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If there's one thing that's becoming a common sight these days, it's the sight of portable multimedia systems. Everywhere you look there's someone with the familiar white headphones in their ears, listening to MP3s as they go about their daily business. You can now watch music videos or movies on the go thanks to the new portable devices on the market, many of which featuring DivX and MPEG playback which offers you high quality video in the palm of your hand. Sony's latest PSP handheld system has brought all of these functions together and thrown in the added bonus of portable gaming. Of course, handheld gaming is nothing new with its roots being traceable all the way back to the 1980's; however many of these gaming systems were hard coded or only allowed you to play titles licensed by the console manufacturer.
The new system from GamePark Holdings, the GP2X-F100 tries to change this by allowing you to listen to music, watch films as well as play your own games on the go. Its predecessor, the Linux-powered GP32 was an accidental success as many hobbyist developers found themselves able to write their own games for the system. Many emulators and 'homebrew' games sprung up for the system causing a huge 'underground' following to build up around the machine. Unlike the GP32 which was originally a closed system, the GP2X comes with a readily available compiler and SDK allowing developers to write their own games from the start. For independent and hobby game developers, it sounds too good to be true – is it?
The GP2X is powered by a custom Linux kernel running on two 200Mhz ARM9 processors. The system memory for the unit is 64Mb, with a further 64Mb of NAND flash memory that contains the operating system. The unit is pretty small at 143.6mm by 82.9mm – not as wide as a Sony PSP. The weight without batteries comes in at around 161g (5.68oz), so it's light enough to carry around easily.
At the time of review, the common 'stable' firmware release is 1.1.0, with 1.2.0 being released shortly. GamePark Holdings (GPH) are currently releasing regular updates of the firmware to fix bugs and add features requested by the early adoption community so there's a good chance that this release becomes old very quickly.
The first thing that strikes you about the GP2X is that the unit takes around 20 to 30 seconds to boot up and go into the main menu screen; this is because the Linux kernel needs to be loaded into the system on every boot. GPH are reported to be trying to reduce this loading time to around 8 seconds in future firmware releases, but until then you will have to put up with it. For most handheld gamers, this can be annoying as we're all accustomed to instantly booting devices.
The 3.5" TFT LCD screen gives you a 320x240 QVGA display, which is a good size for watching films, viewing pictures and playing games. The backlit screen is bright, which makes it perfect for use in low-light environments. There is a slight interlace on the screen which gives it a quirky 'flicker', but it's not very noticeable after prolonged use. If there's one main gripe to be had with the screen is that it comes without the protective cover pre-attached; unless you attach it in a clean place you could get dust or hair under the cover which could be difficult to remove later.
The primary media for the GP2X is the SD memory card, available at low cost from most electronics or computer outlets. Loading media onto the card can be done with your PC via an SD card reader, or using the supplied USB cable. Using SD cards seems like a good choice for media, they're small, lightweight and come in various sizes. They can also be hot-swapped in the GP2X (provided you're not saving to the card), meaning that you can change cards without powering off the unit first. In the unit I reviewed I found that it was impossible to have Windows detect my device when using the USB cable to transfer data to the unit; after reading on the various FAQs on user forums it seems that this issue is common with USB 1.0 ports, but USB 2.0 is fine.
The GP2X has a multidirectional thumb stick, 6 gaming buttons (A, B, X, Y and two shoulder buttons) and volume controls. In addition to the games buttons there is also the familiar "select/start" buttons and the thumb stick can be pressed in to register a 'click'. In total, that's 9 buttons and a thumb stick that can be used for games – pretty good if they're utilised properly. The buttons and control stick feel well placed on the unit; the four common buttons, the shoulder buttons and the thumb stick can all be used comfortably without having to move around too much. The thumb stick does appear to be a little 'tight' on the first few uses and the dead zone can mean that you end up overshooting your target as you push on it too hard.
Battery life in the GP2X is currently appalling. Although you receive two unbranded 'AA' alkaline batteries with the unit, you will find that they don't last for too long (2 hours continuous use). The GP2X is a very high-drain device meaning that you should purchase a pack of 2500mAh rechargeable batteries immediately. I experienced various issues when using alkaline batteries, from the power not lasting 30 minutes to the unit not being able to even boot on a fresh set of batteries. It is also recommended that you purchase a 3V DC adapter if you're planning on using the device for a prolonged period of time, or when you're doing something critical such as updating your firmware. One can only assume that the battery life issue is being worked on and will get better in future firmware releases.
As the GP2X is billed as a 'Media Player' device, it features several embedded applications. These let you play videos, listen to music, view photos, read eBooks and play games. These features are all accessible via the main menu software that comes up when the device is booted. When navigating to find your media, the software is intelligent enough to hide any extensions that don't match your current function so it's impossible to load a game whilst trying to play a movie, for example. The current main menu software is usable but has some annoying oversights, one being that you cannot move up or down in the main selection screen so you must thumb left or right to get to your item. It should be noted that this has been fixed with firmware release 1.2.0, but the device doesn't feature this right 'out of the box'.
The second issue with the software is that the volume buttons seem to be software controlled and hence do not directly affect the speaker volume. When playing a game that doesn't handle volume adjustment you will find that it's impossible to alter the sound coming from the speakers; unless you have a pair of headphones to plug in this can be very annoying for the people around you. There have been various complaints that the GP2X doesn't currently support a wide range of codecs or image sizes. The movie viewer, for example, will support DivX, MPEG4 and AVI but not WMV, MOV or other common formats. GPH are reported to be remedying this for future firmware releases, with the new 1.2.0 release being able to support 5 megapixel images, for example.
At present there are no commercial titles for the GP2X. The first commercial release is rumoured to be in March/April to coincide with the full release of the system in Korea. It is currently unknown how commercial titles will be delivered to the GP2X, whether they're downloadable from the Internet or whether they arrive on SD cards with some form of DRM. Despite the lack of commercial releases, there is a growing number of independent and hobbyist releases for the system. Many open source games and emulators have already begun to be ported to the system, so you can expect to be able to play Commodore C64 games via the Frodo emulator, Lucas Arts' original titles such as Monkey Island via the ScummVM and GP2X ports of Quake 1 & 2 based on the GPL'd source code. Provided you have your original media, you can relive many of your older games through emulation in the palm of your hand.
As mentioned previously, the GP2X has a readily available development kit (DevKit) allowing you to develop your own titles for the machine with ease. This is, without a doubt, one of the biggest attractions of the GP2X for hobbyist and independent game programmers. Based on an ARM cross-compiling version of GCC, you can write titles for the GP2X on your Windows, Linux or MacOS X machine for free. As part of the GP2X DevKit is a port of SDL, which allows you to both write and test games on your main machine without having to do much else when you come to build your GP2X release.
Provided you take the small screen resolution into account, many SDL tutorials will work unchanged with the GP2X DevKit meaning you can start developing right away. For many independent and hobby game developers this is excellent news and is sure to lead a boom in home-made games for the GP2X.
As a small taster of what I'm talking about, I've included three small samples of SDL-based code that runs on the GP2X. The first demo, gdndemo.zip, displays a bitmap loaded from the SD card. The second, gdndemo2.zip, takes this further by making it bounce around the sides of the screen. The third and final demo, gdndemo3.zip lets you move the bitmap around the screen using the thumbstick. The code is very simple and is based on the sample that comes with the SDK, but you should be able to tell that development on this system really couldn't be any easier.
Overall, the GP2X is a nice little machine. It has a good screen which allows you to watch movies and it features a well-laid out control system which is great for gaming. The single biggest gripe to be had with the system is the battery life; if you aren't using 2500mAh batteries, you have no chance of using the GP2X without a DC adapter.
If you're attracted to the system you will want to know whether you should buy now or wait until the 'full' release. It is recommended that if you want to pick up the GP2X to play games or watch movies, you're better off waiting until the various issues with the machine have been fixed and there are more game titles available. However if you're a game developer and don't mind a few quirks the GP2X is a great tool for you to experience handheld game development for the first time.
The GP2X is still at a very early stage of its release. It has been available since October, but will not be fully launched until March/April 2006. There are still issues with the firmware, which is evident by the frequency of the patches from GamePark Holdings (there have been 5 so far). Because of this update frequency, there is good reason to believe that the various issues experienced here will be resolved in later updates to the system; at this time and with more games available, the GP2X could become an extremely popular machine.
Rating this system is difficult because it's still at an early stage of release. If you're a non-developer, the lack of software and buggy firmware would mean this would be granted 2 stars. However, if you plan on using this system as a developer, the ease of coding for it and the kudos factor of coding for a handheld would grant it 4 stars, even at this early stage.
Rating: 4 stars if you're a developer
