GP2X
====

I haver have  been frequent gamer. There are little  games which I have
been able to  play for more than several minutes.  One of the exception
is the  Doom. I  was actually  able to  finish the  demo WAD  but never
wanted to continue.

Anyway, I have the Sony PlayStation  2 (I'm saying have not use...). In
late 1980s I  also had the Soviet Elektronika "Wolf  and Hare" handheld
game.

I always wanted to try a  more modern handheld console - something like
the  Atari Jaguar  or even  the PlayStation  Portable. Or  some of  the
Linux-based consoles.  I have  thought that  they should  be preferable
because they often are able to emulate older devices.

The one which have seemed them most interesting to me has been the GP32
or the GP2X. They can run on  AA batteries so there should be no issues
with batteries.

I have been (well, not  very frequently) searching online auction sites
for one  of them. And  I have  found and have  got the cheap  GP2X F100
recently  (it seems  that the  GP32  is much  more rare  and thus  more
expensive).  My GP2X  was  said to  be only  used  for some  university
project and  then stored for years.  Well, that project was  probably a
research on gaming addiction if I can judge from device wear... :-)

Anyway, I  have got a fully  working device (sans missing  dust flap on
the USB port  - they probably remove  it to ease access to  the USB and
the power port). I have inserted a  pair of AAs and it started to work.
It is somewhat bigger and heavier than  I expected but it is still fine
to use.  The default user interface  is intuitive enough but  it is not
elegant (but show  me and elegant console interface!). So  the thing is
easy to use. One only has  to copy games or applications to directories
on a  SD card  (no particular  order or  organisation is  needed)and to
insert the card into  the device. When it is turned on  then it is easy
to browse to the directory and to start the executable.

Of course, games  control can be less intuitive -  some use the "Start"
button to start but  some are not and so on. Some  games are stable bus
some are rather unfinished ports. I was surprised that there are little
3D (or pseudo-3D)  games, car simulators and such things  as the device
has a  pair of 200 MHz  ARM CPUS (one of  them is the main  one and the
second can be specially programmed).

The Doom is here for sure. I  even have found [1] some car racing games
and strategies. But the most games  are 2D ones of several kinds. There
is also a selection of utility programs which include a Linux terminal.
I don't think that controlling the keyboard with a 8-directional pad is
the sanest idea, anyway.

There  are also  some build-in  applications.  There is  a simple  file
manager (good enough to move or  delete files and directories), a music
player (should play both MP3 and  OGG files and plays them quite well),
a video player (I have not tried it but I don't see any reason to watch
movies  on 3",  320x240  screen) or  a  text reader.  The  last one  is
advertised as an "e-book reader" which was probably correct when it was
new but  now it  can be misleading.  It can only  work with  plain text
files. But for them it is very  nice to use. I already put several book
in plaintext to the device.

There are other  thing I'm going to investigate: the  device is able to
emulate older computers  and gaming consoles. And it  can be programmed
in C with use of the SDL library. It also may make sense for me.

Well, battery life should be mentioned. Expect some 2-6 hours of active
use for a pair of batteries. A pair of freshly charged Eneloops is fine
for a  few-hour train trip  but then be  prepared replace them  with an
another pair...

After all, I am  happy with my new toy. I have no  plan to use it often
but there are situations when it  became handy. And finally I have been
seeing what that mobile gaming is...


References:

[1] http://openhandhelds.org