Be Excellent To Each Other

This thread has spawned from the "Gaming things you've always wanted thread"

I want a handheld console that plays emulators. MAME, Megadrive and SNES mainly but anything else would be nice.

Now... I have only a small clue about these, so hive mind... It's over to you. I know some people have had these and have met with different experiences.

Tell me more!

I have a GP2X which was pretty decent at emulating MD/Snes/Neo Geo/Mame/Turbo Grafix etc. I'm not sure how good the support is for it anymore as I haven't looked for a year or two. The only thing I remember about it was that it absolutely chewed batteries and even high end rechargeables would only last about 4-5 hours.

There's a successor out called the GP2X Wiz which looks quite sweet.

http://www.gbax.com/gp2x.html

Ashens' review of the Open Pandora really makes me want one, but it's just too bloody expensive, especially considering his remarks about the ghosting in the screen, which is a bit weak in a device designed for gaming.

So this is mainly a "from memory" post but I may go back and update some of this with pictures and some extra details - if you have questions on these ask away :-)
(The pics in here are all stock ones from the web although I have everything listed apart from the GP32 - ask if you want pics of any)

Beyond the GBA flash carts that allowed some basic emulation (and then the DS ones) , I have PSP which has a nice screen and I happened to buy an early US model which came with firmware 1.5 which true to Sonys security background had holes so big you could drive a pirated game and emulator through them :-)

As a multi emulator its not too bad however you need to jump through a lot of hoops now to get one which can be cracked and then its a faff to get things working correctly on there - so its an option for some people but not always a practical one.

Other systems I have or have tried :

The GP32 -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gp32

Runs off 2xAA batteries , has a custom PSU Connection , no interface that you can use , and uses SMC (Smartmedia cards - very old) as media
Not bad screen , not bad battery life , not bad controller (although a lack of buttons) - it has a very low end CPU (133mhz) , so cant cope with anything that taxing but played NES and Megadrive games really well.
It had a basic version of MAME which could handle some of the very low end stuff with frame skip enabled (so it skips some frames) , but on a small screen it was passable.

I bought mine 2nd hand for around 50 or 60 quid (I no longer have my GP32 - I sold it to help pay for my GP2X) - they seem to go for low 20's on ebay - heres an example that went for £22

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GamePark-GP32 ... 3a6837e801

The GP2X -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X

Runs off 2XAA batteries , has a custom PSU connection , Mini USB connection to hook up to a PC , uses standard SD cards as media
Not a bad screen (but basic) , *TERRIBLE* battery life , new fully charged 2100 nihms would only last a few hours, *poor* controller on the inital model (joystick) which took a lot of getting used to and really didnt work well for precision games (and doing things like fireballs in SF2 was really difficult) although it does have 4 face buttons /2 shoulder buttons , Better CPU (dual core 200mhz which could be overclocked) so can do basic things,
Emulator wise again Megadrive / NES / Some SNES / and a good MAME (MAME4ALL which has now been ported to a lot of other systems)

Again I bought 2nd hand for around 90 or so but they go now for around £50 on ebay - here's a typical example

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GP2X-Wiz-Game ... 23126e57a7

There was a 2nd hardware revision which swapped the duff joystick for a joypad , and added a touchscreen (touchscreen is suppose to be rubbish) , i've not tried it but they say its better.

JXD301 -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JXD

This is one of those strange little portable MP4 players that came out of China a few years ago , they were cheap (i paid about £60 for mine new) and had some built in emulators but you couldnt really add or change any of them (they were included in the firmware)

Runs off an internal Lion battery which gives around 8-10 hours of use , custom PSU charger point , mini USB connection to drop files on and 4GB internal space (there were 2GB versions as well) , takes SD cards as extra media
*Amazing* screen at the time (LTPS) , not bad controls although limited because you have the D pad , 4 face buttons 2 tiny shoulder buttons and a 'menu' button
Build in Capcom CPS1 emulator , Neo Geo emulator , NES and SNES are all really good , however all the other built in ones are pretty rubbish

Nice review of it here : http://mympxplayer.org/image-vp39823.html (reading this at the time was one of the reasons I went off and got one).

Dont really see them around any more but there are still plenty of these very generic MP4 players which have some basic built in emulators

Dingo A320

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingoo_A320
Runs off an internal Lion battery which gives around 8 hours of use , charges and connects to the computer via mini-usb (2GB internal space) takes mini SD (not Micro) as extra media
Nice LCD screen , good dpad plus 4 face buttons / shoulder buttons / start / select.
Has some built in emulators but can also be flashed to run unix which adds a lot more , 366mhz processor which handles a lot of early mame games well and near perfect megadrive / snes / neo-geo , can also run quite a bit of early PS1 games (but if you want that get a hacked PSP).

As a portable arcade it works really well with a lot of the 80's and 90's arcade games playing perfectly on MAME and it does all the other consoles and computers of the day at a reasonable level (limited slightly because of no keyboard but if what your playing uses a joystick + maybe one or 2 keys then your fine) - does also have a very basic Amiga emulator which works on some games at a reasonable pace but its more a novelty than a serious amiga emulator

I paid about £70 for one new on ebay a few years ago , none up there now but they do still seem to be on sale at various places for around the £50-£60 mark (new)

And finally I have a Pandora



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_pandora
Runs off an internal Lithium battery , uses the PSP charging nub , connects to the computer via mini-usb (although its a computer so you can also use wifi on it) , takes 2 SD cards as extra media
Nice LCD touchscreen , good dpad , 'great' keyboard , 2 analog nubs which work well as a mouse or analog sticks , fast processor and handles plenty of more taxing MAME games.
Emulators which are actually out work well (SNES / Megadrive / etc) however this is where the big gap is here , there are not that many emulators and a number of them are still incomplete
I signed up for this on the first day it was available (30th Sept 2008) and got it around the middle of last year , in the gap between that the iphone / ipad / and a million other things came out which made this not the 'do everything' hand-held it was going to be.
It still has potential , and it may still be great (it has the power to do A1200 emulation / Saturn / N64 etc) but its not there yet and if the numbers dont get out to everyone else it never will

I think I paid around £230 for it at the start they are going for around £250 on ebay if you can find one (very hard to come by as there have not really been that many made yet)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OpenPandora-P ... 20bad84da4

Thank you... very interesting but you didn't mention the GP2X Wiz. Do you have any experience with this? It seems like a nice little unit from the videos I've seen on YouTube and whilst not the latest, seems to run everything I'd want it too. Apart from that.. The Dingoo seems like something I'd part cash with if only for the funny name.

Nope - dont have it - have never used it - it does seem like the next step from the GP2x however what put me off originally was the control scheme (was was going to be 2x4 buttons joined together in blocks) I understand they changed that but i've no real experience of them.

Yep.. the buttons do put me off but some kid on YouTube says they're alright!

Although.. he has just spent $120 dollars on one so he's bound to say that.

Well.. I've gone and done it. I've ordered one of those Wiz thingys.

Don't expect an unboxing video but I will be posting my thoughts on it when it arrives. Hopefully it'll come pretty quick so I can take it on holiday! Fingers crossed.

How much?

It's coming from America and it was a little over 70 quid including postage.

I'd be interested to know how easy it is to put the emus on there. The problem with the dingoo I found was the naff file system/GUI, especially when it came to MAME.

The software now is much easier to use , and there are 'native' emulators which means you dont need to put unix on it to play MAME - however given its age and the fact these things move as quickly I'm sure there will be other cheap alternatives which you can use for MAME - and MAME4ALL seems to be quite well ported to the various systems (if you havent already Praisebot look out for a download specifically as MAME4ALL so you can grab the correct romsets as it uses things from I think MAME 0.38 or 0.39 instead of the bloated 'current' version)

I shall do... Thanks for the info. I've no doubt I'll post loads of stuff about it when it comes (but not an unboxing video) but I'll let you all know how I get on with the file system.

It seems simple enough from what I've read but I could be wrong. Either way, I can't wait!

Pitch me something cool to do with my hacked PSP Slim, Beex. Maybe I'll even take it on holiday with me and use it for something other than its current role as a paperweight that stops my USB hard drive's power lead falling down the back of my desk.

Does it play old games? You could sell it to me and put the money towards a Kindle to take on holiday.

It's hacked to buggery, so it plays everything I think. I could sell it but I always worry I'd regret it [1]. Plus I already bought a Kindle!


[1] This is stupid.

Well you could put the money towards some books... it's just a thought anyway.

But yes.. take it on holiday and play old games all day. Best holiday ever!

just jailbroked my iphone4 alfter a few years of non jailbreakage, on 4.3.3 it's just too easy.. snes EX runs reall rather nice..

My PSP is running 3.80 M33. This is ancient, apparently. Does it matter? Googling things like "PSP CFW" leads me down thousands of dodgy sites with terrible english and third-rate beta firmwares. Has anyone updated a hacked PSP lately and can suggest a specific firmware I should be putting on?

I've install MAME4ALL v4.9r2 and I'm grabbing a ROM set now (I seem to have misplaced the one I kept around for ages, annoyingly).

Here's what I did to update my PSP:

5.00 M33 from http://www.atmaxplorer.com/2008/10/psp- ... -released/
5.50 D3 from http://www.atmaxplorer.com/2009/12/inst ... 50-gen-d3/
Prometheus-4 from http://www.atmaxplorer.com/2010/12/prom ... 50-gen-d3/
PSNLover from http://psp.dashhacks.com/file/1922, install instructions http://forums.consoleaddicted.com/Threa ... l-PSNLover

This seems to work (lots of ISOs that didn't work before now function, at least).

After making my wife stop in all day, my GP2X Wiz has arrived.

That was pretty damn speedy from Thinkgeek.com and they sent along a catalogue of other things I'm tempted by so good work all round!

It's charging at the moment and as soon as I've got it working, I'll post some stuff about it. So far.. I like it! It's small, handy and makes me feel nerdy again.

How much was postage from ThinkGeek? If they had some budget rate shipping instead of using a couple of couriers, I'd have probably emptied my bank account in their direction by now.

Also you'd need to factor in customs which will add to things - looking around this place has them in the UK for £99 , however they get a very hit and miss rate for customer service (seems to either go fine or they are terrible)

http://www.gameseek.co.uk/pd/Toys27942gu5h7n/

They have both black and white versions

They also seem to be the suppliers on both Play.com and Amazon.co.uk but are charging an extra £20 for the same item

http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/ ... oduct.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GP2X-Caanoo-Gam ... B0041SKYYE

I dont like that the amount in stock varies from their site (31) , Amazon (6) , and play just lists 'in stock'

The thinkgeek one comes in at just over £100 plus shipping and the risk of adding another £20 for tax - they do also crop up every so often on Ebay if you'd prefer either a second hand one which is actually in the country (this one went for £70 plus a fiver shipping last week : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Caanoo-Gp2x-/ ... 2c5e4bdf29) , or if you want to take the risk of importing one from the far east and taking your chances with customs

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAANOO-WIZ-2- ... 1c1c1992ee

delivery time is listed as 11-23 "working days" and they do have a rating of over 9000 so you'd get it - just have to wait :-)

Play-asia (who are a reasonably reputable company) have it for £80.50 with £13 'cheap' shipping to the UK

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-d1- ... -3w5n.html

or for another £8 they will send it fedex (quicker but not really sure of times)

My GP2x Wiz cost me about 87 quid all in and that includes a customs charge and postage. It took less than a week to arrive from the USA so I would definitely recommend ThinkGeek.

It's still on charge at the moment though so I can't play it yet.

At thinkgeek right now I cant see the Wiz just the follow up (the Caanoo) which is $169.99 http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/e5ef/
Edit found it - The Wiz doesnt show up on a regular search - page is here but is saying out of stock : http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/bfc7/

MAME4ALL for PSP appears to be less than superb. I put a complete MAME 0.37 ROMset in it; compatability is not great (the PSP lacks the CPU grunt to run about half the ROMs properly, which isn't MAME4ALL's fault admittedly), it takes about 60 seconds to start up (and that's nothing to do with the ROMlist, it was the same when it was empty) and -- highly irritatingly -- the PSP's Home button doesn't return you to the ROMlist, it pulls up the normal XMB "quit game (Y/N)?" prompt instead. So it takes 60+ seconds to switch ROMs because you have to reload all of MAME, and you have to switch ROMs about half the time because you found one that runs too slowly.

I went back to SNES9x instead.

Edit -- apparently you hold L&R together for a few seconds (tapping them changes video modes, I discovered that) and then hit Home to quit the ROM. This isn't even slightly the sort of detail that should have been in a readme.

On the GP2x and the Dingoo you hold down L+R and start to get back to the rom view - possibly something similar on the PSP ?

Also game wise your really stuck with pre 87 - 88 stuff and nothing that does has custom CPU's - you can often speed things up slightly at the cost of sound by turning off the sound emulation (not simply turning down the volume) as the system will not emulate the CPU's used for audio (depends on the game and where you are playing it)

See my edit above.

Well, having read the (dated 2007!) release notes for MAME4ALL in more detail, it appears there is CPU overclock support up to 333 MHz -- I'm fairly sure the ROMs I tried last night were running at 200 MHz. So there's some headroom there, at the cost of battery life.

From memory the PSP is underclocked on purpose - so 333 is 'safe' at the higher battery cost - It doesnt surprise me that there are not more details on the PSP version as it seems to have been ported as a proof of concept and never really updated since - if your looking for more recent readme's then heres one from last year (although more on the other handhelds)

http://sources.cosam.org/svn/mame4all/readme.txt

You'll also find quite a bit of info on it in various places in french (as the creator of the port Franxis is French - however his homepage seems to have gone http://www.talfi.net/gp32_franxis/ - you could try waybackmachine or similar to see when the page changed but i cant access it at work)

Do you really want a emulator, you might find a game boy colour might suit your needs more.

Actually a GBA Micro with a ESFA flashcart is a great little emulation system it does NES / MS / Speccy and some very basic arcade stuff (GNG / Green Beret / etc)

I have just had a thought. Do you think it'll be alright to take my GP2X Wiz on a plane? I'm leaving for Las Vegas on Monday and would like to play this while I fly... but they are funny about things with batteries aren't they?

What? No! I'm laden down with battery powered stuff when I fly. They'll insist you turn stuff off while you are taxiing, taking off, and landing, though, due to the wireless interference demons that leak out of all electronics that like to eat engine parts.

Perfect. It's just a friend mentioned that his wife had to take the battery and catridge out of her DS when she flew to Florida a while ago.

I'm thinking that a GP2x Wiz is hardly a well known device so they may be suspicious.

Arsey cabin crew, I expect. I've flown to the US and Canada multiple times with laptop, iPad, digital cameras, Kindle, and/or other miscellaneous stuff without problems.

More-likely-feex.