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Features > GP2X - Why it's cool
Background
I've always loved handheld games machines! Growing up a friend of mine
had a Lynx, with classic games like Paperboy on it. Later on I got a Gamegear
for Christmas, I was over the moon. I just found it such a joy to play games
anywhere I wanted (Although the Gamegear could only run for about an hour from
six AA batteries *gulp*)
Very small and light weight
as you can see here
How'd you find it?
Fast forward quite a few years, I'm reading through the latest edition of
Edge magazine and
I spot a advert at the back for a little handheld. It's small, powerful and cheap,
impressive! Soon enough I've learnt enough about it that I want one, so I go
ahead and put in an order.
What does it do?
What's so great about this little device? Let me tell you what I've been doing
with mine since I had it delivered a few days ago.
The machine runs off of Linux, which means it's all about the community developing
things for it.
It can play music, videos, read e-Books and all the other things you'd expect
from such a device. However my real interest is in the games!
---- Video ----
Here's a short clip of
Sam and Max running
Games!
The two main types of games I've got installed are emulators and ports. When I say
ports, I mean things like Duke3D, Quake, Quake II, Hexen and Hecteric. All games
on the PC, which have already been ported to Linux, so getting them working on
this device wasn't too tricky.
SCUMM
Right now I'm spending the most time playing The Secret of Monkey Island 2,
through a SCUMM interpreter on the device, it's great! I've got Indiana Jones and
the Fate of Atlantis to play through again, along with Beneath a Steel Sky.
Emulate
Along with all that, I'm really enjoy re-playing some classic MegaDrive (Genesis) and
Master System games again with the emulators that have been ported to the device. This
thing has got an emulator for all the great games machines that have been produced,
it's great.
and the bad?
This is a brand spanking new development and there are still quite a few rough edges.
In terms of battery life, it only runs for a few hours at the moment. This is mainly
due to both the CPU cores running the whole time and other things like the TV out chip
drawing power even when they aren't being used. (Oh yes, it can connect up to your TV
for some big screen gaming!)
Also the boot-up time is about ten seconds, although this will be reduced in the next
firmware upgrade.
So to be honest, nothing really that bad, all things that can be addressed in future
firmware upgrades for the system.
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