GP2X media player (plus plus plus)

franksm

What do ye's make of this ?



http://www.gp2x.co.uk

I was going to buy my sister a 1gb media player (Creative) as a birthday present for about the same money, but saw this instead. While she's "okay" with computers but not overly technical, I'm wondering if it isn't too much. Looks brilliant for gearheads like ourselves though.

Even as a media player, it's not badly priced (140 stg gets you this plus 1gb) but it can do video and PC stuff too. Runs Linux so has TONS of software.

I have zero knowledge of Linux and would wonder how easy it is to get said software, eg. Do you get the sourcode from somewhere and you have to compile it ?!)

This is Quake on it: http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,1,0,0,23,854

Has Amiga and Atari emulators too, which is cool but for sister stuff - games and media player would be most interesting.

Lots of files and downloads here: http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi

maxitwist

Depends......... would be really cool as a media player put she probaly just wants a dap, like an ipod or something. Besides where can you get it?

shayg1971

I just ordered one. They just released a faster one. My interest is in the ability to emulate older systems using public domain emulators, so I'll be judging it primarily on that. From what I read, though, it's a little rough around the edges and will probably sit more comfortably in the hands of someone who's got a bit of knowledge and is prepared to hack about a bit. The firmware's being updated very regularly - which suggests it's not the most stable piece of kit available. 'Boot' time seems to be about 30 secs as well. So probably one for the enthusiast rather than one for the IPod/IRiver/Zen market.

I also had an Archos GMini 400 until it was lifted. I would recommend it very highly as a versitile and stable piece of kit.

franksm

I went ahead and bought one - firware seems fine, I'm not sure if those different versions are not just other people's "modifications" on the current v2.0

It's a great little machine - I haven't had time to play with the SNES and Amiga emulators, but I did put the MAME emulator on - which allowed me to play a whole raft of arcade-machine ROMs (Battlezone, Tempest, etc - absolute class).

But, the memory card developed a problem (2gb Datawrite SD card) which resulted in it being unusable, so the card is going back to Elara under RMA for replacement.

Even as just a media player, the GP2X is great - but add in all the games and stuff. A gadgeteer's dream.

maxitwist

so where can you buy 'em?

franksm

You can only get them from www.gp2x.co.uk - but at least shipping is cheap and fast. I got the unit, a TV-cable, batteries and charger, and a carry case. It's one helluva piece of kit. Great for nerds. Got some Super Nintendo (SNES) games working on it, and it's just class.

Need to get a proper power-supply (3v) though, as the 2600mh batteries last 3 to 4 hours, and expire with no warning.