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GCW Zero - new retrogaming open source handheld!
- Thread starter Vitacat
- Start date
DrROBschiz
Member
Seriously wanting to finally jump in and get one of these
but....
Its looks like its a huge pain to get
I can't even order it at any of the US outlets
Any help would be appreciated
but....
Its looks like its a huge pain to get
I can't even order it at any of the US outlets
Any help would be appreciated
DrROBschiz
Member
sörine;88364129 said:
No PSX support?
Seems odd given its specs should be able to handle it easily
zephervack
Member
sörine;88364129 said:
How the performance like in all emulators?
DrROBschiz
Member
Be glad to sell you mine.
Lol whats the catch?
They send you a defective one?
Or just disappointed with performance?
Marty Chinn
Member
I'm kinda disappointed MAME or some other arcade solution is there. FBA is just CPS1, CPS2 and Neo Geo right? I was also a bit sad to learn Killer Instinct will never be on the system.
DrROBschiz
Member
Im currently In the process of trying to revive my xperia play on the cheap...
If that fails the gcw zero might do the trick but im trying to do more research
If that fails the gcw zero might do the trick but im trying to do more research
Vorg
Banned
JXD just released their newest handheld console too. Maybe more people here would be interested in something like that, so I'm linking the thread below.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=684313
I updated it earlier today with impressions, since I just got it yesterday
No, my unit is fine. I'm just disappointed with it. It's really no better than a PSP in its current state and the d-pad sucks for fighting games. No TV-out yet either. And then there's all the Kickstarter drama that just sort of killed it for me. I'd rather just use my modded PSP Go.
DrROBschiz
Member
Only issue I have with psp is how bad the snes support is....
Otherwise I would also be opting with a go. Maybe I should just stick with a psp either way though.
I see no reason to own a GCW-Zero -in its current state- if you have a PSP. But of course that could change.
DrROBschiz
Member
Form Factor
It seems small and compact
So is PSP go but that is surprisingly hard to find nowadays.
PSP SNES emulators are still awful. My best bet right now is to stick to my Xperia play given that I can repair it. (Flex Cable issues)
It literally played everything all the way to PSX/N64 really smoothly and android emulators are still being iterated and supported
It's larger than you might think- the PSP Go is smaller and more comfortable, and its d-pad is 100 times better. But the Zero seems to have better battery life. Possibly even twice as much.
I don't play SNES games much emulated, but what I do run always seems fine to me. Isn't it mainly some of the Mode 7 and/or games with special chips like the X games that cause problems?
Already sounds better than the Zero. I think what really drove the point home was someone asking about N64 emulation in the Zero forums, with answer being akin to "no, it's not powerful enough- there's a new Android-based handheld that does that now."
I've learned my lesson from this. Never backing a hardware-based Kickstarter again.
DrROBschiz
Member
Thanks for all the feedback
Seems overpriced at 150 then if its capabilities are that limited
Damn shame. Solidifies my choice to get my Xperia play working again.
Seems overpriced at 150 then if its capabilities are that limited
Damn shame. Solidifies my choice to get my Xperia play working again.
Lord this man is frustrating. after months of being patient and understanding I finally ask 2 weeks ago about my unit, he says it will ship no later then 2 weeks. fine. today is just past that so I pm him again. First I get some BS about how he's shipping units everyday, so I ask again and he's like well you backed late so it'll be at the very end of the estimate which was yesterday and now I'm waiting for another response. God why can't he just give a straight answer.
zephervack
Member
All this talk about psp is sad, the only reason I backed this is because psp can't handle snes, I already have a PSP. If he ever delivers my unit I will sell it for sure.
HoneyBunch360
Member
What date did you back the project? I backed on Jan 25th and I've heard diddly-sqat so far. I'm trying to be patient but I think I will end up PMing him today.
around that time, I wouldn't be as mad if he would just give it to me straight instead of dancing around the issue. Also after the first to messages came right quick he's gone silent so far. I'll update with what I hear.
Noisepurge
Member
They are difficult indeed, many people seem to be first timers and always tend to blow away a lot more money than they had calculated.
I've gotten one successful Kickstarter product but that was a Book. But still, it was a physical object
It was pretty painless and with all projects you cant expect it to arrive like ordering from Amazon, just give it time.People who make Kickstarters should take it easy with the reward items and calculate a buffer fund for logistics and all that. Was it the Double Fine Kickstarter where they said they lost an extra 20K$ just for shipment of T-shirts or something they hadn't taken into account
People who make Kickstarters should take it easy with the reward items and calculate a buffer fund for logistics and all that. Was it the Double Fine Kickstarter where they said they lost an extra 20K$ just for shipment of T-shirts or something they hadn't taken into account
This seems like common sense to me. If I had physical rewards I would make sure to have at least a buffer AND know the exact shipping costs for things beforehand.
Also it really seems you have to bug him to get your unit shipped. Whenever someone asks him, people get that it should go out within 1-2 weeks (which means all units should be like shipped soon, lol).
God damn it!!! Just had to pay £27 for custom charges on 2 of these devices. Justin is such a douchebag. I have ordered loads of stuff from Japan and the US and they have always marked the package as 'gift' and tried to keep the value low!!. But oh no not Justin full value price and no mention of Gift...way to go!
The latest FW released a few days ago should help, it set GPU clock to 500 MHz (was 432 MHz)
The problem with SNES on any of these devices is that its resolution is so strange. We're dealing with small fixed pixel dispays here and displaying the SNES at the proper aspect ratio requires pixels to be stretched...which just doesn't play nicely with these portable screens (you end up with ugly scaling artifacts or blurring). If you play in 1:1 pixel mode then everything looks squished. Very annoying.
That said, it's a shame the PSP never received any great SNES emulators and it's more of a shame that people haven't been able to tap into Vita for emulator development as it would be a fantastic emulation platform.
Noisepurge
Member
atleast the 4:3 screen on the GCW is a better starting point than a widescreen one on the PSP.
You shouldn't expect anyone to do that for you. I live in Canada and have to pay a $7 handling fee plus 13% tax on any imports and I always consider it a blessing if an item sneaks through customs, not an expectation.
DrROBschiz
Member
Hell the visuals i can get past (I actually didn't mind stretched pixels and prefer to have a Filled screen since I hate black boxes)
My beef with SNES on PSP was that they never figured out haw to get the games running at full speed. Along with various other performance issues. Heck some games just didnt even work at all....
Well this shouldn't be the case for the GCW-Zero as it uses a 4:3 screen!
I came home to a card from Parcel Force for a customs payment and collection so I assume that's my GCW-Zero. Looking forward to picking it up tomorrow morning!
Yeah mines being delivered today, but I had to pay a import tax of £27 up front before they would deliver it, it is for 2 devices though so yours shouldn't be as much as £27
It's pretty much impossible to brick the device through software.
Try to just press the reset button. If it doesn't work, try holding reset for a minute.
If there is a problem after a firmware update, you can boot the old version by holding X and Y while turning it on.
DrROBschiz
Member
Once you get all the kinks worked out I wouldn't mind getting some performance impressions from ya
Noisepurge
Member
sounds pretty normal Dingux action, use the reset button. These things are for hackers only, always need to have a safety pin near you!
thechristoph
Sir!
The quick start guide is finally up. After having my Zero for like 3 months I can finally use it!
http://wiki.surkow.com/Quick_Start_Guide
http://wiki.surkow.com/Quick_Start_Guide
Ah yeah didnt notice the reset slot, all working now!
From all the videos I've seen of the existing SNES emulators, SNES9x4D and PocketSNES, they both currently only run at pixel aspect, which is 8:7. So you get black bars on the sides of the Zero's 4:3 screen and a squished aspect ratio. Eventually someone will probably update one of them with a scaler to address that though.
Marking purchases as gifts is against the law.
Well after spending a few hours with the device here are my thoughts:
I have noticed that all those points are very negative, but then this device is still in its infancy. The PicoDrive, REGBA, FCEU320 and SNES9x4 emulators all seem to run games perfectly fine....i just hope RetroArch gets ported to the device as its a bit jarring going from the layout and button config to get into menus from one emulator to the other. I think there is mod you can do to the d-pad and buttons to make them less spongy and more responsive also.
On the positive side i guess things can only get better for the GCW-Zero!!
- Both device have really spongy buttons and d-pad
- Some of the buttons are not super responsive, if you just tap some of them then they dont always respond
- The speakers have a really tinny sound
- The device only came with a US PSU, or though you can just use one of those travel adapters
- Cant charge the device via the USB cable
- Transfer files onto the device is a bit of a chore, no drag and drop as the PC doesnt see the device as a removable storage device
I have noticed that all those points are very negative, but then this device is still in its infancy. The PicoDrive, REGBA, FCEU320 and SNES9x4 emulators all seem to run games perfectly fine....i just hope RetroArch gets ported to the device as its a bit jarring going from the layout and button config to get into menus from one emulator to the other. I think there is mod you can do to the d-pad and buttons to make them less spongy and more responsive also.
On the positive side i guess things can only get better for the GCW-Zero!!
I've been using the included USB cable to charge mine no problem.
I've had mine for a day or two now and I'm happy overall. Whilst the buttons are a little spongy feeling and the speakers are poor, it runs everything I've thrown at it without issue which is exactly what I wanted. It's small and light, has a good quality screen and feels solid to me.
It definitely still needs some work software wise and is a little confusing to use at first (mine didn't even have the Network program on it to begin with so I had to mess around with FTP over USB to update it) but I can see it improving a lot over time.
There's an early recompile of PSX4all on it but it's totally unoptimized and several firmwares out of date (no GPU support). I don't know if it's being actively worked on either. I haven't bothered but I believe with enough tinkering in settings that less demanding games like SOTN or Alundra are mostly-playable.
These are only the emus I've spent any time with, there are a bunch of others too like ScummVM, DOSbox, Unrealspeccy, UAE4all (Amiga), Vice (C64) DCastaway (Atari ST), Handy320 (Lynxx) and more. I would briefly say;
FCEUX 320: Plays everything I've tried great but the sound needs major work. Lots of snap crackle pop. There are different versions floating around, find the +FDS one.
PocketSNES: My preferred SNES emu. Better speed, Mode 7 and much better sound emulation in general in my experience.
SNES9x4d: I only keep this for Super FX, SDD1 and C4 chip games, as PocketSNES doesn't support them at all. It plays Star Fox smoother than a real SNES! FX2 games (besides YI) are still broken unfortunately.
Picodrive: Really great quality, plays pretty much everything MD/CD. 1.91 supports SVP chip (playable) and 32X (unplayable) and in general speeds everything up but drops MP3 support. If your Sega CD rips are all MP3 formatted you'll want to use 1.35, which runs everything pretty well anyway. It's basically a choice between MP3 or Virtua Racing.
SMS SDL: Basic but it works. I haven't put much time into it yet.
Race: Same as above. Seek out version 1.2.
Temper: Flawless but not yet in opk. You can find a good tutorial on how to install the dge file on the Dignoogity forums. There is an opk for Hugo if you'd rather do that fir TG/PCE but I believe it has worse performance.
OpenMSX: The only computer emu I've attempted and properly bios-ing the correct hardware can be a bit daunting for a relative emulation newb like myself. Still managable though. The emulator itself is great and can play everything MSX/2/+ I've thrown at it. It can run rom games out of the box with the included C-bios but expect to do some work for disk games.
OhBoy: A really great emu with tons of options and supports custom borders and palettes. I love the interface and menu too. My only complaint is that the sound can get scratchy in some games but hopefully that'll be fixed.
ReGBA: This is probably the best and most complete emulator on GCW Zero. Probably because it's being worked on and updated tirelessly. It runs nearly everything fullspeed and no major glitches in any of my playtime.
gngeo: Plays everything I've tried great so far. The only drawback is GCW's dpad being crap for fighters which really takes a major chunk out of the appeal of the Neo's library. Use zipped mame roms and you'll also have to do some bios work.
FBA: A mixed bag, though it's great for CPS, CPS2 and some other stuff. Most everything is playable but CPS3 and later super scaler Sega games like Power Drift or Galaxy Force 2. Some stuff (like Irem's games) still run weirdly slow though. I believe NeoGeo compatibility is good but I haven't bithered since gngeo does the job so well. Again, use mame roms and system bios for the boards that need it like NeoGeo or PGM.
mame4all has been recompiled but it's and old build with crap performance in general. FBA supports over 3000 games btw, stuff like Sega System 16, IGS PGM, Taito F2 and a ton more. There's a compatability list on the Dignoogity forums somewhere.
I think you misunderstood in regards to N64 emulation. The hardware itself is more than capable of offering fullspeed N64 emulation and even improving on it with texture filtering, anti-aliasing and such, the issue is that no one's taken up porting the needed dynarec cores to MIPS so the hardware can actually run any recompiled N64 emu. It's a matter of interest, not of capability. If it was ARM based we'd probably already have highly playable N64 emulators on it though. Same with PS1 too.
Blue Submarine No. 6
Member
sörine;89161645 said:
I wanted to come in and post some of my impressions of the Zero today after having it for a week or so, because it is a great little emulation system, and given time I'm sure the development community will do it proud. But I've got to be honest: the crap D-pad on this thing kind of pisses me off. As a system made by gamers for gamers specifically to address the issues in previous open systems like the GP32 or GP2X, I was really hoping they'd get this right, but after a week of using the system for a couple hours every day, I can't understand how they got it so wrong. The D-pad is crap. Really crap. The GBA, DS, 3DS, PSP and Vita all have better D-Pads by a long shot (Christ, the Nomad, Lynx, Game Gear, TurboExpress, NeoGeo Pocket and even the Wonderswan have better D-pads, for that matter). I have actually removed gngeo from my GCW Zero as a result; I'll use my NeoGeo X as my only handheld NeoGeo system for now, even though I've only got the 36 games released for it to date with the Mega Pack, 'cuz it's got a great stick... This D-pad on the GCW Zero is a spongey, mushy mess, and I really am not pleased with it at all.
Yeah took a few days for mine to show up at first
Thank you, I'm glad to hear that.