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Gameboy Advance Clone Superemulator
Aluminum Tuesday writes "During a raging internal debate over whether to fork out for the new Gameboy Advance SP, I came across the Korean GP32, a handheld console that looks superior to the GBA in every way. It's capable of emulating the GBA, Super Nintendo, Commodore 64, etc. plus there's a SCUMMVM engine for Monkey Island games and a Java VM. Seems to have a huge online following. It runs its own OS, and there are programs capable of playing divx/mp3 files, though there's also a Linux port on the way. Not too expensive either. (99UKP / 149USD) That's a UK supplier; they ship worldwide, though I found this more expensive American supplier too. (179USD)" Gotta catch 'em all!
Is it's ability to link with up to 4 other SP32's wirelessly: http://www.gp32news.com/?page=showpage&lang=en&id= 6
You should title your comment ....
'I CANNOT EVEN READ THE SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE'
It clearly states that Linux port is in the works.
Nice to see that reading is still a specialized skill.
. I love the sound of burning women and screaming rubber....
LCD resolution .. what is it? tnx.
Controller/VeiwScreen for a GameCube like a GBA?
What's next? Slashdot posts stories about warez releases?
Great, but I still wonder how long it will last until they get nailed for making a better product than the original
DRM in the GBA games will surely be here soon to force only a real GBA handheld can play the games.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's great, but big corporations don't like competition and tend to crush them everytime the oppurtunity comes along.
Posting useless rant since 2003.
Come on there has to be a catch right ? Surely this violates untold numbers of patents or weighs three tonne, something! If not it's a very impressive little bit of kit.
Where is the link to the man's online store so that I can purchase it from him for a low, low price.
before Nintendo's lawyers are beating down the distributors doors demanding they halt immediately importing this thing.
:)
Get 'em while you can!
cpu 32 bit risc cpu
screen 3.5" tft
rom 512 kbyte
media smc(smart media card)
sdram 8mb
communication usb port
sound 16bit stereo sound
4 channel wav mixing
resolution 320 x 240 pixel
power supply 2 batteries aa
display colors 65536 colors
C:\earth\humans\del *.m0ronz
Dimension/Weight 147mm X 88mm X 34mm(163g)
Display 3.5" Reflective TFT LCD(65,536 concurrent colors)
Resolution 320 X 240 pixel
CPU 32-bit RISC CPU(ARM9)
RAM 8MB SDRAM
ROM 512K
Sound 44.1Khz 16 bit Stereo Sound / 4 Channel Wav Mixing, 16Poly S/W MIDI Support / Earphone Port / 2 Speakers
External Storage Medium Smart Media Card (SMC)
Wireless Multiplayer Gaming 4-Channel RF Module PC Connection USB Port Connection
Power Supply 2AA batteries (12 hours use time between charges) / DC 3V Adapter
Option Rechargeable Battery
Controls 8-way directional pad (joystick) + Durable 6 key button
MP3 Capability MPEG ( , )
Audio Support Other Add-on Applications
Image Viewer, Text Viewer, Media Player, E-Book Viewer
RF Module 2.4GHz ISM Band
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
It doesn't emulate the Gameboy Advance, just the gameboy and who knows how well it even does that.
how can you run a good emulation of SNES with only 2 buttons.
I'm quite happy with the tetris on my cellphone...
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
But wait! There more! Thats a $500 for only $170 USD! Call now!
I'm also curious if Nintendo is going to try to kill this thing. Although I'm sure Nintendo is making a profit off of GameBoys, I'm also sure they make most of their profits from the games themselves, so logically they'd have a reason to look the other way if this encouraged more people to buy gameboy games. However since when has logic ever raised it's head in legal/piracy issues?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
The game titles alone make me want to own it:
Little Wizzrd
Dyhard Infinity
Kimchi-Man
Astonishia Story R
Her Knights - "Forcing break-out"
Hany Party Game
Tails of windyland
Especially "Kimchi-Man". Is he really made of pickled cabbage?
The GP32 has been out for well over a year now. I wouldn't hold your breath for a US release though.
/. front page, you might want to include the standard legal emu disclaimer. Support legal emulation! Only emulate those games that you own.
The next time this makes the
If it is as wonderful as it is played up to be in the article, I am shocked I've not heard more about this before. Why would anyone buy a GBA when you could get this thing (an obviously superior piece of equipment) for not that much more cash?
Nowhere in that list does it say "Game Boy Advance" or "GBA". Considering that it lists the Game Boy separately from the Game Boy Color, I think it's a bit presumptuous to say that it supports GBA games just because you see that category there.
So, seeing as how it does not actually support GBA games, I don't find it superior to my GBA, which *does* play GBA games.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
I won't buy it unless it plays ogg!
>What's next? Slashdot posts stories about warez releases?
Old news. Sort of.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Yeah, yeah, OT.
meh
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
Slap a cell phone into this thing and I'm ready to sign up!
Everyone I know who has bought one thinks it was a waste of money so far. It sounds great on paper but the unit is very cheaply made, and emulation is sub par. Not to mention it's total piracy. Wonder why Slashdot posted a blatant piracy article?
Hardware emulation isn't illeagle. No honest to god it isn't
Honest to goodness, that's good to hear...I mean, we had a parakeet when I was a kid, and it got sick once and it was pretty bad the mess it made.
But a sick eagle?!! THEY ARE HUGE! And with their diet, you would have mice carcasses and such everywhere, it would be a bloody disgusting mess, honest to god
*grin*
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
There is no Gameboy Advance emulator for this thing as far as I can tell. There's Game Boy Color and original Game Boy, but no Game Boy Advance.
:) )
So, you *could* play LoZ4: Link's Awakening on this thing, but not the recent LoZ3 remake. (Although the SNES emulation could sort of cover that, too...
--
viqsi - See "vixen"
If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are headed.
Slashdot reported about a graphical operating system for various small systems (Gameboy, Commodore, NES) a while ago, which perhaps could be used on this device as well? It had a TCP/IP stack, web browser, web server, etc: here is the Slashdot article, and here is the OS homepage.
No, REALLY it isn't funny!
Why are you still laughing?
I think you might have a little bit of trouble with the SNES emulation, with only 2 buttons.
A portable NES emulator is still pretty cool, though. It'd be nice to be able to crank up Mike Tyson's Punch Out to alleviate a little bit of aggression when sitting in a traffic jam.
Money I owe, money-iy-ay
The thing has sucky games, doesn't emulate at full speed, and don't forget the ethical implications of downloading and using roms illegally. Not to mention that the screen won't have the correct aspect ratio to emulate half these systems without some method of scaling/bilinear interpolation to make it ugly/fuzzy. I saw this awhile ago and it obviously didn't impress me. I think the biggest turnoff is a lack of decent first-party games. I mean, look at what a lack of games did to the XBox. If you want an obscure handheld, try the defunct Wonderswan color.
They say that it can play divx movies, but who wants to split up a 700 meg movie onto 128meg smart media cards? I want someone to port that low quality SMR movies that are downloaded of Kazza. Maybe someone from slashdot could do that.
>A portable NES emulator is still pretty cool, though
There's already NES emulators for the GBA, and you only need a special link cable for it (the emulators and games use the GBA's multi-boot capability)
Did anyone else notice that in the lower left hand corner of every page on the GP32 site it says "This is temporary Website". What exactly does that mean ... is this thing going away, or are they going to upgrade to a better site eventually?
Thoughts on tech, Software Engineering, and stuff
iPAQ + Familiar Linux dist and you can run SNES games and even Quake. :)
But, ok it's a bit more expensive.
Ciryon
no backlight necessary if you play outdoors in the natural light. get some sun!
I don't have any thumbs you insensitive clod!
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
What I want to know is: what's the lighting situation on the reflective LCD display? Is it at least of Afterburner quality? All the pictures of it have the screen off.
-If
Run a pencil-and-paper RPG campaign with your far-off friends: Gametable!
Alternately, yeah, people use, say, playstation emulators as a method of not having to buy a playstation and being able to pirate games, even though playstation is still on the market, and that seems a bit more like a moral gray area, but i'd still call the emulator itself an okay thing, i think. I mean, playstations are everywhere cheap used, and sony makes the bulk of the money on the licensing of the playstation games that a psx emulator will invariably caus eyou to buy. And the piracy thing is just like people pirating mp3s, if they really want to pirate something they'll do it whether you indirectly facilitate them or not.
At the least, i have this thing about piracy of any sort: in general, i have a real trouble feeling bad in any way about someone illegally giving you something for free when they don't particularly profit in return, whether that something is an NES or Mum - Smell Memory.mp3.
But this just feels ucky. It:
- Is basing its existence on the hard work nintendo spent making games, pushing the game boy platform, creating the platform, etc.
- It's copying a platform that Nintendo is still making money on
- Is causing its creators to make money in place of Nintendo-- they are literally taking money from nintendo and putting it in their own pocket, something very different from a "lost sale".
- It's copying a platform that Nintendo is still pushing money into, still doing active research and development on, still improving...
- There is no functionality the GB provides that this doesn't-- a GBA emulator for a PC wouldn't be so bad in my mind because you're enticed to buy a GBA but you don't get the full value of the GBA, since you don't get the handheldness-portable-y features. This is a full-on copy.
- It's stealing from a company that is legitimately facing some sort of problems; unlike, say, Sony, or Nintendo in 1993, it is concievable that the nintendo of today could eventually run out of money.
- The Game Boy is nintendo's lifeblood. It's where the bulk of nintendo's money is coming from. I love my gamecube, but nintendo's right to call themselves a major player in the game market rests on (1) the fact they have a lock on the portable handheld market through nothing but sheer quality, meaning that anyone who wants to compete has to deal not only with market forces but with the fact it's very hard to make something more compelling to the consumer than a GBA, and (2) the fact they can point at that big figure of how many game boys they've sold and say to developers "look at how successful this is, you will do well if you release your game on our platform". Each purchase of this GBA clone is sucking away one unit from that big number, and just a bit more money from nintendo's warchest..
--super ugly ultramanThe catch is that it does NOT play GBA games.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
You are aware this is from SOUTH Korea, not North Korea?
If it's in you sig, it's in your post.
If by GBA you mean Gameboy and Gameboy Color then yes it does. Nice try though.
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;
It all fit in the subject line. Nothing else to say.
No thanks, I'll just have a slice of Cheeseulator.
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
12 links on a story! Now I see why my submitions are never aproved ;)
they're just simple ports of available open source emulators. just because it runs doesnt mean it runs well, and certainly doesnt mean its playable. Paying for a GP32 for emulation is like those doofuses who keep buying DC, PS2 and XBOX emulators for the PC.
I doubt very highly that GBA emulation works well at all on the GP32. GBA emus are just barely playable on an 800mhz P3. Eventually it'd get better, but even the best emulator is never the same as the real thing.
All in all its a cool little toy, but if you actually want to play the games you'd own both.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Now that i've posted, i see this comment. That changes things utterly. I'm not sure how i feel about it now, but that definitely changes things.
The thing that drives me nuts about slashdot is that if you start writing a comment when there are 0 posts, by the time you're finished there will be 60 to 100 posts already if your post has any thought put into it, unless your post just makes one single targeted point. Blah.
--super ugly ultraman
And I also believe it doesn't support the afterburner type lights for the gba. Not having decent lighting is the main reason why my game boy advance sits in a bag collecting dust instead of being used for anything useful.
http://www.gamepark.co.kr/english/main.asp
Security is inversely proportional to the commitment of one desiring to circumvent it.
No one cares.
The GP32 system has been out since 2001.
Mmmmm.... Portable M.U.L.E.....
Slashdot is like Playboy: I read it for the articles
Anyone else notice their logo is a slightly altered Dreamcast logo?
Andonyx www.andonyx.com
One of the things that grabbed me about the GBA-SP was it's smallish design and the clamshell design, allowing you to easily put it in your pocket and keep the screen protected.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Trying to troll, eh? YOU FAILED IT!!!! Why don't you go back to making love to your linux machine, since thats all that you could possibly be good for. You're probably asking yourself, did this coward read the article? Hell no I didn't read the article. I come from the flames, I stay for the trolls. If not for crappy posts and, for that matter, crappy stories slashdot would be more of a wasteland than it already is!
Does it have a MAME port?
Hunting isn't illegal. Gun shops in those areas are not illegal either. Anecdotal proof:
:
Los Angeles Gun Club Indoor Pistol,1375 E 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90021. Phone: (213)612-0931.
listed on
http://www.webcom.com/gun_guy/rangesca.htm
Determining intent in a purchase is extremely difficult, and generally doesn't get you anywhere. The "if guns are illegal, only criminals will have guns" argument is at least plausible. Making emulators illegal will guarantee that only criminals have emulators, obviously harming the market.
Don't agree? Consider every CD ripper being illegal. Isn't that a harm?
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
Not to toot my own horn, but I knew about the GP32 long ago. They've been selling it on Lik Sang for a while now.
The site is great because they offer all kinds of unusual gaming-oriented Asian stuff and, like TG it's always a blast to go there and check out the weird/interesting stuff they have to offer. I know I sound like an advertising bot, but it's a really great site (you may have heard of them because they got their ass sued to the moon by MS a little while ago for selling X-Box modchips).
A way to play GBA games off a secure digital card. I've been wanting to develop games for the GBA but I don't want to shell out the extra $200 to get a linker kit that's good for nothing else. I'd rather just use a 256 mb secure digital card that I can use on my mp3 player, my camera, and to transfer files. And yeah, I know 256MB is overkill since a gba carts are currently 256mbit, but those mp3's take up a lot of space ;)
Actually,Korea is making alot of cool stuff lately. Check out the Linux distro Hancom from Korea too, it's a company which employs 95 ppl and produces some bitchin' proprietary software to compliment their os.
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
Are there minimal PDA's handheld, maybe the core of this game, that could be made to wireless network and also have the capability to IR Scan.
Indestructability is a must of course and running
linux or something with a java VM would be a plus.
I'd prefer a bright display solution. The boxes I've seen are hideous and dark a lot of the users keep flashlight around to view them. I say damn the battery life they can hire someone to keep'em charged.
As cheap as this is, it'd be cool if something like it'd work, but I'd probably have to settle for something a bit heftier. But a game console would be super nice for some of the people in the warehouse, they could do much more than the rather braindead machines they have now.
If I knew I could get linux on that little beastie I go ahead and buy it, heck I should anyway it looks cool.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
People this thing does NOT have a lit display so its just as hard to look at as the original Game Boy Advanced. Save your eyesight and get a GBA with afterburner or the new backlit GBA!!!!
I believe where it says
"Display 3.5" Reflective TFT LCD(65,536 concurrent colors)" means it dosent emit light thus defeating the main purpose of GBA SP. I bought the original GBA and theres no way I'm buying another unit that's display dosent emit light
It also says nothing about the screen being backlit just reflective tft like the origanal GBA which sucks ass, especially if you were to try to watch movies on it.
the link shown does NOT indicate GBA emulator, only GB also (as noted here it also is not backlit.... cool toy, but not as feature rich as the post suggests....
meh.
Err... you don't *need* a link cable. It can take advantage of one for multiple players, but PocketNES runs quite nicely stand-alone.
I don't think they do in this case, since it obviously has some legit uses (they are developing their own games for it), but the US code has laws against such stuff. If you "with knowledge of the infringing activity, induce, cause, or materially contribute to the infringing conduct of another," then you are guilty of contributory infringement. If in fact they know that most people are buying this in order to play pirate roms, then it's pretty likely that they would be in legal trouble. (That is, if they were based in the US!)
The lighting is alright. It could be better (IMO). Controls are pretty decent.
A friend of mine who wrote Xcade for Palm has ported it to the Game Park.
Of course, standard disclaimer is that you have to have obtained your arcade ROMs legally...etc...
http://www.codejedi.com/shadowplan/gp32.html
Not including the start and select.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
Don't buy it from upstategames.com. If you bother to check with BBB and tons of forums (eg. a lot of people who ordered the Flash Linker fot Neo Geo Pocket from upstategames), you'll probably end up with $179 out of your pocket, your pants down, and your @$$ reamed with Dimitri's fist.
If you must order a unit, then order one through lik-sang.com. At least, that's what http://www.devrs.com says.
GP32Emu is an excellent resource for Gamepark Emulation.
That site mentions several SNES emulators as well as GB (no GBA, yet) and NES. Plus the site lists a few of the game ports for GP such as Doom, Descent, Wolfenstein 3D and some others. Worth a look for people who are interested in what these things can do.
is that they encourge unlicensed 3rd party development, where nintendo does their best to squash independent coders.
u rceforge.net/index.htmlg roup/gp32dev/
http://www.devrs.com/gp32/
http://devkitadv.so
http://groups.yahoo.com/
i'm thinking of picking one up explicitly for this purpose. anyone have any experience coding for one of these?
If you want portable emulation, get a laptop. Then you can play whatever wherever. Hey you wouldn't even need to emulate. There are plenty of good PC games. Okay they don't fit in your pocket, but hey. ;)
Here's an overview of emulators and how they perform:
t ors.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/joseph.lebrech/emula
It appears that only the 8-Bit consoles can be emulated well.
Well, I wouldn't take what Nintendo says as legal advice. Note how they are careful to say that "back-up" copies are not "authorized" or "necessary," but don't claim that they are illegal.
In fact, the US Code (17 USC 117 (a) (2)) has specific exemptions for backup copies. Check it out. Backup copies are legal!
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/117.html
According to the GP32 Xtreme site linked as source for the emulators, there's no GBA emulator for the GP32. It can currently emulate the Gameboy/Gameboy Color and even the SNES... but not the GBA.
Coincidentally enough, I just installed an Afterburner in my GBA last night... I even went out and bought a soldiering iron just for it.
It doesn't take any really advanced solidering skills, but patience and a steady hand will go a long way. I did get some dust on the screen, but it's not the end of the world. I considered the "bathroom as a clean room" idea, but I didn't have anywhere to work with it in there =)
The only difficult part I had was in laying down the AR film, as it was nearly impossible to get right, and I wound up being off by about 1-2 degrees, so there's a slight tilt to it, which bugs me, but I'm not sure I want to bother to try to buy a relacement, peel it off and do it again... it would probably do more harm than good.
I'm quite happy with my GBA now. It finally makes the games playable, and I was surprised that my NiMH batteries were still giving a green power light even after six hours when I finally had to turn it off so I would get some sleep for work today =)
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
He's dead-on, and provides the proof to boot.
If you want to know what's legal and what isn't, you read legislation or obtain professional legal advice. Simply believing everything you're told, especially by a company that's financially motivated to mislead you, is just foolish.
To use this as a replacement for a GBA you need more hardware than just the GP32. You also will need a GBA cart reader. This will get you a ROM image to run on the GP32....well this is where the law gets sticky. Technically you aren't allowed to run an official GBA ROM on anything but a GBA, so if you do this...be warned...it is illegal. Also, do note that the control scheme is different than a GBA, so you won't be playing your games the way you were meant too. And then there is the fact that it appears the GP32 is going to be phased out (not a suprise since the GBA has walked all over it).
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
I've heard this asserted many times, but has any court actually ruled this to be the case? To my knowledge, there is no law that specifically allows making copies for use on alternative hardware. There are certainly legal issues here: Is it legal to use such a copy, not as a backup, but to play the game on different hardware, or must it be kept solely for use on the original hardware in the event that the original version fails? Is it legal to make a backup for a game that is distributed on a medium that does not have a significant likelihood of failure?
not much mention of the Divx player. There are two Divx players, a free one and one you have to pay for: Moviepark. Moviepark is not expensive ($5.80USD) and works much better than the free one. Well worth the money.
Using VirtualDub, videos have good color, good sound and fair to good motion.
The Matrix would be a blur, but most TV shows look good.
The Simpsons look great on the GP32!
Why isn't there a JVM for the GBA? It's almost as if the new MIDP 2.0 specification was designed for the GBA. It's probably a marketing restriction by Nintendo. They don't want others to make games for the GBA.
The GP32 can emulate GBA, but the emulator hasn't been released. A page of screenshots can be found here:
? na me=News&file=article&sid=33
http://gp32club.consolemul.com/html/modules.php
The Big N will have it's way with this device and I don't blame them. Hell if you're going to rip off other people at least include four face buttons. Jesus.
You have to register your gp32 through their sight to activate it and its software. This seems to only effect you if you want to download games, programs, etc from them. I still can't tell if it is possible to back this stuff up incase something happens later.
While there are about six buttons, I can see it being awkward to try to play emulators of systems like the SNES that have 6 buttons plus select and start.
The mp3 playback is limited to 128 kps. The ID3 tags are limited as well, but that isn't quite that much of a problem.
You can't play mp3s while playing games due to the fact that most of the gp32s power is used when playing mp3s.
From what I can tell an offical compiler/devkit costs a lot. At least there are free ones out there.
The games you can buy are usally encripted in one of two ways. An game encrypted on a SMC card to only that card but can be played on any gp32, or one that can only be played on just your GP32.
Even with those problems I still am considering getting one, you can do some fun things with it.
Lets hope we bomb them next.
Learn some culture and know the distinction between the North and South. A good percentage of the electronic products you use or clothes you wear may have been manufactured from the country you wish to be bombed (unless you're referring to North, but judging from your replies, you probably don't care).
And just so that you know, Korea was always a poor country for so many centuries before becoming the industrialized nation that it has turned into. So, meat was a rarity and vegetables were a large part of their diet. However, the "dogs" that they eat are not the same "dogs" that play fetch with you or lick your balls. They were a means of survival way back when, and have become a part of a traditional Korean meal. (And, no, not everyone eats it. In fact, the majority do not care for it at all, They just don't actively protest and disprove of it, that's all.)
What's the difference between cows or pigs? These "dogs" are really a type of wolf that are raised on farms, just like the bovine and swine variety, for consumption. It's not American style, fine, but deal with the fact that not everyone is like America.
You can hack it.
This is a stuffed idea pcsx(3d card requird every thing else dies a hard death on what I have tryed) run ps games and it is free nsx under development is starting to run ps2 games and cxbx converts xbox games to pc nartive with a few flaws. All free.
Note the main differences between a xbox and a pc is a different file format different bois and a slightly enhanced video card. Note pcsx saved my tail when my pcx died.
Moderators, pass the crack pipe.
This thing cannot, repeat CANNOT emulate the GBA. Check the site, there's no mention of this. Even trying it would be stupid - go ahead, run a working GBA emulator on this sort of hardware. Have fun with your 2 frames per second.
This isn't hurting Nintendo's current revenue stream at all, save for the fraction of a percent of original GameBoy games still being sold.
Yikes, several dozen other posts have already pointed this out, yet it gets both posted and modded up.
Oh, and for the record, Playstation emulators were popular years ago (everyone had Connetix's for a while), back when Sony WAS making hordes of money off the platform. And because the emulator didn't care what media you put in it, everyone used pirated copies of the games. So don't give me this horseshit that somehow PSX emulators are 'ok', when a system that doesn't emulate any currently sold system isn't.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I really love my GP32. Its a great unit, especially for hacking around on.. I had gcc up and going in a matter of minutes, and was able to port some of my Palm OS games to it in a few hours.
;) Full sound, full speed.
:)
(Plug: I've ported my XCade arcade emulator for Palm OS to GP32, so it now runs on DOS, Windows, various Unices, Palm OS, and GP32. One sourcebase. Ha!)
The GP32 is great to develop for due to the open and encouraging nature of the company. SDKs free and easy to get, lots of help from other developers on the platform.. lots of forums and IRc channels. Great stuff.
The machine is pretty powerful.. a Palm Tungsten T at 140MHz is a little slower than the GP32, and the GP32 has no OS in the way (and no weird 64k limits like Palm OS!). The GP32 screams at 132MHz, though it can software clock up and down...
The trick is that the GBA is slow, but has some hardware graphics assists like built in rotation; so the GBA has some nice effects up its sleeves that the GP32 simpyl cannot do without killing its framerate, since its just an ARM processor doing all the work. So you write your own effects in C or assembly or the like, and your'e cool.. but the GBA is easier in that respect, and you can do some whizbang stuff that is hard to do half as fast on the GP32.
Liek anything else.. its give and take. One platform isn't better than the other.
Choice is good.
That said.. the PCEngine and C64 emus on the GP32 *rocks*
Emulating a GBA opn the GP32 is doable, and the one out there is about 10fps.. but its not goign to get much better than that for most GBA games.. emulating the effects is too slow
jeff
some ppl need to stop posting like they know it all cuz they researched for 5 minutes, the GBA emulator for the gp32 is still wip, but plz, bitch more about how its OBVIOUSLY fake even tho its not, morons
and believe it or not, some ppl buy devices for the device, not cuz omfgz i can pir8 stuff woot! fags
The real strength of the GP32 is that anyone can write code, press it to a SmartMedia card, and execute it.
/. was supposed to have a fairly high ratio of developers to content thieves but obviously I'm wrong.
I can think of about a million uses for a 32-bit RISC portable system that I can write my own games for, and to limit it to playing emulated games on other systems isn't doing the beauty of the "open console" concept justice. I thought
The GP32 is an interesting device, but its generally reguarded as undermarketed and insecure (it comes with the ability to download from your computer BUILT IN). In general, the GBA has similar emulators, though I don't believe anyone has been brave enough to port SNES emulators over to GBA. I would check but it seems that during the writing of this post PocketHeaven has removed its emulator database. I know that PocketNES is coming along finely, with the ability to save states and scale the screen differently with a touch of a button, and mappers being implemented.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
They're missing 2 buttons on it. Thats something of a problem for bringing older titles to the GBA. Street figher? Total bitch to do without 6 buttons.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
This thing's processor is almost identical to that of the much-maligned Virtual Boy. Though I suppose you'd need two of them and a stereopitcon to play.
"Its" belongs to the pronoun family, like "my", "your", "his", "her", and "their", none of which have apostrophes.
"It's" is a contraction for "it is", like "can't" is to "can not" and "don't" is to "do not".
How does it emulate the SNES with only two buttons?
I wouldn't worry about GBA emulation, since quite a lot of GBA titles are rehashed SNES games.
You do realize that the comment you are making has already been made twice by repliers to the same post you are replying to? One of those two posts being made by the original poster?
Actually, according to the FAQ here, there's supposed to be one in the works called the GPi. Unfortunately, the link they list for more info is dead...
In fact, abandonware may have a distant shot at being legal, through an interpretation of two of the four factors distinguishing copyright infringement from fair use.
First of all, a fair user can justify "the purpose and character of the use" by, for example, including the abandonware titles as specimens to be criticized in a work about the art of game design, establishing an "educational" nature.
Another factor is "the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work." In practice, the courts have weighed this factor more than the other three. If the copyright owner has refused to commercially exploit a work, this could be viewed as an admission of the absence of such a "potential market".
Will I retire or break 10K?
Looking at the specs it only appears to emulate the GB and GBC not the GBA.
However, even if it isn't possible to emulate the whole GBA on the GP32, it would be straightforward to source-port free GBA software by partially emulating the graphics and sound hardware.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I'm quite happy with the tetris on my cellphone
Tetramino games on cellphones look tame once you've played TOD. Imagine for a moment what a tetramino game would look like on LSD.
Will I retire or break 10K?
That had the C4 chip, which (last I checked) no one emulated.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The GBA and SNES are as alike as the SNES and Genesis.
The GBA is more powerful, has more sprite rotatation and scaling modes, has more colour display, can address larger cartridge space, has an ARM processer (instead of a 65C816), and happens to have a very shitty 8-bit sound processor. They are not very similar except that they both play games that are 16-bit.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
1. 320x240 full screen at a 19" monitor, typical viewing distance == headache city.
Actual coin-operated arcade games use a 19" display running at resolutions close to 320x240 pixels. So just sit farther from the screen, at TV distances rather than computer distances. A PS1 joypad connected to your USB port through an EMS USB2 adapter should help you sit back while giving you authentic console-style feel.
2. 320x240 window on same monitor running a 1024x768/1152x864/1280x1024 desktop == squint city.
At those display resolutions, pixels on a 1x display are about as big as pixels on the GBA or GP32. If you use a relatively dark desktop theme, the small size of the emulator's window shouldn't bother you.
I'd suggest adding a third option, as found in several emulators I use for development such as FCE Ultra and VisualBoyAdvance:
3. 320x240 rescaled 2x using hardware scaling of DirectDraw overlays == enjoyable SimCity.
Will I retire or break 10K?
----> http://www.engrish.com -- to die for!!!
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
Yes. Yes he is.
There is a 'masked rom' protection for catridges that makes a hex dump of a ROM not a backup in the legal sense.
You're thinking of Atari v. JS&A Group, which ruled that backup copies are not necessary to protect works stored on mask ROM media. However, it could be argued that a ROM image stored on a hard disk is an "adaptation" rather than a "backup copy", and 17 USC 117 specifically allows the owner of a genuine copy to make adaptations necessary to get the program to run.
If you're still interested, you may want to read my speculation about the holes in the common "emulation is illegal even if you own the cartridge" arguments.
Will I retire or break 10K?
You know full damn well the primary purpose of this product will be to play illegally-downloaded roms.
How again is it an infringement of copyright to download GPL'd or otherwise freely redistributable ROM images?
Will I retire or break 10K?
It was used to play roms, end of story.
And how does this make emulator software automatically illegal? First of all, not all ROMs are illegal to redistribute. Some ROMs are even free software under the FSF's definition. Second, the owner of a genuine copy of a work who dumps the copy and adapts it for use on another machine does not infringe the copyright in the work (17 USC 117).
Will I retire or break 10K?
Corporations have this idea that they can tell you what to do and automatically that is the law.
If there's a binding contract, then this is true. However, under what conditions the EULA qualifies as a contract (offer + acceptance + consideration by both parties = contract) is still up in the air.
Will I retire or break 10K?
To my knowledge, there is no law that specifically allows making copies for use on alternative hardware.
Then what about 17 USC 117? It reads, in part:
Will I retire or break 10K?
PocketNES runs quite nicely stand-alone.
Without a link cable, how do you copy PocketNES and the NES ROM dump from the PC to the GBA's memory?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Does it play Ogg?
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
12 if you list each major direction separately
Which is, to set the record straight, actually the correct way to list them because this is how the hardware sees them, in the order B, Y, Select, Start, Up, Down, Left, Right, A, X, L, R.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Gee, if you click on the link right in the article, you can see a pitcure of this unit, and can see that it has two buttons on the front and TWO SHOULDER BUTTONS, for a grand total of FOUR BUTTONS. Not two. Four. Cripes, you didn't even have to scroll down or actually read anything, just look at the picture.
one of my former roommates had one of these things, and I must say that he's quite an excellent programmer, and with a little work he got Quake and Descent running on it at about 5-10 fps. I'm sure that more complicated emulation is quite possible for that little machine. I always wanted one myself, but I was not that good at porting, nor programming like my ol' roomie :)
I don't know why GP32 still does not make it into the US market. This gaming console is great in many respects; the CPU power, more memories, and especially, more open development architecture to attract third-party game developers.
There are two problems the Korean console maker is facing. One is the brand power of Nintendo. I am afraid GP32 will need a huge amount of money to _at least_ display their consoles and games right next to Nintendo's at Bestbuy or Circuit City. The second one is small number of killer games for GP32. There do exist several killer games for GP32. However, they are ports of PC games which were quite popular among Korean users. No wonder American users never heard of them.
Anyway, I would like to see GP32 displayed right next to Nintendo's Gameboy at retail stores. GP32 offers much better features than Nintendo's with lower price. Just adding several classic games into its inventory will surely make GP32 take off as a robust gaming platform. The Korean market for gaming is not suitable for GP32. The availability of Internet cafes in every block of the towns and the popular use of Internet is good for MUDs rather than console games. Personally I don't want to see a great gaming platform with the potential of exceeding Nintendo's Gameboy wither away at the small Korean gaming market without giving benefit to other gaming users all over the world.
"to die for!!!"
Okay, you've made your point, you can GO DIE NOW.
GP32 is a product of South Korean design and manufacture.
The GP32 doesn't have a rechargeable battery, DOES NOT HAVE A INTERNAL LIGHT, is much larger than the GBA SP, doesn't play GBA games, and costs at least $150.
So why exactly is this so great?? It's designed to be a portable gaming unit, and there's already a better/cheaper/BRIGHTER portable gaming unit, so why did /. even bother covering the GP32?
If you want to cover something, cover this: new GPi
It's the new GP32, adding:
--16 Megs of internal memory
--operates on Linux OS: Kernel 2.4
--web browser
--multimedia player (including Divx)
--text viewer/editor program (aka word processor)
--built in Li+ rechargeable battery
--INTERNAL LIGHT
That's what slashdot should be covering, the GP32 is about 2 years too late.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Don't be ridiculous! Are you saying that just because Nintendo came up with the original Game Boy design, they have some sort of 'birth right' to the future profit from that idea?!
Lots of people seem to have this idea. This is absolutely insane! It is like saying that you cannot retell Snow White to your kids because Hans Christian Anderson (or WHOEVER it was) doesn't benefit from his hard work in designing the story!
Do you think that cloning hardware wasn't a benefit for the pc world? Just look at how things are today with clones!
It's not just IBM anymore. Similarly, if someone can clean-room engineer a game boy clone, more power to them! Isn't that how capitalism works? I mean, if Nintendo wants a slice of the GB32, that's what patents are for, man. Get a grip! I can't believe you are advocating that idea creators should have total control over their ideas. There is NO NATURAL RIGHT for owners to their ideas. AT ALL. The only 'rights' that exist are those provided by the constitution and by people's kindness.
You do NOT have to feel sorry for Nintendo or for any other company, because they will NEVER feel sorry for you! They will always focus on maximizing their revenue and gouging you to the maximum extent is one technique they use.
I don't know where you got this idea that all creations are the natural property of their creators. This is generally a useful fiction for a short period of time (ie, copyrights and patents etc) but in the long term a very bad idea. If Nintendo didn't take out patents (or couldn't get any!) then they deserve what they get.
From one of the greatest minds out there: Thomas Jefferson in the declaration of independence: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal..." This is not, nor in my opinion has it ever been, a silly idea. It can be a somewhat difficult idea to wrap one's head around, since, as you pointed out, there are those who accomplish more than others. But these words and this idea does not speak to a person's accomplishments. It speaks to the idea that each individual is worthy of being treated with dignity, respect, and the rights granted to even those who are considered "leaders," "achievers," or any other name you'd like to conjure up. Without this as a governing concept, with only the idea that one's accomplishments and/or holdings makes one valuable, then it becomes okay to run sweatshops with children in them, or any number of attrocious things because that person who doesn't have as much money, or who hasn't accomplished as much as Mr. factory owner isn't worth as much as a human. Even with this idea as a governing philosophy, these situations can and do happen. Most of the founders owned slaves, and slavery, by definition, does not fit with the idea that all men are created equal. But if you discard this idea, or maybe ideal, then it becomes way to easy to think of all the grief and suffering that still happens in the world as okay because those people are not as equal as the ones with the money and/or accomplishments.
Saying I wasn't an expert.
I thought I read something along those lines about the mp3 playback being limited to 128 kbps in a forum. I couldn't quite find it again and I do know that it could have been wrong.
I tried to find more of a in-depth FAQ involving mp3 playback that would answer this but couldn't find one. Also the official English site is kind of scarce on information.
Yeah I figured the encryption scheme was already broken and that there are ways to get it running with out going through gamepack's registration. The same can be said for games, if I download one I want to back it up to some other type of media. I was just thinking along the lines of those who tends to prefer using official installers, programs, and upgrades.
snes9x works great, and there are many ports of it despite the name.
It appears right now the downloads page is unavailable though, but maybe some googling would locate it.
www.vimm.net also used to have a *LOT* of SNES and NES roms, but took the SNES down due to bandwidth limitations.
no comment
Well, actually "my", "your", "his", "her", and "their" are adjectives. The possessive pronouns are "mine", "yours", "his", "hers", "its" and "theirs".
I have a GP32. It plays scumm games (Day of the tentacle, sam n max), sega master system, gameboy color, c64, c16, msx2 and pcengine games at full speed and full sound. Other emulators (mame, gba, etc) are under way and there are private betas out showing great progress. You also have heretic, wolfenstein3d and doom, full speed but with some minor problems still. I use my GP32 every day and my GBA just collects dust in a corner although I own 11 gba games. I hope that clarifies a lot :)
I've read a lot of talk about the ethics of emulation and how it affects this system. Imho, this was written by people who just read the article, made some unfounded conclusions and started blabbing about the wrongs of it without really knowing what the hell they where talking about. Fairly standard internet behaviour.
:) :) :)
/Inopia
However, a few notes:
- The GP32 is just a korean game system like the GB/C/A, wonderswan, or any other handheld. It doesn't indorse or support piracy in any way. They just released a GP32 SDK for home programmers to program their own stuff on it. I doubt they ever expected it would get the following it did. Saying the GP32 is unethical because of it's emulator scene is about as intelligent as saying the XBOX is an unethical system because you can play mame on it.
- If you're interested in buying a GP32, let me before warn you about the emulation. Not all emulators are as good as you'd wish. The processor is an ARM920T running at variable speed from 20-133mhz. Consider that ALL gp32 emulators are ports from PC emulators, and you might understand why not evey emu is as good as one might wish. In my opinion only two emulators have been thouroughly optimized, and those are GPEngine (pc-engine emu, does about 70% of pc-engine games) and the SNES emu wich is being worked on. As a result some emulators aren't great, but the ones that are really good are the sega master system emu, beforementioned gpengine, gameboy(color), scumm VM (excellent sound!), sarien (it is a bitch to play leisure suit larry without a keyboard:) and the C64 emu. I guess you'll have to try em yourself.
- It has flashable bios, and a homemade bios exists wich is actually better than the original
- Why is the system so cheap? Well, the korean gov encourages cooperation between korean tech companies. As a result, the Gp32 is internally almost wholly Samsung. It has an all-in-one solution chip intended for handhelds (arm920t at max 133mhz, lcd controller, mem controller, etc), a samsung 240x320 screen (rotated 90 degrees to make it look like 320x240, but the mem adressing is still 240x320, wich makes for interesting programming:), 8mb samsung memory, and a uses samsung made smart media cards for storage. The games are encrypted using something called secumax (korean too?). The only thing non-korean in there is a philips 4 channel PCM chip. In short, this is so cheap because they didn't really have to develop anything themselves, they just hooked up existing technologies.
- some say the thing is cheaply made. Well, it feels very study, and the 8-way stick (like the ngpc) takes a lot of getting used to. They only bad thing is the screen, wich scratches very easily. You'll have to smooth it out every once in a while.
- Also, emulation is not even the main reason why I'm so happy with my Gp32, since I use it mainly as a media player. It can play MOD/XM/IT/S3M (listnening to old orange mods on the train is great) and even SID. It can play MP3 out of the box via the mp3 player in the bios, and there's a DIVX player that can play divx 4.12 movies (ideal for cartoons like ren and stimpy, duckman, etc). I have two 128mb SMC's wich I bought here in the netherlands for 65 euros each, and I have one filled with punkrock MP3, and the other with movies and programs. I have to commute between my place and my gf's every weekend and I have to spend 1.5 hours in the train. I do have a GBA and a flashwriter but I never use it anymore.
- if you're a programmer gp32 is an ideal platform. The community is small and friendly and helpful, and for over a year now new programs have been coming out every few weeks. There's an add-on to devkitadvance that allows you to get programming with gcc in a matter of minutes. Also, ARM assembler is the best!
- linux? They're working on it but I personally I can't see the point. WindowsCE ? They're working on it too but personally I really can't see the point. Quake? They're working on it. I can't wait
anyway, that was my rambling for today, hope you enjoyed it.
Dont forget to mention the systems' only full speed 16bit emulation: The GPengine. http://www.gp32x.com/gpengine/ It blasts the pants off any gba. Games like R-Type, Sidearms and Mr. Heli are displayed at native 320x240 pixels and with 16bit stereo sound. I've shown this to three friends who are also into gaming and they all bought a gp32 immediately. A multiplayer GPengine is in the works, allowing you to play all your favourite shoot-em-ups wirelessly with up to 3 friends.
my cock is about the size of a King Size Mars Bar
First of all GP32 is NOT a GBA super emulator.
;)
;)
;)
It wasn't created to be an emulator.
It can't even emulate GBA! I frankly think it will never be able to do it well.
It's just a habdheld console with some innovative concepts.
It's cartridge is a CF card, so you can write freely data to it.
Think about it: a company could sell a game on a CD (which has negligible production costs) and sell it. Or you could just download it from their site. The consloe acts as a USB CF card reader/writer so there's no additional cost.
Isn't it brilliant? And it has great hardware specs. 240x160 color display, plus built in wireless link capability.
Where's the drawback? It's sold in Corea only (though you can order it online) and has only a dozen of native games.
Of course, since everybody can write software for it, there is a growing number of programs being developed by a big online community (expecially considering that the device is pratically unknown to the masses), and many of it are emulators, because, well, face it, is a handheld, so people want to PLAY with it
But there are also ports of freeware or full games, such as Doom, and various apps like MP3 and DivX players.
Saying it is a "pirate gizmo" is like saying a pc is, since they have hard disks, which can hold emulators and roms.
Final note regarding DivX: you don't really have to split your AVI in multiple cards: it's quite better to re-encode the movie ito 240x160 resolution. That way you can fit the whole file in just one card. You can find virtual dub profile files for that on various sites regarding GP32
There's an emulator of GP32 that runs on Windows. So you could check out the thing and how fast emulators and apps would go on the real machine.
All in all, I'm not going to buy it, because I own a GBA and a Zaurus, which can read MP3s and Divx, and even emulate my SNES and C64, so I would not have a real use for it.
But, admit it, would it not be GREAT if the machine had a great success over the world?
Since I dont (yet) own one, how is the C64emulation on that thing ? Since I have a load of those games it would be quite sweet to play em on a GP32 instead of a 20" monitor ;)
The GP32 does not only have 2 buttoms it has a start button a select button, an A and a B button and an L and R button
http://www.gbax.com/gp32review.html
Actually, the GBA emu is in private beta stage, but it's possible to get your hands on it if you ask nicely on #gp32dev (efnet i think).
Currently, it does run reeeeeeeeeaaaaalllllyyyy slooooooow, but considering it is a straight 2 days port (100% C, no assembler), that is pretty good.
Additionally, there is a list of other emus for GP32:
GB/GBC (2 emus)
GBA (currently in private beta)
Nes (2 emus, both are Infones ports)
SMS / GG (2 emus)
PC Engine/Coregraphx (2 emus, one is near perfect, the other is discontinued)
SNES (2 emus, one discontinued)
MD/Genesis (hasn't been released yet, since there are negociations between GamePark and Sega, and the emu author doesn't want to interfere)
MSX (really nice and complete emu)
NeoGeo Pocket Color (currently in private beta)
Wonderswan (discontinued?)
Zx Spectrum
Commodore Plus4
C64
Arcade (Oldies like Pacman, Space Invaders, and such, plus Mame 0.66 is being ported by rlyeh, author of the excellents fMSX32 and fNES32)
Moreover, several classic games have been ported more or less succesfully to the GP32:
Rick Dangerous
Elite the Newkind
Wolfenstein 3D
Doom
Heretic
Descent
LucasArts' adventure games via ScummVM
Sierra's early adventure games via Sarien AGI interpreter
Read more at gp32emu.com
You should also know that some pretty neat stuff has been developped for this pretty neat handeld:
3 MP3 players (one comes with the console)
3 Divx (4.12) players (one has been discontinued, another on is commercial, the 3 of them are still a bit slow)
an e-book reader
Gif, Jpeg, PNG viewers
Custom GUIs and Firmwares
a Java VM and a Flash player are rumoured
Linux and Windows CE are bieng ported over
Lots of stuff i forgot to mention
And i didn't even talk about commercial nor amateur games.
(I own a GP32, I'm sure you guessed. The only thing i'm not happy with, is that it should be able to connect to the Internet, but yet this feature isn't availiable)
Anything you do can get you slashdotted, including nothing.
or are you just glad to see me?
> This thing cannot, repeat CANNOT emulate the GBA. Check the site, there's no mention of this. Even trying it would be stupid - go ahead, run a working GBA emulator on this sort of hardware. Have fun with your 2 frames per second.
http://www.gp32news.com - check the article posted on Monday 21 February 2003 @ 02:59. You obviously have trouble reading, so I'll post you a transcript here :
GBA emu underway, made in France
Yes, gba emu is underway.
Ok it's just a begging, so it only support 4mo roms, no sound, 5-10fps, but for a first private release it's a good start.
The article is followed by three screenshots of Contra Advance.
5-10fps is a very good starting framerate, and with further optimization, it ought to be able to hit full speed. This is standard fare for first-version emulators of/on other systems.
If the GP32 can emulate a SNES at a reasonable speed, why on earth do you assume "2 frames per second" for a GBA emu ? The GBA is a very low-spec machine (similar to a SNES) - you don't need any more than "this sort of hardware" in order to emulate it !
Score:4 ? HA !
but only roms under 4mo, without sound and at 5-10 fps.
c =40 for some screenshots
actually, the emulator exists only in private version.
have a look here : http://www.gp32news.com/index.php?lang=en&page_re
Yes, but then you're forced to have your GBA on at all times, which wastes battery life.
In case you're unclear on what "sleep mode" is, it's a GBA BIOS call that some games can trigger that turns off pretty much everything on the GBA board except the interrupt controller, which is needed to wake the GBA on a keypress.
Heck, what if my g/f decides she wants to play Tetris while I've got a game of SMB in progress?
If you switch from SMB to Tetris Worlds by turning the machine off and on, you'll lose your progress in SMB anyway. If you're at home, launch TOD in an emulator, and now your gf is playing tetraminoes and getting high at the same time. If you're on the road, switch PocketNES from SMB to either Tengen Tetyais or Nintendo Tetris. Or give her your other Game Boy. What? You don't have another Game Boy? You're missing out on two-player.
Sorry, but a flash cart is, IMHO, the only way to go. Get one
I have one, but I'm the only person I know who has one because they're still three figures, which is expensive for a neighbor who's still in high school.
Plus, then you can write your own stuff for the GBA! :)
I already do. No, before you criticize me for mentioning sleep mode and not having already implemented it in my public releases, I have implemented sleep mode in my own tree, but there are a few bugs blocking the next TOD milestone.
Will I retire or break 10K?
So... back to the world of excessively dark games or giant halogen lamps.
I am not a coward but have so many forum accounts I just thought I would write something.
I am neither biased or critical of the GP32 / GBA fight - I own both
I have for a long time wanted to move my emulated stuff to a portable machine - so the GP32 wins hands down on that front. The emulation is at an early stage, but look at MAME in the 1st year and then look at it now - If you look at life with blinkers you will miss so much that life can give you.
Emulation is the key and thats what a GP32 is for
I love my GP32 and my GBA SP - I hope they both can live in the same market and be around for a while in the same way the CBM64 and Spectrum were
Hope all of the above helps
PS - a 133 htz processor is slow compared to a PC but remember it has to run a windows operating system which a GP32 does not - and if it runs a SNES (which it does)GBA could be round the corner - but hey - I own a GBA so I dont care about that
While I can't speak for the reliability of the source, Entware seems to be the supplier of a gp32 DivX player. Interesting...
I own a GP32 and would like to clarify some information about the best handheld system ever made.
8
First off, it has six buttons. Not two. Similar in contruction to the GBA. It is certainly NOT flimsy or sloppily built
You don't have to split up 700mb divx files to watch movies. Simply re-encode to the correct settings and you can store about three hours of divx movies on one 128mb SMC.
Take it from somone who has watched all three Back to the Futures, Star Wars, and more Star Trek than I'd care for my mother to know on the GP32. The playback is great.
Emulation side, it's a beast.
There are two SNES emulators. One does not have sound, but plays 80% of the games I've tried full speed. The other has sound, is still being updated, and runs quite well with frameskip. Most games are definatly playable, I'm a long ways into Super Metroid. Supports saving.
There are several GB/GBC emulators. Only one is worth mentioning. Again, about 80% of games work. Nearly all full speed with sound. I like to play the many Pokemon rom hacks on it. Ah yes, about the comment on strecting the game to make it work on the GP32 resolution, there are three settings for this, and two work great.
There is a PCEngine emulation which runs ALL the games I've tried full speed with sound. Definatly worth the price of admission just for this.
The NES emulator is full speed with slightly irriting tinny sound. High compatibility
The Master System\Game Gear emulator has run all the games I've tried with it full speed with sound.
SCUMMVM is great, I've played through Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis with it. Laggy at times, but fun nonetheless. DOTT, Sam&Max, and Monkey Island, while I haven't played to the end, actually run better then Indy. Sam and Max even have the voices in the introduction.
With a Pocket PC type program called "Wind-Ups" you can read E-books and do things associated with Pocket PC's. Needs a keyboard though.
A Genesis/MD emulator is in development. Not much information.
THERE IS A GBA EMULATOR.
http://www.gp32x.com/index.php?artc=21
Old news, it's still in privite beta but runs about 10fps.
There are two types of Linux developers - those who can spell, and
those who can't. There is a constant pitched battle between the two.
-- From one of the post-1.1.54 kernel update messages posted to c.o.l.a
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