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The Portable Linux Based GP2X is Here
An anonymous reader writes "Today sees the opening of the Official GP2X Site where you can see the new console from Gamepark.com, who last brought you the GP32 a fantastic console for homebrew developers. This console is a major step up with Dual 200Mhz cpus and is basically a Portable Linux handheld that can easily do ports like Quake, Doom and Emulators like Mame. Its Open Source SDK gives all amateur and commercial Developers the ablity to release software on a brand new console like the old Amiga/Commodore 64 days. More screenshots of the GP2X can be found at GP2x news."
UK pre-orders for the machine are being taken at GP2X.co.uk (formerly GBAX) at £125 for the machine. It's shipping in October :)
What kind of storage can you realistically get on SD cards? I have to wonder, given that most XBox/PS2 games are now pushing the 4-5 gig range. Quake was good, but a smidgen outdated.
I do realize there are games that are less than a gig, but does this have a realistic chance of becoming a mass market item?
Working link here: GP2X
From the site:
"It takes 2 AA batteries, but gives you 6 - 10 hours from them. No need to worry about having to recharge when outside. Everywhere has AA batteries."
When Quake was originally released, my housemate had a PC with 64MB of RAM and a 200MHz Pentium Pro, and I remember Quake running just fine.
Of course, when he later downloaded GLQuake it ran like an aboslute dog without a 3d accelerator card, but that's a different story...
It's official. Most of you are morons.
they said wifi could be possible with a wifi-SD if someone develop linux drivers for the card
And a bit further on :
Yes that's right, this handheld can connect to the TV, console style. Watch your DivX movies on the TV. Play emulated classics on the TV. Try big screen Quake. Or just play them all on the GP2X's large 320*240 backlit screen. You get the best of both worlds.
Yes, that's plenty of horsepower. See e.g. the Doom port for the (current) GP32 which runs perfectly at fully speed and the new Duke3D port to the Tapwave Zodiac also perfect on a single 200 MHz ARM CPU.
The GP2X has two of these...
I'm look at this page (http://www.gp32x.com/gpx2xgp.php) which compares the two handhelds. Is there another page I should be looking at?
I like big screens too. I read a review the other on the gb micro that just came out and while the guy said the screen is a lot nicer rpgs are difficult becausethe text is too small. I mainly play rpgs so I think I'll be giving that one a miss and sticking with the sp. the gp2x looks appealing though.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/metricmusic
IIRC, DS games are only 128 Megabytes (1 gigabit) in size, max. So, pretty darn big. I may be off -- it may be 1 Gigabyte (8 gigabit), but still... SD cards aren't exactly 1.44 meg floppies, ya know. ;)
the LCD has 320x480 resolution but the machine can play divx files upon 720x480.
For example, as divx players for the TV, they cannot manage every resolution, they have a top one.
You'll see the films and games in 320x480
A series of larger pictures greater detailing the unit's expected packaging can be found here, as well as relative size comparisions: http://aog.2y.net/korea/gamepark%20holdings/
Take a look here:
(Mame for GP32) http://www.talfi.net/gp32_franxis/
your ppro has 256k (or more) l1 and l2 cache. it can also issue and execute instructions out of order. the strongarm has none of these features.
the cache alone makes an enormous difference, the out of order execution on top of that results in a cpu which is about 50% faster than the strongarm right off the bat.
not to mention -- much of doom was hand coded x86 assembly. the zaurus arm port obviously can't use that, and afaik no arm assembly equivalents have been written so the doom port uses straight C.
The machine was renamed to gp2x some time ago. promo pics still have the old name on them.
Additionally the model sold is black, although the pictures show the white model.
GamePark created the GP32. It didn't do so well, so they open-sourced it. Then it did pretty well, selling to hackers.
So then Gamepark wanted to make a successor. They argued over whether or not to make it open-source again.
They couldn't agree, so they split up into Gamepark & Gamepark Holdings.
GP went on to develop the XGP, a closed-source, high-powered console. GPH created the GP2X/GPX2, a less-powerful but open-source console.
They're both successors to the GP32, but very different concepts, made by two different companies.
Hope that helped. . .
So.. it has come to this
I use a 4-in-1 reader and it just works. With everything. I don't have it handy right now to look at, but it was a $25 or $30 job at Best Buy. (I *think* the brand name was ImageMate, but that could easily be wrong.)
Support's built right into the kernel. Plug it in, wham, it works. No hassle. Each slot looks like a different SCSI device. I've used it for both CF and SD and it works fine.
Via VMWare, the built-in card-reader on my monitor also works perfectly with OpenBSD and with Linux, both for CF and SD. I presume it would work if I plugged it straight in, as well, but I don't run Linux directly on this machine.
I've had NO problem using multiple SD cards with Linux for years. I don't know where you guys are getting your info (and/or your readers), but there's no reason whatsoever for it to be difficult. It's such a no-brainer that I am completely confused why we're even having the conversation.
It JUST WORKS. Plug it in and you're good. You don't have to think about SD or MMC, you just get a universal reader, plug it in, and off you go. The SD encryption features aren't used by any device I know of. You can argue semantics about it "being used as an MMC card", but no normal human cares about that. They want to plug it into the computer and have it work. If you buy an SD card, that will happen. That's all that matters.
SD is better than MMC anyway... the MMC cards are so thin they're pretty fragile. SD is quite robust. I have been carrying a card in my wallet for the last two years, and it's none the worse for wear. And you get a nifty write-protect tab, which I like very much.
If I understand your anti-SD objection correctly, you're upset about something that's totally irrelevant.
:-O
That's not the official GP2X website. That's the GBAX website, an online GP2X distributor. Hardcore-gamer is the distributor on spain.
Here is a list of official distributors.
The official website is still www.gpx2.com
The console will be released in october/november
Every single game I know (Ok, I'm old-school) has a linux version or runs in a console for which linux has a working emulator... approximately 1000 games.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
So all SD cards must support MMC mode. MMC mode works. Therefore....(left as an exercise for the reader).
I did say, if you notice, that nothing uses the encryption capability of the card anyway. It doesn't *matter* what the internal protocol is, as long as it works to do what we want, which is store and retrieve data. I can take an SD card, plug it into an SD slot, and it just works. That's all I really need. You can think of SD as MMC in a better package, with a write-protect tab.
If they change the rules at some future time, and start shipping SD cards that don't support MMC mode, we can switch formats to something else. All our existing cards will keep working. It's not like they're going to wave a magic wand and remotely disable the ones we already have.
And:
A) It's exceedingly unlikely that they would be able to force all the manufacturers to stop supporting MMC mode;
B) Even if they COULD, the screaming would be so loud that SD would be destroyed as a standard. They're not likely to do that.
D) Linux users, relatively speaking, buy lots of hardware. SD's manufacturer may not want us to have access to the encryption stuff, but we have better software to do that anyway. Why would they blow off a big chunk of the market by changing the rules when they didn't have to? They've got it nailed now... the cards work in vanilla mode for everyone, and encrypted mode for people who have paid for a license. That's a great setup. Why on earth would they change?
C) Real MMC works in SD slots anyway, so if they DO pull a boneheaded move and try to shut us out, we can just buy native MMC.
I don't see any possible downside here. Do you?
Gamepark actually encourages people to make homebrew apps, unlike other manufacturers.
You might want to be a little careful of this statement... You see, the company that you knew as Gamepark that made the original GP32 has since split up into two companies: "Gamepark Holdings" is the company that is working on the GP2X (Or GPX2, as some references call it... there was a contest to decide on a name, so there is some ambiguity). However the other company, known simply as "Gamepark" is working on a completely different handheld system called the XGP. From what I've heard, the XGP is likely going to be quite a bit powerful, with hardware 3D accelleration (basically a Korean PSP)... however, everything I've heard about it indicates that the XGP will NOT be an open platform in the way the GPX2 is striving to be.
So in other words, "Gamepark Holdings" is encouraging the homebrew community... "Gamepark" is not. At least, not yet.
-"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH