Coleco one is eluding me. The file selector shows NOTHING. If I press the A button it just exits. Note, this is the version that supports the TI/99 so it should be the most current. So anyways, that is where I'm at for the moment. 1000167[/snapback] Hiya Shannon, When you launch the coleco one it should go right to the coleco "boot screen". The only one that should have the file selector @ the beginning is the Atari 7800 since it *has* to have a cart inserted for the emulation engine to start. If you do not see the Coleco screen after clicking the coleco.gpe launcher file, changes are it's either not finding the BIOS for it, or it's not named correctly, zipped, or not a compatible one. If you do get the coleco screen, the left shoulder should bring up a menu with one of the entries called "File Manager". From there you can select coleco carts etc. Let me know what you find or if you run into anything else. Just to let you know, the Atari 7800 emulation is a little slow compared to the other drivers supported. You may want to overclock a little bit to get close to full speed. I am in the process of adding "in emu" changing of the clock speed. Should be ready in a few days. ~telengard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 (edited) I use the file selector it shows only "Cartridge--->" and "Return to main menu" if I highlight "Cartridge" and press A, it exits out back to the GP2X menu system. Yeah I got the overclocker thingie going and the 7800 runs pretty well! Good to see you are here on Atari Age cause I was gonna tell you that there are some people here that may be able to help you with any tech issues. In fact some of the changes to MESS to make it more compatible were submitted by someone here. (I think the guy who made burgertime for the 7800). Non-the-less it is nice to see the older systems getting some decent attention (unlike the PSP scene). So thank you for the efforts. Nobody has done the 7800 except for the Dreamcast and now (of course) the GP2X. Edited January 14, 2006 by Shannon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telengard Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 I use the file selector it shows only "Cartridge--->" and "Return to main menu" if I highlight "Cartridge" and press A, it exits out back to the GP2X menu system. Yeah I got the overclocker thingie going and the 7800 runs pretty well! Good to see you are here on Atari Age cause I was gonna tell you that there are some people here that may be able to help you with any tech issues. In fact some of the changes to MESS to make it more compatible were submitted by someone here. (I think the guy who made burgertime for the 7800). Non-the-less it is nice to see the older systems getting some decent attention (unlike the PSP scene). So thank you for the efforts. Nobody has done the 7800 except for the Dreamcast and now (of course) the GP2X. 1000417[/snapback] Hehe, yeah I'm an old fogie and noticed that some of the older systems never seem to get ported. For instance, the xbox has lots of emulators but none for the ones I wanted like the ti and coco. Maybe we're a dying breed... My hope is in the future to also get vectrex, intellivision, and some other oddball systems going. NeoGeo seems to get a *LOT* of interest though, I don't even know what it is, but it must be good then right (and probably new since I don't know what it is) ? I will definitely track newer versions of xmess as they come out. I've isolated the gp2x stuff enough where it shouldn't be too difficult. Do you happen know if this fella submitted any optimizations to the 7800 code? The emulation is what's slowing that one down so optimizing will be a little more difficult than just dropping SDL for minlib etc... I have spent a LOT of time trying to optimize that driver and found that it was all core a7800 emulation that was slowing it down. I will try to improve it in the future but since overclocking gets it close I'm going to concentrate on a few new drivers and stuff like better joystick handling options and a virtual keyboard. I'm also adding in the ability to set the clock speed within gp2xmess so you won't need to use the utility. Maybe someday you'll be underclocking to save battery life. Also I sent you a PM on the gp32x forums about the colecovision issue. I will go downstairs and test some more but I cannot seem to replicate what you are seeing. One thing that might be worth while is adding the following to the first line in the coleco.gpe file > debug.out 2>&1 And be sure to keep the UNIX linefeeds when saving that file depending on which editor you use. It's possible that xmess prints something out that might be useful. I didn't realize beef drop was ported to the 7800, I thought it was 5200 only, very cool! I do think that the gp2x is going to become at some time in the future the best handheld for emulation. It's getting there and shows no signs of stopping! ~telengard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 Yeah pop a post over in the homebrew forum. I'm pretty sure it was kenfused that did beefdrop, but I'm not sure. Yes he was responsible for discovering some timing bug with mess and submitted the fixes which actually made mess more compatible and speed accurate. That's about all I remember. Yeah hopefully the GP2X development will keep on going and not come to a dead halt like it did on the PSP. I'll add those parms real quick and see what it spits out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 Well unfortunately I don't think the debug.out is gonna help much but here it is. info: trying to parse: /usr/local/share/xmess/xmessrc info: trying to parse: /root/.xmess/xmessrc info: trying to parse: /usr/local/share/xmess/xmess-SDLrc info: trying to parse: /root/.xmess/xmess-SDLrc info: trying to parse: /usr/local/share/xmess/rc/colecorc info: trying to parse: /root/.xmess/rc/colecorc OSD: Info: Joystick 0, 2 axis, 11 buttons loading rom 0: coleco.rom done SDL: Using a mode with a resolution of: 320x240x16 Initialized no effect: bitmap depth = 16, color format = RGB 565 info: setting fragsize to 1024, numfrags to 5 info: fragsize = 1024, numfrags = 5 info: audiodevice /dev/dsp set to 16bit linear stereo 22050Hz info: sysdep_dsp: using oss plugin info: sysdep_mixer: using oss plugin Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed) SDL_SYS_JoystickInit SDL: joystick interface initialization... SDL: The name of the joystick : PEP Joy SDL: the joystick has 2 axes and 11 buttons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted January 14, 2006 Author Share Posted January 14, 2006 Hehe, yeah I'm an old fogie and noticed that some of the older systems never seem to get ported. For instance, the xbox has lots of emulators but none for the ones I wanted like the ti and coco. Maybe we're a dying breed... Yeah, there doesn't seem to be all that many people clamoring for the TI for instance. Maybe there's less of us these days who care - but I'm hanging in there My hope is in the future to also get vectrex, intellivision, and some other oddball systems going. I'm hoping you get them going as well I do think that the gp2x is going to become at some time in the future the best handheld for emulation. It's getting there and shows no signs of stopping! Yeah, I've been amazed at the speed of progress. Thanks to the many talented people who have been giving their time, the GP2X is quite the emulation powerhouse so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 Well mine came in the mail today along with a GPU BLU that I ordered. Unfortunately the BLU cannot overclock to 166 . No biggie. It's mainly to replace my crappy FLU and too hold me over on some things until the GP2X completely surpasses the GP32. What is there that the GP32 does that the GP2X can't do yet? I was fiddling around GP32X and found a few neat things, like SEUCK and SmashGP which both look interesting. Skeezix (author of CaSTaway and now OutcaST) got royally boned waiting for his GP2X to come through into Canada. Ugh, yeah, Canada Post was absolutely terrible over the holidays... I had a couple of packages that took forever to get to me. I was starting to wonder if they all took their vacations at the same time or something. Hopefully now that all that nonsense is over they'll be a bit more punctual with my GP2X... /me crosses fingers --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 (edited) GP32 has a ton of 8-bit emulators that all pretty much run full speed w/ sound. Colecovision, atari 8-bit (almost full speed), atari ST, NES, Gameboy GB and GBC, TG16. Genesis and SNES are "ALMOST" full speed. I'm sure there are more, but that is all that comes to mind. Anyways aside from the fact that I like to collect handhelds. The GP2X emulators still have a ways to go. DrMDx is ok but the scrolling in sonic is not smooth, alot are missing sound, file selectors etc. Plus the joystick is a little flakey. It's real easy to accidently hit diagonals. Edited January 16, 2006 by Shannon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JagFan422 Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 What is there that the GP32 does that the GP2X can't do yet? I was fiddling around GP32X and found a few neat things, like SEUCK and SmashGP which both look interesting. --Zero 1001018[/snapback] pretty much nothing other than some homebrew games. the GP2x is moving right along pretty rapidly while the GP32 scene is pretty much done for. Other than the fabled F-Day, where one of the best coders releases all his 13 emulators in their final state, there's pretty much nothing to look forward too. everything has shifted to the GP2x, which is no suprise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 The GP2X is "capable" of all those but it isn't there yet, alot of the emulators are still incomplete. Plus it is not unusual for emu authors (porters) to drop out from time to time for long periods of time. So I would not count the GP32 as useless yet. Plus it's battery life is a heck alot better. Even PSP emulators are still better, but they have not really seen any updates for some time now (see comment above). That being said the GP2X will eventually surpass the GP32 and like was said, there is the fabled F-Day. Assuming the author has not moved on to the GP2X. Regardless I picked up a GP32 cause I just happened to happen upon one that was available. I'll probably pick up a zodiac eventually "just because". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telengard Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 The GP2X is "capable" of all those but it isn't there yet, alot of the emulators are still incomplete. Plus it is not unusual for emu authors (porters) to drop out from time to time for long periods of time. So I would not count the GP32 as useless yet. Plus it's battery life is a heck alot better. Even PSP emulators are still better, but they have not really seen any updates for some time now (see comment above). That being said the GP2X will eventually surpass the GP32 and like was said, there is the fabled F-Day. Assuming the author has not moved on to the GP2X. Regardless I picked up a GP32 cause I just happened to happen upon one that was available. I'll probably pick up a zodiac eventually "just because". 1001518[/snapback] Yeah, I get the feeling that emulators for the psp might suffer the same fate as the xbox ones. Up and working to some extent and then development just stops. For some reason I don't see that happening for the gp2x, at least until the next gen one comes out. I'm hoping 1.30 or whatever will be solid and increase battery life. /me crosses fingers ~telengard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Yeah the atari systems get the least amount of love over on the xbox. Although the ST did get a big update a year ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Regardless I picked up a GP32 cause I just happened to happen upon one that was available. I'll probably pick up a zodiac eventually "just because". Well, over in a topic on another section of these boards, someone gave this link, where a company is selling off surplus Zodiac 1's for only $140, which I think is an amazing deal myself (too bad they don't ship outside the USA though ). The same place also has the Zodiac 2 (same thing, more memory) for $185 if so desired. Although at this point, I'm not entirely sure what the Zodiac does that the GP2X doesn't already do (or will likely do in the near future) aside from Spyhunter and Tony Hawk 4.... although it's still a very capable PDA I'm sure. Still waiting for my GP2X.... --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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