handheld opinion needed..

[menace]

I'm looking to get a new handheld but with the 100's that are out there, I'm a little confused as to what would do the job I need.  So I thought I would ask my fellow geeks for opinions on ones the've had or used.

My criteria:
run mame (didn't see that one coming did ya)
naturally a full color screen with decent audio
Compact flash as expandable memory
windows CE or palm OS--doesn't matter to me

thats it

My primary purpose for this machine is to play games and watch movies that i have re-encoded down to small size (hence the CF card--up to 2.2gb microdrives available)

any suggestions, tips, etc appreciated.

Edit:  I guess SD or MMC will do as well since they seem to be the common handheld memory types.  I'll just have to split my movies/shows.

[Sephroth57]

hope you got a lot of money laying around, to do all that stuff sounds expensive

[Edgedamage]

Try the game park32

check these forums.

http://gp32.emu.pl/gp32download.php?do_what=selectcat&cat=2

[menace]

very neat little unit--know anyone that has one?  Are the roms the same as the pc version?--like can I take all my old comodore 64 games and dump them on a card and play them with the c64 emulator--that would be very cool!

[HagHore]

I've got a Viewsonic V35.  XScale 300MHz, 64MB (about 35MB free), SDIO.  Put the Mobile 2003 update on it and it works just fine and dandy with MAMECE and movies using PocketMVP (install them on a 256MB SD card).  The IPaq 1945 is basically the same thing as mine only it has WM2003 already installed and runs off a Samsung 266MHz cpu, plus it has built-in bluetooth.

If you are really interested in running MAME on it then you might want to get one that has a gamepad available, the 5-way buttons on most PPCs suck for gameplay IMHO.  Even though the MAME games ran fine on mine I took it off because the little pad sucks.  Put Everquest on it instead for my gaming thirst.

[Yander]

I would try GP32. I have only heard good things about it. I was reading up and it looks very solid and has a variety of free and cheap software. Unless you are usinsg the handheld for office purposes I would get the GP32. (there might be ways to use it fir work to)

[menace]

thanks haghore--i'll look into that one

Yander: I was looking at the GP32 and it seems most of the emulators are years old, i.e. not really being developed--now if that means its cause they're done, that would be great, but it doesn't mention anything other than being able to play space invaders--if you know that other games work, I'd be happy to hear about it cause i really like its screen size and ability to play mp3's and divx movies

[Edgedamage]

Ok try this:
http://www.tapwave.com/

[menace]

wow that looks very cool--do oyu know if there is an active development community?  it seems like its well marketed at any rate with lots of titles to choose from...decisions, decisions...

[Edgedamage]

Read this review.

[menace]

 ;Dand what review is that...

I'm still leaning heavily on the gamepark--that thing is just cool--with the number of games that can be played on it, as well as other things--just dont want to buy into a dead handheld...

[MadEditor]

;Dand what review is that...

I'm still leaning heavily on the gamepark--that thing is just cool--with the number of games that can be played on it, as well as other things--just dont want to buy into a dead handheld...

The Tapwave is based on PALM OS so it's surely still support by a very large and active community...

The GP32 even if it was a very promising machine never took the market enough to be really interesting... i would compare it to the N-Gage in terms of sales quantity... So the community is pretty small and already dying...

just my opinion here...

[Odonadon]

Go with Zodiac.  Thing's got a great d-pad, and runs on Palm.  And pretty much every application and emulator you can think of is available for Palm devices.

OD

[NiN^_^NiN]

Hey i have a gamepark and i can explain a few things to you.

We have quite a few emulators that run on the gp32:

c64
atari 2600
atari 800
atari lynx
Atari ST
nes
sms
dragon32/64
coleco
speckle or whatever it is
msx
snes
genesis/mega drive

etc.

Most are fullspeed the 16bit consoles are the problem as they arnt full speed which only applys to snes and genesis the atari st is fullspeed tho.

we also emulate gameboy and gbc but gba is far to much if a speed hog to be emulated perfectlly.

but onto mame.

there is a 8080 based arcade emulator and there is a mame port being done basiclly almost all the old games will work and some new 1's like ghost and goblins etc.

but all the games from the 80s and below should be perfect.

Now the gp32 uses smart media cards so u can't go aboove 128mb but it's all good as there cheap

also we have afew pc ports we have pc doom doom 2 nd final doom and all the wads that have been made for it

also have sarien which is a agi emulator so u can play leisure suit larry and space quest etc

but tapwave has palm os on it so u can surf the net using bluthtooth altho tapwave has had a few problems sendingut the devices to people.

it all depends on u but the gp32 is cheaper and already has all the emu's and alot of good homebrew games

www.gp32x.com is the better site to get more info and see the games etc.

www.gp32x.com
www.gp32emu.com
www.gp32news.com
www.gp32spain.com

these are the main sits for gp32 stuff

but im a gp32 user and im happy it also runs mp3 ogg wav mod midi and a few other things plus it has a divx player and all

so it had applications to like palm os menu launchers

if u have any question im happy to ask but its up 2 you to choose.

[menace]

Wow thanks for the info!  So for the emulators I'm mostly interested in mame and c64 --mainly because i have the games--my question is this: does a game have to be specifically written for the GP32 or if I have say brucelee.d64, I can run it?

I'm not interested in running the internet, just movies, games, books, and music--so if it can do all this, then it sounds like what i'm looking for.

Is the 128mb limit a machine limit?  like if I had a 256 mb smart media card--it would only see 128mb?

[NiN^_^NiN]

Good questions.

First off the emulators for all game/computer machines are written for the gp32

but all u do is plug the gp32 into the usb port and download the roms u use to play on say zsnes etc.

Rom are the exact file as from the game system so all emulators would use the exact same rom unless it needed to be converted in the case of gba it have to be converted into a gba rom for a flash cart.

But here's an example.

i wanna upload 3 things to the gp32 i would open the pc link software and set the link mode on the gp32 in the bios (its really simple u just select the pc link button on the menu)

after the program loads ont he pc it connects to the gp32 then all you would do is go to the directory you want.

so you would upload

gianasis.d64 and rtype.t64 to the c64 directory

then the mp3's and jpegs to any directory.

your done

The gp32 works in the way a pc works you select the fxe file you want in this case it's frodo.fxe which is basiclly like a exe file so when u select it it loads up the emultator then u select the rom from the c64 directory.

your done

thats all you would do its very simple

if i didnt make sense then u upload the same roms u download from the internet no converting nothing.

Now with smart media cards there is a problem. they arn't supported in the industry now so you can only get 128mb MAX thats the biggest u can get but they are very cheap so its only like $20 USD to buy 1 or so.

You can only use smart media and nothing else.


Now i'll tell u the downside.

The c64 emulator is exctly like the pc version frodo (it's ported from the pc) and frodo doesnt play all games

there is a few childhood c64 games i can't play but to make sure yours would work download frodo and try it out if it works then it will work on the gp32

Also there are alot of cool homebrew games for the gp32 there is a cool loderunner clone and a great bommerman game comming out soon which looks fantactic

The movie playing is good but...you can only play specialy encoded divx files so if u wanna watch u must encode it again to 320 x 240 at a certain bitrate etc. But that is all simple and explained everyone just uses virtual dub to do it they get the settings they want then save it so each move u convert u just have to select the gp32 profile

Oh yeah it plays 15fps and almost all movies are fine at 15fps the matrix is ok but its a bit slow cause of all the fast action sometimes.
But you can overclock the gp32 to get higher frame rate which will run your AA down faster.

The mp3 players are great and there are text viewers and all that and windows like desktop apps

There are alot of apps like filemanager paint program calculator and my fav Tone dialer

u put the number in and it outputs tones from the gp32 speakers so if u play the number on the gp32 it will make the phone ring if you have the speaker against the mouth piece

I'm blabbering on but it can do alot of things and its have great pc ports like bump n jump and chickens 2 alll the dooms and rise of the triad wolfenstine 3d and soon dukenumkem 3d it seams

but i'll shutup now

[menace]

thanks for the very extensive reply  Thats the trickiest thing with some new technology is finding out all the info!  Now its a tossup between a winCE system or a GP32...

[NiN^_^NiN]

Funny enough after i wrote that reply some guy has been porting mame to the gp32 for 3 weeks and he's working to get 1942 to work and below.

looks like all the mame things r coming together right now

still can u get a joystick for a wince pda?

i mean its not ment for gaming like a gp32 im curious if they have a pad or something cause everyone said they suck for games cause of the layout???

[menace]

yeah I've heard that as well--some models have optional gamepads that can be attached.

Another question for you--is there a marked performance difference between the regular version and the 166mhz version?  what won't run on the regular version?  and on the unlighted version would the screen be visible say on a plane for instance?

[menace]

So I bough the gamepark front lit unit from lik-sang--I LOVE THIS THING!!!  I have been playing doom2 wolfenstein, commodore 64 games, pacman, got movies running--it's awesome.  My only regret is that there aren't more mame games ported yet but I'm hoping with the european release at the end of april, that more people will start developing them.

As far as movies go--I have every episode of transformers (original series) in divx and they play very nicely on the unit (except the ones where the original encode was crap).  thanks to nin nin for his reviews and edgedamage for originally suggesting the gamepark.