Impressive Review Units


craigix

Mega GP Mania
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I have to make up some SD cards for review units to goto magazines (like retrogamer).

What i'm looking for is recommendations for what to include, I'll do duke, Quake etc. but also want to include some emulators which roms which work really well and are impressive, what do you guys recommend I include?

Also some nice well encoded video would be excellent, anyone care to suggest something which looks the best?

Thanks,

Craig

www.gp2x.co.uk
 
I vote for:

OPEN Transport Tycoon for Porting example
Ku-bo Delux for Homebrew (and PONG!)
PSX with Buster Bros or Riden Project and NeoCD with MetalSlug for Emu


Flashback..rockdodgers..zookeeper...SMS..NES..SNES..Hexen...

hey, wait.. there are too many... I can't remember properly :(
 
I have had a LOT of fun with noskill's Sprout, and I think it is a great example homebrew games. It is a simple solid concept with a lot of fun and replay value, and I really think it should be included.

For videos, IMPS is a funny short Star Wars spoof, it is DivX encoded so to *should* work well. I have not tried it myself because I can't download it at the moment, but I don't see any reasons why it should not work. It has some pretty CGI stuff so it should show off graphics.

Be sure to add a selection of skins, some people like that sort of stuff.
The Tux one here is really polished and I think it looks better then the default one.

On magazines to send it to, please consider Linux Format. That is a great UK based Linux magazine that has covered Linux gadgets in the past. If you are sending it to a Linux magazine, be sure to include the kernel source and any SDK stuff that is currently available.

Emulators might not be such a great idea, even though the are one of the main selling points, as it is somewhat in a legal grey area.

One last thing, I think you should hold off until you can send it in with working TV-Out cables, I think it adds a lot to the value of the unit. You will really only have one chance with each magazine, so you might as well wait until you can make a uh.. full impression of the units capabilities.

Also, if all else fails a small bribe would work pretty well. I think lollipops have worked in the past..
 
Narcissu - A great visual novel that can be run on the gp2x using onscripter. A free english version is available online and there is a patch on these boards that makes the text bigger so that you can read it on the gp2x.

M.U.L.E. - A great c64 game, run it with frodo. I just discovered this game, and i can't stop playing it!

Rock Dodger - A great arcade homebrew game! All its missing is high-score saves, which, according to the developer, should be very easy to make

Snes emulator - find a game that runs really well on it and put that on :p

neocd emulator - put metal slug and some other well known games on it. Remember to inlcude some nice skins.

nes emulator - put some mario games and zelda.

Also, i don't have DrMD as the beta is only given to those who donate, but you might want to talk to reesy and see if he'll let you include that, that would definitely be a selling point. You also might want to include the psx emulator... I haven't gotten around to trying it out yet but it sounds amazing.

About video, xvid didn't work well at all for me (video played about 5x too fast while sound played regular speed, but i don't have the newest firmware because my card isn't supported....) but divx 5 has worked just about perfect for me. Put some cowboy bebop on it, everyone likes cowboy bebop.
 
For SNES, maybe SMWorld, I known it's cliched but everyone knows it and it goes like a greased weasel with the no-sound mode.
For NeoGeoCD, also maybe consider King of Fighters 99 (has many fighters, looks great).
 
Neo Turf Masters and Bust-A-Move are two of the smoothest-running (fun) NGCD games.
 
Not to be a spoilsport, but you cant really include emulation roms with a review package. You can always recommend. And provide the emulators.

And do you have a "due date"? so if say a coder was putting together the last bits of a port, and wanted it included, if it was good enough.
 
NeoGeo CD is my favorite emulator.

Metal Slug with MP3 BGM runs smoothly enough to show off.

Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, looks great on the GP2X screen and is smooth in motion, but no BGM. I've always prefered this over KOF'98 which IMHO is the best KOF in the series, KOF '99 is okay but the strikers system spoilt it for me.

Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move great for nostalgia, it amazes me that even now I still get that just one more go urge after I start playing it, sadly no BGM yet.

Flashback from Ryleh, looks and plays very well, brings back fond memories, i still have the original game.

Don't forget Frodo, Boulderdash & Monty on The Run, two of many great games that spring to mind.

I encoded the trailer for Batman Begins as a little teaser to show friends.
Used DVDShrink no compression to extract it and AutoGK to encode to Divx5.2 fixed width at 640, 50% quality, MP3 @128kbps CBR. Came in at 10megs and looks very nice on the GP2X.

Don't forget to run the Stereo Fix in utilities before playing ;).
 
I thought you wouldn't be allowed to show off non-homebrew roms to an entire population? Anyway, for the video I would recommend the Comic Bakery music video by Press Play on Tape since it is likely to go to a retro audience.
 
Well, you'd be able to say you'd played a game you bought in another format on the 2x, and of course, there are a *couple* of games that have actually been released as PD in the last few years (and therefore whose roms are legal regardless of whether you own the original copy). Not that I could name any, in all honesty.
 
South Park from the seventh season onwards looks amazing on my GP2X, as does Robot Chicken and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, haven't tried any live-action videos as of yet, still waiting for my Malcolm episodes to finish downloading :p

And for the games, defenitly Quake (picture perfect!) and maybe Duke Nukem (looks amazing but still has a few bugs). Rock Dodger is the best of the homebrew games I've played, Excitebike for the NES, Link to the Past for the SNES, and Metal Slug and Last Blade on the NeoCD.

Not very constructive comments, I know, just letting you know of my opinion.
Send one to Retro Gamer if they're still going, haven't seen it in the shops for a while, but then perhaps I'm just not looking hard enough...

Oh, and there's also GamesTM, they have 30-odd pages of retro stuff each month, and although they SAY that emulation is wrong, you know they won't be able to resist this... ;)
 
I cant get any movies to play, even the demo movie. Bah, they all say file type not supported! What the hell is going on!
 
i'll finish my SMB3 skin before you send the sd cards out so you can include that :)

when are you sending these cards out?
 
Ive been watching king of the hill mostly on my GP2X, not watched any full movies yet. I would avoid anything too dark and stick with anything that includes high saturation and bright colours like the simpsons.

As for emulators I would reccomend :-

SNES : Earthworm Jim 2, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Super Mario all Stars and super bomber man 2 all run very smoothly. Many other games almost perfectly aswell the only things that really slow down are things like Yoshis Island, StarFox and Super Mario Kart etc.

(These all run very close to fullspeed with no sound in the latest version, with sound included they run a little slower but are still playable)

C64 : Almost everything I have tried works perfectly on this!

NEO GEO : Metal Slug, Aero Fighters 2 (Both with BGM are very playble and look great)

Rylehs FlashBack port looks amazing especially the intro very little slow down.

Homebrew :

All of the puzzle games are nice to show off, spout is fun but doesnt really push the graphic capability at all.

Nothing else comes to mind at the moment. Apart from the obvious Hexen, Quake and Duke Nukem 3D.
 
go for Pulstar on the NeogeoCD emulator. It has got this video sequences before each level. The animation before level two is quite impressive (you do not have to play level one first, you can go directly to level two). And after the nice video sequence the perfect ingame graphics will excite each video game journalist.


pstar5.jpg


pulstar-3.png
 
i don't think that distributing roms is legal... unless there's some sort of disclaimer process. i'd be interested to find out how he's going to dodge the law on this one...

anyway, its a swell idea to get people hyped
 
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