Do they make a handheld like this?

[Demon-Seed]

Do they make a handheld that will play roms like Mame, sega etc? I know some hacked psp can but is there any others out there? I have seen portable genesis, snes etc but it requires a cart... wondering if there was a way to load roms?

thanks
Jim

[Ginsu Victim]

Check out the a320
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/bd6f/

[Demon-Seed]

I have seen the gpx2 site it looks mint, however it has only 4 buttons? anything with 6? I can only find 4 button ones.. seems silly as many games I like need 6 buttons.

[ahofle]

The a320 also has 2 shoulder buttons.
It is an amazing device when you put linux (dingux) on it.

[Blanka]

seems silly as many games I like need 6 buttons.

Very few do. And the ones that do (SF-range) don't play well on handhelds. They are more suited for the classics.
BTW, there is a new GP2X. Very nice:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/gameparks-gp2x-caanoo-handheld-hits-this-august-picks-up-where/
The Caanoo

[danny_galaga]

GP2X has shoulders too. Stick to King of fighters etc and you wont need 6 buttons (",)

[Demon-Seed]

Hey
Ah I did not realize that they had shoulder buttons! great.
In regards to connecting and loading games do they just plug into a pc or mac and you load them via usb???

do you have to format the games a certain way etc?

Also what about the PSP? I know you can hack or unlock them but what can they play and how well compared to the others?

thanks
Jim

[danny_galaga]

The gp2x uses SD cards. You can plug the machine into your PC with a mini USB cable but I always found it easier to just take the card out and put it in a reader. The emulators are variations in linux versions. The roms for all the different emulators are the same roms you get where ever you get them. The roms for MAME are something like the version 36 vintage with a few later ones thrown into the mix. I have MAME, SNES, megadrive and C64 emus on there...

[patrickl]

Are modern smartphones able to play MAME already? I tried it on my Ipaq (a long time ago) form my PocketGalaga and not even Galaga ran smoothly (with sound on). I had to use a SNES emulator instead.

[Demon-Seed]

I am leaning towards the GP2x, likely wait for the Caanoo version..... Pandora looks good but for $350 US I could by an Ipad!

[Blanka]

Are modern smartphones able to play MAME already?

iPhone Mame is pretty much OK. Guess it is an older version. Galaga is also available in the App store from Namco itself.

[patrickl]

Are modern smartphones able to play MAME already?

iPhone Mame is pretty much OK. Guess it is an older version. Galaga is also available in the App store from Namco itself.

Yeah these things tend to use .36 version roms.

BTW iPhone MAME has to be "illegal". I can't imagine Apple allowing that. Which is why I would never buy such a crippled device.

[Demon-Seed]

Hey
So the gp2x and pandora run linux, so does it run pure linux? can you dump over any linux stuff or does it have to be special software?

[Ginsu Victim]

BTW iPhone MAME has to be "illegal". I can't imagine Apple allowing that. Which is why I would never buy such a crippled device.

Illegal? No, but you do need to jailbreak your iPod Touch/iPhone to use it.

I tried MAME on it and thought it sucked ass.

[shateredsoul]

Funny thing.. I was on the first batch preorder for the pandora... it was taking forever and constant delays so I asked for a refun, which they promptly issued.  I decided to built an arcade machine instead 

[danny_galaga]

Hey
So the gp2x and pandora run linux, so does it run pure linux? can you dump over any linux stuff or does it have to be special software?

I'm not entirely sure. I bought it for MAME, and everything else was a bonus 

You could check at the forum

http://www.gp32x.com/board/

[Demon-Seed]

Hey
Also I thought I seen that mame4all 2.5 now plays mortal kombat and midway games at full speed thanks to overclock hack? this true.

Where is the best place to buy one? I am in Canada if that makes any difference.

[shateredsoul]

I seriously liked psp the best for emulation.. not sure how well or if mame runs on it at all, but neo geo, cps 1 and II ran really well when I had mine.  I used to buy fat PSPs that couldn't read UMDs, I just made sure to always ask them if it still could read the memory card.  Then i'd mod it using a Pandora Box and there you have an instant emulation machine.

Smaller portables like the dingoo end up hurting my hands overtime, so I actually prefer the psp.  If you're lucky you can find a slim 2001 model that can be modded (careful, some can't be modded). The benefit of the pandora is that it can emulate ps1 games and MIGHT be able to run dreamcast full speed)

But 350.. geez. 

Dingo running mame



Pandora Mame emulator tests

[vidmouse]

I bought a Tapwave Zodiac back in the day and had a blast playing
MAME, Genesis, SNES games..  it could even emulate a PS1 but it was
realllly slow.  It also did SCUMMVM text adventure games (Beneath a Steel
Sky, Kings Quest, etc) and was a great movie player.

Battery life eventually blew on it and by then I had migrated over to the PSP.
I hacked mine and have been happy with it.  Like earlier posts said the CPS1 and 2
emulators are great, as well as the NeoGeo, Gameboy Advance (laugh -- it
actually plays better than my REAL GBA b/c the screen is better), and so on.
Plus you can play all PS1 games.

[Demon-Seed]

Hey
I have heard that MAME is no good on hacked psp is this true? does it play n64?
Does it play ps1 ISOs?

I assume it will run SNES, Genesis  full speed?
Can someone explain or provide info on a hacked psp?

thanks
Jim

[M.Lanza]

The psp can perfectly emulate at least 90% of the ps1 library.
It was actually created by sony so they could sell ps1 games over psn,
but it was soon cracked to allow people to play their own ps1 games with it.

You need to convert your own iso's for it to work, but there are programs
available that make the process fairly easy.

Arcade emulation on the psp is hit or miss, but you can play a decent
amount of games using several emulators.

mame4all runs about as well as the dreamcast version.
It is acceptable for some early to mis 80's games, though
the scaling isn't too good.

fba4psp is a decent emulator. It can play most of the games in
it's supported games list fairly well, even quite a few 90's games.
Scaling is good and even offers screen rotation for vertical games.

The last three are excellent emulators.

CPS1PSP and CPS2PSP play all capcom cps1 and cps2 games.

MVSPSP plays neo geo games.

Picodrive is an awesome sega genesis and sega cd emulator.

snes9x can play snes games. most games are playable, but some
need some tweaking to play acceptably.

There is also a nintendo 64 emulator.
It can play some of the most popular games, but not very well
and there's no sound yet.

[Demon-Seed]

Hey
Well maybe I should advice what games I play?

SNES/GENESIS/NES mainly

Mame-Mortal kombats, nba jam, wwf wrestlefest... are my favs.. seems many do not play MK... GP2X WIZ may?

Is there somewhere I can get the PSP compatibility?

I am torn PSP has nice screen etc.. but I want to play MID 90's MAME.

[Ginsu Victim]

SNES/GENESIS/NES mainly

Mame-Mortal kombats, nba jam, wwf wrestlefest... are my favs.. seems many do not play MK... GP2X WIZ may?

The console versions of those should do fine rather than MAME.

[danny_galaga]

Forgot to mention this. You can change the CPU speed in MAME on the GP2X. The default for all the games (in my version anyway) is 166mhz. But you can change individual games to whatever you want. So for instance I have 1942 set at 120mhz, asteroids at 180mhz and metal slug at 245mhz. I think the menu can be set to 66mhz but I cant remember for sure...