GP2X Wiz emulator handheld review, what games do you wanna see?

[The Jackal]

@Leathco: Thanks, I might just do that if I do decide to get one next year. Friend request sent to you, BTW!

@Chilly: So it's pretty much dependent on what it's doing. So watching a Divx file who be faster on one whilst the other would struggle for a few secs, for example? I'm I right in this understanding?

[Chilly Willy]

@Chilly: So it's pretty much dependent on what it's doing. So watching a Divx file who be faster on one whilst the other would struggle for a few secs, for example? I'm I right in this understanding?

It's dependent on what's being done and how much effort to date has been put into optimizes those tasks. So DivX might be faster on one platform because they've optimized both the decoding and the displaying while another platform lags because either decoding or displaying hasn't been optimized/accelerated yet.

[Phosis]

Ecco the Dolphin, please review it, I want to see how it holds up in terms of framerate and sound.

[Chilly Willy]

Oh, one thing I might mention as regards higher-end emulations, like for the N64 - these use dynamic recompilation to turn the code the CPU in the emulated system uses into code the host CPU uses (for example, MIPS64 into x86/x86-64 for an N64 emulator). The dynamic recompilation to x86/x86-64 code has been worked on for quite a few years now and works rather well. The ARM DR isn't nearly as mature, and might not even exist in some emulators! So the speed in some emus might be due to comparing DR in a PC versus no DR in the Wiz.

[Leathco]

Ecco the Dolphin, please review it, I want to see how it holds up in terms of framerate and sound.

Ecco added!

What games do ya wanna play Jackal? If you are sticking to 16 bit era and prior, you can save a lot of cash and go with a Caanoo or Wiz. If you want to play PS1 or 32X or N64, the best choice is Pandora, it costs a lot more and has a long line though.

Chilly knows more about cpu architecture than I do so I'll leave all that to him. To the best of my knowledge though Pandora has a superior CPU. It definately has more ram and a much larger screen, plus dual analog and a standard dpad for PS1. Oh, and a small keypad as well if you wanna emulate c64 or dos stuff, or want to use it as a small pc as well.

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

Ive been waiting on my pandora for ages now, but it should be coming soon. Now I just need to order 2 64Gig sdxc cards and start filling them with games and crap.

[Furnessly]

While I can't think of any games at the moment to review, I can also recommend the "Wiz" especially when you are away on holiday and wanted to play a game but want more choice than a Nomad.

Emulator wise, PicoDrive is really good for the old Mega Drive/Genesis (even better than some PC emulators since games that use the GEMS sound doesn't have that bug that affects Gens but still isn't Kega Fusion quality and you have to configure the controls if you want to play a 6 button game), the only game that I couldn't run was Micro Machines 96 even though Micro Machines 2 worked fine. NES emulation seems okay, Master System/Game Gear could be better (doesn't work on the Korean games and Sonic Triple Trouble Master System port had no controls, tiny screen with no upscaling options and a scrolling bug), MAME seems to be pretty bad due to the authors using an out dated version (crashed Biomechanical Toy just before the level started, Pang plays well but with half of the instruments missing, Hang On has an annoying beeping thoughout the game, Final Fight crashed in a stage if I remember correctly and the other games didn't run due to that the ROMS were "too new"). Have yet to test Game Boy emulation though but from my experiences of the device I think only 1 game out of all that I played wasn't full speed (The Chaos Engine which wasn't super noticeable). As for PS1/N64, I think it is better to use your own computer or a laptop or even the Pandora, the N64 doesn't seems to have an emulator that is accurate enough in my opinion.

The main problem is finding a charger, had to find a old LG phone charger that worked pretty well. Took 3 hours to charge compared to using the provided cable that didn't seem to charge very much if at all.

[The Jackal]

@Chilly: Ok, I understand it now. Thanks mate. Rep coming your way aswell!

@Leathco: I'm into 16-bit games; but of late I've been ripping my PS1 games to play on my Xbox - to be honest the possibility of playing Soul Reaver on the toilet does sound...interstering...

The Pandora really appeals to me; do you know anything on the PS1 emulation - how good it is/does it use BIN-CUE or ISO-WAVE/Compatablity? Anything you can add to sway me to purchase one!

[Leathco]

Hmm....best place for Pandora info is prolly www.open-pandora.org. Theres links to the official Pandora forums there.

Also youtube pandora handheld, tons of vids showing what it can do. Evildragon1717 (i think thats his youtube name) has been doing one vid a day, theres vids on ps1 and n64 close to ten minutes long there.

[The Jackal]

Hmm....best place for Pandora info is prolly www.open-pandora.org. Theres links to the official Pandora forums there.

Also youtube pandora handheld, tons of vids showing what it can do. Evildragon1717 (i think thats his youtube name) has been doing one vid a day, theres vids on ps1 and n64 close to ten minutes long there.

Cheers, mate. I'll have a little look at the site and Evildragon1717's (is that the same evildragon from these forums??) videos as well. Thanks again!

[Chilly Willy]

Any advances done to emulations as part of work for the Pandora could easily transfer over to GP2X... they're both based on linux and near identical systems (both use SoC ARM). Same goes the other way around - work on the GP2X could help the Pandora. I think both communities push each other along, adopting work from the other, then pushing a little further.

[evildragon]

i truly consider the xbox to be celeron based, not pentium iii based. i mean its the same core, but the xbox cpu has only the cache size as the celeron, and thats what makes a celeron a celeron and not a pentium iii..

[Chilly Willy]

i truly consider the xbox to be celeron based, not pentium iii based. i mean its the same core, but the xbox cpu has only the cache size as the celeron, and thats what makes a celeron a celeron and not a pentium iii..

Right, so it's probably worse than I indicated.

In any case, it's probably more a matter of optimization than raw power making the difference seen between the emus on the XBox and the Wiz. ARM is getting very popular lately (NDS, GP2X, iPhone, iPad, a bunch of netbooks, etc), so we should see more optimization in various emulators for ARM based systems.

[Leathco]

OK, I've started compiling a lot of stuff for part 5!

I got requests for Ecco, Quake 1, Quake 2, the Atari Lynx, X-Com, Warcraft, Wolfenstien, Marathon, Flashback, Hexen 2, amd Albion. I may throw in a few other items I'm pulling down too if time allows, like PhoneME, an app that plays cell phone games.

I also got Ruckman working again for those wanting to peek at it.

As well, we'll check out a couple frontends if you want a different menu system.