Gamepark Releases the GP2X Wiz 145
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."
Huh? (Score:2)
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)
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.
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Successful? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Successful? (Score:5, Insightful)
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, Insightful)
Whooosh.
If selling 60,000 units was enough to be profitable, then it's a success. Maybe not iPod-like success, but still a success.
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Maybe, but that is entirely irrelevant to the definition of "success" in this situation.
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Did it break even or make a small profit? It's successful if it makes that criteria. It might not be wildly successful, but it's successful.
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If they sold 1 unit and made a profit then it would be a success.
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You must be some kind of genius! I would like to subscribe to your newsletter so that I don't miss out on any more of your amazing insights which completely miss the point.
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He said "if.. and", not just "if". It was a purely hypothetical situation, not a question. We all know that selling one $200 console is not going to recoup development and manufacturing costs.
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No, actually he just said if. And I quote:
If it made money it is successful. Since it did not fail, it is successful.
He said if it did not fail, it must be successful. If I remember correctly from college logic classes, that would be referred to as an affirmative conclusion from a negative premise. In plain English, it's a logical fallacy.
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Look again, the post that you were replying to when I replied to you said
If they sold 1 unit and made a profit then it would be a success.
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60,000 units of anything lacking a national advertising budget is pretty impressive. Just because it's not sold at walmart doesn't mean it has to sell a million units in it's first year. If you hand build 3,000 gaming PCs at your house one year under "PCOLAMAN GAMERZ PCS" brand and make $20,000 in profit after you salary and parts costs, is that successful to you? Or did you fail and should you give up.
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I mean, the guys who started Alienware in their garage were total failures.
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Re:Successful? (Score:5, Funny)
Describing yourself as "a gaming fan" is quite generous, considering the GP2X was successful and you have never heard of it..
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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.
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There's a Russia joke in here somewhere, I swear it.
Re:Successful? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Successful? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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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.
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Describing yourself as a "gaming fan" is quite generous, considering it is a successful gaming console and you have never heard of it... ;-)
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Re:Successful? (Score:4, Funny)
let's put this in perspective [google.com].
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Hmm, I notice that both porn and the psp see a jump in searches right before Christmas.
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Ouch (Score:4, Interesting)
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?
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Android? (Score:3, Interesting)
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
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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)
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. :)
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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
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The hardware isn't totally open - but does it have to be?
The software is (including drivers), which is better than any other handheld project I know of.
I'd actually like them to keep some of their code closed source, to protect it from projects originating within huge companies, or knockoffs from places like China. The likelihood of another legit open-source project like the Pandora coming around (not being made by them) is pretty slim, so the only people benefiting from it being totally open is corporation
Nice, but who cares? (Score:1, Troll)
When this thing was announced, there was no iPhone, Android, etc. Are handheld game-only units still relevant at this point?
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Apple still sells iPod (Score:2)
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.
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They are if you want proper gaming controls.
I'll wait... (Score:2)
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...
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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
Yet another correction (Score:2)
... 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...
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Holy buttons! (Score:1)
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.
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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)
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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?!
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I stopped using my laptop the second I got my first Zaurus several years ago, and I've never once been tempted by the netbook craze, as they're just too big! :D
I can't wait till my Pandora arrives in the mail, as the Z is getting a little long in the tooth.
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[Citation Needed]
The Pandora people have posted plenty of pictures and videos of their prototypes, working units, production samples, etc to demonstrate that their project is real.
There was a Linux-based console that turned out to be a scam recently but it wasn't the Pandora. Perhaps you are thinking of that?
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The Phantom. A highly appropriate name if there ever was one.
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Somebody mod the parent as troll - we've seen many update pictures/videos in the last few months with the final prototype pieces being built and tested. In fact, an update video showing the first fully assembled prototype pandora (with final case, keyboard and gaming controls) should be posted online in the next day or so.
That's about as far from 'vaporware' as you can get; nobody goes to that much trouble and expense to design and build a device only to not bother selling it. And since OpenPandora isn't pu
Linux? (Score:1)
What's that in Geek? (Score:2)
* 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)
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)
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.
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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.
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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.
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Four separate buttons is superior to one linked together gamepad.
In what way? It's certainly easier to press a D-pad in one place to get a diagonal than it is to try and press 2 buttons at once.
IMO, the best gamepad I've ever used is the logitech dual action. It's pretty much a playstation controller with bigger grips, and a real d-pad. Works great for everything except 6 button games, and N64 emulation.
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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!
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Magnifying glass? How about microscope! :D
Dingoo (Score:2, Interesting)
almost want it just for the name (Score:2)
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 ... (Score:2)
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
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I respect what you wrote, and I think you are a sexy man. Tell me, do you have a moustache?
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Where is 16:9 ? (Score:2)
Thanks
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Something I haven't seen really, and would like to see in handhelds is a strain gauge under the buttons to measure downward button pressure.
I can imagine dozens of ways to use that force intuitively in games, from throwing objects in sports games to modulating throttle, brake and steering control in car racing games.
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Something I haven't seen really, and would like to see in handhelds is a strain gauge under the buttons to measure downward button pressure.
You mean like the buttons with area-sensitive underlying contacts in the Dual Shock 2 and the area-sensitive touch screen in the DS, neither of which got used by a lot of games?
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You mean like the buttons with area-sensitive underlying contacts in the Dual Shock 2 and the area-sensitive touch screen in the DS, neither of which got used by a lot of games?
And when they were used, it was invariably BADLY.
Damn AK47 in MGS2...
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The pandora is getting mighty close to completion; the last few boxes will be ticked in the next couple of weeks before mass production begins.
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The original GP2X(the predecessor to the Wiz) had an analog stick
Actually, it wasn't analog. It was digital and had a very bad contact layout, which is why it had such lousy diagonals.
Re:any detailed specs? (Score:4, Informative)
Wikipedia is your friend [wikipedia.org]
All you need to know (Score:3, Funny)
is that NOBODY beats the Wiz!
Re:All you need to know (Score:4, Funny)
Alright then, I'm taking out my credit card.
Oh wait, it's maxed out!
VISA beats the Wiz!
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If you look at specifications for things like RAM and Flash chips, it's always in bits. I'm talking about manufacturers here, not end-user products.
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Gamepark (GPH) is Korean.
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Gamepark Holdings is the one releasing the Wiz.
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Can anyone actually confirm that anything electronic isn't made in China these days?
To somewhat quote Armageddon: "PSP, iPod touch, Nintendo DSi... all made in China."
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Some things are made in Taiwan...
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