GP2X Open Source Linux handheld console

[JonRB]

I've just bought one of these little ugly beasties:



It's a geek fantasy. Linux-based, Open Source, full SDK, loads of emulators including SNES and MAME, video (DivX), audio (MP3, Vog, etc), the lot. Even has the OpenGL ports of DOOM, Quake and Duke Nukem 3D. Sweet.

Hasn't arrived yet, but I'm looking forward to having a play.

More at http://gp2x.co.uk/

[rebelstar]

It's a fun little toy. I particularly like playing Bubble Bobble and Ghouls and Ghosts through MAME.

[JonRB]

My son has told me that he reckons that GP2X stands for "Geek Power 2 the eXtreme", but says it's in a good way.

Edited by JonRB on Friday 18th May 09:00

[egomeister]

Saw them a while back - if it plays the emulated games well then I'll be tempted!

[off_again]

I have had one for a month or so now and its cracking. Video playback is good as it has all of the decoders built in. In fact its pretty much how a decent video player should be. BUT, its the games that are great. There are already a few native ones and their quality does vary, but some are actually very very good!

Emulators are good though. The MAME one is a little limited at the moment with only a few older games that work. However, the NeoGeo, SNES, Megadrive etc ones do! Earthworm Jim? Donkey Kong Country? Super Mario Brothers? Sonic the Hedgehog? Even the old Ultima RPGs.....

Works really well, but certainly not a PSP for ease of use for a non-technical user. However, things are set to change as the SD cards can be setup to be ready to run - so its a case of just plugging them in and you are off.

Check out the Wiki on Wikipedia though, lots of good information.

Strongly recommend it, but it its not for everyone.

[JonRB]

off_again said:

Works really well, but certainly not a PSP for ease of use for a non-technical user.

[...]

Strongly recommend it, but it its not for everyone.

Yes, that's the impression I got. I don't think they're aiming for the mainstream market anyway though.

[JonRB]

Sorry to resurrect an old thead, but my GP2X has been sitting on a shelf doing nothing since I bought it.

The main problem is that I couldn't get it to play any videos (not AVI, or MPEG4, or DivX, or anthing) out of the box, MP3 playback was poor with noticable distortion at decent volume, and the homebrew scene seems pretty hit and miss.

What I really need is someone to point me in the direction of a thread or checklist that shows what you need to download and from where in order to make the GP2X usable otherwise I fear it will stay on the shelf until it ends up on eBay.

Can anyone help?

[rebelstar]

I don't know if you've visited http://www.gp32x.com/ but it's the best resource I've found.

[JonRB]

rebelstar said:

I don't know if you've visited http://www.gp32x.com/ but it's the best resource I've found.

I did. The trouble was is the user feedback for a lot of the software on there generally praises the author's initial release but asks for more stability, speed, better integration / tighter coupling with the GP2X OS, etc.
The comments didn't really fill me with confidence.
The fact that the version numbers for a lot of the software is < 1.0 and is beta or even alpha doesn't help a lot either.

What I really want is for someone to list the "must have" apps, extensions, codecs etc. that are needed to make the GP2X actually useful because so far "out of the box" it doesn't seem to be.

Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 29th August 15:26