Any sense in buying a caanoo?


cinaed666

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Apr 26, 2011
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I've looked at the caanoo, and it looks like a decent entry-level open source console. However, the community seems a bit dead, and even the website printed on the back of the units is long gone.


I've read that it's the last console GPH is doing, and that makes me both sad and worried about the future of this console. Is everyone abandoning it? I mean, I love the pandora, but I can't afford one while I'm paying for college, and this seemed like a decent alternative. The only thing I dislike is that you need a dongle for the wifi, and that the software library seems a bit thin.


Are there any similar companies besides the Dingoo? Their newer consoles don't seem to be any good compared to the A320, and I'd love something a bit chunkier, much like the caanoo, or pandora.


Maybe this is something for OP to consider once they're sorted the pandora out, an entry-level console like the caanoo. I like the GBA form factor, when you just like to play some games.


Pandora Mini, anyone?
 
I don't really know about the Caanoo community or its future - I had considered one for some years, and the A320, but in the end I went and got myself a PSPgo cheap and have no regrets there, it's an awesome machine IMO... Was mainly for a spot of Megadrive emu and the ability to play some of my original PS1 games on something besides a PS1. I know some people hate on it, I suspect due to the lack of UMD support mainly, but that's no issue for me and I really rate it, plus it performs sweet, fast loading, nice screen, great battery life, decent size.


If you want open source, I can only think of suggesting the GameGadget, that is also a little controversial right now and a fair amount of people on the official boards are not too happy, but I think there are still a number of people happy with it.


I also have one of these, they're pretty cheap at £59 I think now, and you can d/l their SDK to play around with. They have at the moment around 35 Megadrive games and about 10 or so homebrew games to d/l from their application.


You can also emulate the Dingux on it, offering more freeware homebrew and additional emulators.


Build wise I don't think it is as good as the PSPgo, the screen etc, but it is cheap.


Other cheap hand helds like Letcool "look" like the A320 a bit, but don;t think they are open, though again they cheap at around £40 on ebay new.


I would think a caanoo will still give you plenty of use, even if the scene is a bit dead, I think it has a fair library to keep you busy and everyone who has one raves about it and that the controls and build are nice.


If it wasn't for the PSPgo I would have one. If you want open source, I think it is still the best out there .... besides Pandora of course
 
If you have to have something this moment then the caanoo may be a good choice. But if you are willing to wait a little bit you should consider pre-ordering a GCW Zero. http://game-consoles...com/?page_id=17 They only have ten left I think. Something to consider at least. Full discloser, I am getting one and may be a mite biased.
 
Maybe this is something for OP to consider once they're sorted the pandora out, an entry-level console like the caanoo. I like the GBA form factor, when you just like to play some games.


Pandora Mini, anyone?

A cheap 'mini' console won't happen, but we do plan to have refurbished Pandora consoles for about $250 soon.
 
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Having owned a a320 and a caanoo i actually can't think of much to recommend it with that is not availiable on nearly every other handheld just now the video playback is dire and the music player isnt much better id get an android enabled device like the jxd s7100 its on the way to having the biggest hombrew community and alot of good emu's are availabe for it now including brill indie games like world of goo and gravity racer and top rated games(with a bit of foutering about) like shadowgun work on it.
 
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I guess it would really depend on what you want on it.


My need is for a handheld capable of running my GLB code, so I´m extremelly happy with it, and the fact that my games run on it perfectly.


I also enjoy the drawing and music making stuff on it. :)
 
As a caanoo owner, I really like it. Yes the community is dying down but I feel that everything I want is just about done on it. The software selection is not very thin when you consider that it can run ginge so in addition to all the caanoo software, it also runs most of the other gp2x stuff. If your looking for a retro emulator device and most of the emulators are available allready, what more can you ask for. It has a problem with the high end psx games (dont expect to play gran turismo on it) but can play the lower end stuff. It also has a problem with snes games with an accelerator chip. Other than that, the most popular stuff is there. you have probably been here http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/caanoo.cgi but posting it just in case. Hope you get one. Post back if you have more specific questions.

As a caanoo owner, I really like it. Yes the community is dying down but I feel that everything I want is just about done on it. The software selection is not very thin when you consider that it can run ginge so in addition to all the caanoo software, it also runs most of the other gp2x stuff. If your looking for a retro emulator device and most of the emulators are available allready, what more can you ask for. It has a problem with the high end psx games (dont expect to play gran turismo on it) but can play the lower end stuff. It also has a problem with snes games with an accelerator chip. Other than that, the most popular stuff is there. you have probably been here http://dl.openhandhe...-bin/caanoo.cgi but posting it just in case. Hope you get one. Post back if you have more specific questions.
 
Is it?!!?


bloody hell ,... I just been staring at it thinking it was a 'spot the difference' competition post.
 
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As my pandoracharger is broken i held my Caanoo again yesterday and this morning and have to say:


Still a great device, although i had to get used to the stick again, why can't every device have a proper-dpad-disc


and why will the GCW also not get one, but the old cross again...


I definitely have to get Puzsion, Animatch, Cavestory, etc... to work via Ginge on my pandora somehow.
 
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