thekonamicode
Member
How does the analog "nub" feel? Is it similar to the psp and 3ds slider or more like a traditional analog input?
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GCW Zero - new retrogaming open source handheld!
- Thread starter Vitacat
- Start date
How does the analog "nub" feel? Is it similar to the psp and 3ds slider or more like a traditional analog input?
Finally! I was hoping one of the proto owners would show up here.
Welcome. Let's get the CGW Zero some NeoGAF love.
That UI is pretty nasty, and a major issue for me with all these sorts of projects.
It seems everyman and his dog has some kind of Linux handheld or console coming out. Where do they get all the connections to make it happen? Just seems like so many are doing it.
I don't think this will be a success, I think it will move into obscurity quickly.
It seems everyman and his dog has some kind of Linux handheld or console coming out. Where do they get all the connections to make it happen? Just seems like so many are doing it.
I don't think this will be a success, I think it will move into obscurity quickly.
SnakeSlashRO
Banned
SnakeSlashRO
Banned
On what grounds? It has quite a following already and it came out of the death of another handheld which a company stopped supporting. Most times a fan base alone can support something much greater than what the original was.
No offense, but your assessment indicates that you simply are not the market for this type of device, and don't really understand why it's special. And that is a problem, no doubt, because the general public is not going to get it. But For those who have been into this hobby for a long time, and yes this sort of thing goes way back and is not new, it's pretty clear why this device is very different and very well designed for its intended use. I just hope there are enough people around who do get it to help it succeed.
Seems like a pretty lame piece of kit for the price. While JXD's stuff might be ugly as shit they beat the pants off this in terms of specs and at a lower price. Plus you can run Android games. Seems like it might appeal to a few people who owned the original Dingoo, and want a more powerful system to keep developing for Dingux on, but I can't see anyone else being interested. It's a shame the Chinese manufacturers haven't got their shit together and made a decent Android handheld yet. It can't be that hard.
These devices just come around and disappear when the next one comes out, no deep meaningful connection brand wise, and of course none of them offer anything majorly different from previous types of these consoles.
They all seem to be similar spec'd, offer some futuristic modern convicences like WiFi and then for the most part not get a major influx with homebrew for the devices other than ports or emulators.
I like to be proven wrong, but I really think the market is to saturated for these types of handhelds and because will have selective support across the various models available, resulting in the same types of homebrew games, emulators and projects been created over and over again.
Fixed the video link. This really is worth watching if you have the slightest interest in this device. Wish I knew how to embed video in this forum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3t0aR4W3KRQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3t0aR4W3KRQ
thekonamicode
Member
That video certainly got me more hyped up for the Zero. I am certifiably addicted to checking the kickstarter status!
SnakeSlashRO
Banned
Woot good stuff!
SnakeSlashRO
Banned
Looking good this morning
159
backers
$23,011
pledged of $130,000 goal
17
days to go
159
backers
$23,011
pledged of $130,000 goal
17
days to go
zephervack
Member
Anyone has a video of this thing running donkey kong country for snes? I know the psp struggles with that one, want to see how it compares.
thechristoph
Sir!
I really hope this thing makes it. I backed it, so I can't wait to get my unit!
The only thing that worries me is that the buttons seem really small. If I had my way, its d-pad and buttons would be at least the size of the SNES's d-pad and buttons. But all the videos show people playing it with no problem, so it's obviously not a big deal.
The last emulation handheld I had was the GP2X. That thing had the worst controller ever. I still accomplished a pretty rad minimalist playthrough of Demon's Crest on it, and that game is no slouch. Man, I'm excited to get my hands on this thing.
The only thing that worries me is that the buttons seem really small. If I had my way, its d-pad and buttons would be at least the size of the SNES's d-pad and buttons. But all the videos show people playing it with no problem, so it's obviously not a big deal.
The last emulation handheld I had was the GP2X. That thing had the worst controller ever. I still accomplished a pretty rad minimalist playthrough of Demon's Crest on it, and that game is no slouch. Man, I'm excited to get my hands on this thing.
SnakeSlashRO
Banned
Well said sir, I had the GP2X and it didn't seem to emulate any better than a PSP... But I still had fun with it for a while before I gave it to a less fortunate friend of mine who lost his PSP...and DS.... I bet he some how lost or got his GP2X stolen too <__<;;
Payday for me is next week, going to see if I can get my brother to join in on this. I really hope this takes off! Everything runs so smooth!
I had a GP32, but skipped all the subsequent Game Park handhelds because they kept doing really stupid things with the controls. I loved the thumbstick on the GP32. Such a shame that GP screwed up so badly after that. All the fans ever wanted was a simple dpad (or digital thumbstick, which IMO is even better but ok...), and GP kept trying to be clever with crappy, imprecise multi-directional nubs and whatnot.
I think the GCW Zero will be quite good from all the videos and comments I've seen from people who own one of the early production units. The controls are said to be very good. I do kinda wish it had an OLED screen, being a Vita and Galaxy Note II owner, but I understand that would have made it much more expensive. Plus it may be impossible to even get 320x240 OLED screens now, with all the suppliers making super hi-res cell phone displays. But a good LCD is fine too, as long as it doesn't ghost, and owners say it doesn't.
thekonamicode
Member
I think the kickstarter is going well considering the Zero hasn't been talked about on any of the major news sites. Hopefully some stories will pop up and then even more backers will join up.
UK Metro covered it yesterday: http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/11/games...held-ps3-vs-360-sales-and-illumiroom-3347763/
So there's still hope. Problem is CES is going on right now. :-/
Over $25,000 in the KS now.
That does look impressive, wonder how the emulators run with filters on...mainly a scanline filter
I hope they release a hand grip for it, much like the ones you can get for the 3DS, would be a life saver for long gameplays sessions
Well, it's a retro resolution screen, so you're not going to see (or really need) filters. But for TV-out they should be possible once they get that aspect going.
As for hand grips, no idea. Personally I never use 'em. The Zero is (I think) around the same size as the original 3DS (slightly smaller I think), so maybe an existing grip of some kind could be fitted.
EDIT: Just for reference...
Nintendo 3DS: 130 x 74 x 20 mm, Weight: 230 g
Nintendo DS Lite: 133 x 73.9 x 21.87 mm, Weight: 218 g
GCW Zero: 143 x 70 x 18 mm, Weight: 225 g
gingerbeardman
Member
Important things for me:
- d-pad (video of it looks OK)
- battery life (reports are good)
- CPU powerful enough to emulate graphics and sound at full frame rate, without frame skip (no idea on this one)
- emulators (the biggest barrier for me is that all the emulators looks different and require different setup)
I'd be on this in a flash if a unified front-end for the emulators was part of their plan. They need something like Maximus Arcade for PC, Virtual Console for Wii, any of the console retro compilations, CoinOPS on Xbox, PSX on PSP etc.
I don't want to spend time setting this up. I just want to whack a full memory card in and start playing.
This machine has potential, more than Dingoo dtc, but I remain unconvinced it will receive anything other than the half finished, poorly supported emulators with awful user interfaces that I was biting with when I owned a GP32.
I hope I'm wrong.
- d-pad (video of it looks OK)
- battery life (reports are good)
- CPU powerful enough to emulate graphics and sound at full frame rate, without frame skip (no idea on this one)
- emulators (the biggest barrier for me is that all the emulators looks different and require different setup)
I'd be on this in a flash if a unified front-end for the emulators was part of their plan. They need something like Maximus Arcade for PC, Virtual Console for Wii, any of the console retro compilations, CoinOPS on Xbox, PSX on PSP etc.
I don't want to spend time setting this up. I just want to whack a full memory card in and start playing.
This machine has potential, more than Dingoo dtc, but I remain unconvinced it will receive anything other than the half finished, poorly supported emulators with awful user interfaces that I was biting with when I owned a GP32.
I hope I'm wrong.
zephervack
Member
Im impressed with the speed of emulation of Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi's Island, getting more and more tempting.
A nice front-end and better hardware design would tip me over in a second. Looks like a toy in the videos, I want something that looks more like a modern smartphone or the PSP, at that price it should be doable, oh well.
A nice front-end and better hardware design would tip me over in a second. Looks like a toy in the videos, I want something that looks more like a modern smartphone or the PSP, at that price it should be doable, oh well.
Amiga emulation would requiere a 320*256 screen
Some genesis games too if I remember correctly
Otherwise prety tempting
Not true. Anything beyond 240 lines fell into overscan territory. You may be thinking of PAL. NTSC Amigas (and Genesis) are perfectly supported by 224-240 lines.
You mean the white prototypes? The black final production version looks PSP-ish IMO. And... it... is a toy. ;-P
The vast majority of the Amiga library is in 320*256 because the Amiga scene was mostly in Europe.
The Spoony Hou
Member
For the screen alone this is much better than that stupid NeoGeo X.
SnakeSlashRO
Banned
Some of these complaints are ridiculous... Full Speed Emulation alone sold me, who the fuck cares about a good looking UI?! Or the fact you might have to put some software on yourself. After dealing with all those years of PSP homebrew and DS homebrew I don't think this stuff could be any easier with this device. ( or those other obscure Chinese handhelds )
No more worrying about firmware (stopping you from playing a game at least), I am sure at some place and time ( if this doesn't already have it ) netplay will be possible since it has Wifi. I mean the pros totally out weigh cons by a large margin.
If you are not tight on money and love handheld gaming x Retro gaming then this is a steal! Plus the community backing the thing is what has me really excited. I'm sure if this takes off this will not be their only device. (AND GOOD LORD IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A PSP, its more like a gameboy micro style or gamegear)
No more worrying about firmware (stopping you from playing a game at least), I am sure at some place and time ( if this doesn't already have it ) netplay will be possible since it has Wifi. I mean the pros totally out weigh cons by a large margin.
If you are not tight on money and love handheld gaming x Retro gaming then this is a steal! Plus the community backing the thing is what has me really excited. I'm sure if this takes off this will not be their only device. (AND GOOD LORD IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A PSP, its more like a gameboy micro style or gamegear)
thechristoph
Sir!
To me, it looks like the bottom half of a DSLite. Which is awesome as all get-out to me, I've often wondered about hacking up a DSLite to be the perfect GBA. Now I won't have to.
This looks pretty good, I had been thinking about getting a Dingoo at one point, but it sounded like it had quite a few issues compared to this handheld. I think my iPhone 4s is probably better for emulation though, in everything except GBA, since GBA.emu isn't optimized enough for iOS currently. I tested Sonic on MD.emu and it doesn't have the audio lag in iOS like it does in that video on android. The .emu series of emulators on iOS and android have menus that are so much nicer looking compared to the emulators on Dingux, and I doubt the screen on the GCW will be as nice as the iPhone's.
The biggest issue with my iOS emulation setup is input lag paired with my iControlpad. I'm hoping the SteelSeries mobile controller goes on sale (it's currently $79.99) so I can grab that, since that isn't supposed to have lag and has better buttons.
The biggest issue with my iOS emulation setup is input lag paired with my iControlpad. I'm hoping the SteelSeries mobile controller goes on sale (it's currently $79.99) so I can grab that, since that isn't supposed to have lag and has better buttons.
I do, but I appreciate how hard it is to design a good looking UI. I don't mind the gmenu2x look though. Also most menu's are developed by the developers themselves so it's no suprise each emulator has a different UI.
Well I don't have a psp or a 3ds, but it's not like a 360/ps3 controller where the analog tilts.. it always stays upright.
I know it may look like yet another but.. This is pretty much the reason for the GCW Zero. In the Dingoo community we got tired of lots of short lived handhelds with various flaws we couldn't fix because the thing was closed. So this is the response.
Disclaimer: As many other dingoo developers I'm also a bit involved in this.
How does this compare to the Dingoo units? I could've sworn I saw something similar to the Zero for ~$50
Specs wise the GCW is much better, in many regards such as CPU, GPU and RAM.
Size / appearence wise, the GCW is a little bigger than the Dingoo.
You might be thinking of the Gemei A330? It's a quite nice console, I ported one of my games to it, but the device haven't really gotten any support... and it has delays in sound output.
Here's a picture with the GCW Zero, The Gemei A330, Dingoo A330 and Dingoo A320:
http://www.harteex.com/temp/PICT8740sc2.jpg
gingerbeardman
Member
Are there any plans for a unified front end to all the emulators?
I don't get why some people care so much about this. You just choose the emu for the system you want then pick a game. Plus IMO it's cool having different GUI's and styles for different emulators. Gives things some personality.
I also want to point out, in case people miss it, that although the GCX Zero is slightly bigger than those devices, it has a significantly larger screen and an analog nub. And as Harteex explained, the Zero is also much more powerful and more capable.
UPDATE: Kickstarter is well over $28,000 now! =)
Nice to see the screen is bigger.
When is the nub used? N64, PS1, and PC games which uses the mouse/joystick? I suppose there's not much they can do about the positioning of it, but the GCW Zero seems to scream for a grip add-on. I'm wondering if it'll possible to modify a PSP grip add-on to accommodate the GCW Zero.
Does HDMI-out work? I don't think I've seen vids of that in action.
Useful!
Watch some of the videos. GBA support looks great and full speed to me.
As for the XY buttons, maybe to avoid any potential legal issues. And given that this is primarily meant for multi-system emulation, the button labels are completely irrelevant anyway.
KS UPDATE: well over $30,000!
clay_ghost
Member
Any n64 emulators? I always want an device that can support fullspeed n64 emulators. Any devices that can do that?
I'd imagine gba is fine for all games apart from the ones gpsp usually has trouble with like the golden sun games.
This is probably possible on the Zero, but the question is at what speeds and frame rates. That remains to be seen. Looking way back at projects like UltraHLE which achieved full speed N64 emulation, albeit with limited compatibility, on 266Mhz Pentium 2's, I suspect a talented dev could pull it off.
But I would not buy a Zero if N64 is your main interest, because it's not guaranteed. Buy a Zero because of all the full speed 8 bit and 16but emus and indie games it already has right now. If we get full speed PSX and/or N64 as well someday, that will be icing on the cake.
N64 emulation is full speed on my Samsung Galaxy Note II (a ~$700 flagship device), but virtual controls suck, and attachment controls make it significantly less portable. One of the cheapie Chinese Android gaming devices (i.e. Yinlips) might be ok for N64, but keep in mind (according to what I've read) none of them have real analog controls yet. Their "analog" nubs are actually just digital 8 way. So controls for N64 emulation will always be a bit off. The Zero's nub is true analog and has been demonstrated on one of the videos. Plus there's the sound lag issue on the Android devices, so sound effects will be out of sync -- a problem the Zero does NOT have (also demonstrated in one of the videos).