GP32 Creating A New Game-console. Homebrew Project


Yeah, I'd even donate money to you right now if I wasn't broke... but rest assured, that when I finally get another job(this is ridiculous, at least 20 applications and only one response so far), I will donate... and do anything else you'd need me for, as long as it's something I know I can do.
 
Mr. Mirko

Here goes another link for TFT-LCD let me know if this kind of models would be ok (I think it is a bit thick)

http://szsjd.en.alibaba.com/product/500520...ule__3_5__.html

Btw you can take a look around Alibaba website they are alot of interesting supplier, also if it is located in Shenzhen like this company well I could help you out.  My wife come from there ;-) (yes shes chinese) my parents in laws still live there and several of my wife friends.  I went in the electronic district and have alot of cool stuff... as in components ;-).
This is no screen for Handheld applications.
It´s designed for stationary/Vehicle usage. It has a voltage input of 12V and with a rated power of 2Watt it´s going to be rather hard to supply it with power ;)

No, really. What we need is something like this Samsung screen. I just wasn´t able to find a supplier for those...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
aloa,

whoo.

wau,

great.

When can i order?
Can i help?
OK, Hardware i can't help, but with software.
to this thread we can make a german meeting.
with Kaffee und Kuchen.


I think, we don't have to build to much in.
But we have to make much that it is expnadable.
5x usb ...
Than you can buy a touchscreen, if you need, and who doesn't need, doesn't pay it.

by
 
It would be stupid to have a portable with any type of wireless these days. Bluetooth is cheap, r/f is even cheaper. But the USB on that chip mr.mirko proposed has host mode, so we could attach anything we'd want on there. But then the thing would only be available in linux.

Just my two cents.
 
How about having a full-size female USB port for the PC connection? Then Linux/etc could have extra devices plugging straight into the system.
 
How about having a full-size female USB port for the PC connection? Then Linux/etc could have extra devices plugging straight into the system.
Sounds like a great idea.
You could connect your GP32 via phodrive, to copy files from a SD-card. And of course other devices too...
mr.mirko: About the screen; Do you mean it's going to be a bad screen? Cheap screens can be good, but if they have to large too, I seriously doubt that you'll find a good one...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, if it could have support for SDIO, that'd be great...
Hopefully, it's not that much more expensive than normal SD support, to make...
 
8. Show the World the work, and take preorders. Minimum is 1000 units... to get the lowest prise

Mmmhhh... I think i would be able to manage a part of the "Communication department" ;)
Maybe not in fact. Maybe yes. I don't know for the moment. But if there's something do to, i would be able to help you in this section :)
 
DEAR GOD! GIGANTIC POST COMING UP! (Not rambling) It is set up in three different main categories, 1, 2, and 3. There are paragraphs within each category.

1a. I've got a rhetorical question that should be thought about. Why are you making a more powerful system than the GP32? A, For older PC games that we love; or B, To emulate better consoles; or C, both A and B.

1b.Currently, the most powerful systems emulatable by the GP32 are the Genesis, and the SNES (But not at full speed). The SNES is not at full speed because of programming issues. I'm not insulting the programmers, I can't code shit, but what I am saying is that a SNES is 3mhz, and a GP32 is 166mhz. There is also the GBA, which is weaker than the SNES, so it should be no problem as well. This means that the real reason to get a more powerful system would be to emulate a PSX or a N64, both of which have dedicated video memory. They are more specialized, not just simply a stick of RAM and a processor. This leaves only the older systems to be emulated, and they will also have to be reprogrammed to get the SNES to work on it(it won’t be as hard with the extra beefy power, but still). This means that the new portable should have its own dedicated GPU for the newer systems. It doesn’t need a very good one to match the PSX and N64, so it wouldn’t cost much extra (PSX = 4MB video memory, N64 = 2MB without upgrade, 4MB with upgrade which is needed for some games).

1c. With PSX or N64 games, especially PSX, SD cards won’t cut it. A 1GB SD card costs 80 bucks. I found a 20 GB micro hard drive for 58 (US Dollars). You’re probably thinking that this would use more power (for that, read section 2), and you might also be thinking that this will bring up the cost of the unit considerably. The thing is, if PSX games are going to be emulated, then a hard drive will be needed, as it will cost 80 dollars to hold one PSX game (with a lot of space left, but still, ONE GAME), and 160 dollars to hold three (Only three games, wtf) PSX games (with a little space left). It also gets worse; this assumes that it isn’t a multi disc game. If it were ANY of the Final Fantasies for PSX, it would be impossible to play, discs cannot be split up with FF7, so either of the two discs would occupy too much space, and most definitely not FF8 or FF9, because they are both FOUR discs (Don’t we all love Final Fantasy?). This means that even if we COULD play Final Fantasy on the two SD cards, it would be the ONLY game for 160 dollars, that doesn’t truly make the system under 121 dollars (100 Euros), it is more than double that. With 20GB, a MINIMUM of 28 discs could be held (with an extra 350 megabytes left).

1d. Here is the link for the hard drive http://www.bananapc.com/products/productIn...roduct_id=14549 It is also very small, which I forgot to mention. It is less than a centimeter tall, 2.5 inches long, and 4 inches wide. The new system will not be thick like an Ipod because of this. This should give a good idea on how much hard drives of this capacity cost.

1e. This leaves older computer games, now, with 400mhz and 128mb of RAM, dear god, this seems VERY enticing. It is definitely a great, great idea. BUT… you guys are considering LINUX!? This is TERRIBLE! There are almost NO Linux games, and they are even more limited by the fact that they must be very old games. Getting Windows 95 on here would be PERFECT. The only obstacle is making the PC games compatible with the new portable. Don’t worry about it being illegal either, it’s not like you don’t have games on your GP32s that your don’t actually own. It’s the same boat.

2a. The batteries should definitely be AA. First of all, it sucks having a stupid internal battery that has to be charged, it cannot even be temporarily replaced. Secondly, if any of you were thinking of Lithium Ion batteries, they suck! Firstly, they cost a lot, which needlessly brings up the price (A pack of AAs costs four bucks, a hell of a lot cheaper).

2b. There are Energizer AA rechargeable batteries that come in a pack of four with a charger for 27 dollars, why does this matter you say? They are 2200mAh each and they charge in fifteen minutes; forget those crappy 2 hour charges, and forget those short battery lives. These could be sold as a recommended extra, or someone could simply use AAs without the hassle of internal batteries.

2c. This conflicts with what I saw as the main reason for going against the use of AAs in this portable, not enough voltage. Just use a transformer! Even if this were to draw too much current from the batteries, 4 of them could be used, and then the life would be longer.

3a. This brings me to my final category in the longest post ever, the screen.

3b. The screen should DEFINITELY be 4:3 ratio. Every single system that has ever been made (excluding the PSP) was natively 4:3. Having a 16:9 screen messes all of that up. Plus the PSP is stronger than the PS2, and I doubt we can hope to emulate the PS2 on a portable anytime soon.

3c. I think it just about goes without saying that the screen should be backlit.

3d. The screen should be 640x480 resolution. 320x240 is perfectly acceptable with systems that were made in the SNES/Genesis era, but that was 15 years ago. With newer systems, and PC games as well, 640x480 will definitely be needed in order for the game to not look like crap.
 
Actually, the GBA is more powerful than the SNES. The GBA can do in software what the SNES needed a 3D coprocessor in the cartridge to do.
 
Firstly, the SNES isn't more powerful than the GBA. That is why the GBA can (to an extent) emulate the SNES. The GBA can't do the SNES very well, and neither can the GP32. I don't see why we shouldn't look to a more powerful system to emulate what can't be emulated already, like you said. But that doesn't have to mean PSX or N64.

PSX doesn't even have particularly good emulation, even now on PC. So I don't see how a port of a PC emulator to a 400Mhz handheld can be expected to work. We certainly would need a dedicated GPU for these, but that would crank up the cost further. We are trying to keep the system as simple as possible here.

Assuming the PSX was possible, I don't see how you can expect 50,000 PSX games on one convenient disk. It comes with the territory. Sorry to disappoint you, but PSX games came on CD, and were huge. There's nothing you can do about it. N64 on the other hand; well you could easily fit 50 games on an SD card, so you can't really complain about that.

Windows 95? I assume this is some kind of troll. I have no idea how you plan on getting Windows 95 ported to this system, given that Microsoft are 0% likely to release the source code.

The batteries should definitely be AA eh? Well, with the dedicated GPU we need, as well as the hard drive we require, I can forsee at least 3 minutes of gameplay there. "Nice". Especially given your expectations of Final Fantasy; a massive game.
 
ok as a gamer the only thing im really interested in is the games and price, it has to play good games and be at a price possibly lower than a nintendo ds currently £99.99p

games wise how about playing all the neogeo cps2 / cps3 roms that would be a handheld worth having playing marvel vs capcom on the way to work would be crazy could you imagine all the sweet capcom and neo geo game running (ahh sigh!) who cares about psx it wasnt that good anyway, all i want is snes, nes, gba, genesis, 32x cps1 and 2 support possible cps3 or whatever streetfighter 3 runs on and im well away ^U^ oh the fun of playing arcade beauties *U^ ^U^ ^U*

please someone tell me it will be possible on this new handheld your developing please...... ^U^ gp32_console
 
a powered female USB connector would be awesome... but that would drain battery if its used..
it would be awesome for linux, a usb connector on the top of the system, so that its not in the way of the L and R buttons. so you can plugin everything you need, Wifi Stick, USB Stick, USB HDD and so on.
Please :)

About Emulation:
N64 is impossible cause it needs a fast CPU and also a strong GPU..
GBA is possible and should be playable very good
SNES also
AMGIA emulation should be possible too ;)
PSX, yes could be possible, ripped psx games are very small, and also 1GB cards arent that expensive anymore, when the PSX emu has 2fps on the GP32 @40mhz just think about it running on 400mhz, thats 10 times faster so arround 20fps :)
a good coder could do it, we should conatact LDchen about this project..
 
I didn t read whole your post, but what I can say about Linux is that it s got a lot of free games for it, though these has to be ported to run on a portable device, as it s got an ARM9 processor and not a x86. In other words, if we could port Windows 95 to this device, the only thing it would do would be smacking a lot of bluescreens up in our faces, it wouldn t be able to run a single windows program at all...
Linux, if it will have Linux, is a choice made because it s a very good and OPEN OS.

Cheers
Talyz Prower
 
Dude, did you even READ my post, or just look at the topic sentence and forget about the supporting details?

Firstly, the SNES isn't more powerful than the GBA. That is why the GBA can (to an extent) emulate the SNES. The GBA can't do the SNES very well and neither can the GP32. I don't see why we shouldn't look to a more powerful system to emulate what can't be emulated already, like you said.

Maybe the GBA IS stronger than the SNES, but it doesn't matter. As I said, the GP32 is 166mhz, the SNES is 3mhz, that's 55 times more powerful. This is also FAILING to mention that the SNES is 16 bit, and the GP32 is 32 bit.

But that doesn't have to mean PSX or N64.

If the GP32 can already do every other system (You better remember what I JUST said), then what is the next step? Low class PC games, and the consoles that were the generation afterwards.


PSX doesn't even have particularly good emulation, even now on PC. So I don't see how a port of a PC emulator to a 400Mhz handheld can be expected to work. We certainly would need a dedicated GPU for these, but that would crank up the cost further. We are trying to keep the system as simple as possible here.


If it can't do anything new, then why should anyone buy it? Honestly, tell me why.

Assuming the PSX was possible, I don't see how you can expect 50,000 PSX games on one convenient disk. It comes with the territory. Sorry to disappoint you, but PSX games came on CD, and were huge. There's nothing you can do about it. N64 on the other hand; well you could easily fit 50 games on an SD card, so you can't really complain about that.

Didn't you see my huge fucking section on why the new system should have a hard drive? I gave the dimensions for a 20GB micro hard drive, and a link to buy one, to show a cost that could be put with the name. I specifically said, that it could hold
a minimum of 28 discs worth of information, with 350 extra megabytes left. This is assuming that each game is the full 700MB, which is the maximum that can fit on a Compact disc, so realistically, the number of discs would be much higher.

Windows 95? I assume this is some kind of troll. I have no idea how you plan on getting Windows 95 ported to this system, given that Microsoft are 0% likely to release the source code.

Who said that the source code is needed? Besides, how many old Linux games can you name that you would just love to play?

The batteries should definitely be AA eh? Well, with the dedicated GPU we need, as well as the hard drive we require, I can forsee at least 3 minutes of gameplay there. "Nice". Especially given your expectations of Final Fantasy; a massive game.

Did you not see the recommendation of those Energizer batteries? Let me explain them AGAIN. Each one is 2200mAh, the entire battery for the PSP is 1800mAh. The PSP has a lithium ion battery that is outclassed by 18%, and that is a single AA. If there were say, 4 batteries, that would be 489% of the power in a PSP. Truly three minutes indeed, seeing as how the PSP constantly runs a disc, just as a hard drive does, and also seeing how the PSP has dedicated video memory, and also seeing how it is more powerful than a PS2, which would indicate a high current draw. Four, or even two of these batteries would be much more powerful than the battery from the PSP. And let's not forget, THEY RECHARGE IN FIFTEEN MINUTES.
 
Back
Top