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.
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./Inopia
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Download the FRODO c64 emu for PC and see how you like it. The c64 emu for gp32 is a frodo port /Inopia
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.