Is GP2X popular worldwide?

Hi all,

I usually see the young playing PSP on bus or MTR.

In a recent theread "BlitzMax ARM support", there are many game developers want blitzmax compiler for GP2X.

According to a GP2X-wiki,
http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/GP2X
it only has 320x240 pixel TFT LCD display.
How could it compare with PSP or GBA?
I don't understand.

Thanks in advance
:)

PSP is mainly a gaming portable for everyone.
The GP2X is mostly a tinkerer's portable with gaming capability. I don't think GP2X would be a viable market for a game dev if its their only SKU.

yes, but problem with PSP is that AFAIK there's no way to distribute games from indie developers for it. Same with DS. So for indie hand held, the GP2X seems like a good choice.

That's assuming that gamers, other than other indie dev, have a GP2X. I'm not saying to not give it a thought, just saying that it shouldn't be your main target platform. Releasing the game on Windows/Linux/Mac and also GP2X would be great. If you release it only on the GP2X, I doubt you'll break even.

With over 70M DS's sold you could target the DS, particularly as many DS owners have access to homebrew enviroments like Moonshell or DSLinux and are used to being able to download and play games.

Darkheart

Yes, but it is illegal to market homebrew on DS.

Th GP2X is decidedly unpopular. Actually that's not true, because to be "unpopular" would require people other than GP2X developers to have heard of it in the first place.

Perhaps it would be better to say that the GP2X is "unknown".

Is it actually illegal to market homebrew on DS. I thought it was only illegal to pirate games on it?

GP2X is relitively unknown but i expect much better from the new OpenPandora if it meets the specification theyre claiming.
I's say it's the first handheld worthy of supporting Blitz as its both powerful and doesnt require you to break the law in order to write games on it.

I heard of GP2X through Chris Comacho but have never seen one in person or advertised anywhere.

I've heard of GP2X about 2 years ago because of the ARM / RISC cpu that it used which can be overclocked or underclocked depending on battery usage, and also that it had a nice display and sound, and that it wasn't really expensive for it's usage.

It is a gaming device, hence it's name; GamePark, with it's embedded joystick and A B X Y buttons.

EDIT: For those who are still considering the GP2X platform, there will be a follow up that might get more interesting; http://openpandora.org/

EDIT2: Oh, and the 3D capabilities of the Pandora! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVR (the SGX model, 4 times more polygons than PowerVR2 from the Sega Dreamcast) - It will be the SGX540 (28 MPolys/sec) for handheld high end mobile (OpenGL 2.0, Direct X 10.1, Shader model 4.1 compliant)

As Indie game developer looking for mobile game creation I would highly suggest the iPhone / iPod Touch
Its market already easily outsells the GP2X and all similar devices together and so far, games were not even published for them. But given what was shown 3D capability wise it ranks between NDS and PSP and the simplicity in development and deployment make it a very interesting development choice as well.

The problem with the GP2X is that quality control is pretty low - things dont work as they should.

Yes. You need to be a certified Nintendo developer, and the product has to pass certain quality criteria in order to be allowed to be released on the platform (called Lot Check with Nintendo, Technical Requirement Checklist with Sony and Technical Certification Requirements with Microsoft).

hu?? sony still has a QA? how comes that that many bugged trash is released then for the breadbox that needs a patch to work correctly?

Well Payback looks good on the GP2X, see http://gp2x.co.uk/payback.html, There are releasing it.

The developers own website is: http://www.apex-designs.net/games.html

Looks good I think :)

Payback looks very similar to GTA2. Looks good though.

TBH though, the GP2x will only ever be a toy for geeks, you never going to see a big games released on it. It's kind of like the linux of the handheld world, but less popular.

I think most indie developers looking to code for handhelds are sticking to PSP or DS homebrew coding, as this is much closer to the commercial world, and more likely to secure you a publishing deal if you write something good.

As someone said above, the iPhone looks like the most viable portable platform for indie game dev. Being a dev only cost $100 a year and you get full access to the SDK & community. With so many iPhone sold, its the hot new thing right now, especially since the SDK got out only a few weeks ago.

But the iPhone has its own sdk.

No it does not.
iPhone - iPod touch have the same SDK, the same OS and beside vibration, cam, speaker and distance proximity meter (ie the handy part) the exactly same hardware as well

So if you develop it with iPod Touch in mind it will run on iPhone as well without any problem.

And the greatest thing is actually that development is worlds easier faster and more productive for it. Why:
1. The emulator which you get when installing the SDK. Allows you to test anything on it including OpenGL ES since the newest beta version)
2. Debugging: can be done in the emulator BUT can also be done on the device itself with breakpoints etc etc. Stuff that on homebrew will never work, you will need multi tousand dollar dev kits for that on handheld consoles.
3. Deployment to your costumers is easy. The 100 USD contract will allow you to sell it through iTunes store. I don't think we need to mention HOW MANY users there are, right? :) And as simple the updating will be through the same.
Far less problems for you and your costumers.

Because it is relatively inexpensive to develop for.

wasnt the prerequisit for the iSDK an intel based mac
if you havnt got one that $100 sure does jump up a notch or two

i thought you could sell homebrew downlaods without the possible wrath of nintendo it was selling carts that was the issue ... then again i never looked into it and it might have just been an assumption posted once that i read
mind you i also read you had to hack the ds in order to do it so you kinda went black ops from that point and limited your customer base

yes the gp32 and its family are nice in some respects but as ive never seen one in the shops you're gonna be hard pushed to find buyers of your software in the local game so will be limited to other gp32 users who probably bought one to make their own games on it not play others ... kinda like how the current XNA is ... without the ability to ship via live to non XNA 360's your target audience is fellow game coders

Yes, the iPhone SDK logically needs OSX, its hard to use XCode 3 otherwise ;-)

And no you are not allowed to sell anything homebrew.
Distribution to console needs a valid license.
That thought isn't that expensive or hard on Nintendos end for NDS Development. You just need to have the funding and beeing a business. thats more or less it.

Otherwise this "animal clinic" shit and the like wouldn't exist and flood the NDS at least here in europe. Or games to any trashy tv series ^

The point that Happy Sammy made was that the handheld devices that used the ARM processors could be potential targets for BlitzMax, thus the GP2X which uses the ARM.
Let me do a rundown of CPU specs per handheld device:

Nintendo DS
Two ARM processors, an ARM946E-S main CPU and ARM7TDMI co-processor at clock speeds of 67 MHz and 33 MHz respectively

Sony PSP
333MHz MIPS R4000 (32-bit) CPU

Apple iPod
90Mhz times two ARM 7TDMI-derived CPUs

Apple iPhone
620Mhz ARM1176JZF chip with TrustZone

GP32
133Mhz Samsung S3C2400X01 (ARM920T core)

GP2X
200MHz ARM920T host processor, 200MHz ARM940T programmable coprocessor

Note: most of the info is from the wikipedia

true but without arm support the blitz max issue is moot

I was thinking about getting a gp2x a while back when the new model came out. I decided not to - as andy_mc said it's a geek toy - and putting in time developing for it might be fun but a distraction from producing games that could have a wider audience.

skip gp2x and safe up for pandora if you intend to get a pure homebrew "illegal emu" platform.

http://openpandora.org/

I was toying with the idea of getting a GP2X a while back, developing apps for it in BBasic 2.1 & running through a Miggy emulator, but then thats seriously going down the road to geekdom..... so I make do with playing Diddy Kong Racing on my kids DS. I'd hours of fun on the initial diddy kong on the N64, it's amazing how technology is moving forward....