The General State Of Gp2x Emulation


Super Jamie

Still Fresh
Joined
Feb 26, 2007
Messages
80
Age
40
Location
Brisbane, AU
Website
linuxaleph.blogspot.com
hi guys, i'm new around here. i've been playing with emulation on pc, xbox, psx and ps2 for years and years, and have looked at emulation on handhelds on and off before. i use vNes and vBoy on my symbian S60 mobile phone, but find the small screen and fiddly keys annoying. i guess the things i like to emulate most on all systems are snes (castlevania, mario kart) and gameboy/gba (pokemon games, mario and yoshi, tetris)

i looked at the gp32 when they were still new, but they didn't really seem up to scratch. i've been doing alot of research on the gp2x lately (reading the wiki, forums, looking at videos on youtube) and this thread is probably the most informative collection of truths about emulation on the various mainstream handhelds i've found

from what it seems to me, the gp2x has capable hardware but is lacking decent software support. if the emulators available were optimised and ran on both processors, then i believe indeed gp2x could run anything from a2600 and c64, thru nes and sms, thru snes and megadrive, right up to gba and psx at full speed with decent features

however, the current state of emulation development appears to fall far short of that, with most games appearing in a "mostly playable" state at best, if you're willing to ignore shortcomings of different emulators, and try several different ones of each to get your games working. if indeed the game works at all, and it seems alot of popular roms still don't. also, overclocking the unit 50-75mhz seems to be a must. it's really quite a shame that this awesome little console seems to be so lacking in code developers, it really has amazing potential

i looked into hacking a psp a while back for a friend, and it seems to be a confused mass of firmwares, so much so i just gave him a heap of links and said "here, you figure it out". that being said, once you put in the effort, it seems that everyone agrees psx and gba, and even in most cases snes, emulation are better on psp than gp2x

ds doesn't really seem to be at any consistently enjoyable state of emulation, and gba itself is too slow for my purposes

in any case, the gp2x interests me greatly, and whilst after doing all this research, i have decided that i wouldn't shell out the ~au$300 it would cost to get one up and going with a decent-sized sd card, but if i could find one cheap i'd be willing to give it a go for fun

i personally would also be more interested in contributing to the scene, even if all i can do is make game compatibility lists for the wiki, as there seems to be a shortcoming of them, possibly holding others less informed back from buying or making a decision about a handheld emulation machine as well

anyway, that's my 2c. i'm interested to hear the comments of you seasoned gp2x veterans on my findings, and i hope this post helps those who are finding it hard to get a clear picture of what the gp2x is and isn't at this point in time

maybe i'll see you round if i can find a cheap 2x

Jamie
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If you actually had a GP2X I think your opinions would be changed when you saw the quality of the gp2x emulators and just how well they run.
 
My take (edited with below comments)

Perfect or near perfect
Sega Genesis (Megadrive)
Sega Master System (SMS)
NES
NeoGeo
gameboy & gameboy color
MAME (best on any handheld)
CPS2
Atari 2600
Atari Lynx
BBC Micro (home computer)

Very good and very playable
SNES (many games are perfect actually)
TG16 (PC Engine)
Atari ST
Commodore 64
Sega CD
PC Engine CD
Vic20

Not very playable, but might be soon
PSX
Gameboy Advance
Most DOS games after 1991 or so

Never
N64
Dreamcast
And up

This is off the top of my head. My conclusion, is, if you're like me and treasure NES, Genesis, SNES, and old school arcade, this is a classic no-brainer. If PSX and GBA are your goals, get a PSP.
 
also add in Very good and Very playable

Sega CD


since it is getting there, and the games supported run great


but the 2x is a great handheld imo, far better than the psp, i have both and use my 2x alot more... yes the psp is more powerful but for the stuff i want to emulate (anything 16 bit and below) the 2x plays most of them them perfectly (nothin beats portable CPS2, Neo Geo, Mame, Genesis, and Sega CD)... if you want a little emulation machine, definatly pick up the 2x, its much better than the psp (which all the devs seemed to start making usless firmware mods :rolleyes: )
 
Personally, I would upgrade these:

SNES
TG16 (PC Engine)
Atari ST
Commodore 64

to near-perfect (DaveC will disagree on TG16, but I'm not as bothered by sound).
 
hmm, interesting, thanks to all who contributed :)

i think if i had a gp2x i'd probably be pretty happy with it as well, i'm keeping an eye out for a cheap one on forums and ebay, hopefully it won't take too long for a good deal to appear

i'll continue to lurk until then
 
Personally, I would upgrade these:

SNES
TG16 (PC Engine)
Atari ST
Commodore 64

to near-perfect (DaveC will disagree on TG16, but I'm not as bothered by sound).

SNES - a lot of overclocking, frame skipping often required for transparancies, and many key games still don't work.
TG16 - big sound issues
Atari ST & C64 - I found some major compatibility issues with my sets, (and ST sound issues?)


I mean - they were still listed as "very playable", but compared to MAME or Picodrive....
 
markiej posted on Feb 26 2007 at 04:36 PM said:
Personally, I would upgrade these:

SNES
TG16 (PC Engine)
Atari ST
Commodore 64

to near-perfect (DaveC will disagree on TG16, but I'm not as bothered by sound).

SNES - a lot of overclocking, frame skipping often required for transparancies, and many key games still don't work.
TG16 - big sound issues
Atari ST & C64 - I found some major compatibility issues with my sets, (and ST sound issues?)


I mean - they were still listed as "very playable", but compared to MAME or Picodrive....

SNES has seen a LOT of progress. Transparency+sound is now where just sound was six months ago, and if your game doesn't use transparency, you're running it fullspeed with sound without overclocking these days.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Two words:

Buy it.

You will not be dissatisfied. That's all I have to say, that's all I'm gonna say.

This handheld is well worth the cash, wether things are perfect or not, you will drain so much of your life into it, that you wouldn't know how you lived without it. If you are as into emulation as you say, then you won't be able to put it down for quite a while. Especially if you didn't get a gp32.


DSR
 
GunPei2X posted on Feb 26 2007 at 10:54 PM said:
Personally, I would upgrade these:
to near-perfect (DaveC will disagree on TG16, but I'm not as bothered by sound).

Well crappy sound does hold it back from "near perfect" whether you care about sound or not. It is not near perfect to everyone so I think it was in the right catagory as is SNES.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
DaveC posted on Feb 27 2007 at 06:56 AM said:
GunPei2X posted on Feb 26 2007 at 10:54 PM said:
Personally, I would upgrade these:
to near-perfect (DaveC will disagree on TG16, but I'm not as bothered by sound).

Well crappy sound does hold it back from "near perfect" whether you care about sound or not. It is not near perfect to everyone so I think it was in the right catagory as is SNES.
I whole-heartedly agree with DaveC here... and the TG16 emulation suffers from more than just sound issues... The sound in HU6280 is awful, and it gets worse the longer you play the game, making finishing even a game as short as Splatterhouse or Ninja Spirt all but unbearable, for me... TurboCD games (where the best shooters are) play well with gp2xengine (which has great sound), but something in that engine has problems with proper sprite rendering from time to time in games like Gate of Thunder and Super Darius II, as well as cart games like Splatterhouse - sprites disappear or don't appear at all - for example, the bosses in Darius II CD are "invisible", and you can lose your character sprite in Splatterhouse or Gate of Thunder for a number of seconds if you take a hit, or sometimes just randomly. These issues make playing games on either emulator occasionally frustrating, to say the least...

These issues are particularly frustrating to me as handheld TurboGrafx emulation was one of the main reasons I picked up the GP2X. After all, the screen's a lot bigger than on a TurboExpress, and it's a lot easier on batteries. However, calling the TurboGrafx emulation "near perfect" begs a very, very loose interpretation of the word "perfect", imho.

It seems that between the two existing emulators, a happy and complete EMU must exist, but both emulators appear to have been abandonned, and who knows where the source is...

Dizzyegg05 posted on Feb 27 2007 at 02:09 AM said:
To be honest since i finally got GNGEO2x working, I havent looked back . An awesome emulator
This is the other "main" reason I bought a GP2X, as I haven't had room or inclination to get my AES out of storage in years... And Dizzy's right, GNGeo2x is an awesome emulator!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Like I said, the sound doesn't bother me, since I usually play either with none, or at very low volume out in the open.

Also, try CPCE as it could fill some of the gaps the other two miss.

I wonder if the missing-sprite problem you're getting after a character gets hit is actually due to frameskip -- while the character is flashing, the visible frames are being skipped in sync. Try overclocking and see if that solves the problem.
 
Lets be frankly frank. As far as PCengine goes .. your not gonna miss much which the mega drive or snes cant give you 10x better (excluding the CD support which im waiting for full support).

Neo geo and cps2 handle the greatest beat em ups ever and MAME does its bit with classic arcade games.

Sega cd is pushing forward nicely .

GB advance is so so close and i you cant wait for advance wars ... get Gameboy wars which leads me onto...

Gnueboy2x: Once the awkward navigation has been mastered its gonna be POKEMON crazy here!

Homebrew and PCgames: Awesome fun...try the mini game project,smashgp and Mrdriller

Scummv2: play Sam and max,indiana jones and the fate of atlantis , the dig and more.

The machine is almost 100% mod friendly. Dont like a bit ? Look it up online and change it.

So many support sites.

Google is your friend.
 
GunPei2X posted on Feb 27 2007 at 09:22 PM said:
Like I said, the sound doesn't bother me, since I usually play either with none, or at very low volume out in the open.

That is fine. We are not talking about you or what you do. We are talking about the completeness and PC-engine is not complete.

And there are alot of good PC-engine games that are not on Mega drive or SNES. It would be nice to have that completed someday.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
DaveC posted on Feb 28 2007 at 06:29 AM said:
We are talking about the completeness and PC-engine is not complete.

But it's worth clarifying for people who haven't used it -- gameplay and graphics are just about perfect in hu6280, it's only the sound that isn't.

And there are alot of good PC-engine games that are not on Mega drive or SNES.

Definitely. It's a fantastic system.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
DaveC posted on Feb 28 2007 at 06:29 AM said:
And there are alot of good PC-engine games that are not on Mega drive or SNES. It would be nice to have that completed someday.
Ya, I have a peculiar and not-entirely-rational attachment to this little underdog system that I just don't feel for the Genesis or SNES... A lot of it's games would make my Top 50 list... B)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top