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!

Comments

I give this thing 1 week...

[ArchMagus]

before Nintendo's lawyers are beating down the distributors doors demanding they halt immediately importing this thing.

Get 'em while you can! :)

BUT

[1nfern0]

how can you run a good emulation of SNES with only 2 buttons.

OK, this i actually find unethical.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have defended the whole idea of emulators for years now, on the basis that they don't defraud the game companies of any revenue they have a real right to. Whoo, i can download a SNES emulator, and nintendo has the lost sale on, um.. that used SNES that i was going to buy on ebay.. hmm.

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 ultraman

Re:OK, this i actually find unethical.

[be-fan]

In fact, there is a very legitimate reason to emulate playstation games. Games that have significant amounts of 3D can look very good, because current emulators can run them at very high resolutions with full texture filtering and everything. For me, epsxe has given my PSX gaming library a whole new life, on my (Linux!) laptop :)

Re:Lighting

[Cpt_Kirks]

OK, side by side, my son's GBA and my GP32, both with Doom running, same scene.

The GP32 has a much bigger screen. It is clearer and brighter. Maybe as much as twice as bright.

The afterburner style light for the GP32 due out this month will be nice, but not needed nearly as bad as the GBA needs one.

Good news about abandonware legality?

[yerricde]

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".