Gamepark Holdings Officially Announces the WIZ Handheld

Croakyvoice writes "Gamepark Holdings, the makers of the GP2X Console, have today announced the successor, which is called the WIZ. The new GBA Micro-sized console features a touchscreen, Linux OS, an Arm9 533MHZ 3D processor with 64MB of ram and will have commercial games on sale at launch in October. Best of all for fans of homebrew and emulation on the GP2X, all that needs to be done is recompiling of sourcecode."

Comments

The Pandora

[ledow]

Although the Wiz is the "official" successor, the successor in spirit (and with a much more open development process, and much more likely to actually get up-to-date source code published - the GP2X firmware versions aren't always open-sourced properly) is the Pandora... www.openpandora.org - which is due out at roughly the same time as the Wiz.

Most of the developers for the GP2X are actually putting their weight behind the Pandora first - I know, I'm a GP2X software porter of things like Simon Tatham's (of PuTTY fame) Portable Puzzle Collection... (Blatant advert: http://www.ledow.org.uk/gp2x/ for that particular one). This is mainly because GPH are notorious for poor information and stock-status. Most countries had trouble importing the GP2X before it was EOL'd anyway, and you don't get anything useful out of the company at all.

Forget the Wiz, open the box....

Re:The Pandora

[LotsOfPhil]

Pandora specs:
* ARM® Cortex(TM)-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
* 430-MHz TMS320C64x+(TM) DSP Core
* PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* 800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
* Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
* Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
* Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* Around 10+ Hours battery life

Re:I can't afford one

[goose-incarnated]

179 us dollars - can't remember where I read it, may have been engadget

Re:Specs?

[Drooling Iguana]

I've transcribed the first section of the specs from the brochure:

Product Name: GP2X Wiz
CPU ARM9 533MHz, 3D Accelerator
RAM: 64MB
NAND Flash Memory: 1GB
Size: 121(w) * 61(h) * 18(d)mm
Wwight Approx. 93g (Without battery) / Approx. 136g (Including battery)
External Storage: SD Card
USB Function: 2.0 High Speed
O/S: Linux
Battery: 2000mAh Lithium Polymer
Buttons: Up / Down / Left / Right, A/B/X/Y, HOME/SELECT, Volume Up/Down, Power On/Off/Hold
Display: 71.12mm(2.8inch) OLED Touch Screen Panel
Resolution: 320x240 (QVGA)
Expansion Port: 24Pin (Power Supply and Data Transmission)
Recharge Method: AC Power/USB via Computer
Consecutive Play Time: Approx 5 hours (Video, Game)

Re:Additional Info

[AKAImBatman]

they are planning on supporting Flash 7.0 and I think this means one could play swfs on it (of which I know several addictive games online).

Flash 7 is pretty ancient tech at this point. The vast majority of Flash games are Flash 8 with many of the new ones being made in Flash 9. However, the Nintendo Wii has the same limitation, so you may find Wii gaming sites to be useful on the device.