New HOTNESS!

[Kenzya]

Thank you so much for sticking with me on this 87x.

I remember hearing about the Zodiac it was supposed to be a system of it's own that could play MP3's and all that nice stuff. I guess it got turned over the underground scene.

Ok, so you have to put your own emulators on it? Ok, that's fair then. I was under the impression that all that nice little stuff was all built in. The wording I guess.. I wouldn't have thought that on my own.

Yeah I don't know about the button thing. I mean, Sega has those games that require 3 - 6 buttons. And it emulates nice old computer games.. I know some of them need more than around 2 buttons.

But still, it being able to play Doom and my favorite old Sierra/Lucasarts games still makes it pretty damn cool. But I wouldn't spend $100+ dollars just to play those.

Oh, and screw GTA: SA .. I bought Fable

[87x]

No problem Kenzya, Im always happy to talk and discuss things that I like with people who are either like minded about the subject or willing to discuss (not yall, flame, and try to force there opions) the issue casually..

I can see what your saying about the buttons, and basically there is nothing I can say that can defend the systems lack of buttons, the best I can come up with is assigning multiple tasks to each button, and since you can port your own emulators on the thing, you could customize which button would do what... Like in doom for instance.. Having "b" be the run and "activate" button, If you wanted to strafe you could assign those to L and R, but then you wouldn't have a weopon change button, because you would be using "a" for shooting.. I guess you could use "select" as your change weopon button, but as I recall for doom, once you get the furthest most right gun(BFG), it doesn't recycle to the left again...

Now I did notice something in there about PC games that you are able to play on here.. I remember something about you can only play the PC games that someone has already reconfigured for the system..

This of course brings me onto PC games, and the often asked question can the GP32 play them? Well... sort of... if someone has ported it. There are currently ports of the usual suspects such as doom, doom 2 and ultimate doom (all full speed), heretic (full speed), rise of the triad (full speed) and Quake (giving a suprisingly playable frame rate at 166mhz).

So, I guess this kinda limits the PC games playing Action of it. But you can install either Winops (I fake windows) or Linux, in which you can use the ericson chat board.. eh here

Then there is the GP32 Linux port which if your familiar with linux will make you happy, it supports the erricson chatboard too so you have keyboard input, being able to run linux apps means there are web browsers word processors etc. there is even a website ran from a GP32! Since this is such a huge extra 'scene' i'll leave it alone in this review, there are plenty of sources online to look up linux apps.

I guess thats cool.. Not to big of a linux fan..

I found this website with some more GP32 ports http://207.44.176.77/~admin28/gp32emu/ports.htm
Wolfenstein 3d... That itself makes me want to get it..
http://207.44.176.77/~admin28/gp32emu/ (thats to there homepage, with apps, tools, and more related to the GP; also has a list of all the emulators for the GP on the right hand side if you scroll down)
And this website has links to other websites, with probably more games, I dind't check them out so don't lynch me if they don't...

Currently with the lackage of buttons I have mixed feelings about this system, of course if it had the 4 buttons plus the 2 up top I would have already ordered it...

[Kenzya]

The whole fact that this shit has to be ported over to the GP32 kind of eliminates the button problem in certain things. People will find a way around it if they're going to port it over. BUT.. it has a mini keyboard (which I'm assuming) that you have to buy.. So they might use that as an excuse to the shortage of buttons. Which would kind of defeat the purpose of having it handheld/portable.

I also can't view any of sites do to the "porn blocker" which won't let me view any sites with IP addresses in the address. So now I can't actually download anything for the system, haha. Anyway, I've found other sites, so let's see....

Many emulators.. Sarien for Sierra games. ScummVM for Lucasarts games. I'd need the little keyboard deally for the older games such as King's Quest 1 and Leisure Suit Larry 1.. If tje emulator supports those games/the keyboard. Hmmm...

Let's take a look at the Zodiac here...

http://www.brighthand.com/article/Zapwave_Zodiac_Review

That reviews makes it sound sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

What surprises me, is that it has an analog stick. I could never tell from the pictures.

http://www.pdatoday.com/maximumpda_more/1827_0_2_0_C/

I see screenshots of Duke Nukem Mobile, which makes me drool.

I see it also has "Vibration feedback is available for games that support it or can be used for vibration alarms and alerts."

But, for the Zodiac, I don't see anything on emulators ported over or anything regarding emulation.. I don't know what the deal is. It seems to be a PDA with a few games made for it rather than something you can pop an emulator and games into and play.

Edit:

http://zodiac-emu.netfirms.com/littlejohnz.shtml

http://www.zodiacgamer.com/

I found these on slashdot. Not as many programs for each system as the GP32 but that's ok. Zodiac "sounds" better at this point.

Edit:
Here's another system that just blows those away..

http://gizmondo.com/flash.asp

But now we're venturing into the "not just for games" section.. Shit, GP32 might just be better for what we want, loads cheaper too. But I still hear, a bunch, about it not being able to run NES, SNES.. etc.. at full speed..

[Moogy]

Hey guys.

Emulators for the computer are free.

[Kenzya]

Hey guy.

I'm not bringing my computer in the car with me.. Or to the mall.. Or anywhere.

Despite the ammount of time I'm on these boards. I'm out A LOT.

And my computer is in my kitchen. I hate it. I'd rather sit in my room and play these games anyway.

[Moogy]

Maybe you should just never leave the house like me.

[Chromer]

Grand Theft Auto: SA comes out in October actually...... =\

[87x]

Ok, I read that Zodiac review and it makes it sound pretty sweet... I can't imagine that an 8bit nintendo game could possably lag a system like that.. I mean it's got to take close to nothing to run those games, and for its size the GP32 has more than enough to do so.. Now if the lagging was with the doom or computer games then I wouldn't mind it too much, cause I would probably never play any of those anyway... except for maybe kings quest 7, which by the way was the best in that series..

Yea, I think the Zodiac is the handheld that blends game device and PDA device.. any more of either and it would have to be considered one of the two..

The Zodiac seems to be the better handheld, but it's still a little pricey.. eh.. They both are pretty sweet, both with advantages and disadvantages.. In my opinion the zodiac would probably be better, for gaming because of the faster hard drive..

[Kenzya]

http://www.gbax.com/another15.html

Scroll down and look for OpenSnes9Xgp. Full speed SNES emulator for GP32...

The only thing now that compells me to buy a Zodiac is the processor speed. But the price is kind of high. Would you know of a place that might have them cheaper? Jeesh, look at this. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

It's going for like $300+ .. There really isn't a single person complaining about the GP32.. and I've seen some people, who own both, say they use the Zodiac more as a PDA and the GP32 more for emulation.

It'd be safer to get the 166mhz one too, it's only a few more bucks. Does that website you gave ship here? What would the ocnverted pric be? (at this current time)

Edit: I hear there's a 180mhz GP32, any info. on this?
Oh, and the price would be ABOUT $150.00 pretty cheap

Edit: Ok, the 166mhz is 166/180mhz .. so that would be about $150.00.. awesome.

[87x]

lol, you don't me to answer your questions... lol... you can do it yourself... Well, thanks for those links, I'm going to definately bookmark this page.. It's shifting from a shady attitude about the product to when can I save up enough to get it.. I guess I will write a review for it when ever I actually decide to get it, and i will try to record some game play footage.. to better sway the people..

[Kenzya]

Awesome, can't wait for that. Hopefully before december

I'd also say buy from gbax because they're pretty trusted and they "make their systems better".. hah

Edit: we can try it out beforehand

http://www.geepee32.com/

Doubt it's 100%/Don't know

[87x]

Well my birthday is the 25th of this month... So, I should be getting some money and I will probably use that to buy the GP32.. But that carrying case is bad-ass.. But I will probably have to wait till some other day to order that..