What's the best handheld for emulation?

yalborap · Post by **yalborap** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 2:04 am

Okay, I've been looking into portable emulation(mostly of NES.), but I need to know what would be best for it. So far, I've got three options.

GBA:I'm looking heavily into this one, as I already own a GBA/could get a GBA SP for VERY cheap, and run my games on a flashcart/card reader.

GP32: a korean little device of awesomeness, that would cost a pretty penny, but be worth it. I'm considering this one as well since it can emulate some consoles newer than NES very well.

handheld NES: I'm personally not interested in this option for two reasons: One, you need to use those oversized carts, or bust your carts open to play them. Two, both GBA and GP32 can manage better battery life.

So, which of these would be best? The cheap one that can do my intended purposes decently, the expensive one that can do my intended purposes excellently and do some more, or the bulky cheap one with bad battery life?

NOTE: This is based on logic. I want to hear "This makes more sense because of reason a, reason b, and reason c.", not "du disss!!! eet's cuulerrrrrrrr!!!!!"

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 5:15 am

GP32, no question. First of all, it's more comfortable to hold. Second, it can run SNES almost full speed, which the GBA cannot do AFAIK. Heck, all emulators before the SNES are fullspeed (minus a few odd ones, the biggest one being a 2600 emulator) Finally, the screen is much nicer.

yalborap · Post by **yalborap** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 5:52 pm

I was thinking gp32 myself, but I have a few questions for any owners: One, does it make the entire thing look "squished" like on the GBA emulators? Two, how many ROMs can you fit on the proper card thingy? And three, anything I should know before buying it?

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 6:08 pm

1. most emulators let you adjust the screen size to how it should be, or to fill the screen. I haven't had anything look bad by default, though GB is a little small unless you increase the size a little

2. SMCs go up to (and are most common at) 128MB. Whatever you can it on that will work. Of course, they are so small that you can take a few with you.

3. Unfortunately, it cannot play commercial GBA games at the moment, which is probably the only advantage of the GBA w/ flash card. Also, they can all overclock to different speeds. most go to 133MHz, though some can only go to 132MHz (that's the minimum, and not very common... but still fine for everything besides SNES, which would be slow) many go to 156MHz or 166MHz, with speeds even higher than that possible. Also, assuming you're in the US or Canada, GP32z is a good site to buy from. Hmmm... That's about all I can think of, except go to GP32x to learn more about the Gamepark, and check out GP32 theatre, which is owned by Abbibi, (though he hasn't done anything for a long time, but he started it and owns it) NiN^_^NiN (though he's been busy and hasn't done anything yet) and me (I've been doing everything around there since I took over it a while back).

Whoa, that got longer than I thought. Hope it helps you

NiN^_^NiN · Post by **NiN^_^NiN** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 6:31 pm

Sorry spongy iv been very busy

i still gotta finish off my gp32 games.

I dont know when i will get time

life sucks

The GP32 is your choice as the lcd is 320 x 240 and all game systems before snes had a resolution like that cause its very close to the TV resolution just a bit higher so u wont ever see squashed images as the resolution is higher than the game consoles so it looks great

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 6:38 pm

NiN^_^NiN wrote:Sorry spongy iv been very busy

Don't worry about it. I actually enjoy working on the site, so it's all good. I'm waiting for an email from abbibi for some database questions, since I thought a forum would be a nice little feature... not to replace that of GP32x's, but one for movie submissions and encoding help. Unfortunately, he's been as busy as you.

s3ptic · Post by **s3ptic** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:23 pm

The.... Drumroll please......... Zodiac!!!

. Not only will it play SNES full speed, but it still has comercial game support, and like the gp32 has a great comunity and fan base, as well as terrific homebrew support. Currently the LJZ, a free emulator for the zodiac can emulate
NES
SNES
Genesis
GB/C
TG16 (aka PCE)
WonderSwan
NGP/C

at very good speeds.

Reasons the zodiac is king

The zodiac also has a joystick

Better screen resolutio(480x320) than the GP32

Better commercial games, such as DukeNukem, Tony Hawk, and Orbz

Better video playback, usese

Uses Palm OS so it supports almost all palm programs, including most plam games

Can hold more with a 32 or 128mb internal storage and dual SD slots for extra storage(SD cards currently are avliable in up to 1GB sizes, while SM are only 128mb)

Supports SDIO cards for add accesories, such as a camera(or Wi-Fi evetually)

Has bluetooth for wireless gaming, as well as aloowing to brows the internet over bluetooth, or share a internet connection with your cell phine for mobile browsing.

Is more powerfull with a faster 200mhz CPU a dedicated sound processor, more Memory, and a one-of-a-kind mobile Graphic Card for blazzing fast 2d exeleration.

Sounds better with stero speakers and a great sound chip the zodiac will sound as good as an Ipod!

Well I could keep going, but I think you get the point.
The Zodiac's officall site is http://tapwave.com, and two great zodiac fan sites are http://zodiacgamer.com, and http://tapland.com/ I highly suggest you check it out. The zodiac I'll admit is not cheap, but I believe if you really look at the things it can do it is really worth the money. However it is your choice, and you may just be happier buying the lower priced GP32. Anyways good luck choosing.

yalborap · Post by **yalborap** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 1:36 am

I don't really like the joystick thing.....do they have a d-pad version?

diggerdanh · Post by **diggerdanh** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 5:14 am

Zodiac looks nice, but way too expensive for me. Maybe once they come down in price I'd reconsider.

Post by **gannon** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 7:45 am

Or, if you didn't mind spending a bunch of money, you could build a nano-itx portable computer. It'd probably be around the size of Ben's VCSP since a nano-itx mobo is 4.8" square.

xxxeagle · Post by **xxxeagle** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:30 pm

i dont have gp32 or zodiac but i would go with gp32. I have a gbc gba and gbasp i think gba has the worst emulation so i would go with gp32 then zodiac then gba.

s3ptic · Post by **s3ptic** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:54 pm

Or, if you didn't mind spending a bunch of money, you could build a nano-itx portable computer. It'd probably be around the size of Ben's VCSP since a nano-itx mobo is 4.8" square.

I don't think those are out yet, but if you have the money and don't mond waiting that would be really cool. Also if you like this idea, take a look at this http://www.ministrymobile.com/.

yalborap · Post by **yalborap** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 10:11 pm

Looked at that, hated it.

Any other suggestions?

s3ptic · Post by **s3ptic** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 10:55 pm

You could get a pocket PC I Know they have emulation for many systems. However I haven't ever used them. I have however heard that they have pretty awful controls. Theres also the N-gage, it has some emulators listed at http://www.zophar.net/consoles/ngage.html , but again I haven't used it. It really just comes down to what you want. I would suggest coming up with a few key features that are really important to you, and then select a device that fits this mold well.

shelter pitfall · Post by **shelter pitfall** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 12:18 am

BTW how would you power the nano-itx mobos?
What can one use for a screen?
Where can you get the darn things?
I had the same question too but was too lazy.