Gamepark GP2x - disappointing :(

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sixteen-bit
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Gamepark GP2x - disappointing :(

Post by sixteen-bit »

Just a wee heads up to everyone curious about the GP2X console: The first batch has arrived from Korea and distributors across Europe are finally shipping out their units!

Edit: First impressions leave myself and everyone who's tried the 2X underwhelmed; The joystick is garbage and the headphone socket is faulty. We're sending it back :/
Last edited by sixteen-bit on Sat Nov 26, 2005 9:55 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Post by Sir Savant »

Is that yours?
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Post by sixteen-bit »

Savant wrote:Is that yours?
Unfortunately not; I ordered it on behalf of a friend who doesn't have a proper credit / debit card.
Edit: After using a 2X in real life I certainly won't be ordering one for myself unless the build quality drastically improves!
Last edited by sixteen-bit on Thu Nov 24, 2005 5:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by jaredfogle »

I WANT ONE SO BAD.

Are any American distributors picking up large quantities? $200+ is a little steep to ask of the family for Christmas.
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Post by bizzle »

Very nice. It's much smaller than I imagined. Anyway, like jared said, $200 is a bit steep.
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Post by Specially Cork »

I want one a lot.

but Im going to wait, because Im not a developer myself, so have no real use for one until loads of crap is available. Then ill definitly be getting one of those bad boys.
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Post by mikozero »

anyone think the power management might be addressed ? (firmware updates or something)
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Post by Digital Chaos »

Lik-Sang recommends not picking one up for various reasons.
lik-sang wrote:Hardware and Software Faults

From reports of worried customers on our pre-order list, and from hundreds of posts in GP2X forums around the world, we have gathered a quick list with the most common issues so far. Please be aware that this may still grow, as hundreds and hundreds of units have not yet arrived at the user's doorstep. Please note that the distributors have also informed customers up-front by email about possible problems, and it is recommended to check GP32X.com frequently if you have received your unit already.

• Practically many videos are not playable without capping them.
• There are reports of Xvid playing too fast, and DivX sound not in sync with video.
• There is a battery problem, 2 hours battery-life with standard batteries only.
• There is no power supply or charger included with the GP2X.
• Stereo jack sinks on some units, because of poor soldering.
• The speakers are mono instead of stereo.
• Headphone channels are switched, left is not left.
• The action buttons are too small. Your thumb can cover all four.
• There is a large joystick deadzone (that can be fixed with a "mod" according to a distributor).
• Uneven color distribution on the screen and other LCD problems.
• Long boot time (28 seconds).
• Compatibility problems with some brands, types or sizes of Flash Cards.
• USB Connection and incompatibility problems with Windows XP (apparently fixed with latest Firmware).

Several of these problems were indeed noticed by the Lik Sang team with the prototype that we received early October, but there were hopes here (and promises from Korea) that it would all be fixed for official release... and that obviously didn't happen.
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Post by Specially Cork »

Hmm this is interesting. Looks like I will definitely be waiting on this purchase then. Things are looking far too dodgy for me to consider throwing cash around at the moment. 2 hours battery life? That's shocking....
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Post by Veggita2099 »

Looks like it is a overpriced poorly built system. Sure it isn't made by Sony...

and yes I had to throw that in :rumpshaker:
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Post by Specially Cork »

Lets see what the second version ends up like.
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Post by Covar »

so is this a second generation of a gp32 or something different?
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Post by az_bont »

Covar wrote:so is this a second generation of a gp32 or something different?
A bunch of employees from Gamepark (creators of the GP32 left to form a new company, Gamepark Holdings. The GP2X is their new handheld.

The original Gamepark company is going to be releasing their own new handheld, with a widescreen display, and more of an emphasis on commercial games. It also looks to be more powerful, and with a special digital TV tuner that will only work in Korea.
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Post by melancholy »

That's quite depressing. I need to get away from emulators on the PSP, and this was what I thought was going to be the answer, but from those problems listed, I guess not. We'll see what happens in the next few months. I wasn't planing on ordering on until after Christmas anyway.
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Post by Specially Cork »

Yeah I'm really dissapointed by this news. Forget PSP Dead Pixels, this definitly takes the biscuit.

What's even worse, is while there are usually problems with early batches of consoles, you can sometimes understand why the company may not of noticed, especially on the hardware side of things.

But to advertise a product as having 8-10 hours of battery life and playing any divx/xvid movie without the need to re-encode (which they did), and then to start selling the product with only 2 hours battery life, and useless video support, is just ridiculous.
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Post by sixteen-bit »

A quick update before I head off to bed:


• Practically many videos are not playable without capping them.
We tested some short AVIs and they played back problem-free. One of the longer files initially played fine but crashed 12 minutes in. As for the others, see the next point.

• There are reports of Xvid playing too fast, and DivX sound not in sync with video.
The Xvids we tried were unwatchable.

• There is a battery problem, 2 hours battery-life with standard batteries only.
The included single-use batteries lasted ~1:55. Ouch.

• Stereo jack sinks on some units, because of poor soldering.
Ours didn't even need to sink since it was faulty from the start and only intermittently worked with the three sets of headphones tried. A pretty fatal flaw for a so-called "portable entertainment player".

• The speakers are mono instead of stereo.
No idea. They sound pretty poor either way

• The action buttons are too small. Your thumb can cover all four.
Didn't pose a problem for anyone today.

• There is a large joystick deadzone (that can be fixed with a "mod" according to a distributor).
More importantly, the joystick is tiny and far too stiff.

• Uneven color distribution on the screen and other LCD problems.
The LCDs are so-so. They have a decent response time but they're interlaced ( :( ! ) and suffer image noise.

• Long boot time (28 seconds).
Looks terrible on paper but tolerable in reality

• Compatibility problems with some brands, types or sizes of Flash Cards.
The only SD card we had available worked. *shrugs*

• USB Connection and incompatibility problems with Windows XP (apparently fixed with latest Firmware).
The USB connection is unuseable and at one point corrupted the SD card to the point of it needing a re-format.
Several of these problems were indeed noticed by the Lik Sang team with the prototype that we received early October, but there were hopes here (and promises from Korea) that it would all be fixed for official release... and that obviously didn't happen.
Lots of promises.. very little action, it seems:
-We were promised a working USB connection
-We were promised looser joysticks (with a method to unstick those which remain too tight)
We're now being promised fixes to the above software problems and expected to ride it out?!

As for the hardware issues: They're dealbreakers. The dodgy headphone port, for one, makes the device unsuitable for its intended purpose so it's being sent back.
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Post by Specially Cork »

This is terrible news. Awful battery life, average screen, crap headphone socket, crap usb connection, crap controls, poor speakers etc. etc.

These aren't picky things, this is quite clearly a shoddy piece of electronics. Perhaps when Gamepark split into 2, all the hardware guys got left one one side, with the homebrew team left on the other?
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Post by atf487 »

Jeez. Originally I wanted one, but with all those problems, and at 200.00, its not even close to being worth it.
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Post by mikozero »

just rewrote my xmas list :(
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Post by TyBO »

Man... that sucks. :(

Hopefully if we wait it out, Game Park Holdings will get their act together and make a professional-quality batch of GP2X's.
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