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Portables (Games) Handhelds Hardware

Gamepark Releases the GP2X Wiz 145

Posted by timothy from the for-the-obscurantists dept.
Craig writes "Gamepark have officially released the follow-up to its successful Linux handheld, the GP2X. The GP2X Wiz is a 533Mhz Linux-based handheld that's a similar size to the GBA Micro, with a touchscreen and 12 games preloaded into memory, many of which are demos of commercial games. The system comes with 1GB of flash memory, which can be expanded with SD cards. The Homebrew Community have already released ports of games such as Quake, Wolfenstein 3D, Warcraft and emulators for SNES, Genesis, Commodore 64 and the arcade emulator Mame."
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Gamepark Releases the GP2X Wiz More

Gamepark Releases the GP2X Wiz

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  • I was under the impression that this was launched long ago, as I remember them (Gamepark Holdings) advertising it for sale at least a year ago. Doing a bit of research, I guess they thought it would be launched far sooner than they really could. I remember they had pricing available and everything.

    • Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Svartalf ( 2997 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @02:21PM (#27953939) Homepage

      No... They had a holdup due to supply issues much like Pandora's had- otherwise you'd have both of them available right now for your gaming pleasure.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by daid303 ( 843777 )
      The first preview versions arrived at distributors about 10 days ago. But today (or yesterday) the large amounts finally shipped. Expected to arrive within a week.

  • Successful? (Score:4, Funny)

    by sys.stdout.write ( 1551563 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @01:11PM (#27953043)
    Describing it as "successful" is quite generous, considering I am a gaming fan and have never heard of it..

    • Re:Successful? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by h4rr4r ( 612664 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @01:19PM (#27953143)

      If it made money it is successful. Since it did not fail, it is successful. There are lots of successful people and products I am sure you have never heard of.

    • Re:Successful? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14, 2009 @01:38PM (#27953327)

      Describing yourself as "a gaming fan" is quite generous, considering the GP2X was successful and you have never heard of it..

      • Describing yourself as "a gaming fan" is quite generous, considering the GP2X was successful and you have never heard of it..

        Not really; as I was about to point out (but this comment has already mentioned [slashdot.org]), the GP2X isn't really a direct competitor for the DS and PSP, at least not in most of the world. It's primarily marketed towards homebrewers; those not interested in that could quite conceivably have missed it, though I'm still slightly surprised that he/she has *never* heard of it at all.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Artuir ( 1226648 )

        There's a Russia joke in here somewhere, I swear it.

    • Re:Successful? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by papasui ( 567265 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @01:53PM (#27953479) Homepage
      Need to realize that it's a niche market they are after. They aren't competing with the DS or the PSP in the commerical games arena, but the homebrew arena.

    • Re:Successful? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Patch86 ( 1465427 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @02:03PM (#27953619)

      I didn't realise the universal measure of success was whether you had heard of it.

      Seriously though, success is relative. We're not talking about a DS beater here. They're a comparatively tiny company and their target is the very niche market of home-brewers and enthusiasts. From the stand point of the size of their company and their stated aims, they've been pretty successful so far.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Cyner ( 267154 )

      Obviously you're not the gaming fan you thought you were. The GPH has been around for quite a few years now, and have made several successful gaming systems. Just because they're not extremely popular like Gameboy or PSP does not make them unsuccessful.

    • Describing yourself as a "gaming fan" is quite generous, considering it is a successful gaming console and you have never heard of it... ;-)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brkello ( 642429 )
      I was going to make the same comment. I'm a gamer and never heard of the thing. What does it take to be successful these days? Oh well, if Palin is considered intelligent enough to be the VP, then I guess this gaming device could be popular enough to be called successful.

  • Ouch (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Steauengeglase ( 512315 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @01:15PM (#27953101)

    Looks like it would cause a bad case of dual Nintendo Thumb. Also, where is the wireless? Am I missing this in the product description?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by khellendros1984 ( 792761 )
      I don't see any mention of wireless support in the description, or in the stats on Wikipedia. My guess it that it's missing =/

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by daid303 ( 843777 )
        Wireless is an addon module, details not yet released. If you want a 'everything in 1' device, then wait a bit longer for the "open pandora". Which is inspired by the GP2X and everything that was wrong with it. (I own a GP2X and it's an nice device, but the "open pandora" will greatly surpass that)

  • Android? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Facegarden ( 967477 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @01:19PM (#27953139)

    Does anyone know if this can/will run android?

    I'm beginning to think that android should be on every portable, and for something like this that runs linux, one would imagine it's either doable at worst, or officially supported at best.

    Any thoughts?

    -Taylor

    • Android is becoming the new beowulf cluster. Take any small device. Claim we should run Android on it. Instant +5 funny!

    • Re:Android? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by BikeHelmet ( 1437881 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @05:01PM (#27956961) Journal

      Android will likely run on the Pandora [openpandora.org]. The Pandora is the spiritual successor to the GP2X. (as opposed to actual successor)

      A bunch of community/forum elites got tired of fighting with lame design choices like the difficult to use joystick, or poorly thought out DPAD, or removal of networking/debugging support; they're making their own dream handheld, which is significantly more powerful, and is designed right.

      According to them, it has the best input scheme they've ever tried. ;) That could just be creators tooting their own horn, but after talking with them and reading their posts for the past year, I really doubt it.

      The GP2X F100 was the best version of the GP2X, with every version after that getting worse. Updating firmware was absolutely horrible, as no less than five versions of the GP2X were released, all of them bricked by different versions of the firmware.

      Despite the lame joystick, the F100 v1 was the best because of projects like USB networking, USB debugging, and even a Java VM. Then GPH replaced the USB chip with a cheaper one, cutting two of those features, and they continued to make bad choices after that.

      Despite all this, the community persists.

      The GP2X has very lackluster hardware, but emus are reported to run better on it than on a PSP or even iPhone. (despite both of those having significantly faster hardware) That's because of the relatively open nature of the platform.

      Most of the GP2X community (gp32x) is throwing their weight behind the Pandora, because it's fully open, rather than just relatively open. We don't want to have our input ignored, then fight with lame design choices. We want the devs to listen, and we want a platform that has mature open source drivers available - a platform like the OMAP 3530. :)

      • Re: (Score:1, Redundant)

        by Facegarden ( 967477 )

        Android will likely run on the Pandora [openpandora.org]. The Pandora is the spiritual successor to the GP2X. (as opposed to actual successor)

        A bunch of community/forum elites got tired of fighting with lame design choices like the difficult to use joystick, or poorly thought out DPAD, or removal of networking/debugging support; they're making their own dream handheld, which is significantly more powerful, and is designed right.

        According to them, it has the best input scheme they've ever tried. ;) That could just be creators tooting their own horn, but after talking with them and reading their posts for the past year, I really doubt it.

        The GP2X F100 was the best version of the GP2X, with every version after that getting worse. Updating firmware was absolutely horrible, as no less than five versions of the GP2X were released, all of them bricked by different versions of the firmware.

        Despite the lame joystick, the F100 v1 was the best because of projects like USB networking, USB debugging, and even a Java VM. Then GPH replaced the USB chip with a cheaper one, cutting two of those features, and they continued to make bad choices after that.

        Despite all this, the community persists.

        The GP2X has very lackluster hardware, but emus are reported to run better on it than on a PSP or even iPhone. (despite both of those having significantly faster hardware) That's because of the relatively open nature of the platform.

        Most of the GP2X community (gp32x) is throwing their weight behind the Pandora, because it's fully open, rather than just relatively open. We don't want to have our input ignored, then fight with lame design choices. We want the devs to listen, and we want a platform that has mature open source drivers available - a platform like the OMAP 3530. :)

        Ah, awesome, thanks for the info! Sounds like a good project. :)
        -Taylor

  • When this thing was announced, there was no iPhone, Android, etc. Are handheld game-only units still relevant at this point?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by fatski ( 1137813 )
      According to the article it can do e-books, video and music, so not strictly game-only.
    • I'll remember this the next time I see you holding a device with two joysticks to your head...

    • When this thing was announced, there was no iPhone, Android, etc. Are handheld game-only units still relevant at this point?

      They are if you don't want to spend $70/mo on another phone contract. Consider that Apple still sells iPod products, including the iPod Touch PDA, even after the introduction of the iPhone.

    • They are if you want proper gaming controls.

  • I got bitten by the crappy hardware of the first GP2X (4-contact digital "fake analog" stick so about 75% of the movable area was "dead zone", and diagonals were almost impossible), lousy battery life, tendency to blow capacitors...

    I'll wait until this thing has some solid reviews on it...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zashi ( 992673 )
      Sadly I have to agree. I didn't have /too/ many problems with my gp2x (I have a second gen). I mostly used it to play SNES and GB games. battery life wasn't a problem. I used 10-minute-to-charge NiMH AA. 2700mAh for your extended enjoyment. The freezing and crashes seemed more due to the hardware than the software.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Samah ( 729132 )

      I got bitten by the crappy hardware of the first GP2X (4-contact digital "fake analog" stick so about 75% of the movable area was "dead zone", and diagonals were almost impossible), lousy battery life, tendency to blow capacitors...

      I had one of those too, and I actually ordered a replacement thumb grip from the UK (ie. concave, not convex). I bought the F-100 when it came out, and they changed it to 4 separate digital buttons (much better). The touch screen was pathetic though; it didn't even register most of the time in the official menu system, and the image browser would crash after 5 minutes or so of usage (memory leak I think). Anyone with half a brain would be using GMenu2X [sourceforge.net] though.

      I bit the bullet and bought an NDS and M3 Rea

  • ... 12 games preloaded into memory many of which are demos of commercial games

    No, if you read the announcement - they are demos of games currently in development. It appears there are no games available now except for what's pre-loaded onto the device itself.

    Not sure why you'd buy this now...

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Narishma ( 822073 )
      Just like there were no games for the previous handhelds from Gamepark (GP32 and GP2X) and people still bought them. They are used mainly for homebrew and as emulators of older systems.

  • I've been hoping somebody would release something like this for a while. I tried to crack the firmware on my psp so I could run some homebrew stuff on it. That failed miserably.

    These people will get my hard earned money if their console does what they say it can.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by daid303 ( 843777 )
      Look back at what the GP2X has done, and you'll see that they hold up to the 'open' promise.

      But if you want a real open device, then go here: http://www.openpandora.org/ [openpandora.org] Inspired by the GP2X, and everything that was wrong with it.

  • alternative to this which looks more promising (Score:5, Informative)

    by andycon ( 1525821 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @01:47PM (#27953423)
    http://openpandora.org/ [openpandora.org] this is made by some of the same people that were on the first GP2X team i believe. from what i've read it seems more promising.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Garbad Ropedink ( 1542973 )

      You're right. It does look more promising.
      I'm just looking at the site now.
      Why the hell haven't any of the big companies released something like this?! How?! How?!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by entgod ( 998805 )
        The big console companies make their money selling games, not hardware. If free mobile games were to become big, it could eat a big chunk of their revenue. Almost like microsoft releasing something like linux because that's what the users want :)
  • Now imagine a Beowulf cluster of these.

  • * Powered by a 533Mhz 3D accelerator plus flash engine

    What's this in geek?

    Why are they pointing to some web forum instead of the manufacturer, anyway?

    * The new console boasts a 533MHz ARM9 CPU with 3D acceleration.

    That's better, I think.

    • Re:What's that in Geek? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Svartalf ( 2997 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @02:28PM (#27954037) Homepage

      What's this in geek?

      It is a 533MHz ARM9 based SoC with OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenVG 1.0 hardware support and APIs to use the same. This means you can do OpenGL 1.4 type games with reasonable performance. It probably doesn't have the oomph to do ioquake3 stuff (CPU's just not there) but it should do the things they're claiming of it all the same.

  • The size of WHAT? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Yvan256 ( 722131 ) on Thursday May 14, 2009 @02:36PM (#27954195) Homepage Journal

    I'm sorry but the author of that sentence has never even seen or held a Game Boy Micro in person.

    From the specifications alone, you can see that the GP2x Wiz is 50% bigger and 70% heavier than a GameBoy Micro:

    Game Boy Micro:
    - 50Ã--101Ã--17.2 mm (86860 mm3)
    - 80 grams (built-in battery)

    GP2x Wiz:
    - 121x61x18 mm (132858 mm3, 50% bigger)
    - 136 g (with battery)

    As far as processing power goes, however, the GP2x Wiz wins. No debate there.

    I'm also not a fan of what seems to be a dual-gamepad setup, even if the pad on the right is supposed to be used as "buttons" (and even if the pad is split in four equal parts, it's still a gamepad). Weird, to say the least.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      and even if the pad is split in four equal parts, it's still a gamepad

      No it's not. And to be clear, official Playstation controls do not have a real game pad. This is their biggest failing.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Yvan256 ( 722131 )

        The buttons of the GP2x Wiz still looks like a gamepad shape to me from the photos. With square corners too.

        As for playstation, there is a real gamepad on the PS/PS2 gamepads (and PS3 too, I assume). Yes there is a "hole" in the middle but underneath it's still only one piece.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Audiophyle ( 593650 )

      Game Boy Micro: - 50Ã--101Ã--17.2 mm (86860 mm3)

      Wow, 50-101 Angstroms is pretty small! I guess they named it Gameboy Micro for a reason!

  • Dingoo (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ezelkow1 ( 693205 )
    Im not sure the wiz is going to be as successful as their previous attempts. They are getting very strong competition from a bunch of chinese manufacturers releasing units all based off of ingenic processors. They all have comparable speed and specs to a wiz, with a few less features, but they are all half the price and already come with fully functioning emulators. The big one out now is the A320 dingoo. Theres a growing dev group behind it that have almost completed porting linux to it, but the unit a

  • Now whenever friends, family, or even complete strangers ask me what I'm doing, I can cheerfully reply that I'm playing with my Wiz.

  • The problem I have with the current state of homebrew console developement and open source game developement is, that the game developement pipeline, i.e. the pipeline for developing (and deploying) anything beyond a non-trivial CLI or GUI app is a huge fuss, even compared to the old days of the Commodore and Atari plattorms. The bizar mess even the most humble modders and hobby gamedevs have to go through to develop across FOSS platforms (BSD, Linux, OpenSolaris, whatever) is a slap in the face to anybody

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I respect what you wrote, and I think you are a sexy man. Tell me, do you have a moustache?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 4D6963 ( 933028 )
      What the hell are you babbling about? Installing a fully featured cross compilation toolkit for most of these machines is most trivial, and compilation using them is just as trivial. There days they all come with SDL and OpenGL ES out the box. You just install your often ready to use toolkit and compile your programs and there you go. Way to see issues where there aren't any.
  • Why no widescreen ? Just interested, most other devices aim for a wider display. So did the next gen gamepark hints.
    Thanks

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