January 12
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GCW Zero - new retrogaming open source handheld!
- Thread starter Vitacat
- Start date
January 12
Hmm, mine was Monday Jan 28, be interesting to see how longer it take for me to get my confirmation
polyh3dron
Banned
If SNES games don't run well on this I am going to be really really bummed.
I backed on the same date. Fingers crossed.
Here's a 12 minute video of different SNES games being played. Everything looks fairly smooth, it's a pretty old video so it might perform even better by now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCM1kLh-9fI
polyh3dron
Banned
Can't determine much from a 30FPS video really.
But even then, it appears to be skipping frames like a motherfucker.
But even then, it appears to be skipping frames like a motherfucker.
I got Finalburn emulator working on it.
http://i.imgur.com/t3D1GYw.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/5Pz5PUJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/t3D1GYw.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/5Pz5PUJ.jpg
childplease
Banned
Looks cool hope it fairs better than the vita.
Child, please! The Vita sold over 2 million systems by June of last year, along with very high software attach rates. GCW Zero will be lucky to sell half that over the next 5 years. Even though I took the bait, you should be ashamed of your poor attempt at trolling.
As for the SNES emulation, the issues I've read about have less to do with emulator performance, and more to do with screen resolution. Either you take a small black windowed image running at 1:1 or you have the console scale it up to fit the screen - which reviews have said looks horrible right now. I guess I'll find out soon!
Just got back form the post office with mine. Wireless didn't work at first, but after a reboot it worked fine. Need to mess around with it more. Intial impressions, R/L are going to take a little time to get use to (seems like you really need to press from the top instead of a corner), dpad seems to have a hard time registering soft touches, and the analog nub might be hard to use (the top isn't fixed so it can rotate when using). I haven't installed any emulators yet cause the one tutorial I saw said you need a FTP client to install to the internal memory.
zephervack
Member
Still waiting too, if SNES isnt smooth im going to be pissed, only reason I bought it, my PSP already plays GB/C and Advanced without trouble .
KodeAndGame
Member
Yeah. He called it an "apology" but his apology was
"I'm sorry if you think I'm slow but you would feel differently if it was you".
Ok? I didn't take on this endeavor nor would I. You did, and you anticipated a release of March. I get that things happen, and people miss estimated dates. But there's no reason to whine about people being disappointed by this. This is what happens. If you want to apologize, please do it for real.
The irony was that he did the Kickstarter to avoid all of the mistakes that befell the Pandora and he still made every single error in the book. He could pay for everything upfront but he made no allowances for having to actually process and ship these things to the scale he'd need should the Kickstarter succeed.
These projects never fuck up because of money. They fuck up because of mismanagement and cheaping out on infrastructure. One guy cannot ship, let alone test and flash, hundreds of units.
These projects never fuck up because of money. They fuck up because of mismanagement and cheaping out on infrastructure. One guy cannot ship, let alone test and flash, hundreds of units.
IT more and more sounds like a "Quick buck project gone bad".
Having delays is fine, having 6 months delays? Well, fine again, having no idea if we 're going to get our units before year's end?
Unprofessionnal.
Marty Chinn
Member
I hate how the comments that I read so far are, it's ok, stay strong, you're only human, etc. Someone call him out on his shit and tell him what he needs to do to improve instead of feeding him crap that he's not doing anything wrong.
Nah, I believe he had the best intentions, he just horribly underestimated just how much time and effort everything takes just as all of these hobbyist projects do. They budget for the manufacture and make no allowance for hiring people to test and ship.
Once again, the lesson that KICKSTARTER ISN'T A STORE had to be learned the hard way by both backers and the entrepreneur.
I'm sure he did, but at this point he has no reason to hurry up and ship those things timely.
How many times were we served the "a team will come help"? 5? 6?
He has our money, why hurry up?
At this point he's probably out of money and can't afford to pay anyone to help. Still, at least everyone got a carry case and an HDMI cable!
I don't! (Yet
)Marty Chinn
Member
If he's out of money, how can he afford to ship things?
I'm glad I cancelled actually. As I posted in the pickup thread, I bought a gamepad for my phone yesterday. I can just whack my HTC One into the holder and success! Handheld emulation with all the buttons I need. Sure, I get the occasional frame skipped in SNES9x EX, but it sure as hell beats paying £130 for an amateur attempt at a console that's never going to arrive.
It's a shame - I was really quite positive on this whole thing until I realised just how much of a risk it was.
I have access to a Nexus 7 2013 I can borrow to play around with, so I used an OTG cable with my Saturn USB pad to try Android RetroArch. It runs very nicely, but I feel quite a bit of input lag compared to my PC
. That kind of setup is a bit unwieldy for portability too. I have the same kind of lag problems with my iControlPad and iPhone. Lag is something I would hope I wouldn't feel on a handheld like the Zero and it's much easier to put in a pocket.Whenever I get the thing anyways.
He's budgeted for manufacture and shipping. He hasn't budgeted for having to process them.
GreggTheGrimReaper
Member
For some reason I have a lot of framerate problems on my Galaxy S4 with various emulators. Yoshis's Island or Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts are very bad at times and Super Castlevania 4 goes down to like 10fps in stages like the rotating room.
Is this a problem of my phone or the emulator? Would this work better on a device like the GCW Zero?
Is this a problem of my phone or the emulator? Would this work better on a device like the GCW Zero?
zephervack
Member
Hopefully, I have yet to find a good review online of this thing, im starting to think that all these delays will hurt the dev community too which means less emulators.
I have access to a Nexus 7 2013 I can borrow to play around with, so I used an OTG cable with my Saturn USB pad to try Android RetroArch. It runs very nicely, but I feel quite a bit of input lag compared to my PC
Whenever I get the thing anyways.
On my HTC one at least, retroarch is by far the worst of the bunch on android. SNES9x EX runs fucking circles around it.
Edit:
A quick (shit quality) video to show. This is SNES9x EX running on my HTC One. I'm playing using the snap-on gamepad I've got. Unfortunately I had a bedside table in the way, hence why I fell immediately into a pit. Either way, you can see how smooth it runs (full speed, no frameskip)
http://youtu.be/-BZ3JRSVmBo
Also, my phone is rooted and all the resource hogging crap is gone. It runs brilliantly, as do the other emulators I've got.
You mean the people that can afford one.
Despite the logistics mess development is going strong and there are a large number of scene developers working on software for the GCW Zero. The console is still in its infancy and a preview of the work will be shown at PAX Prime.
I sure hope Justin doesn't show up at PAX Prime. Taking a few days off from shipping at this point is ill advised.
PetriP-TNT
Member
Saw some "got mine" posts on SA, seems that the sticky D-PAD thing is still there?? I thought it was fixed?
Got any details on when and where for PAX? I'd like to check it out.
The SE units that were previously sent out and stuck in customs are arriving now (without a replaced dpad). Obviously, SE units are now sent out with smaller dpads.
PAX Prime Booth #6206. You'll have a chance to try out the units and talk to Justin himself.
Here is the full press invite: http://www.gcw-zero.com/articles/pax2013
PAX Prime Booth #6206. You'll have a chance to try out the units and talk to Justin himself.
Here is the full press invite: http://www.gcw-zero.com/articles/pax2013
The guy doesnt have time to be at PAX, he should be at home sorting these fucking back orders out!!!
Unbelievable. I guess we get to wait even longer for our units now.
cheststrongwell
my cake, fuck off
I don't really care about the wait. Figured there would be issues. I just hope my d-pad isn't fucked.
I care when the guy is asking us to appreciate that it's just him and his wife shipping boxes and he leaves to go to PAX. That's bad form.
On the Nexus performance was perfectly smooth with threaded video on in RetroArch in my testing. Yoshi's Island on the SNES9x core (not Next, which is the speedhacked version) was the most intensive thing I tested and it ran perfectly. Turning off threaded video is supposed to help with input lag, but it didn't make a noticeable difference to me. SNES9x Ex also runs well and has a little less input lag, but not enough to feel good to me. In SMW it messes up my timing too much compared to how responsive it is on my PC with my 120hz monitor.
I'm not sure if rooting or killing google background processes would help with input lag.
Hm. On every core I've tried, it has horrendous lag and frameskipping. PC version runs smooth as silk. And as reference, these are the emulators I personally find to be the best on my system (as in, they run full speed with no hitches or frameskipping)
SNES9x EX
John GBC
Neo.emu (neogeo)
My Boy! (GBA)
Cannot fault any of those. Gotta give credit to John GBC as being the most accurate Gameboy emulator on the android market. It's superb.
Edit: what the fuck. Just reinstalled retroarch, and now it works brilliantly. Well, there's that I guess.
Edit edit: take that back. Still shit. Uninstalled.
SnakeSlashRO
Banned
Pretty jelly, as I backed on the 10th of January and have had NOTHING.
Also my lastname begins with an A, hypothetically if they shipped by a list of names in alphabetical order I could have been near the top too.
GreggTheGrimReaper
Member
What gamepad are you using? I'm currently using an ipega since I've given up all hope on the iControlPad 2 and carrying a DualShock 3 with me is not portable at all. The iPega doesn't seem to have noticeable input lag but the overall build quality is not very convincing.
The DKC series runs pretty flawless on the S4, it's Yoshi's Island (and various other games) that run like shit. How is Yoshi's Island on the HTC One?
thekonamicode
Member
Any updated impressions from the Zero?
A $299 Shield is still a better deal than a $135 Kickstarter vapor ware handheld that becomes more and more outdated every month that passes.
I will be genuinely surprised if this thing is out this year.
Again, a harsh reminder that just because you back a successful Kickstarter, doesn't mean you are guaranteed anything.
The shield received similar backlash when it wasn't launched on time. I deal mainly with the software side and from what I can see is that development is going well. After the logistics saga is over it's time to focus on the availability of emulators and games.