Some Gp2x Questions


christo930

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I am considering getting on of these for Christmas, but I wanted to ask a few questions first:

I have a GP32 and have been pretty happy with it but a few of the emulators leave much to be desired

1) Atari 2600- is there a good emulator for the 2600 that runs at full speed or close with very high compatability?

2) Vectrex- Is there a full speed high comp vectrex emulator?


3) Same questions for GBA- PC engine - snes (full speed?)


4) Is the A500 emulator full speed?


5) mame - one problem I have with Mame for GP32 is that the sound in most games is so low you can hear it unless you use headphones. Does this problem exist with the GP2x

6) How much play time can I expect from 2 AA 2500mah batteries?

7) Are there any compatability issues with the tv out? Do all video modes work well and flicker free on the big screen?

8) How much are the memory cards for it *about?

9)How much can I expect to pay for it, and where do people recomend (USA)? I also noticed with this value pak that GP says it will be avail in stores, does that include any US stores? Is that carved in stone, or wishfull thinking on GP's part

I hope I havn't asked too many questions that are answered somehwere else, but I don't have a lot of time to search and need to make up my mind asap.

Thanks,

Chris
 
I haven't used alot of the emulators but mame from what I remember using it worked nice when it worked but its been updated ALOT since I last used it so compatibility should be better. I get at least 2 hours of gameplay when playing snes but it probably depends on your battery quality. As for how much an SD card costs for it I live in canada and in my prices I got my 2gig for 80 bucks cnd and it works great check out bestbuy or some local store for prices. I know alot of people get their gp2x's from play asia I got mine for a canadia retailer and it was a little more then 200 if I remember correctly. just look on playasias site. Google could probably answer all your pricing questions. Also the gp2x.com site I believe has a list of retailers around the world.
snes is pretty good.
 
My website answers most of these.

MAME--not sure
TV-Out--works on most programs and there's a TV-Out fixer for those that don't.
SDs are cheap--http://digi4me.com/

Please do a little research before making threads filled with questions--my site's very easy to navigate.
 
christo930 posted on Dec 18 2006 at 10:40 PM said:
1) Atari 2600- is there a good emulator for the 2600 that runs at full speed or close with very high compatability?

Yes, stella.

2) Vectrex- Is there a full speed high comp vectrex emulator?

None.

3) Same questions for GBA- PC engine - snes (full speed?)

PC Engine yes, SNES fullspeed on 80% of games (with some overclock), GBA just started really but impressive beginning and is likely to be fullspeed eventually. At the moment, only a select few games run fullspeed without issue.

4) Is the A500 emulator full speed?

On many games, yes (with overclock). e.g. I was playing Alien Breed flawlessly at full speed the other day. There are two very good Amiga emulators btw, UAE4ALL and UAE2X. I'd say ~70% compatibility, and ~50-60% of those can be made to run fullspeed with the right settings. Even stuff like Vroom.

5) mame - one problem I have with Mame for GP32 is that the sound in most games is so low you can hear it unless you use headphones. Does this problem exist with the GP2x

Sound seems loud enough to me. MAME is generally much improved on GP2X.

6) How much play time can I expect from 2 AA 2500mah batteries?

Depends how high you overclock. At default speed, around 4+ hours.

7) Are there any compatability issues with the tv out? Do all video modes work well and flicker free on the big screen?

Every program handles it differently. Some are perfect, some won't work at all.

8) How much are the memory cards for it *about?

SD are the cheapest memory cards available, really. They're great. I bought a 2gig 150x A-Data card a few months ago for under US$50 (inc. airmail shipping). I'm sure it's even cheaper now.

9)How much can I expect to pay for it, and where do people recomend (USA)? I also noticed with this value pak that GP says it will be avail in stores, does that include any US stores? Is that carved in stone, or wishfull thinking on GP's part

Shop around. There are at least two US GP2X stores (can't remember them both off hand, I'm in Oz), plus you have the option of Play Asia and other places.
 
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I'll do my best to answer your questions for you. To get a better idea of how well some of the emulators run I'd highly recommend doing a search for "gp2x" on YouTube and ordering the results by date. There's a lot of good videos put up recently which demonstrate many of the programs you mention.

1) Not played it myself but apparently the Atari 2600 emulator Stella is "99.9% functional, with the exception of the ability to play PAL Roms. This is due mainly to the fact that the GP2X cannot handle video modes > 320x240. When this changes, we will make sure Stella reflects this. -- Alex 09/26/06"

2) To the best of my knowledge a Vectrex has yet to be written/ported to the gp2x, however it's certainly possible. See the emulation speculation page on the wiki: http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/Emulation_Speculation

3)
- GBA: Work has just begun on a port of gpSP to the gp2x thanks to zodttd and Exophase. It already runs incredibly well without much optimization, so the outlook is very good for full speed GBA in the near future.

- PC Engine: Certainly works full speed on all games. The HU6280 plays all the games I've tried (occasionally needing a little overclock to play full speed in all scenes), with a few sound bugs being the only noticeable problem. It'll also play some CD games (eg Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo ;)). GP2Xengine also does a very good job.

- SNES: Runs most games full speed with a little bit of overclocking. No transparencies yet, however. Work is still ongoing though! :)

4) UAE4all v0.6.4 plays many games at good speed I believe. I've not played it much myself, but have a look at http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/UAE4all for more detail (note; most of the games in the compatibility list were from much earlier versions, so look at the 0.6.4 ones to see the state of the emulator now).

5) MAME runs pretty much flawlessly on most games. GnGeo2x also takes care of the NeoGeo games rather well :)

6) Get a good set of Ansmann 2700mAh batteries and they'll last a good 4 and a half hours. Typically you can expect between 3 and 4 hours battery life at default clock speed, depending on the quality of the batteries.

7) Not used it much myself, but I've not heard a lot of complaints. Some programs occasionally encounter problems but they're usually fixed pretty quickly (someone who has more experience with it may be able to tell you more).

8) Do a quick search on ebay for "SD Card" and you'll see just how cheap they are ;)

9) Try http://www.gp2xstore.com/ They're a new site, and are very good from what I've heard. Can't tell you any more than that since I'm not from the US!

Hope that helps!

EDIT: Yikes, I must type too slow! Lots of replies already... oh well, hope there's something of use anyway... :p
 
xythen posted on Dec 19 2006 at 12:47 AM said:
I'll do my best to answer your questions for you. To get a better idea of how well some of the emulators run I'd highly recommend doing a search for "gp2x" on YouTube and ordering the results by date. There's a lot of good videos put up recently which demonstrate many of the programs you mention.

1) Not played it myself but apparently the Atari 2600 emulator Stella is "99.9% functional, with the exception of the ability to play PAL Roms. This is due mainly to the fact that the GP2X cannot handle video modes > 320x240. When this changes, we will make sure Stella reflects this. -- Alex 09/26/06"

2) To the best of my knowledge a Vectrex has yet to be written/ported to the gp2x, however it's certainly possible. See the emulation speculation page on the wiki: http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/Emulation_Speculation

3)
- GBA: Work has just begun on a port of gpSP to the gp2x thanks to zodttd and Exophase. It already runs incredibly well without much optimization, so the outlook is very good for full speed GBA in the near future.

- PC Engine: Certainly works full speed on all games. The HU6280 plays all the games I've tried (occasionally needing a little overclock to play full speed in all scenes), with a few sound bugs being the only noticeable problem. It'll also play some CD games (eg Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo ;)). GP2Xengine also does a very good job.

- SNES: Runs most games full speed with a little bit of overclocking. No transparencies yet, however. Work is still ongoing though! :)

4) UAE4all v0.6.4 plays many games at good speed I believe. I've not played it much myself, but have a look at http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/UAE4all for more detail (note; most of the games in the compatibility list were from much earlier versions, so look at the 0.6.4 ones to see the state of the emulator now).

5) MAME runs pretty much flawlessly on most games. GnGeo2x also takes care of the NeoGeo games rather well :)

6) Get a good set of Ansmann 2700mAh batteries and they'll last a good 4 and a half hours. Typically you can expect between 3 and 4 hours battery life at default clock speed, depending on the quality of the batteries.

7) Not used it much myself, but I've not heard a lot of complaints. Some programs occasionally encounter problems but they're usually fixed pretty quickly (someone who has more experience with it may be able to tell you more).

8) Do a quick search on ebay for "SD Card" and you'll see just how cheap they are ;)

9) Try http://www.gp2xstore.com/ They're a new site, and are very good from what I've heard. Can't tell you any more than that since I'm not from the US!

Hope that helps!

EDIT: Yikes, I must type too slow! Lots of replies already... oh well, hope there's something of use anyway... :p

Thank you very much for this and the other detailed replies. For thoses who took the time to reply to say look elsewhere, thanks for nothing. I've been part of this community for almost 3 years and I've helped plenty of people over the years.... Anyhow, I had found the yourtube videos before anything got posted and that was really, really helpfull. Kudo's for the kind people who made the video's. If a picture is worth a thousand words than a video worth a million. Having put much thought into it, I am going to pass on the GP2X at this time, but more likely than not, buy one in the future. My GP32 really does meet most of my gaming needs pretty well. I'd like to see a better 2600 emulator, a gba emulator and better sound in MAME, but my wallet is thin and I've recently put on weight and nothing fits me and I just desperately need more new clothes than a new video game system which really isn't going to get me too much that I don't have now. I really look forward to the backlight screen, video out, gba and 2600 emulation more than anything else, but maybe late winter/early spring... Thanks again to those who answered.

Chris
 
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splitz posted on Dec 25 2006 at 09:33 PM said:
Oh!, quick question, how long could you get on 2400mAh batteries

Anywhere from 1 to 4 hours, depending on what you are doing ... some games require overclocking to run smoothly ... others (like many MAME games) run great while underclocked. Rule of thumb; get the highest mAh rating you can afford (and a decent, slow charger ... those 15-minute ones are nice, but they fry your batteries)
 
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It would help preserve their life yes, and when you can charge in 15 mins, it doesn't matter whether you lose a bit of power by not getting a complete charge, after all, you can charge them again so quickly, I use a 30min charge with a fan.
 
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