I'm trying to get back into gp2x

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Mon May 14, 2007 7:25 pm

yes, I'm really trying to get back into gp2x, mainly because I have a 4gb minisd card that a piece of gba hardware threw a fit on and it found a new home. Having a look at that inexpensive, and useful docking station really didn't hurt matters. I want one.

what I'm looking for are ideas for what to put on it, since the descriptions and comments in the file archive are at best outdated, and generally just become problem blogs.

hardware: has anybody tried out the docking station? how about found a joypad that works with it? is usable joystick/keyboard/mouse support built into the current firmware, or are there supporting 'hacks' I'll have to download and apply?

apps: I'm looking for file management software--bad. something with move/copy/rename/delete functions would be nice. use of helper apps associated with filetypes would be a huge plus too. Anything else that's a neat app would be appreciated. I already can't wait to see how far oldplay has come. Replacing the stock music player with oldplay on the menu would be nice--heck has anybody just built a desktop for the darn thing yet? why not?

games: Emulation isn't a high priority for me, I've been gaming too long to be finding 'new old games' to play. I'm mostly after the freeware. and the only emulators I want to hear about are close to 100% compatible with all the frills at 200mhz. overclocking a handheld on batteries is a retarded idea, and my GP2x no longer likes wall power, since it was assembled by retarded space monkeys.

commercial games: I kind of like payback, but if I buy it, I want to know that I can move it off the card it came from--to a card I can actually use for something else too. I imagine this functionality isn't part of the retail package, but I'm hoping somebody came out with a hack. If I can't do it, I just won't buy the game.

firmware: but first things first, I need to upgrade my firmware from 2.0.0 to whatever the heck it is now. seems like every time I touch this thing I spend most of my time figuring firmware out. 2.0.0 was rather stubborn to put in, and pulling it out has proven equally horrible. If there's a handy guide that actually holds my hand, I would really like a link. (last time I did firmware I also was able to use wall power, which was handy)

yes, I know this would fit in better over at the gp32x forums, but the odds that I'll actually get an answer here are much higher. I've been out of gp2x for a long time, so please speak very loudly and slowly because I'm a bit slow.

Post by **Triton** » Mon May 14, 2007 9:03 pm

ill give you what info i have, its probably somewhat out of date tho, i havent messed with most of this stuff in several months, too busy!

hardware: i havent personally tried the breakout board but since you are pretty good with a soldering iron you could always build it yourself, check out the gp2x wiki for schematics and whatnot or contact me on IM if you want

apps: you can run qtopia and things like that on it i know or one of the alternative frontends like gmenu2x i think its called

games:beat2x is addictive and i highly recomend it, check the archive for other stuff, from my limited experience with emulators most of them run acceptably at 200mhz but i havent messed with emulation much since about firmware 1.2

firmware: from what i read upgrading from 2.0 isnt worth the trouble but if you want to i can help with that, PM or IM me and i can give you some tips and links for all of the above

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Mon May 14, 2007 9:16 pm

GPX2 has like no commercial games or support if you break it lol!

Post by **Triton** » Mon May 14, 2007 9:48 pm

wrong on both counts, if it breaks gp2x.com is pretty good about fixing them. and they have quite a few commercial games out and in the works, not tons but a few

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Mon May 14, 2007 10:22 pm

Well I had herd they had almost no support for it but ok than!

wallydawg · Post by **wallydawg** » Mon May 14, 2007 10:56 pm

I saw in an ad that gp2x can play old pc games. About how far can it go in pc emulation with near perfect speed? Is there any certain spec amount, or doesn't it work that way?

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Mon May 14, 2007 11:00 pm

It can play Doom, but, so can my GBA!

wallydawg · Post by **wallydawg** » Mon May 14, 2007 11:18 pm

i want to play Triple Play Baseball, which came out in 2001. Might be too advanced.

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Tue May 15, 2007 6:17 am

the funny thing is that I'm just looking to get my gp2x working. I'm not looking to justify its existance, and I'm not in the market for one looking for opinions on it. Under those circumstances I do rag very heavily on the system, but at least from a position of owning one it holds a bit of weight. 2x is awfully hard to use for what you get out of it.

so anyway the gngeo news on the gp32x page 'many games work at speed with sound at 200mhz now' got me trying to get that working all last night, but I still haven't gotten it. the roms load, but they just boot me back to the romlist--which is a great improvement over what it did to me when I started the process. Either something's wrong with my bios files (likely) or something's up with the roms (unlikely as it would tell me). I have a question about it over on their forum and I can already feel it turning into "read the readme" or "check the wiki"--neither are much help, but that's how that place tends to get.

I've looked into the official gamepark cradle, and it's really a bonus to have a mk2 gp2x--which I don't. mk2's can power the cradle if it's not plugged in, or if I read correctly, can get power from it if the cradle is plugged in, eliminating a second power cord--which I had hoped mk1 would do since my DC plug is hosed.

oh, and as far as pc emulation goes. I do not think the thing will emulate doom (gp2x has an intrepreter for its datafiles, rather than an emulator), I think it's for much older games--but again, I'm out of it. 2001 is way too late to ever expect though. arm doesn't even handle floating point without help, does it? The information I was looking at mentioned the considerably older marble madness, and the styx game--which I've never played, but now want to.