Bluepixie
1st October 2007, 21:04
GP2X Review
http://images.google.es/url?q=http://www.extrabyte.com/gp2x/img/logo.gif&usg=AFQjCNGe5OIUHvpQJj1Dv_vTIWojwK7uDA
I’ve been meaning to get round to this for some time now, and in many ways it’s for the best. Having now spent the best part of 4 months now with the device I think I’m in a better position to actually judge it. And for the most part, it’s been an absolute pleasure.
So, what is the GP2X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2x) you ask? Well, it’s basically a hand held gaming system, but it’s also so much more. It is able to play movies, music and view photos, as well as run a massive range of emulators, home-brew titles, ports and a surprising variety of other applications. The real icing on the ice is that you can connect it to a breakout cradle, plug in USB devices of choice and even a TV turning into an über portable entertainment system. It’s developed by a relevantly small South Korean company called GamePark Holdings. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GamePark_Holdings) They decided that rather than create an entirely new operating system they opted for an open-source system. The shiny user interface actually runs on a modded version of the Linux Kernel (2.4.25) not that the uninformed user would notice. This means that developing is a major attraction for the device and certainly is the core of it’s large community. Everything from emulators and custom music players to PDF viewers, painting programs and even a scientific calculator program have been developed for the GP2X. The community from what I’ve seen is very supportive of people developing and the scene is thriving with creativity. Enough about the background though, onto the device!
http://www.gp2x.de/shop/images/gp2xnewcap.jpg
Hardware + General Handling
While not being as powerful as the PSP and DS it does have some good hardware advantages, particularly with its dual ARM940T processors.
General Specs
* CPU: Dual CPU Cores
* ARM920T: Host processor
* ARM940T: Video Coprocessor
* NAND Flash Memory: 64 Mega Byte
* Dimension: 143.6mm* 82.9mm*34mm
* Weight: 161 Gram (Without Battery)
* RAM: SDRAM 64 Mega Byte
* Storage: SD Card
* Connection Type: USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 for cradle connection,)
* O/S: Linux
* Power supply: 2AA
* Display: * 3.5" TFT LCD (Hardware: 16.7 Million Colours / Software: 260,000 Colours)
Controls
* 8 way digital thumb stick
* 4+1 main action buttons (Thumb stick clicks in for use as an action button)
* 2 shoulder buttons
* Start and Select
* Volume +/-
The GP2X on first impression is quite an odd device. It’s nothing like as sleek as it’s bigger corporate brethren, but it definitely has character. I can only really describe it is as the bastard love child of the Atari Lynx and the PSP. The retro genes appearing in the chunky vibe of the battery holder, standard 4 solid screws holding the back together and the arcade styling, were as the large LCD screen and glossy trim at the front clearly reflect it’s modern side. The basic lines don’t scream multitudes of redesigns but it’s pleasing on the eye and has enough of a “shiny” quality to so get the “woooo” factor.
I’m particularly fond of the rubber covers which fit into all of the external ports, they add nicely to the solid look of the device and are practical to boot. However they are not a perfect design, someone needs a good clout around the ears for making the EXT(external) port cover (for TV out and the cradle) irremovable. The GP2X physically can not fit in the cradle because the rubber cover doesn’t give enough clearance. This requires you to cut it or open up the GP2X to remove it, which is quite frankly ridiculous. However, the cover still fits snugly into the port after cutting, you just have to remember were you put it when you take it out!
http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/gp2x.jpg
Visuals aside the GP2X is a very practical and solidly made machine. The first time picking it up was quite surprising as it’s deceptively light even with the batteries. The body of the device is all plastic hence the light weight, but it is very solid in the hands. I’ve not felt that I’d break it, but then I tend to very careful with things so maybe I’m not the best test of the GP2X’s robustness………….
The buttons are well placed, very positive and show no signs of wear yet. I also like the fact that the buttons don’t have any print and instead have the symbols engraved. It can make them a little hard to see in low lighting conditions but who looks at the buttons when playing eh? The only minor gripe I would have with the controls is the digital joystick. Not that it’s bad or anything, it’s solid and doubles up as a button like all modern analogue pads. It’s just that there are times were a joystick is just not as good as a D-pad. It’s just a fact, and most of the time the accuracy of a D-pad will be better than a joystick particularly with many of the games it emulates. However, this has been noted and acted on by Gamepark with the new F200 model featuring a D-pad instead of the joystick.
Which brings me to the screen which is rather nice and from what I’ve experienced unproblematic. While not being as large as the PSP it’s still great for watching movies and viewing photographs. Admittedly the contrast is a bit high, the colours a little over saturated and generally quite bright. The ultimate screen this is not but it really comes into it’s own for games. With most of the emulators being from 16-bit era and older the screen is just perfect. Games like Metal Slug, Sonic, Super Mario World and Day of the Tentacle just look fantastic, I’d even say even better than playing on a large LCD because of the 320x240 resolution keeping things native. The scrolling is smooth, no ghosting to speak of and the picture is crisp throughout all applications. As with any handheld device the main problem is keeping the damn thing clean and scratch free. You can buy a screen protector but I’ve found that they are not well packaged. All three that I have tried had dust caught on the underside, before application. I even tried putting my last one on in the clean room I work in (rated at 100) and I found the same problem. I was not pleased by this but what can you do? So a bit of care and cleaning has kept the screen scratch free so far. You just have to be careful I guess, or you can treat it like your mobile phone, your call.
Another major part of any handheld device is battery life, and in this area the GP2X is a bit weak wristed. Mostly due to the dual processors and screen the GP2X actually needs 2 meaty 1.5V AA batteries, preferably high capacity rechargeable ones . They state different operating times depending on the application but generally at full whack it lasts about 4-5hrs. This is definitely longer depending on what you’re doing though, with music pushing it into the 10hr range and low intensity emulators, were as movie playing and demanding games requiring an overclock will last in the 4 or 5hr range. I’ve not tested this fully as I prefer to use a PSU instead, both for connection to a machine (the USB connection sucks batteries like a gate crasher on your beer) and for the connection to the cradle which needs a separate PSU as well.
The GP2X doesn’t ship with a PSU as standard, apparently to keep the postage down, and hence cost. Rather than buying the official PSU however, any regulated PSU rated at 1.8A+ will suffice. Most have adjustable power tips (the GP2X needs a -ve tip, which is the opposite of most devices) and should work fine but digital camera supplies are recommended as they supply the high current required.
http://www.gp2x.de/shop/images/gp2x%20Cradle%20Foto.jpg
GP2X cradle
The cradle on the other hand just needs a fairly standard 5V DC supply, centre +ve to supply power to USB devices. The GP2X can power maybe one device at a time when in the cradle but this puts a strain on the EXT connections and is not recommended. I’ve accidentally had all of the ports filled (external hard drive, keyboard, mouse and a gamepad) without the cradle supply, the poor thing practically cried at me but fortunately didn’t die. So in regard to power and battery life, the GP2X is not the simplest, cheapest and economical. However, the plus point to the GP2X in regard to power is that all the power connections are standard. I picked up a PSU off the shelf at work and the others from the local Maplin. High current batteries are easy to get hold of and cheap, plus if you’re at the airport with 4hrs to go and the batteries go dead, you can just buy some decent alkalines and slap those in.
As you can see there are points for and against the GP2X in this case, with a tricky situation of battery life versus readily available power sources. I guess they had to do something to keep the cost down with the alternative being lithium batteries, which are not cheap.
Now seeing as I’ve mentioned the cradle quite a few times I’ll describe it a bit further. The cradle is an extra which is basically the developer breakout board but in a nice package. The GP2X fits into the cradle via the EXT port on the bottom of the device, only after cutting the rubber cover. All that is left to do is to activate the external UI devices etc in the GP2X settings which interfaces it to the cradle. The cradle has: 4 USB ports, parallel port, serial port, S-Video out, stereo outputs and requires a 5V DC supply. I admit, I love this. I’ve been able to link my 500GB external hard drive with all of my music, movies, photos, files etc and play everything off it, no problems. Coupled with a pair of speakers, keyboard, gamepad and mouse, it’s a mini computer! Fantastic! Linking to the TV is also just as simple and reaps great results, Streets of Rage 3 anyone? Bomberman? Alright! Sweeeet! Yes, the cradle is great and genuinely turns the GP2X into a neat little entertainment box.
Emulators
Well, I think that’s quite enough of the hardware side of things. Lets get to the really important bit, the games! First, let’s tackle the emulators as they really set the GP2X apart from other hand held devices. There is a large range of emulators available for GP2X including: SNES, NES, GameBoy + Colour, GBA, Megadrive, MegaCD, Master System, Game Gear, Lynx, Neogeo, Neogeo Pocket, PC Engine, Amiga, Commodore, Spectrum, MAME, FBA and even the PS1. All of these are in various stages of development but all get updated quite frequently with new features and optimisations.
The stand out best emulators at time of writing are:
PicoDrive (MegaDrive + Mega CD)
– Perfect, at 200Mhz (standard clock speed)
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/sonic3/shot6_0004.png
Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7033/bloodlines.png
Castlevania: Bloodlines
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/7945/neokobe.jpg
Snatcher
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5660/lightcrusader.png
Light Crusader
This is possibly the best emulator including a fantastic UI, comprehensive tweaks and possibly some of the best emulation of the system I’ve seen. I’ve not come across one game that suffers using this program; I’ve tried about 660 MegaDrive games and about 20 Mega CD games. The only problem you can have is with MegaCD games if your SD card is unable to transfer fast enough during “CD transfers”. I’ve found this with my cheap 4.0GB SD card (which died recently) but my new ScanDisc is much better. If you love Genesis games then this is just the ticket, I highly recommend it.
Pocket Snes
– 40fps to 23fps game dependant, at 240Mhz with 22050Hz sound.
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/8210/ffvi.jpg
Final Fantasy VI, or III if you're going by EU/USA release names
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/8092/20080531.png
Super Metroid
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1416/zeldazeldascreen.jpg
Zelda 3: Link to the Past
There are actually two emulators for the GP2X the other being Squidge Snes. It’s a decent performer but it doesn’t handle the transparency effects nearly as well, effectively making some games like Zelda 3, Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger unplayable. So I’ve stuck with Pocket Snes both for performance and a superior UI. People claim that the emulation is better than the PSP and far superior to the DS but I have not see this for myself. Having said that, I prefer to play SNES games on the GP2X now rather than the PC because it just looks so damn good on it! I’ve never had any major problems with frame rate but it’s not perfect. Apparently Squidge is still working on it but ironing out the problems with transparencies and adding the special effects chip (which Mario RPG and Yoshi’s Island need) is taking sometime. It can take a little bit of fiddling to get the right fps for some games but otherwise it’s a great emulator. Looking forward to the next version.
Gngeo2X – NegoGeo Arcade
– Good speed but needs work on sound. The clock speed needed varies for each game.
http://gp2x-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/files/kof2.png
The King of Fighters 2
http://gp2x-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/files/metal_slug_2Ob_thumb.png
Metal Slug
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5838/viewpointcd.gif
Viewpoint
I’ve only just started tinkering with this application recently, but the results have been good. The current version of MAME on the GP2X (more on that in a sec) doesn’t support larger Neogeo games so this is the ticket to Metal Slug and King of Fighters. Seeing as I wasn’t particularly familiar with the emulator and many of the games made this one a bit of an adventure, discovering some fantastic arcade games along the way. This emulator requires the most work, with Bios editing, video dump creations for large games and general settings tinkering. It’s oh so worth it once you get Metal Slug 2 running at full speed I’ll tell you! As well as Aero Fighters 2, Neo Drift Out and a great remake of Zaxxon called Viewpoint. Not everything works properly with sound yet, but there is a lot of work going into this emulator and I don’t think it’ll be long before the next version is out. Yay for Neogeo games!
MAME2X – Multiple Arcade Emulator
– Standard Clock, no problems when it works.
http://www.emunova.net/img/actu/81180686c37605c8d112cedc8ad978f3.jpg
Busta-Move
http://gp2x.allack.co.uk/Images/MAME_Robotron.jpg
Robotron
http://gp2x.allack.co.uk/Images/MAME_Arkanoid.jpg
Arkanoid
I must admit I’ve not bothered myself much with this one, but it’s very popular. I don’t feel the need to play a lot of the games it supports, but it all works very well. I have had problems with different versions of ROMS but there is a converter tool that can sort that out for you. As you’d imagine, performance is second to none with this emulator but then you’d hope so considering what it’s running!
UAEforall – General Amiga Emulator
– Superb speed! Even at low clocks!
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4804/xcomufo02.jpg
U.F.O. - Enemy Unknown
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1156/alienbreedtowerassault.png
Alien Breed: Tower Assault
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4033/sensiblesoccer.jpg
Sensible Soccer
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9605/chaosengine.jpg
Chaos Engine
The new version of this emulator came out just a month or so ago, and hot damn it’s good. You can play: U.F.O., Cannon Fodder, Alien Breed, Shadow of the Beast, R-Type, Speedball 2, Sensible Soccer and anything else you can think of apart from Syndicate, still, which is a shame. Otherwise it’s ridiculously quick now and rips the piss out of the other portable emulators, once the F200 comes out with the touch screen this is going to be incredibly good. For the moment you can only really play mouse games when you’ve got the GP2X in the cradle with said mouse. However, Alien Breed and Chaos Engine (that’s right!) on the move is the absolutely awesome!
NES, Master System, Gameboy/Colour etc are all very good from my experience. They are all very well polished as they have been developed for longer than the others, and hence are pretty much free of any problems. I’ve not tried out the other consoles such as the GBA, PC Engine, Neogeo Pocket and such like yet but give it some time! The N64 project is dead and the PS1 project as you can imagine is much more complex and is still in development. The PS1 emulator works now I hear, apparently people have got Silent Hill 1 and FF7 running on it reasonable speeds but I guess with overclocks in the 280Mhz region. Given time though, it could be optimized to run lower clocks, I’ll have to wait and see. And before you ask , DOSbox is pretty much a no no, and is likely never too work. Which is sad, but not everything can be brilliant eh?
Sooo, the overall verdict on emulation? Extremely good. If you want the very best handheld emulation then look no further, this is it. End of story.
http://images.google.es/url?q=http://www.extrabyte.com/gp2x/img/logo.gif&usg=AFQjCNGe5OIUHvpQJj1Dv_vTIWojwK7uDA
I’ve been meaning to get round to this for some time now, and in many ways it’s for the best. Having now spent the best part of 4 months now with the device I think I’m in a better position to actually judge it. And for the most part, it’s been an absolute pleasure.
So, what is the GP2X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2x) you ask? Well, it’s basically a hand held gaming system, but it’s also so much more. It is able to play movies, music and view photos, as well as run a massive range of emulators, home-brew titles, ports and a surprising variety of other applications. The real icing on the ice is that you can connect it to a breakout cradle, plug in USB devices of choice and even a TV turning into an über portable entertainment system. It’s developed by a relevantly small South Korean company called GamePark Holdings. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GamePark_Holdings) They decided that rather than create an entirely new operating system they opted for an open-source system. The shiny user interface actually runs on a modded version of the Linux Kernel (2.4.25) not that the uninformed user would notice. This means that developing is a major attraction for the device and certainly is the core of it’s large community. Everything from emulators and custom music players to PDF viewers, painting programs and even a scientific calculator program have been developed for the GP2X. The community from what I’ve seen is very supportive of people developing and the scene is thriving with creativity. Enough about the background though, onto the device!
http://www.gp2x.de/shop/images/gp2xnewcap.jpg
Hardware + General Handling
While not being as powerful as the PSP and DS it does have some good hardware advantages, particularly with its dual ARM940T processors.
General Specs
* CPU: Dual CPU Cores
* ARM920T: Host processor
* ARM940T: Video Coprocessor
* NAND Flash Memory: 64 Mega Byte
* Dimension: 143.6mm* 82.9mm*34mm
* Weight: 161 Gram (Without Battery)
* RAM: SDRAM 64 Mega Byte
* Storage: SD Card
* Connection Type: USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 for cradle connection,)
* O/S: Linux
* Power supply: 2AA
* Display: * 3.5" TFT LCD (Hardware: 16.7 Million Colours / Software: 260,000 Colours)
Controls
* 8 way digital thumb stick
* 4+1 main action buttons (Thumb stick clicks in for use as an action button)
* 2 shoulder buttons
* Start and Select
* Volume +/-
The GP2X on first impression is quite an odd device. It’s nothing like as sleek as it’s bigger corporate brethren, but it definitely has character. I can only really describe it is as the bastard love child of the Atari Lynx and the PSP. The retro genes appearing in the chunky vibe of the battery holder, standard 4 solid screws holding the back together and the arcade styling, were as the large LCD screen and glossy trim at the front clearly reflect it’s modern side. The basic lines don’t scream multitudes of redesigns but it’s pleasing on the eye and has enough of a “shiny” quality to so get the “woooo” factor.
I’m particularly fond of the rubber covers which fit into all of the external ports, they add nicely to the solid look of the device and are practical to boot. However they are not a perfect design, someone needs a good clout around the ears for making the EXT(external) port cover (for TV out and the cradle) irremovable. The GP2X physically can not fit in the cradle because the rubber cover doesn’t give enough clearance. This requires you to cut it or open up the GP2X to remove it, which is quite frankly ridiculous. However, the cover still fits snugly into the port after cutting, you just have to remember were you put it when you take it out!
http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/gp2x.jpg
Visuals aside the GP2X is a very practical and solidly made machine. The first time picking it up was quite surprising as it’s deceptively light even with the batteries. The body of the device is all plastic hence the light weight, but it is very solid in the hands. I’ve not felt that I’d break it, but then I tend to very careful with things so maybe I’m not the best test of the GP2X’s robustness………….
The buttons are well placed, very positive and show no signs of wear yet. I also like the fact that the buttons don’t have any print and instead have the symbols engraved. It can make them a little hard to see in low lighting conditions but who looks at the buttons when playing eh? The only minor gripe I would have with the controls is the digital joystick. Not that it’s bad or anything, it’s solid and doubles up as a button like all modern analogue pads. It’s just that there are times were a joystick is just not as good as a D-pad. It’s just a fact, and most of the time the accuracy of a D-pad will be better than a joystick particularly with many of the games it emulates. However, this has been noted and acted on by Gamepark with the new F200 model featuring a D-pad instead of the joystick.
Which brings me to the screen which is rather nice and from what I’ve experienced unproblematic. While not being as large as the PSP it’s still great for watching movies and viewing photographs. Admittedly the contrast is a bit high, the colours a little over saturated and generally quite bright. The ultimate screen this is not but it really comes into it’s own for games. With most of the emulators being from 16-bit era and older the screen is just perfect. Games like Metal Slug, Sonic, Super Mario World and Day of the Tentacle just look fantastic, I’d even say even better than playing on a large LCD because of the 320x240 resolution keeping things native. The scrolling is smooth, no ghosting to speak of and the picture is crisp throughout all applications. As with any handheld device the main problem is keeping the damn thing clean and scratch free. You can buy a screen protector but I’ve found that they are not well packaged. All three that I have tried had dust caught on the underside, before application. I even tried putting my last one on in the clean room I work in (rated at 100) and I found the same problem. I was not pleased by this but what can you do? So a bit of care and cleaning has kept the screen scratch free so far. You just have to be careful I guess, or you can treat it like your mobile phone, your call.
Another major part of any handheld device is battery life, and in this area the GP2X is a bit weak wristed. Mostly due to the dual processors and screen the GP2X actually needs 2 meaty 1.5V AA batteries, preferably high capacity rechargeable ones . They state different operating times depending on the application but generally at full whack it lasts about 4-5hrs. This is definitely longer depending on what you’re doing though, with music pushing it into the 10hr range and low intensity emulators, were as movie playing and demanding games requiring an overclock will last in the 4 or 5hr range. I’ve not tested this fully as I prefer to use a PSU instead, both for connection to a machine (the USB connection sucks batteries like a gate crasher on your beer) and for the connection to the cradle which needs a separate PSU as well.
The GP2X doesn’t ship with a PSU as standard, apparently to keep the postage down, and hence cost. Rather than buying the official PSU however, any regulated PSU rated at 1.8A+ will suffice. Most have adjustable power tips (the GP2X needs a -ve tip, which is the opposite of most devices) and should work fine but digital camera supplies are recommended as they supply the high current required.
http://www.gp2x.de/shop/images/gp2x%20Cradle%20Foto.jpg
GP2X cradle
The cradle on the other hand just needs a fairly standard 5V DC supply, centre +ve to supply power to USB devices. The GP2X can power maybe one device at a time when in the cradle but this puts a strain on the EXT connections and is not recommended. I’ve accidentally had all of the ports filled (external hard drive, keyboard, mouse and a gamepad) without the cradle supply, the poor thing practically cried at me but fortunately didn’t die. So in regard to power and battery life, the GP2X is not the simplest, cheapest and economical. However, the plus point to the GP2X in regard to power is that all the power connections are standard. I picked up a PSU off the shelf at work and the others from the local Maplin. High current batteries are easy to get hold of and cheap, plus if you’re at the airport with 4hrs to go and the batteries go dead, you can just buy some decent alkalines and slap those in.
As you can see there are points for and against the GP2X in this case, with a tricky situation of battery life versus readily available power sources. I guess they had to do something to keep the cost down with the alternative being lithium batteries, which are not cheap.
Now seeing as I’ve mentioned the cradle quite a few times I’ll describe it a bit further. The cradle is an extra which is basically the developer breakout board but in a nice package. The GP2X fits into the cradle via the EXT port on the bottom of the device, only after cutting the rubber cover. All that is left to do is to activate the external UI devices etc in the GP2X settings which interfaces it to the cradle. The cradle has: 4 USB ports, parallel port, serial port, S-Video out, stereo outputs and requires a 5V DC supply. I admit, I love this. I’ve been able to link my 500GB external hard drive with all of my music, movies, photos, files etc and play everything off it, no problems. Coupled with a pair of speakers, keyboard, gamepad and mouse, it’s a mini computer! Fantastic! Linking to the TV is also just as simple and reaps great results, Streets of Rage 3 anyone? Bomberman? Alright! Sweeeet! Yes, the cradle is great and genuinely turns the GP2X into a neat little entertainment box.
Emulators
Well, I think that’s quite enough of the hardware side of things. Lets get to the really important bit, the games! First, let’s tackle the emulators as they really set the GP2X apart from other hand held devices. There is a large range of emulators available for GP2X including: SNES, NES, GameBoy + Colour, GBA, Megadrive, MegaCD, Master System, Game Gear, Lynx, Neogeo, Neogeo Pocket, PC Engine, Amiga, Commodore, Spectrum, MAME, FBA and even the PS1. All of these are in various stages of development but all get updated quite frequently with new features and optimisations.
The stand out best emulators at time of writing are:
PicoDrive (MegaDrive + Mega CD)
– Perfect, at 200Mhz (standard clock speed)
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/sonic3/shot6_0004.png
Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7033/bloodlines.png
Castlevania: Bloodlines
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/7945/neokobe.jpg
Snatcher
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5660/lightcrusader.png
Light Crusader
This is possibly the best emulator including a fantastic UI, comprehensive tweaks and possibly some of the best emulation of the system I’ve seen. I’ve not come across one game that suffers using this program; I’ve tried about 660 MegaDrive games and about 20 Mega CD games. The only problem you can have is with MegaCD games if your SD card is unable to transfer fast enough during “CD transfers”. I’ve found this with my cheap 4.0GB SD card (which died recently) but my new ScanDisc is much better. If you love Genesis games then this is just the ticket, I highly recommend it.
Pocket Snes
– 40fps to 23fps game dependant, at 240Mhz with 22050Hz sound.
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/8210/ffvi.jpg
Final Fantasy VI, or III if you're going by EU/USA release names
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/8092/20080531.png
Super Metroid
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1416/zeldazeldascreen.jpg
Zelda 3: Link to the Past
There are actually two emulators for the GP2X the other being Squidge Snes. It’s a decent performer but it doesn’t handle the transparency effects nearly as well, effectively making some games like Zelda 3, Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger unplayable. So I’ve stuck with Pocket Snes both for performance and a superior UI. People claim that the emulation is better than the PSP and far superior to the DS but I have not see this for myself. Having said that, I prefer to play SNES games on the GP2X now rather than the PC because it just looks so damn good on it! I’ve never had any major problems with frame rate but it’s not perfect. Apparently Squidge is still working on it but ironing out the problems with transparencies and adding the special effects chip (which Mario RPG and Yoshi’s Island need) is taking sometime. It can take a little bit of fiddling to get the right fps for some games but otherwise it’s a great emulator. Looking forward to the next version.
Gngeo2X – NegoGeo Arcade
– Good speed but needs work on sound. The clock speed needed varies for each game.
http://gp2x-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/files/kof2.png
The King of Fighters 2
http://gp2x-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/files/metal_slug_2Ob_thumb.png
Metal Slug
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5838/viewpointcd.gif
Viewpoint
I’ve only just started tinkering with this application recently, but the results have been good. The current version of MAME on the GP2X (more on that in a sec) doesn’t support larger Neogeo games so this is the ticket to Metal Slug and King of Fighters. Seeing as I wasn’t particularly familiar with the emulator and many of the games made this one a bit of an adventure, discovering some fantastic arcade games along the way. This emulator requires the most work, with Bios editing, video dump creations for large games and general settings tinkering. It’s oh so worth it once you get Metal Slug 2 running at full speed I’ll tell you! As well as Aero Fighters 2, Neo Drift Out and a great remake of Zaxxon called Viewpoint. Not everything works properly with sound yet, but there is a lot of work going into this emulator and I don’t think it’ll be long before the next version is out. Yay for Neogeo games!
MAME2X – Multiple Arcade Emulator
– Standard Clock, no problems when it works.
http://www.emunova.net/img/actu/81180686c37605c8d112cedc8ad978f3.jpg
Busta-Move
http://gp2x.allack.co.uk/Images/MAME_Robotron.jpg
Robotron
http://gp2x.allack.co.uk/Images/MAME_Arkanoid.jpg
Arkanoid
I must admit I’ve not bothered myself much with this one, but it’s very popular. I don’t feel the need to play a lot of the games it supports, but it all works very well. I have had problems with different versions of ROMS but there is a converter tool that can sort that out for you. As you’d imagine, performance is second to none with this emulator but then you’d hope so considering what it’s running!
UAEforall – General Amiga Emulator
– Superb speed! Even at low clocks!
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4804/xcomufo02.jpg
U.F.O. - Enemy Unknown
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1156/alienbreedtowerassault.png
Alien Breed: Tower Assault
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4033/sensiblesoccer.jpg
Sensible Soccer
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9605/chaosengine.jpg
Chaos Engine
The new version of this emulator came out just a month or so ago, and hot damn it’s good. You can play: U.F.O., Cannon Fodder, Alien Breed, Shadow of the Beast, R-Type, Speedball 2, Sensible Soccer and anything else you can think of apart from Syndicate, still, which is a shame. Otherwise it’s ridiculously quick now and rips the piss out of the other portable emulators, once the F200 comes out with the touch screen this is going to be incredibly good. For the moment you can only really play mouse games when you’ve got the GP2X in the cradle with said mouse. However, Alien Breed and Chaos Engine (that’s right!) on the move is the absolutely awesome!
NES, Master System, Gameboy/Colour etc are all very good from my experience. They are all very well polished as they have been developed for longer than the others, and hence are pretty much free of any problems. I’ve not tried out the other consoles such as the GBA, PC Engine, Neogeo Pocket and such like yet but give it some time! The N64 project is dead and the PS1 project as you can imagine is much more complex and is still in development. The PS1 emulator works now I hear, apparently people have got Silent Hill 1 and FF7 running on it reasonable speeds but I guess with overclocks in the 280Mhz region. Given time though, it could be optimized to run lower clocks, I’ll have to wait and see. And before you ask , DOSbox is pretty much a no no, and is likely never too work. Which is sad, but not everything can be brilliant eh?
Sooo, the overall verdict on emulation? Extremely good. If you want the very best handheld emulation then look no further, this is it. End of story.