GP2X review

By John Huxley
21st May 06

Until I picked up SNK’s Neo Geo Pocket Color back in around 1999, I was never really taken with handheld gaming. Maybe that had something to do with my dubious choice of a Sega Gamegear over the then more popular Nintendo Gameboy. As technologically advanced as the Gamegear was back then (ignoring the fact it ate up 6 AA batteries in about two hours!), I should have realised that the Gameboy was popular for a bloody good reason. So, that put me off handheld gaming for about a decade until SNK’s marvellous little machine put me right back on track.

This was handheld gaming as it should have been - small, yet perfectly formed games that weren’t trying to be carbon copies of their bigger counterparts. But when the NGPC went under with SNK merely a couple of years later, I was left with a fantastic handheld and no new games to play on it. So where to go from there? The Gameboy Advance was only just taking off, but from what I’d played of the early games line-up I was less than impressed. And Sega weren’t exactly going to bring out another handheld after the whole Gamegear and Nomad mess, so it looked like I was stuck without my portable gaming fix.

Enter the GP32

For a couple of years it remained this way, until a relatively little-known Korean console called the Gamepark GP32 registered on my radar. I’d come across it before during my time on the NGPC section of the Neo-Geo.com boards, but despite boasting more power and better features (such as a larger screen, up to 128Mb Smart Media comparability, MP3 and video playback) than the Gameboy Advance, early reports weren’t exactly glowing. With a severe lack of third-party support, the GP32's future as GBA rival was doomed from day one, but it was afforded a new lease of life when the firmware was cracked sometime later and its potential as a homebrew platform was truly realised.

When I jumped on the bandwagon some years later, the GP32 homebrew scene was really very vibrant. On top of many great homebrew games and applications, it already boasted full speed PC Engine, MSX, NES, Master System and Atari ST emulation, to name but a few. And soon after I got my hands on a unit, incredibly impressive Mega Drive and MAME emulators were added to that list. Full speed Mega Drive! This was everything I’d hoped the Gamegear had been and then some.

If I hadn’t come across the GP32 as GBA competitor some years earlier, I’d have sworn it was designed with homebrew in mind. The design of the unit was essentially a GBA rip-off, but with a much larger, brighter and clearer screen and a very comfortable (yet annoyingly clicky) joystick in place of the blister-inducing d-pad. But the real difference comes when you slot in a (now outdated) Smart Media Card in to the top of the unit. These flimsy little devices opened up a world of possibilities for the GP32, meaning you could simply copy games and emulators from your PC using a card reader, slot it right in to the GP32 and start playing. No add-ons, no flashing firmware, no digital signing, no messing. It was as easy as that.

As great as the GP32 was, it did have its limitations. The superb Mega Drive and MAME emulators pushed the 133Mhz processor (guaranteed overclock, though some went as high as 250Mhz!) to its limits, and really started to show its age when it tried its hand at the SNES; surely easily one of the most sought-after emulators around. SNES emulation was further hampered by the four button layout and the 128Mb limit on the SMC really seemed small when you’re dealing with 5Mb ROM files. And so we come to the GP2X.

One handheld to rule them all

In late 2005, Gamepark Holdings (an off-shoot from Gamepark, which still exists as a separate entity) released the much anticipated GP2X. Unlike the GP32, the GP2X (a name decided upon after a rather ridiculous public naming competition...they changed it from GPX2 to GP2X) was designed with homebew in mind from the word go. To this end, the unit comes with a (somewhat controversially) open-source version of Linux pre-installed and GPH actively invite coders to develop whatever they want for the system. The design of the unit itself is similar to the GP32, changing the colour scheme to black in a nod towards the PSP and increasing the button count to six in order to help accommodate certain emulators and games. The switch from SMC to Secure Digital cards also means the stifling 128Mb limit has been increased to a healthy 4Gb, which should be more than enough for most needs.

Other than that, it’s the same deal. Copy the games and emulators over to your SD, slot it in your GP2X and start playing. The extra power of the 200Mhz processor (overclockable to at least around 250Mhz, oftentimes higher) really helps improve the emulation prospects, and already we’ve seen many of the GP32's best emulators such as Mega Drive and MAME ported over and even improved significantly. Add to this full speed Neo Geo MVS (my personal holy grail - I can die happy) and a very promising (but not yet anywhere near full speed) Playstation and Amiga emulators and it’s clear that the GP2X is every bit a worthy successor. There are still a few gaps in the line-up, including full speed SNES, PC Engine and MSX, but it’s only a matter of time before some kind soul comes along and changes that.

And that’s really the driving force behind the GP2X and the GP32 - the active, friendly community that supports it. There are no real first or third party developers for the GP2X, just a bunch of guys that enjoy making games and emulators for it. Everything on the GP2X is absolutely free to download online, but donations are encouraged if you enjoyed using it. And considering the quality of some of the software, both games and emulators, I’d say it’s well worth a little donation.

It’s also worth noting that the GP2X is also a very capable movie and music player, supporting MP3, OGG and AVI formats amongst others. The GP32 struggled with movie playback a little, but the GP2X takes it in its stride, even when you throw comparatively hi-res movies at it. There’s also a TV-out cable available which plugs directly in to the unit, but I’ve not yet tested this so I can’t really comment on it. Still, as a movie player it’s a real viable alternative to all the stupidly expensive dedicated handheld players out there.

Nothing's perfect...

There are a few niggling problems with the GP2X that you should bare in mind before buying one. First, the design of the unit itself has come under some heavy criticism, mostly due to GPH’s odd choice of an 8-way digital joystick. On paper this might sound like an upgrade to the GP32's old 4-way stick, but in practice it’s much more awkward to use because most software is designed around a simple 4-way input, creating a ‘dead zone’ in-between the other four directions. Unfortunately there’s no realistic solution that will eliminate the problem entirely, but there are a few very effective workarounds that make playing even the trickiest of action games an absolute breeze. The joystick is certainly not the stumbling block it once was, and the criticism has rightly died down in recent months.

It’s pretty much the same story with the firmware, which was undoubtedly a buggy mess when first released. But almost all the problems have been fixed since then, and it’s now a very capable, user-friendly OS. The potential for some alternative homebrew firmware to take over is there, but for now the official GPH effort is more than good enough.

When the GP32 was at its peak, there was very little competition in the homebrew arena. GBA development was limited to those who had a flash cart, and the similar-spec Zodiac didn’t really last very long. But now the GP2X can be directly compared to the PSP, the winner isn’t so clear. It would seem like the PSP has the GP2X beat hands down, with the 333Mhz processor and GPU chips proving very powerful tools for the homebrew developer. Indeed, the full speed SNES emulator would be proof of that.

But not everything is so cut and dry when it comes to the PSP and GP2X. For starters, Sony are doing everything they can to prevent homebrew development on their system, which is something of a callous move from the company which once supported them with the Net Yaroze. Surely some form of digital signing would be a better solution than simply locking them down? Regardless, for most playing homebrew software is a minefield of upgrading, downgrading and patching on the PSP, whereas GPH let you play at the click of a button.

The GP2X also has a few unexpected technological advantages over the PSP. Not only is the smaller screen size more suited to native emulation resolutions and much crisper and less prone to blurring, the extra 32Mb of memory allows emulators such as the Neo Geo MVS to load up bigger games. That’s not quite a substitute for the extra 100Mhz of processing power, I’ll admit. But what really tips the balance in favour of the GP2X for me is the community. One look at PSPUpdates and one look at GP32X will tell you all you need to know.

At around £100, the GP2X isn’t a big investment. And once you’ve got your hands on the unit, you needn’t part with another penny. Sure, if you want the latest and greatest 3D games, go get a Nintendo DS or PSP. But if you want to play Neo Geo, Mega Drive or MAME on the move (or on the loo, as is my preferred location!), the GP2X is the perfect choice.

-- John Huxley 21st May 06