December 28th, 2005
Linux-based Handheld Gaming Device: Gamepark GP2X
By: Chief Gizmateer
Contributing Writer: RealTechNews
How would you like a PSP that would support not only games, pictures, music and video but also e-books and the ability to snag free emulators including MAME for most older gaming systems on the open source Linux OS? Oh yeah, all of the above for only $179?
The Gamepark GP2X is a new dual core (ARM920T Host Processor - ARM940T Video Coprocessor) gaming machine running on Linux and enecouraging anyone to develop emulators, games, applications, practically anything for this device.
The machine comes with dual cpu cores, 64mb ram, 64mb NAND flash memory, SD card compatible slot, USB 2.0 connection, 3.5″ TFT LCD screen and TV-out. Also, the devices supports playback of most codecs such as MPEG, MPEG4, DivX 3.11, 4x, 5x, XVID, WMV, MP3, OGG, WMA, JPG, BMP, PCX, GIF and others. Also, support for e-book, games and a built-in electronic dictionary are built-in to the device. Also, the GP2X runs off regular two AAs batteries so a six pack will allow you to game, watch movies or listen to music the entire plane trip from the US to Hong Kong (one of the few places you’ll be able to get the GP2X in Q1 2006).
This handheld device is built on the Linux OS and users and developers are encouraged to hack and develop new software for the Gamepark GP2X. Currently software for the device is fairly minimal but growing. There’s even a Developer’s WIKI.
Even though the device is not available in the US, you can purchase online (well, pre-order as the GP2X won’t ship until Q1 2006) from lik-sang.com.
The first series of the GP2X has been released in the UK and Korea so far.
So, the geeks at GfG are wondering… have consumers finally got feed up with proprietary systems such as the PSP and want the freedom an open-source system such as the GP2X provides?
Source: Gizmos for Geeks
Charles says:
For $179 this is a no-brainer, right? Certainly more appealing than the PSP. The one thing that concerns me about all of these ‘Media Players’ is the ability to get movies onto the device in a legal way.
Sure there is software that can convert a DVD down to a small AVI or WMV file, but this is still not a slam-dunk proposition. I want to be able to convert my DVD movies to a different file format the exact same way I can effortlessly convert one of my CDs into MP3.
December 28th, 2005 at 10:52 pm
Richard says:
I’ve had one for a couple of months now and love it. The firmware had a few bugs but this has now been fixed and the GP2X is so intentionally flexible, it’s a revelation. See my website (above) for more on what you can do.
I predict a flood of similar open devices in the future. What would be nice would be where you not only got into all the source code but the actual hardware. Imagine being able to download all the CAD diagrams, part numbers, etc. But we can wish
Richard
December 29th, 2005 at 2:15 am
Richard says:
Sorry, website was below but is now above
December 29th, 2005 at 2:16 am
justin frahm says:
I don’t think these things have enough permanent storage.
December 29th, 2005 at 6:08 am
Nathan Myers says:
Not enough permanent storage? What do you think the SD Card slot is for? It’s not only permanent (well, persistent), it’s swappable. That slot is what’s missing in most other handheld gadgets, including iPods, that makes them fundamentally less useful than they might be.
December 29th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
Brandon says:
Hi,
just want to point out that you can already buy it here:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-d1-70-uq6.html
~Brandon
December 29th, 2005 at 5:48 pm
meneame.net says:
Gamepark GP2X, consola portátil, pero abierta y sobre Linux
Hace tiempo que lo vengo siguiendo. En USA todavía no está disponible, pero ¡se puede comprar on-line en España! (165 € en http://www.frikidonia.com/ y http://www.hardcore-gamer.net/). Tienen ya un wiki para desarrolladores (http://wiki.gp2x.org/…
December 29th, 2005 at 5:53 pm
POLAX says:
“…Sure there is software that can convert a DVD down to a small AVI or WMV file, but this is still not a slam-dunk proposition. I want to be able to convert my DVD movies to a different file format the exact same way I can effortlessly convert one of my CDs into MP3…”
There is - it’s called kmenc available at http://kmenc15.sourceforge.net
December 29th, 2005 at 10:34 pm
Kuja says:
GBAX was an early adopter of the gp32, and was the first to offer gp2x’s. They’re pretty much where to buy this thing - www.gbax.com $190 usd.
December 29th, 2005 at 11:20 pm
Anthony says:
Having tried both sites, I would recommend play-asia.com over gbax.com unless perhaps you live in the UK and even then perhaps not!
December 30th, 2005 at 7:37 am
とんかつ３号 隠れ亭 says:
ホーム/2005-12-31
文字通り今年最後の更新となります。今年は自分にとって去年ほどではないけども、怒涛の一年でした。来年から運気は好転するのか？！ まぁ、来年になってみないと分かりませんが(´-`…
December 30th, 2005 at 3:23 pm
Choochoo says:
Any network connectivity?
December 30th, 2005 at 3:28 pm
Questionable says:
I don’t see any WiFi on this. How can it be a PSP killer if it doesn’t even have 802.11b? I guess you’ll have to forgo an SD memory card and buy a network card instead (which are about $70-80) so really, after adding that in, it’s more expensive than a PSP.
December 30th, 2005 at 3:46 pm
homer says:
This is EXACTLY what I am looking for. It is priced right. I can’t wait until I can get one in the USA.
December 30th, 2005 at 3:48 pm
Rayek says:
I think it’s important that more people know about this. This is a huge advancement in open-source and free software, and people need to be aware that they can play the old games they love without worrying about downgrading firmwares and going against the corporation’s will. As it’s been pointed out to me, it’s not quite ready for prime-time just yet, as the bugs of the system would create a generally negative feedback, but I’m looking forward to recieving my unit from Lik-Sang (hopefully) next month.
December 30th, 2005 at 3:53 pm
Neura says:
I can’t believe you people are completely gung ho for this thing based only on price and “open-ness”.
While it’s nice to be able to load any emulator you want on there and (almost always) illegally play whatever ROMs you want, what about legal games?
PSP and DS bring a fairly large selection of games with them and the promise of many popular licenses.
Have you actually looked into buying legal games for the GP32 or GP2X? For the GP32, there’s not a whole lot available and much less in english. For the GP2X, which ships Q1′06 (though some people apparently have them already), I can find 1 screenshot of 1 commercial game.
So this leaves me wondering, what are you all so excited about? Are you basically admitting that you’re just that excited to get a machine that allows you to pirate ROMs? Don’t give me that BS that you own your own collection and you only play ROMs that you legally own. I’m guessing that applies to less than 1% of the people out there that use game machine emulators. ..or are you all that hot to carry around a somewhat bulky machine with a small screen to watch movies on? I’m still not sure what the attraction is here… If it’s a movie you already own on DVD that you’re converting for use on this thing, why have you / are you not watching it on TV?
I’m sure some people can come up with valid excuses (yes excuses) why this is the best machine ever, but seriously…. it’s a $180 machine to play a very small selection of open source games (most of which are breaking copyright laws anyway, but that’s not your problem, is it), an even smaller selection of commercial games, watch movies on the bus or somewhere you have enough time to actually watch a movie (or even 1/4 of one) or use as an mp3 player, for which there are plenty of much better solutions out there. Seriously, there are plenty of better media players, period.
December 30th, 2005 at 3:56 pm
Rayek says:
Hey all of you in the US, you can order from the US distributor, http://www.GP32z.com . They ship to the US, and i believe Canada as well. Just keep in mind that this unit is not fully complete quite yet, and there are plenty of problems, and plenty of solutions. If anyone encounters a problem, or wants to know more, you should check out the forum at http://www.GP32x.com
December 30th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
Nathan Myers says:
But what is this “OGG” they promote? I only know about an Ogg. Maybe when they say OGG they mean Ogg.
And, what bit rates can it handle? My Oggs are ~240 Kbps, because to me 128 Kbps sounds bad in any encoding, but they won’t play on many platforms (e.g. ipodlinux).
December 30th, 2005 at 4:03 pm
Wowzers says:
^– owned you GNUbs
December 30th, 2005 at 4:04 pm
Rayek says:
What about not having to pay anything if you don’t want to? What about having legal copies of games like Quake, Hexen, and Wolfenstein 3D ported, completely legally using the source code? Obviously, this unit is not for the general plug-and-play audience, it requires a bit of brainpower to operate. If all the beef Neura has with the GP2X is that it allows illegal things to commence on-the-go, then why not ban PCs? As far as I know, there is an emulator for nearly every system available on a PC. The only difference is that this method goes portable. That’s it. Plus, you can make the system anything you want, virtually, if you have some coding skill. How can that be bad?
December 30th, 2005 at 4:06 pm
Neura says:
My “beef” is that, it’s a $180 device that doesn’t do much of anything legal and useful that isn’t already being done en masse.
Sure, being able to run open source software is legal, but the things that most people will use it for are not. This comment is based on (a) history and (b) the fact that if the games/apps were legal and you still wanted them so much, their creator would most likely be charging money for them, which is also pretty safe to assume due to (a). Most of the open source (and/or free) games I can find for the GP32 are blatant rip-offs of commercial games. Just because someone has released it doesn’t mean it’s legal.
December 30th, 2005 at 4:17 pm
JaqMs says:
It’s not all about commercial games. Haven’t you ever heard of homebrew games? Ports? Being based on SDL Linux and having Pygame ported, many games may be ported on to this. Call it a mini-game player if you wish.
December 30th, 2005 at 4:25 pm
Neura says:
Oh, also (sorry for the multiple replies) I’m not criticizing the system itself. I think it’s a great toy. Something fun to experiment with. But there’s a very, very limited market for that. My personal view comes from knowing a handful of people that have ever written their own game code on the PC, let alone for devices like this, while the number of people I know that play game ROMs or ports of commercial games that the source has been released (only bringing it up because you’ve mentioned it), I can’t even keep track of it’s so huge.
Again, make whatever accusations you want about my personal acquaintances, etc. The fact that some of you may know a lot more coders and a lot less people that play pirated ROMs, but you know what the truth of the matter is.
Notice people will respond to the easy to attack statements I’ve made, but nobody is going to handle the tough issues like “where are the legal and/or commercial games”. Some tetris clone or some remake of an arcade game, etc. doesn’t count as legal, sorry. Again, lack of prosecution doesn’t not make it legal. (nor are they necessarily fun) Why is this better at playing videos than other devices that already exist? How many people really have their music collection in Ogg format? It doesn’t have an HD, the biggest card you can possibly get for it is 16G, which are very expensive and people can’t even get 2G cards to work on it, yet. How is this any better than media players with hdds? Someone earlier mentioned that the iPods don’t have removable media… I guess 40GB isn’t big enough for you? Or are you just mad because you bought the cheapest iPod out there and can’t upgrade it yourself?
Again, pick the easy statements to attack if you like, but until someone has real answers to the tough accusations, I don’t see the point.
December 30th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
Dan says:
There is also a new site being worked on by the makers of PSPUpdates. The site is at http://gp2x.qj.net but it is not officially up yet. You can take a sneak peek though!
December 30th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
Neura says:
“It’s not all about commercial games.”
I think I’ve made plenty of statements about non-commercial games.
“Haven’t you ever heard of homebrew games?”
Yes and honestly most are not very entertaining. If they were, they’d be money makers.
“Ports?”
Yeah, when porting commercial games, that doesn’t make them non-commercial. If you’re porting homebrew games, see the last response. If you’re talking about playing Quake III Arena on a GP2X… I feel sorry for you.
“Being based on SDL Linux and having Pygame ported, many games may be ported on to this.”
Have you looked at the list of games being made with pygame lately? Or even SDL in general? If they’re not worth paying for, they’re usually not worth playing. There’s a lot of “interesting” stuff going on with pygame and sdl (your examples), for sure. I write a lot of pygame stuff myself, but I wouldn’t expect anybody else to be thinking my stuff is any good. Again, if it were worth playing, it’d be worth paying for. If that were the case, it’d probably be commercial. I think I mentioned earlier, it’s a great device for playing around with, but that’s a really small market. If you’re trying to say it’s a great $180 device that you can tinker with, AWESOME! I think you’re in for a good time. If you think (like the article states) that this is a better PSP, you’re probably looking to play games illegally. (again, argue that statement if you want, it’s easy to do, but you know what the truth of the matter is)
“Call it a mini-game player if you wish.”
OK…
December 30th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Paradox says:
Do NOT buy from Lik-Sang, they took a big huge shit allover the GP2X and said so much shit about it which was not true.
GBAX is the place to buy
December 30th, 2005 at 4:39 pm
Neura says:
There’s a bunch of 5 star reviews shown on lik-sang’s page for the GP2X and it has a glowing description and list of features… Why would a company trying to sell a product “take a big huge shit” on it?
Sounds more like some troll that works for GBAX.
If you’re going to slam someone, at least provide references.
December 30th, 2005 at 4:46 pm
Kev says:
Hey Neura, DON’T BUY ONE.
It’s your choice.
If someone wants to buy one, that is their choice to do so. Demand will decide how many units are sold.
Some people like the freedom to choose without some corporate entity dictating how they should/shoudn’t use the hardware they purchased. There is a lot more to Open Source than emulators. I will be interested to see what is developed for this unit.
“Where are the legal/commercial games” - The unit hasn’t technically been released yet. Even so, I don’t personally care about commercial games. Running a Linux box, I have found loads of great games that are free and would be a blast to have on a portable unit.
“Why is this better at playing videos than other devices that already exist?” - Well, perhaps the fact that open source means that better software with improved features over the internal player will likely be ported. Perhaps new codecs will be ported to allow watching other formats? This would mean less need to re-encode videos to work on the device.
Sorry, not finding too many other “tough issues” in your post. I don’t understand why you expend so much energy ranting about something you are apparently not interested in.
Those who are interested will buy it and that doesn’t mean they are going to pirate games, movies, music etc. Otherwise, as a previous post noted, PC’s would fall into the same category.I’m guessing that you are able to find uses for your PC that don’t involve piracy.
December 30th, 2005 at 5:08 pm
Wolfspirit says:
Neura,
Every single comment you have had on this device so far is (hombrew games suck, emulators are illegal, ports of games… blah blah blah). Dude give it a rest. This is a HOMEBREW portable entertainment player. It’s target auidence is for developers and people who like the community/playing homebrew games and emulated systems. If you don’t like it, then don’t comment on it unless you have a truly educational response regarding the device’s flaws. The flaws you mentioned are clearly the selling points of the device anyways. You are like my friend who is a Sony fanboi, if there are no commercial games for it and it’s not sold in Walmart or Bestbuy then you won’t buy it. It would seem then this is not the device for you. A truly educational negative comment towards the device would be something along the lines of “the screen is a bit small”, not, it only plays homebrew games and so it sucks.. THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS DEVICE. This is not meant to be a PSP killer, this is the successor to the homebrew GP32. If you want a PSP killer then look for the XGP and comment on that. nuff said.
December 30th, 2005 at 5:15 pm
Zeke says:
The openess will make this product a winner.
Those thinking that piracy and Open Source go hand in hand - well sadly you have been brainwashed. Philosophy aside, sure there will always be “better” products available, but how many of those products let YOU make them better? Do they let YOU choose your uses, or are you locked in and locked out from making even the simplest of changes, ie GUI?
Are you satisfied with a world of technology where you own nothing but a revokable license and have no control or ownership? If you said yes, the PSP is just for you.
I just ordered two Gamepark GP2Xs! I’ll be glad to share anything useful I develop on these with the world. Share, and the world grows stronger.
Don’t fear this, embrace it! It is probably easier to accept if you have less than most others to begin with.
December 30th, 2005 at 5:21 pm
Duface says:
Lik-Sang is a bad place to buy it. GBAX, GP32z, Play asia, where ever. Just not lik-sang. They are demanding updates on the product that aren’t going to happen, AND taking pre-orders. They are making money off vapor-ware. Dont buy from Lik-Sang, THe 5 star ratings? Those people haven’t even gotten a gp2x yet.
December 30th, 2005 at 5:47 pm
yaustar says:
Lik-sang had a review for the 1st Edition Models which is what 24 was refering too.
http://www.lik-sang.com/news.php?artc=3742
While it is a niche market, for such a small company it is selling rather well despite it’s flaws.
Software is still relatively sparse but considering it has been out for a short while, it is still impressive and promising.
I agree with Neura, the article is misleading.
December 30th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
Bullsnot says:
A hard drive would make this a slam dunk. Even just the ability to open it up and add in a laptop hd. Large storage for movies, games and music. Then it would blow away all of the current media players. Forget that crappy $100 laptop they are working on for 3rd world countries, add a usb keyboard and mouse to this sucker with some good free software.
December 30th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
clackerd says:
neura,
what are you a lieutenant in the shame-shame-shame police? jesus, you rant and bitch like a little girl. i bet you wear your hair in a pony tail. if i had more time, i would have formatted this as a haiku. (or set of haikus.)
cheers,
chris
December 30th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
FrankieTeo says:
Its dying for a 20G or 40G harddisk!. I think the Archos PMA430 would be a better competitor. It has Linux, games, media and wifi connectivity plus a 30GB disk!. It just needs streaming software on it to allow for wifi streaming. Then its ideal!.
December 30th, 2005 at 6:58 pm
Wertigon says:
I have one of these beauties myself (yes, one of the lucky bastards that preordered
) and here are some initial thoughts for those who want to know. For the record, I’m a (soon to be) game developer, but if I create something for this remains to be seen. It has impressed me so far though.
When it comes to the hardware, the unit and buttons are well made, and offer just about the right resistance, with one notable exception; The “analog” stick, which by the way isn’t analog at all. It just feels too sharp and slippery.
The lack of some sort of Wireless functionality is another thing I miss. It limits multiplayer capabilities quite a bit. But other than those two slip-ups the device has an impressive range of hardware that can emulate everything from the Atari 2600 to PS1. The fact that it uses standard flash memory cards with up to two Gig memory isn’t exactly a minus, either.
When it comes to the software, many games have been released already as Freeware [1]. The one I play most right now is Flashback, but there are many other games to choose from. Some suck, some kick ass, and some are just plain wierd - But it’s Homebrew, what did you expect?
Most original one so far has to be Spout [2], a lander-ish game with a twist.
As for it’s other features, one of the most underrated features is the ability to play movies. Since batteries are easy to come by, and you get 3½ hours from one set, it’s a godsend for me whenever I have to travel a longer distance. The fact that the screen is so low-resolution also means that I can compress the movie files, so they don’t take too much space (in fact, I can fit more than you thought possible on my 1 GB card).
All in all, I’m happy with my purchase, and I can’t wait until next year when things will really be starting up.
[1] http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,9
[2] http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,30,930
December 30th, 2005 at 7:45 pm
JaqMs says:
“Its dying for a 20G or 40G harddisk!. I think the Archos PMA430 would be a better competitor. It has Linux, games, media and wifi connectivity plus a 30GB disk!. It just needs streaming software on it to allow for wifi streaming. Then its ideal!.”
Yes, but the Archos costs ~$750.
December 30th, 2005 at 8:30 pm
delvach says:
I’m one of the wacky ones who agrees with Neura. I bought a PSP the first week they came out, and couldn’t be happier. I take a train (SEPTA, Philadelphia) to and from work every day, and the $250 I shelled out for the unit, plus another $200-300 on games since then, basically keeps me sane. I’m sure if I was more of homebrew guy I’d be happy spending part of my 8-9 hours a week doing something with a GPX2 besides just sitting down and playing decent, well-developed games and watching content I converted from my DVDs and Firewired from my DVR, but for me, it’s well worth the investment. Don’t get me wrong; this sucker looks like a great solution for you wacky *nix guys, but it speaks to a different demographic; I just want something that works.
December 30th, 2005 at 8:34 pm
Deus says:
HOLY CRAP….you Enjoyed spending more than 550 $’s just so you could play Port’s of theyre 30 $ Variant PS2 Versions ?!?! Awesome !! . And this is the Same Reason why I Just forgot the PSP . And you Guys keeps Ranting About PSP , but the DS is the selling almost 3 times more than it right now . Plus’ Has more Higher Level and more popular Game’s on it . In any case im not here to Rant about that . The GP2x is the Height of Open-Source Customisation on the Portable Front-line and Honestly no matter how much People hate it due to Factor’s Neura Stated , It will still Rock . Think Dreamcast . It’s Still Running . and the Only Reason is Because the Community it revolve’s around Still Loves it . This is the Same only better since it is doing the Right thing with the Memory Slot and Portable Media Solution . I’ll get one as Soon as the Software and the Open-Source Scene for this Mature’s a bit . Unfourtunately im resident in India . So it’s gonna be Quite a Gamble just to get one of these…..but lets see . Hell if our ‘Full-of-politic’s-and-page3″ Crappy Newspaper’s can write an Article about it , Maybe it’s set a few Waves .
December 30th, 2005 at 9:42 pm
nucleocide says:
Personally I’m a big fan of Linux and open source things. I see this as a toy for developers and computer nerds. I do not see this as a toy for someone who isn’t as savvy in the tech world. This is hand held running Linux, therefore it will be as much of a pain in the ass as Linux is. Also, I love pirating. Everyone does it, just like masterbating. Fuck buying a $30 UMD movie, especially since I have the DVD of the same thing sitting RIGHT THERE.
December 30th, 2005 at 10:11 pm
XPNDSPRT says:
If it supported Macromedia Flash, there would be a whole new industry born, i am a flash designer who makes puzzle games, and i’ll tell u, i’d kill for a device that would play flash at acceptable speeds.
December 30th, 2005 at 10:35 pm
Lockergnome's Linux Fanatics says:
Linux-based Handheld Gaming Device: Gamepark GP2X
And as cool as the mobile Linux devices appear to be, they are not likely to de-throne the PSP anytime soon….
December 30th, 2005 at 11:07 pm
fjr says:
What about input devices? Could a keyboard be hooked up somehow? What about a portable mouse?
December 30th, 2005 at 11:44 pm
jonkopp says:
With the USB port, a USB hub, USB memory stick/HD, USB keyboard/mouse, USB wifi card, a modified battery pack, and some playing with the /dev/usb, this stands a far better chance of being what the PSP will never be (technically and potentialy, not commercially).
December 30th, 2005 at 11:52 pm
Neura says:
“This is a HOMEBREW portable entertainment player. It’s target auidence is for developers and people who like the community/playing homebrew games and emulated systems.”
If you’d actually read my comments more thoroughly (if at all), you’d see what the “hard issues” to argue with are.
Simply put, it’s not going to replace the PSP (or the DS). I’ll probably get one myself to play around with, but people that are going to get one to write their own code or ONLY use legal free/open-source are the minority.
What I’m getting at, if I can make this any clearer (it obviously hasn’t gotten through yet) is that it’s a machine that everybody is excited about because it’s a haven for emulators. As I’ve noted, if the free games that aren’t illegal rip-offs of copyrighted games (puzzle game lookalikes, etc.) were really that good, they’d be sold, not given away. Things are given away because they can’t be sold or they’d be very hard to sell. It’s one thing to release an open source rip off of bomberman, but it’s another to sell it and not get sued for more than the worth of your company. >>> The GP2X is not a reasonable replacement of a PSP
December 31st, 2005 at 5:19 am
Blobby2006 says:
You are obsessed with games Neura. I’ve been looking at this device for a while now, but as a cheap portable media player - gaming never even crossed my mind.
December 31st, 2005 at 6:56 am
Cooney says:
Sorry, I just had to chime in on the following comment:
“This comment is based on (a) history and (b) the fact that if the games/apps were legal and you still wanted them so much, their creator would most likely be charging money for them, which is also pretty safe to assume due to (a). ”
This statement is so twisted. So apps that I want to use must of course be pay for play. How about working in an environment where I develop in Eclipse on Linux for the majority of my job. Yes, I create software that is sold, but there’s such useful apps that are out and available to people freely. Java, ANT, I could go on and on…the beauty of open software is that you can see a problem and fix it for yourself and others. The stuff can mature quickly and you don’t get slammed with licenses that don’t do anything for the user. It’s all about opening things and leveling the playing field for innovation.
December 31st, 2005 at 8:14 am
Richard says:
I guess this is cool if you don’t have the $ for a PSP, but I had emulators and I gave it up without so much as a thought once I could play StarWars BF II on it, which I dont think this thing will ever do. lol Also, the PSP is smaller in demensions, easier to use for an mp3 player, which I do.
December 31st, 2005 at 11:58 am
Wayne Walker says:
Has anyone used this as an avi or mp3 player yet?
What is that audio quality like?
Is mplayer ported to it?
xmms?
I too have no interest in it as a game platform (though it sounds like a fun one for the OSS folks), I think it would be an alternate to an iPod video for me, especially because I could add any program I want to it…
December 31st, 2005 at 12:22 pm
Yuglooc says:
Has anyone used this as an avi or mp3 player yet? Yes
What is that audio quality like? Awesome, It also features equalizers if your not pleased.
Is mplayer ported to it? The Movie player is based on mplayer
xmms? not yet, but shouldn’t be too hard.
January 1st, 2006 at 7:41 am
jonkopp says:
Does anyone know how hard it’d be to get python supported?
January 1st, 2006 at 6:20 pm
Vito says:
Jesus Christ. Listen to all you fucking nerds. It sounds like most of you be won’t be happy until this thing can cure cancer(after requiring all the necessary licences, of course!). I couldn’t think of a better platform to play illegal roms while I’m going to work on the train.
How many of you forgot to read the part in the title which says “Linux-based Handheld ‘GAMING’ Device”? GAMEpark GP2X. Fuckin’ nerds.
January 1st, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Vito says:
If you saw my typo you’re gay
January 1st, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Yuglooc says:
Does anyone know how hard it’d be to get python supported?
It supports Pygame already
January 2nd, 2006 at 2:30 am
Manabu says:
Sorry about the long post, but here we go:
“HOLY CRAP….you Enjoyed spending more than 550 $’s just so you could play Port’s of theyre 30 $ Variant PS2 Versions ?!?! Awesome !! . And this is the Same Reason why I Just forgot the PSP”
Awesome isn’t? There are many types of people in the world. There are some people that download every movie that they want to view from p2p. There are people that, even with this option, prefer to buy the original DVD because it is easier, have all the fancy stuff, less headches, etc. Time is also money. Most of people want a thing that “just works”.
I don’t need super realistic graphics to have fun, I can play hours of “galaxian” that is as fun as any actual game. It is diferent, of course, but it has also it’s value.
And about the argument “If it is for free it is not good” i’d say that is totaly flawed. You have for example The Gimp that is only after Photoshop as the best image editor. Or Apache that is the best of all. They are open source, and free, but their value is much higher than most comercial products.
Again: not all people are identical. I don’t know whay I would make with 1 billion. I prefer only thousands of dolars for continue to make what I like and make people happier and the world better if I can.
In games, for example, I loved the “Koules”. It is free, not an “copy” of anything else, and it is GREAT.
About miths:
- Not all ROMs are illegal, you can find legal roms of old games for failed plataforms and etc.
- Copyright has nothing to do with make a game that look like another. Copyright has to do about copy, not inspiration, ideas, concepts, etc. Patents that hold the development and so on, not copyright.
What I liked in this plataform is the freedom to do what you want, respecting the laws of course.
Regards.
January 4th, 2006 at 7:18 am
Brian says:
To some of Neura’s points (if he’s still reading):
1) Nobody is really trying to promote this as a “PSP Killer”, except perhaps the author of this article. This thing has no 3D hardware, for one. If you want the latest 3D commercial games, DO NOT BUY A GP2X.
2) Quake. Duke Nukem 3D. Star Control II (Ur Quan Masters). This is an example of great, perfectly legal games you can play already, simply ported by the community. You can play the shareware versions for free, or if you have the retail version of say, Quake, you can copy the full resource files over and play that.
3) Music. You seem to be under the impression it can only play OGGs? It also plays MP3s.
4) Video. It can play movies and TV shows in DivX or XVid, at standard 700MB “fit to a CD” size, which many programs can do for you quite painlessly these days…
5) Emulation. Believe it or not, virtually every game I play on an emulator is an old classic that I previously owned and played to death on the real system. Impossible Mission from my C64. SMB3 from NES. FF3 from SNES. I can’t speak for others, but your implication that all emulation constitutes unethical piracy is pretty black & white, if not downright offensive.
6) If you really want to present your argument to the GP2X community (you seem anxious for direct answers to your points, after all. Are you afraid of a larger audience?), I would suggest you visit the gp32x.com forums and continue your tirades and accusations of immorality there. For bonus points you could inquire about obtaining pirated software for the GP2X, and watch yourself get thoroughly chastised and/or banned.
Cheers.
January 9th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Buyer's Regret - NO SOURCE CODE says:
It isn’t really “open source” yet, since they refuse to release the source code. For this reason alone, I wish I hadn’t bought one. Which I did, assuming perhaps foolishly that when the manufacturer touts “ships with linux, open source” as a feature, they actually understood what that meant.
Now I guess someone is going to have to sue them…
January 9th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Kyle says:
Replying to an earlier comment about how to convert video from one format to another easily, I recommend using Canopus Procoder. You can batch process all your videos and convert them to a single format over night! effortlessly!. It supports a wide array of codecs and settings aswell, I’ll be receiving my GP2X within the week and I’m already encoding many of my videos using this program, beats using virtualdub and going through the painful process of opening each individual file and adding them to the batch process, procoder just makes it simple i find. It’s quite costly though but i’m sure you can find a way of getting your hands on it
.
Megaframenet@hotmail.com
January 9th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
knot says:
nice machine… i want one so i can run simulations in my pocket on my way to meet my advisor, as you may’ve already guessed, most computer science labs and researchers run their experiments on linux. sony’s psp is also nice being an easy-to-use consumer-level game system that even non-geeks can operate and feel good about, an acheivement.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Ragnor says:
Great machine, i ordered one, and will get in a few days.
The problem about not being open sourse is a misunderstanding. As far is i know linux on this machine coded by another company and they released and early version of the code but on the gamepark’s website they say that final source code will be released soon. So no need to worry about freedom of this machine
.
January 20th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
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July 30th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
Arctic says:
good lord all the bitchin’ and whinen’. Let me say why I want one.
A. I own a playstation
B. I own a GBA SP
C. I own a sega gensis
D. even if I don’t who cares?
Now I do own everything I said.. but, as to the “emulation/rom” aspect.. get the stick out your ass people. its called ABANDON WARE for a reason. Although this machine looks beautiful.. I probably will wait for a more powerful version in the future.. because I still question its ps1 emu powers.. but, i must say.. its gotten my interest and in the future I will probably buy the later verisons. I would love to have it. I don’t want it as a psp killer.. (I don’t want psp at all). But, multiplayer online ps1 emulation anyone?
Next version needs a few things. A. rechargable batteries. B online.
March 17th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Johan says:
I think a hacked psp is more usable. Loads of games with good quality to download from any torrent site, it has and most of the abilities as this product has. Now there’s an 8gb memory stick card to buy as well. There is a version of linux for the psp and loads of emulators. I love my hacked psp!
April 25th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Josh says:
There is a dock that u can buy that turns it in to a full fleged linux comp. (not a crappy handheld version of linux(i think)) that has rs-232, 4 usb ports, s-video, vag out, power, and l/r rca audio out. i’m thinking about getting 1 of these docks with my GP2X if i get 1.
June 16th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
ClapekDodki says:
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July 17th, 2007 at 4:27 am
keith says:
Well It is incorrect when the article says that it plays divx/wmv/mpg/ and so forth this is false info and needs to be re examined.
August 11th, 2007 at 12:58 am
nick henry says:
hi i want one so bad but heres the thing wifi is a yes and a no at the same time ! but youll have to buy the cradel and wifi dongle but thats almost 100 dollors in extra just for those and then it would drain the battieries more and then youll have to by the power adapter 20 plus shipping but its a great device im getting one late october
~ nick henry
August 22nd, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Top Unix News » Linux-based PSP killer says:
[…] read more | digg story […]
November 17th, 2007 at 6:16 am