Please Take my GP32 n00b cherry

[JDUK]

Hi all

Ok i found out these things existed about 1 hour ago(been to busy with uni to keep up with the gaming scene). And was totaly amazed & will be ordering my Backlit GP32 + 2x 128 Ram tomorrow.

So would any one be so kind as to give me wiz through tour of the ins and outs?

Q1: What are the best emulators? im particulaly intrested in the LucasArts SCUMM emu. and where do i get them?
Q2: Where do i get DivX extraction & compression software to extract DVD movies & make them a sizable format to fit on 128 RAM?
Q3: Whats the best GUI/Desktop/Frontend thingy for the GP32?
Q4: Hows the emus for speed ive herd mixed opinions?
Q4: What languages can i use to write games for it?
Q5: Isnt there a sticky N00b thing covering this some where here if so, a big sorry to you and ill go skulk off and read it.
Q7: Any additinal info that would be useful?

Thanks all and WOW this GP32 thing sounds simply amazing.

 

[ralp99]

http://faq.gp32emu.com/


start here! + welcome to the fold...

 

[tfc]

1. best emus speed wise = GPengine (PCengine), SMS32 (Gamegear+Master System), Castaway/GP (AtariST), fNES32 (Nes, being released soon) Scummvm can be downloaded at www.gp32emu.com or www.gp32x.de (new release comming soon with perfect sound).

2. VirtualDub (www.virtualdub.com) - to encode, and ull need the divx codec (www.divx.com) installed.

3. Windups is the best at the moment, but WinGP is comming soon.

4. Dunno, as im not a coder

5. newbie FAQs found at http://faq.gp32emu.com/

6. The GP32 is quality! heh

 

[Tobriand]

Pretty much what tfc said, although for speed you also got to remember things like fMSX32, Plus/IV emu and Frodo... and the new speccy ones (I've yet to get into those).

ScummVM wise be a little careful to use the 133MHz ver... the other one has nice sound, but in a few weeks it'll blow your LCD up (or at least corrupt it permenantly with nasty white lines).

Language-wise, I'm pretty sure its C (all of it) and C++ (with a few limitations) although I don't code so not sure. Also heard SDL mentioned as being relatively easy to port from too, so possibly that might be usable (more likely its just very similar to C and just requires parenthesis changing or something compared to being completely re-written).


There's probably other stuff I haven't said, but that seems to answer most of the qs you asked...

 

[JDUK]

Thank you all for the amazingly quick and helpful responses.

 

[esoteric_]

3. Personally I like the combo firmware from Spiv. I'm not using the new one with the developers "stub" in it, and I've had no problems with the one I'm using. WARNING: people have killed their gp32's by flashing the firmware, but I personally had no problems. FRESH batteries are essential. Spiv's multifw has Pacrom (fast for loading stuff), original fw and Wind-ups too. So you have plenty of options. But be careful.
4. Good and bad. Try out the ones recommended so far, then try out the others to see if you find them tolerable. Personally I find the Snes emu's completely unplayable. ZarJ's Snesemu is FAST, but without sound and saving. Intelectos has sound and saving, but it becomes too slow to be playable. It's unfortunate, but maybe good things will come in the future.
5. Have fun.

 

[davek22]

Whoah did someone mention killing the LCD by overclocking with SCUMM? Grim...I got IPAQ for those Lucasart games anyway. So me being a noob how many frames can I expect on the Fast Snes emu? I not bothered about sound or saves as long as its fast (i only play short bursts with sound down anyways!)

 

[ralp99]

some games in zardoz's snes emu are perfectly spot-on enjoyable, someone should get a list going (isn't one starting up on that other guy's website?)

for beginners, get out your favorites and give them a whirl.. be ware, you can't change the controller setup in this one though, some games are a pain in the butt.
punch out and cameltry (on the ball) - full speed and plenty of fun!

 

[Tobriand]

YEah, there's 2 vers of ScummVM - a 133MHz ver (called Scumm133.fxe) and a heavily overclocked one to 160MHz (written before we knew it destroyed LCDs, and called Scummvm.fxe)

Be careful to use the first one... its identical in speed, just somewhat worse sound.

 

[Rico]

Q5: Isnt there a sticky N00b thing covering this some where here if so, a big sorry to you and ill go skulk off and read it.

Yeah, thanks to you

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=1694