Last Updated: 11/2/2005 (newest updates in blue)

GP2X BASIC FAQ

The GP2X is a Linux based handheld game console and media player, designed & manufactured by the South Korean based company, GamePark Holdings (GPH for short). GPH is comprised of the same design team that created the venerable GP32 handheld console, which became popular amongst homebrew and emulation circles around the world.

Link: GamePark Holdings GP2X Official Site

This is not to be confused with the GamePark XGP, which is planned as a 3D oriented commercial based games handheld console similar to the PSP. XGP is expected to come out sometime in 2006. Some (rather ugly IMO) prototypes were recently shown. See here for comparisons between XGP and GP2X: http://www.gp32x.com/gp2x.php (link fixed now)

Adding to the confusion, GamePark and GamePark Holdings are two different companies. Basically the original GamePark split up, due to differences in philosophy. The people left at GamePark want to create something to compete with Sony and Nintendo, and are NOT interested in emus or homebrew. The people at GamePark Holdings wanted to make a new system specifically aimed at the GP32 audience, with full support for open development of emus and homebrew. That is how the GP2X came to be.

Release Date: 2005, Late October - Early November. There is no exact day/time.

Specifications: extracted from http://www.gpx2.com/product/product_spec.asp and updated with some more recent information:


Price: under $200 - each store will have their own prices and deals.

Stores:

http://www.gp2x.co.uk - official UK distributor (same as http://www.gbax.com)
http://www.gp32z.com - official USA distributor
http://shop.gp2x.de - official German distributor

More here: http://www.gpx2.com/support/support_sugest...unho=14&part=00

What's In The Box: According to gp2x.co.uk the GP2X comes with the following in the box:


And according to more recent information from GPH the box might include:

1) GP2X system
2) Screen protector
3) Wrist strap
4) Carry bag
5) Microfibre cloth wipe
6) Instruction manual

Case Colors: The GP2X will ONLY be available in black at first. There may be other colors in the future but it's not guaranteed. This is what the unit will probably look like when it's released:



Emulators: There are emulators in the works and being planned for many systems. Some may be available at GP2X's launch, others afterwards. See here for a list of some projects currently underway.

Games: aside from homebrew games, there are some plans for commercial games. See here for a list of some projects currently underway.

Backwards Compatability: currently the GP2x is NOT backwards compatable with GP32. There is talk of creating a way to run GP32 programs, but for now it's only talk and may never really happen. However, the GP2X is expected to have a very exciting homebrew & emu scene of its own.

Screen: 3.5" backlit LCD. 320x240 resolution. NOT a touchscreen. If you want a PDA, get a PocketPC, Palm or Zodiac device.

TV-Output: Yes, the GP2X will be able to plug right into any television using a special tv-out cable adapter which will be sold seperately. It is said to output S-Video. GPH tells me that no extra power is needed to use the tv-out cable, the GP2X's batteries are enough. The cable will ready when the GP2X is released, and the price is expected to be under $10. Also, videos encoded at high resolutions will be displayed at their full resolution with tv-out (not scaled down to just 320x240).

Controls: 8 way DIGITAL (it's NOT analog) thumb stick, 4 main action buttons in diamond pattern, 2 shoulder buttons, Start, Select and 2 volume buttons.

I/O Ports: Headphones, USB (not powered), EXT, DC Power (possibly SDIO in the future) *note* it may be possible to use self-powered USB peripherals with GP2X, i.e. USB hubs & harddrives etc.

USB Peripherals: Recent information unfortunately reveals the GP2X does NOT feature USB host mode due to the chip implementation used in the final design.

Media: GP2X uses Secure Digital cards AKA SD. These are relatively cheap, and come in very large capacities (up to 2GB and 4GB now). SD cards are also very popular, and can be used with many PDA's, cameras and other electronics. There is also some internal storage space on the 64MB NAND memory, but it's unknown how much will be available to the user for storage. MMC cards should also work with the GP2X, but SD's are faster and come in larger capacities.


Pictured: Yep, that's what an SD card looks like.

Multiplayer & Networking: The GP2X has no form of built-in wireless, nor are there any announced plans for a multiplayer cable of some kind yet. But it's certainly a possibility. It may also be possible to use SDIO WiFi cards in the future, but right now it's all speculative.

Power: The GP2X uses 2 AA batteries as its primary source of power, providing approximately 6 - 10 hours of continuous use depending on application. Keep in mind, there are now very good and very economical rechargeable AA's, which I've personally used for several years. For some examples, see http://www.thomas-distributing.com/ansmannproducts.htm - I have never personally bought anything there, but it's a good site to learn about what's available. The GP2X can also use an AC adapter - here is what Squidge, a well known developer with a GP2X test board says about AC: "GP2X is 3V Center negative. Exactly the same as the GP32. Power for USB host is not connected."


Pictured: rechargeable AA's rock!

CPU/Memory/Graphics/Audio Chip Overview: According to doumentation the GP2X hardware "incorporates a Dual 32bit CPU Processor, Video Processor, Video Post Processor, 2D Graphic Processor, Image Signal Processor and a variety of I/O peripheral components" including an AC97 based audio chip. Each of the two ARM CPU cores is clocked at 200Mhz, and there is 64MB RAM and 64MB NAND flash memory. The graphics processor can accelerate 2D graphics, and process various video and image formats. There is no 3D acceleration, however software based 3D is entirely possible - IMO from the specs we have I would imagine that PS1/Saturn quality 3D should be possible. Think original unaccelerated Quake at very playable speeds. Not so bad, eh?

Operating System: GP2X is Linux based. This does NOT mean you must use Linux on your PC to interface with your GPX2. Also, since the GP2X can boot from SD cards, theoretically the GP2X could run any OS adapted for it, or even no specific OS at all (i.e. simple bootstrap to directly access hardware). The firmware is flashable, so your GP2X can easily be updated.



Development: At first you can use SDL to develop GP2X apps. There are also plans to create SDK's to allow devs to access the hardware more directly, hopefully to take full advantage of the dual CPU cores. There will also be an official GP2X SDK from GPH in the near future. You might also like to read about the SOC (system on chip) the GP2X is based upon: http://www.mesdigital.com/support/downfile...20f_pi_v016.pdf

DRM (digital rights management): GPH has a DRM ready for selling commercial games (probably similar to how the DRM worked for GP32 & Zodiac). This does NOT affect MP3 playback, and no you don't have to buy emulators. It's just to encourage professional game developers to consider making GP2X games because they know there is a form of piracy protection in place for the system. This information has now been 100% confirmed by both GamePark Holdings themselves, and the official UK GPH distributor. Here is a quote from Anna Hong, a GPH representative:




Pictured: The lovely Anna Hong from GPH!

See more photos of Anna here!

Comments? Questions? Post below...

GP2X and XGP specs: http://www.gp32x.com/gpx2xgp.php

The 64MB NAND memory can be used to store stuff on but when you run out get an SD card.

Might be an idea to mention that the USB is not powered and that you can likely use devices that need power with a powered USB hub.

anything else I should add? Keep in mind it's only supposed to be a basic info faq, so I want to keep it pretty simple.

I wouldn't mind knowing what I'm likely to be able to do with if I get it as soon as it's launched. I'm not technially minded in the slightest, so please excuse my ignorance, but I wonder, given that the O/S is linux, whether there will be emulators that can be used straight away.

Also, will there be video players which can be used straight away?

Read the Games and Emulators section above.

And yes, a video and media player will be included.

There's a video player bundled with it and it should be able to take pretty much any codec that's available for linux.

Are real/quicktime/WMV Alternative available for linux?

"Preloaded Linux with Media player (MP3, Divx, WMA etc.)"

WMA is apparently supported out of the box. Don't know about WMV but would love to see it.

Don't know about RM or QT. But personally I don't even use them.

I try to avoid QT and RM, too, but a lot of crazy Apple people still use QT... :-/

Can this be made a sticky? I think it covers everything and will stop a lot of the duplicated threads we are seeing. Thanks

Yay, it's pinned.

RM and QT might be quite tricky to get, probably requires licenses unless there are linux versions out there. I really hate RM but it has one advantage, although the quality sux you can get down the filesize a lot. And the best part about QT is that you can step back and forth frame by frame, it's also great when streaming because it works better then WMV/ASF streaming.

But personally I prefer AVI with DivX or Xvid compression. Good quality at a reasonable filesize.

Yeah, and this thing with the "h" and the three digit number...

Damn, again... Does this board hang itself often?

It's been really slow at times since I've joined. Sometimes I have to wait like 2-3 min or maybe more for it to load.

Most linux media players are based on mplayer, so that would be a good place to start to find out what formats might be supported. Some formats are only supported with windows dll's though, so obviously those won't be possible on the gp2x (I would assume that wmv is one that uses dll's, but maybe older versions have native support now).

Added:

USB Peripherals: Since the GP2X's USB host is not powered, to use any peripherals they need to supply their own power. Some examples of peripherals that might work with the GP2X someday are the Apacer Steno Hard Drives and the Cyberpower USB Hubs. Such peripherals operate on their own battery power, so all we need is software to allow the GP2X ro interface properly with them.

The picture of 'anna' is a hotlinked image...

Oops, that's cuz I stored it on the Emuboards server which won't allow ouside linking to images. I always forget about that. Removed it from this version of the FAQ. To see the photo, see the FAQ here.

It'll just be a little bonus there.

Or you can use http://dump.grendosa.com/luvgpx2.JPG

Okay, I'm prepared to be flamed...

But as a complete Non-nerd, can I ask this very obvious question that I have been wondering for a while, but haven't dared to ask....

Will this Mplayer play my Mpeg4 files that I have for my psp? Or do I have to convert them...?



*runs for cover*

the gp2x.co.uk is a fake site?
nobody tell nothing about it.. the stolen my order?

Does this mean the USB port is not powered, period, and for example things like flash sticks and WiFi/Bluetooth dongles will not work?

Because that would really limit the usefulness of the GP2X for me...

GBAX = gp2x.co.uk

Same place - click the link and see: http://www.gbax.com

But I'll change it to the newer URL to avoid any confusion for newbs who don't know about GBAX.

From what we know, that's correct. Any USB peripheral must provide its own power. The thing to realize is, that the primary use for the USB port is intended to simply interface to your PC to transfer files.

Regarding WiFi - as the FAQ says, that may become a reality in time via SDIO cards. But there's absolutely no guarantee.

I personally don't expect much from GP2X in terms of networking applications, but I hope to be proven wrong.

Ok, thanks for ul'ing it there.

Anna's back again now. If that is Anna.

http://www.angelfire.com/games5/dsresistan...usb/pspusb.html

that's an article to plug a 5v on a usb to charging. I think that is possible do the inverse, make a cable that enter in the gp2x and exit female, cutted in the middle to get the 2 cables for elettricity and connect those to a couple of 2.5v rechargable battery in parallel module.
In this way you can attach any power consumption device.

I think, because i still don't have an ordered GP2x

The TV output is S-Video? Bummer, I don't think my TV has an S-V input

That could very well change. Those details are not 100% final yet.

Also, there are simple S-video -> composite converters you can get. I have one, it's super small and inexspensive. Something like this:

http://www.hometech.com/video/svconv.html

Good item to have around.

I acually asked over at gpx2's suggestion part, got this answer:

"Yuglooc:
Is it you who are on this image anna?

http://dump.grendosa.com/luvgpx2.JPG

Reply :
HI there

this morning i got a letter from someone saying like you.
and i'm sooo embarrased.
that's not me....
sorry to her which is on that pic, but i'm much beautiful than her .
hehehe...
someday i will put up my pic. ^^
Thanks

Anna "

The girl in that photo is NOT Anna Hong, I emailed with Anna and confirmed this.

Various additions & updates to various parts of the FAQ.

I posted this some where else but on second thoughts wasn't the bets place I would rather ask here than start a new thread and look prentious...
I've read the FAQ but am still a bit sketchy so I hope you don't mind me asking..
I aim to use the GP2X as its intended but deff slightly more for music which I presume will be really easy to put onto an SD card and play but for games as I understand it I would need to get an emu provided by GPH and put it onto the NAND 64mb stuff then I can put games on to an SD card and play them as it would run off the emu on the NAND memory section.....or is it more complicated than that? If so how much more? I am eager to learn and hopefully capable....(I understand that no one can be 100% sure but I am judging by what I have read on GP32 stuff....)
I love the idea of playing stuff like Sonic, Shinobi, In the Hunt, The Chaos engine etc and having music and movies at my disposal I just have pre signing over 160 euro questions.
Thanks for any following replies

It will work something like that, but probably even simpler (i.e. you won't have to put emus only in NAND, you could have everything on SD if you want, or not). We don't have full detail syet on everything, but it will be similar to how GP32 and Zodiac worked as far as copying prgrams and data files to memory card etc. Very easy stuff. Sounds like you have a good idea how will work. I think it will do exactly what you want.

just don't get too excited about in the hunt working on it yet though as that would require saturn (impossible) or psx (unlikely) emulation. Unless we get the arcade version emulated

In The Hunt, holy crap, I thought I was the only person who remembered that game.

I love In The Hunt. I play it on my MAME cabinet fairly often.

The hardware is a bit complex though, I wouldn't expect it to be well emulated on GP2X, if ever at all. V33 @ 9Mhz + V30 @ 7Mhz + 2 sound chips each at 3.5 Mhz.

Of course, the GP2X could handle a game like "In The Hunt" natively very easily, it has more than enough power and RAM to do some amazing 2D games. It's just a mattter of a talented enough developer making a game of that caliber. We can only hope...

http://www.gpx2.com/product/product_main.asp

GPH claims 14 hours of battery life with an "LCD-Off" mode. I'm skeptical enough about that figure, but isn't running the system without the LCD on considered Not A Good Idea (search for 'sleep mode', it'll come up)? They seem specific enough that they're not confusing it with a backlight-off mode...

In less related news, how'd they stuff a humanoid skeleton into that penguin anyway?




EDIT: Sorry about the hotlink. Fixed.

It's not recommended on the gp32 (it says something about it in the sdk even though there's functions for turning the screen off), but what does that have to do with the gp2x? They are completely different hardware, and if it's advertised as having an lcd off mode then it must be safe.

Three notes for today:

1) GPH confirms DRM usage only for commercial-game-by-website distribution.
http://www.gpx2.com/support/support_sugest...o=1722&bunho=17

2) There will apparently be commercial-game-by-website distribution.

3) Model number changed to GP2X-F100 (see Korean homepage)

Thanks TandeM - I will update the FAQ with those.

Yeah this is truly badass.

Updates from GPZigi, GPH Korean page...

What's In The Box, continued:

EDIT: Extras are for a planned LE package - different from the pre-order bonuses @ GBAX, GP32z, etc. Details at a later date...maybe.

(You will probably still get a screen protector and instruction manual.)

1) GP2X system
2) Screen protector
3) Wrist strap
4) Carry bag
5) Microfibre cloth wipe
6) Instruction manual

Specs revision:

-Mass (w/o batteries): 161g/5.68oz (GP32 NLU: 163g/5.74oz)

-Video Codec support: MPEG 1, 2, 3, 4, DivX 3.11, 4.x, 5.x and higher, XviD, WMV (7, 8, 9 Series by 'After Support')
-Format support: AVI, MPG, MPEG
-Max bitrate upped to 2500k (audio stream still 384k max)

-Audio Formats: MP3, OGG, WMA (by 'After Support')

-Image Formats: JPG, BMP, PCX, GIF, PNG (new)

-Additional Features: e-Dictionary (planned for later release)

-Battery Life (2 x 2850mAh AA): 6 hours video, 10 hours audio

Nice! Do you know if this is only for people who buy directly from GPH in Korea, or will the rest of us in Europe and the USA also get the same?

OMG if I have to use that powerfull of batterys to get that much life out of my gp2x then I am out. I hope they mean the max would be 2850mAh batterys and on regular batteries it runs 6 hours on video and 10 hours on audio.

If you have the LCD off when you're playing music (and there's not much of a use for having it on), it will save a lot of battery power. It's what a lot of other devices do.

FAQ updated, thanks TandeM!

Let me know if I got anything wrong.

Holy crap, just noticed I have the "certified gp32 guru" icon now.

hmm

I'm thinking the LCD off would also help when you're using the TV-Out as well. Hell, if it helps to save the batteries, then I think it's a good idea... Turning it off while playing music might be nice also, provided it helps to save the battery and you have your music all planned out in advance.

Wondering if there's a button lock to keep from accidentally skipping a song or deleting one from your list while it's in a pouch/pocket or strapped to your wrist with a jacket over it.

???

Is some info different from what GPH told you?

I'm assuming the "hmm" was because of the latest "what's in the box" info. I also found it a bit odd. A case and a cleaning cloth? I really wonder if that's all true. Which is why I also kept the previous info there as well.

If you can get some confirmed info on what's in the box let me know and I will change the FAQ.