Help convince me to get a GP2X

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

Well, lately I've been thinking that a GP2X would be a nice little gadget to have. However, as it also can function as an MP3 player (and because I'm low on dough), I am considering selling my iPod mini on eBay and using the money from that (with additional of course) to buy a GP2X. But I'm not sure if it's worth it.

I know a few people here have them so:

Is the D-pad as awkward as it looks?

Is the music player decent? (able to shuffle songs, make playlists, etc.)

How picky is the video player? (If a video is say 320x176 would it crop out the sides, or add black bars on top & bottom?)

Is buying the case thing really worth it, or does the screen not really scratch?

Can it run pre-PSX/N64 emulators at full speed?

I may think of more questions later, but this is a start.

Thanks in advance.

[gamer2]

I remember hearing that a PSX emu was made and it was quite good (Saw FF VII playing on it), but never heard anything about a N64 Emu.

[*o*]

pre-PSX/N64 emulators

[bicostp]

I don't have one yet but I've looked up a lot of information (to convince my folks that I'll find it useful. )

"How picky is the video player? (If a video is say 320x176 would it crop out the sides, or add black bars on top & bottom?)"

I'd assume it letterboxes it so you get the whole picture. As for formats, I think it supports DiVX, XviD, Ogg Theora, and MPEG-4.



"Can it run pre-PSX/N64 emulators at full speed?"

For the most part, yes. Some of the most complex MAME games would probably slow down a little. It won't emulate things that require 3D accelleration very well, because it doesn't have hardware 3D accelleration. Stuff like SNES, NES, Atari ??00, Atari ST, Sega Genesis, and all those other home consoles and computers we all know and love work just fine.

From what I've seen, its SNES and 2600 emulation is far better than the DS's. There's a video on YouTube that compares them in a split screen, but don't be fooled. The GBA SP they show is running Activision Anthology, a collection of 2600 classics for the GBA. The DS and 2X are both running emulators.

Go on YouTube and find some of those comparison videos. I found them to be good guides.

[teraflop122]

Is the D-pad as awkward as it looks?

You mean the digital stick?

Oh God, yes! The D-stick slices off a good bit of enjoyment from almost anything you play. If you get the 2X, the first thing you should do is mod it with a normal D-pad.

[Kurt_]

I will probably get one in the next month or so too. I was curious about how far the emulating could go, and I sutmbled upon this page:
http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/GP2PSX

If you scroll to the bottom there's a list of the playable PSX games, and HOW playable they are.

Among the Very playable are:

Command & Conquer, Legend of Mana, and REsident Evil 1!

[Reaperman@home]

I'll start with the positives. I will give it respect for the best screen I've seen in a handheld, and a nice video player. It's a good little media device (which is pretty much all it claims to be). The speakers are very loud when cranked and of decent quality.

but I wasn't awfully happy with GP2x. maybe there's more out for it now, but when I actually used mine it was a collection of so-so emulators for systems we've all been emulating for 10+ years. The homebrew was rather primative and it's actually pretty hard to start programming for, compared to (for example) the complete software packages available for GBA.

as far as emulation, it's got good genesis, and the atari/commodore computers are done pretty well. That's it. Neo Geo emulation was far better back in the msdos days, don't let anybody tell you that it's decent on 2x. super nintendo needs severe overclocking for any real level of playability. I haven't checked them in a couple months, but I don't have much confidence that it has improved.

the controls are beyond bad. replacement caps *DO HELP* (I use one made by DaveC in the 2x community) but nothing will change the fact that the stick they're using is really designed for industrial applications rather than gaming. people's ability to program an 8-way stick varies, but is generally terrible. as for buttons, they are pretty small and close together. your thumb can easily cover all 4...

firmware errors are now greatly reduced, but there are so many pieces of software written for different firmwares or different plugins/utilities that compatability is a *MESS*. there are no standards, so ENJOY, some things only run from the SD root, the command line or even specific firmware verstions. SD compatability is also still a minor issue with the 2x, as is the fact that it's internal NAND memory is used as a scratchpad for certain applications. meaning that when it fails (and it will) you may be out of luck.

[Triton]

Is the D-pad as awkward as it looks?
I honestly do not think it is nearly as bad as everybody says it is, its no analog stick but i find it perfectly acceptable (i have a mk1, mk2s have the diagonal bias switched to ordinal, it makes it a bit better)
Is the music player decent? (able to shuffle songs, make playlists, etc.)
music player is pretty good, no playlists but there are a few homebrew players that have these functions (oldplayer, gmu, craigamp)

How picky is the video player? (If a video is say 320x176 would it crop out the sides, or add black bars on top & bottom?)
it will play almost any divx and xvid video at most resolutions, letterboxes under 320x240, currently no support for other formats tho, also homebrew video apps ffmpeg and others

Is buying the case thing really worth it, or does the screen not really scratch?
mine has no scratches and i pocket it all the time

Can it run pre-PSX/N64 emulators at full speed?
YES! contrary to what reaperman said the emulators are for the most part VERY good and getting better all the time, squidgesnes has been improved with a mmu hack and other speedups, still not fullspeed with sound at 200mhz (zero fs) but overclocking a little and using frameskip at 1 or 2 makes it very playable. genesis (drmd) has been fullspeed with sound almost since day one, the amiga emulator is very good, gngeo plays games like metalslug almost perfectly from what i have seen, there are some AWESOME homebrew games like tilematch beat2x and a bunch more, a few exelent professional quality commercial games in the works (rapidraccoon looks awesome) etc

[gamemasterAS]

Well I just got mine a few days ago. The only probs I have had was getting 2 things to run right ( but thats user error ). I have the newest kinds and the stick has not given me any trouble. The sens emu runs very nice no matter what others say. It plays all the games I like and I cant notice a differnce from running them on my PC. But I don't emu a lot.

Maybe I'm turning fanboy but I play it more then my ds now.

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

Is the music player decent? (able to shuffle songs, make playlists, etc.)
music player is pretty good, no playlists but there are a few homebrew players that have these functions (oldplayer, gmu, craigamp)

Keeping in mind this would be replacing my iPod mini, can any of those music players sort songs easily by artist, album, etc? Also, can it play AAC audio in addition to MP3? (I know it obviously wouldn't play anything with DRM.)

[bicostp]

I'm pretty sure the music player is basically a file browser that filters out everything but MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files.

If you have the MP3s arranged in a directory structure, you shouldn't have a problem.

(For example mine are arranged "Root -> Artist -> Album -> Song.mp3".You would need to do something like that.)

[gamemasterAS]

I think there some apps that can do a lot of mp3 things.

[Triton]

bic is right about the built in mp3 player, its based on mplayer i think. i havent really tried out the others yet, i have gmu downloaded but havent used it yet, craigamp is kind of like winamp classic

[HomicidalBarber]

Im thinking about getting one myself. I have been telling myself to get one since it came out but Im buying a Wii so there goes that money

[Reaperman@home]

I forgot to mention up above, but the GB(c) emulation on gp2x isn't at all bad either. and one of the music players did so many formats of music that I was unable to find something it couldn't play. I forget what it was called or who wrote it, but I do remember it was by a familiar name in the handheld-homebrew world.

I hate to come off as being so hard on my gp2x, it really was a good little system, and we had a couple months of fun together. There is fun to be had. However the lack of polish on the system and software got me back to my GBM pretty quickly. I just come off angrier at it than I really am. I think in the last 6 months I've used my gp2x on two days.