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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 :)
You can now get SD cards with at least 2 GB of capacity, and they're getting cheaper all the time. I wouldn't worry about the storage.
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."
What kind of storage can you realistically get on SD cards?
The theoretical limit of the format is 4 GB without formatting. Nowadays, it is commonplace to find 1 GB flash cards, or even 2 GB cards, but quite pricy (~60 $ per GB). Read-only cards, when produced in large quantities, would probably be less expensive.
I do realize there are games that are less than a gig
The size of a game doesn't make its quality. And we're still talking about portable games, where the UMD is the largest format to date, with only 1.8 GB...
I'm a bit miffed on the resolution of the device. The big bold text claims 720x480, while the specs say 320x480. I am going to guess that it's the latter, as 720 on a 3" screen would be a really expensive lcd.
I'm a minister!
Your cellphone runs Linux? It comes with a free SDK so you can make your own games? It has a SD slot and USB? It has a 3.5" screen?
-- "So, what's the deal with Auntie Gerschwitz et all?"
Now that harddrives are becoming so small and the price isn't that bad, I reckon they are really limiting their device by just supporting SD, especially when they try and flog it off as a portable movie player. I'm sure if they stuck in 20gb hdd and had to add a tiny bit onto the overall width people wouldnt moan and you'd probabaly get more sales out of it
1) HDDs have moving parts and are prone to failure in portable devices.
2) HDDs have moving parts requiring more power - a nono in a portable device.
3) SD == expandable - need more storage? Buy another card. You will be able to buy a 4Gig SD card next year for next to nothing.
Frankly, I think the lack of a HDD is a good thing - I would kill for a mp3 player with a CF slot....
My pics.
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.
What crack are you smoking? I've been using SD cards with Linux for years. If you don't have a device that uses the security features (nearly all of them), then it just works like any other flash device would.
It might be possible to lock content on an SD card so that it wasn't accessible from Linux, but one you purchased blank and formatted yourself isn't going to give you any problems.
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
:-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