Hey guy, sorry if this idea has come up before, but I was wondering if it would be a good idea to make an iTunes like program for the GP2x.
I think it would be cool if there was a program that would let you browse an online catalogue of games, emulators and apps for the GP2x along with descriptions and comments. If you wanted one you'd press a button and it would automatically download it and transfer it onto what it has detected as your GP2x or its SD card.
It would make it more convenient to quickly put stuff on your GP2x, and make it a lot easier for novices who arn't sure about the process (I know its a simple process for most of us, but most other handheld consoles have swapping cartriges as its most technical aspect).
It could even just act as a simple frontend for archive.gp2x.de so would be pretty easy to program.
So what do you think?

then what are you waiting for, go program it

Ass.

I guess it could be a nice feature for newbies or those less technically inclined, even though the installation processes for most apps is terribly simple if you just read directions. If I were to design this, though, it'd be a program you ran ON the GP2X connected to an internet-connected PC via USB to copy over the games, decompress them and install them to an appropriate location.

Hmm... This sounds like a project I might actually be able to handle. Perhaps I'll make it a project in my Computer Science class during this school year.

EDIT: Actually, Epicenter's idea sounds better than what I was thinking of, and being a beginning programmer, I'm not sure developing a GP2X internet application is the best place to start for me.

Sounds like a good idea, I like it.

If you mean crashes all the time and uploads rootkits and won't uninstall, then no.
As Epicenter says, run it on the GP2X.

Hmm, not. Running a Genesis emu on the PS2 took days of warez forum hunting and purchasing an Action Replay and a Network adaptor, just to find the crap emulator doesn't load off of anything but the Memory Card. (I had a USB stick, a USB HDD, the internal HDD, and the emu is crap.)

I think that for the result the GP2X is 10x easier to use: navigate, run program. That is all you need to do for 98% of the content on here anyway.

Interesting, but we don't really have the content ready for this to be of use. The homebrew games are fine, but they are usually drag and drop onto the SD in the folder of your choice.

The Emulators would benefit the most from this, but then again we really can't make those point and click because of the legality issues.

The Commercial games could use this, but there is only one so far. Hard to streamline one game install.

Well, whoever wants to take on this project:

Contact me if you want to use the gp2x File Archive as source for that
As it would be useful then to host that system on my server as it can readout the MySQL database

Sounds like something this community and the GP2X needs. Though I think there would be problems in directly transferring programs to the GP2X unless the files in every zip archive have the same format/order. Also, pay-per-program

let me start by saying that this is a unique and creative idea, but let me be the devils advocate and say a couple of things.

It is a good idea and definately worth it for newbies, but think for a second. I can't imagine that there are any newbies among us that had bought a gp2x expecting that all they would have to do is plug the thing into the computer and magically have a perfect snes emulation and two seasons of beavis and butthead in the convenient locale that is their pocket. They go into it expecting to have to spend several sleepless night up reading forum posts and sifting through archive files, and for this reason, devloping a program like you suggested would seem like a waste of man-power for the amount of good it would do.

Don't take what I have said the wrong way. By coming up with this idea you have done a good thing; by showing that the gp2x community is as sharp as a knife.

keep those gears turning,

~artemis

I think this is a great idea and im thinking i might try to create something like this.

[rant]
(i have just read the commercial thread and then the "Gp2x, Really?")

I think one problem with gaining a larger usersbase for the gp2x is the general opinion that the gp2x isn't for "noobs" or simply arn't noobs, and that those who are noobs should get a psp or ds instead (now i do understand that the question "can i play teh xboxx warz emulatorz i d0wnl0ad on gp32x?????????" do kill the readers brain and makes you want to womit).

However I firmly belive that if we want more users to buy and use the gp2x we need to make it more user friendly then it earlready is.
For example:
User buys a new game.
User put the dvd in the dvd player, install automagicly runs.
User fill in the requierd fields
User plays the game

For a hand held unit it's even simpler:
User buys new game
User put's game in console
Console runs game (more or less).

Now if you want to run homebrewd games, That requers alot more from the user's side.
The same thing apply to the gp2x, except it's probably (i haven't installed/played any homebrew on any other handheld except palm V )
a bit easyer to run homebrew on the gp2x, but it's still alot harder than to play games on, the DS for example.

So if we want mainstream folks to use the gp2x, we need to adopt a little more mainstreamlyness to the most simple tasks, like installing games.


[/rant]

A program like this would be of great service to those that are unsure of how to install the games/programs on the gp2x, and it could be of great help when installing games/programs that acually require additional configuration.

Also if it would be able to take some sort of link files, you could post a link file(that the program opens and get the link information from it) instead a link to the file arcive.

If you ask me, a lot of the 'getting started' confusion should be answered by tutorial videos included on the NAND Memory of the GP2X units that will ship in the future with larger NAND capacities. The manual could state to go to Video and play the files to see how to do more advanced things, in addition to pointing them to online resources.

But, this could be a good supplement to that, if a good universal method for developers to publish their works in sort of a repository like Debian's APT-GET system..

why does the gp2x community want to attract a broader audience? I just don't understand. You have to WANT to emulate to WANT to buy a gp2x. Trying to attract people who would otherwise be DS or PSP users is just uncomprehendable. There is nothing we can REALLY do that will have a huge affect on whether these people become aware of and buy a gp2x. I was a PSP owner myself and was content enough with the commercial games, but I wanted to know how to get movies on the sucker (I was a handheld noob at the time) so I went to a forum. While on the forum I started reading about what the deal with all these fancy words like "homebrew" and "emulator" meant. Soon I downgraded my firmware and explored with the homebrew apps for psp. From there, A guy on the forum was talking about the gp2x, and it sounded attractive to me, as I loved emulation and wanted to play the commercial games I had invested money in.

this is what I mean. I would not be here if I didn't really WANT to have to do the work, and thus not have WANTed to buy a gp2x.

We my friends are the elite; we look past the "insert cartridge" and see ".gpe" files. This is not to say we should turn into self centered fucks, I'm just saying that we need to welcome and help those that happen to stumble upon the gp2x, but we should not go out of our way to discredit our "eliteness"

it is a nice and kind idea at heart, but trying to make the gp2x user friendly takes away from what (and WHO) it was intended for. Hate to be a dick, but this is my two cents. Develope the thing if you must.

I think we should.
I don't think we should try to make the DS and PSP users switch, I simply think that there are a lot more people than you think who would gladly learn about .gpes and whatnot if only it meant great, free games.

I think this would be a great idea to make it more user friendly and therefore make the gp2x more commercially appealing.

If the program caught steam it could very well be sponsered by GPH, and the maker might be able to get some money for him/herself.

Anything that makes the GP2x more consumer friendly is a good thing, when you think "linux" you don't really think "easy"

Running the program from the GP2X would not be noob friendly because of the problem of setting up internet access. It isn't just a case of plug and play.

Probably the easiest way is for the program to run on a pc and write the files to the sd card. The problem with this is that you may need a Windows and Linux version (although all us Linux users probably wouldn't need this as we're all 1337 )

Edit: and Mac version etc

What we need is an GP2X 'Installation Wizard' type program for PC, that someone could make packages for involving the more popular/useful/fun GP2X programs, that would install programs to the proper directory of the SD card and set up the configuration, as well as install a script to a categorized directory in the root that would make it easy to find. There could also be a program you could run that takes all the ROM images you have and automatically installs them to the correct directories for the emulators you have installed.

EDIT: Now this would be something fun for me to attempt. I actually had fun organizing my SD card, I bet I'd have even more fun figuring out how to design a program that would organize it for me.

This would be nice. Be prepared to be flamed to death by linux and mac users.

Why linux users? Linux is still a PC

Your idiocy is showing =)

It's an OS thing: Installation Wizard is a Windows term. Linux users just extract or compile the program they download usually.

Well obviously if I asked that question, i don't know the answer. where's the idiocy in that

I dun' see why mac users would flame for something like that, other than the "windows term" aspect of it, which I think is more of a sore point for Linux users than Mac users. Mac users are used to wizards. They're used to things just working without too much intervention needed. Why do you think I want a mac?

And still I don't mind the work I put into the Gippex. I'd love it if I DIDN'T have to put that amount of work into it, though it's not like a major discrepancy for me.

Ok, an installer/manager application like this runs on the computer. I was assuming that the person expressing interest in implementing it was not volunteering to implement versions for every operating system. Therefore, the people using operating systems left out will complain.

Great we all agree it would be nice and everybody wants it, so who is making it? I know I can't, I'm dumb as a stump when it comes to things like that. I know I would like to use it though. -Cole

Because those silly anti-Windows commercials brainwashed you and you can't get PearPC to run? Just guessing. (I dual-boot WinXP/Ubuntu, its a good combo IMO)



Trivia fact: The term Personal Computer (PC) was popularized by Apple Computer with the Apple II in the late-1970s and early-1980s.

Back on topic, I don't really see the need for an application like this, since most readmes tell the user how to install if people would just read them.

Heh, good guess, but an entirely faulty one. The first computer (aside from the C64) in our house was a macintosh computer. Since that one, I didn't use one until I took a year of design studies. Loved them. Still didn't have one, but I wanted one. Then I went and had a year of film studies, during which we used imac G3s and Powermacs (I forget which) for editing our films, etc. By the end of this year, I'd stopped using my own computer completely, and rather walked the fifteen minutes to campus to use the macs for random things.
Some time later still, a friend of mine showed me his powerbook running OSX. By then, I was really starting to long for a mac. I still don't have one, as I didn't have enough money to get the intel imacs when they came out, and I don't want to risk buying a new imac only to find it obsolete a week later. But by the time the next generation of imacs arrives, I'll be ready... Unless I'm studying at that point, which will force me to spend my savings on surviving.

My craving for macs is entirely based on experience from both windows pcs and mac. No, I've never installed Linux, because it's not JUST the operating system that I hate about PCs, and I'm not a "do it yourself" kind of guy when it comes to PCs. It's a tool, and I want it to work properly. That's all. I don't want to think about drivers for my custom-built 3D graphics hardware or what soundcard to get or whatever.
maybe it's because I spend so much effort sometimes on trying to make things work that I don't have the energy to do the things I want them to work FOR.

Again, back on topic:

Yes, user manuals tell people how to install. This program is about downloads and installs, not just helping you install. Personally, I don't find it NECESSARY to have a program like this, I'd just like to see a unified installation procedure to software, so you don't have to put SOME programs in special folders. I have a folder tree on my SD that's very specific. I'm reluctant to change that.

I think I'll start working on an installer for DrMD soon. It ought to be an interesting experiment. I'll work on a program to handle ROM images for it as well. And I'm sorry, but it will be for Windows. If I had a Mac other than my Macintosh Plus with the monitor that only comes on when you slap it, I might develop one for Mac as well, but I don't, so I won't. And anyone who uses Linux is smart enough to figure it out themselves.

I think your and mine definition of elit and "being elite" differs.
First of all, I want to make one thing clear, I did not buy the gp2x for it's emulation capabileties.
I really love how far emulation has got on the gp2x, and i think the devs is doing a truly greate contribution to the community.

Also you seem to have the idea that the only use for the gp2x is emulation, which I can tell you, it's not.
I myself use it as a PMP and I develop to it and that's basicly why I bought it, to develop to it.

And as far as I know, most devs mainly develop for two reasons; to have fun, and to have users play their games and thus get feedback.
Ofcource it also add's to their showcase and might they just might make some money too.
And there is your answer, a larger userbase means more users that could play your games that can give you feedback.
I myself belive that feedback is very important when your doing something, it's probably what keeps many devs going.
I also wish GPH well, so that they can create a "GP3X" or alike
And more sold units dosn't excatly hurt them.

I still don't see the point of this program.

The most trouble I have had installing anything is uncompressing it and dragging it onto the SD card and letting go of my mouse button.

Can someone explain how they plan to make that easier?

This Idea is to the GP2X as AOL is to the Internet. (Lets assume you troubleshoot PC's in which AOL has trashed everything and leaves a 2 GHz machine running slower than my 500mhz K6-2 with 64MB of ram).

NOT A GOOD IDEA, EVERYTHING IS DRAG AND DROP INSTALL ALREADY.


This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

User wants to try homebrew.
User downloads homebrew.
User unzips homebrew onto SD card.
User plays homebrew.

HOW IS THAT DIFFICULT?

All I know is that it will ALWAYS be necessary to do file managing, this is a computer.

This is as easy to use as a computer, which is to say that it is only as difficult as it needs to be.

One only needs to follow the simplest of directions to be able to use any program on the GP2X.

Emulators are very complex, adding another layer of AOLishness on top will only make it worse.

NO IT ISN'T.
Maybe most things are if you don't care about folder structure, but I like an organized structure, and not all games allow me to keep that.

How about this:
A basic set-up script included with the game that you execute within your GP2X and which lets you specify which folder you've installed the game and any dependencies in (roms, etc.). When you've made these choices, it automatically updates the game's config. It could include options for overclocking etc as well. Still drag-and-drop, and to a much larger extent. The set-up file could be "standard issue", something all games are expected (but of course not required) to include.

Stoooopid. Pointless.

I don't know what everyone's problem is. There is no good way to do anything, if you just make a folder called programs then put all the programs in there why do we need anything special?

A basic set-up script, yes you write one and tell us how easy it was. It will have to be customized for every game and application by a person, I don't see anyone willing to do that. On top of which it will have to be customized personally by every person who uses it for their own particular likes.

Like I said another useless layer that will only hinder, not help, anyone getting their programs together.

Edit, I guess I am done with this topic, it was dumb to begin with.

Edit: It's not that easy to do man.

Urgh, you know what? I'm sorry I made a suggestion. I'm sorry I'm not a programmer who knows about all the limitations and possibilities. I don't pretend to know anything more than I do, and I was merely suggesting something based on what I've observed.

What I've seen is this:
A lot of games have similar-looking config files which state the names of folders, etc. Not all of them, but a lot of them. From where I was sitting, it seemed relatively simple to make sure your game had a certain type of config file that could be read from and to. If this was a faulty observation, that's a shame.

I guess in the future, I should refrain from making any kind of suggestions (I guess you would call them demands, judging from your response) on anything I don't have extensive experience in. God only knows what vile creatures from the netherworld would wake up if I should make a suggestion that was technically unfeasible! We would be DOOMED!

In short: A simple "It's not that easy, man." would have sufficed.

Magnulus, don't be put off.

It's a good idea that could easily be worked through to a worthwhile solution, no matter what nubie thinks.

Seriously, if I had the time, I'd be interested in having a go at this. Like many other '2X users, I'm sure, I set up scripts for almost all gpe/gpu's on my SD card.

Well for one it's faster to have an installing moving all files to where you want them.
Secondly it looks more proffesionall to have an installer.
Third, if games/applications get more complex, requering configuration files or requers more libaries to run an installer would be ideal.

So instead of first downloading the file, then unzip it and then move it to the SD (or diretcly unzip to the SD), you could have a small pakage-info file that you open with the installer program, that does the above for you.
It could also generate a small script that would act like a shortcut so you dont need to navigate to the gpe file.

Now you don't NEED to run it if you dont want to.
And if you dont like it, well fine, but you don't need to pointout how extremly pointless and idiotic you think the idea is.

OK, I will change the post to "It's not that easy man." Please don't be offended I am just a little irritable right now with a pesky lung infection.

Please don't hesitate to make any suggestions you feel like, I am trying to be more civil.


I think they call that an installer, the program should deal with that, not the OS.

I just think that the Homebrew we have is 500% easier to run than most of the Linux homebrew I have ever tried.

The Emulators are easy to use, at least as easy as any PC emulator I have ever used.

Maybe the problem is education for the people, a glossy, picture-laden "quick-start" guide included with every GP2X would help immensely. It is a portable Computer, not a Gameboy.

It is so much easier to homebrew this console than to homebrew any other console (GP32 excluded), so why try and make it even easier? (This from a guy who has spent $45 just to get homebrew running on a PS2 and was thoroughly un-impressed, at least my brother can play his games again [off the internal HDD] since his DVD laser quit).

How about something simpler .. a more user-friendly and simple interface to the GP2X File archive so it's a bit more straightforward to find exactly what is new popular and what you are looking for .. and on top of that .. a unified installer design.

Developers would release their software embedded into an 'installer' GPE file which is copied to the GP2X and run from the Games menu. When executed, it'd install to a community-wide standard directory, something similar to 'Program Files' on Windows PCs, and a 'shortcut' script linking to it would be created in a convenient location, and the installer GPE automagically removed. The user could also select to install to SD storage or NAND storage.

A firmware update to automagically detect say, .g2x files and offer the option to install them when found in the root of an SD card on startup would be nice, but odds are GPH's communication with the rest of the community is too weak to facilitate this. However, an autorun application could be included on all newly sold machines' NAND to perform this task.

A pipe dream, perhaps. Simple to implement? Reasonably so. A .g2x or what have you could even just be a renamed .zip file with standard filenames and directory structure, and a text file specifying the exact install parameters and options.

Something that could run on a user's computer would be nice, too-- sort of like Sync software for Palm machines. Hook up your GP2X via USB and run an installer app (There'd be an "installer maker" you could plug your GPE and other data files into and configure the installer before shipping out a final executable to the public). The program would install to the GP2X (choice of NAND or SD again..) and in the case of emulators, it could ask for a selection of ROM files to copy over and put in the appropriate location.

You said it perfectly, the problem is implementing it with the various authors. Or have someone go through and arbitrarily make the zip file you suggested.

It does sound nice on the surface, I just think that the guy who made this topic to begin with didn't realize that the mention of iTunes makes people defensive when it ruins their PC's (and their clients' PCs) and has no way to actually remove it short of a hard drive erasure.

What you suggest is fine, an installer "standard" implemented simply. I do not want to install a piece of software on my PC or any other computer just to make it possible to install games.

If what you said is done, then it would be a simple matter use the GP2X as a mass-storage device and simply download the "install package" directly to a temp folder of some sort in preparation for install.

The idea would be that the install package would just be a .zip like you get ordinarily. But it's be named .g2x or similar. You could name it .zip and open it and install manually; but if you use the installer program, the internal files would be copied correctly according to a say, 'config.cfg' inside the installer could interpret. No real NEED to use an installer if you didn't want to.

I've been meaning to post for a while, but not been able to, so many of the things i've said are probably already redundant.

I think the problem here is that everyone's fighting for a different point here. As I see it, as user friendly as you can go, there will ALWAYS be someone who doesn't understand it. I have a few friends at my school who love my GP2x, they think it's totally awesome and want one... but.. they don't know how to do much on a computer. They wouldn't be able to 'drag and drop'. BUT. If you had an auto installer that works PC-side, rather than GP2x side, it might just work. Installer GPEs? Nah. People won't want to move files onto their GP2x just to install. You unzip the files PC-side and move the installed thing to the Gp2x. Along with being able to set a default folder for Games / Utilities / Videos / Music etc, you could make the whole process virtually transparent. You could even just have it search the file archive, and return values based on an RSS feed (if I've got my internets right =P), and display search and genre results. Of course, with stuff like.. 'emulated game data' the user would have to specify a folder on their HDD with it in rather than downloading it for them (that's illegal!).

iTunes was meant to hold your hand while you put nifty stuff on your iPod. Granted, as far as I know it grasps your arm and tries to handcuff itself to you, as I'm not sure if the iPod is a mass storage drive or not. It allows non-techy people to feel smart, while not actually doing much. True techy people won't want this hand holding. So, we keep the system we have now, we just... work with it rather than against it. We want more people to buy the GP2x, right? We gotta make it easy on them. Give them something familiar: And if that familiar thing is an iTunes like interface, then so be it. But remember, someone will always build a better fool.

In closing, even if it is a bit of extra work on all of us, isn't some of the point of an open community to help those who need it, not to put ourselves on a pedastal and exclude the minorly computer illiterate?

Hmm. I'm gonna flat out say this. If it's been made or if it's too stupid, hard, impossible, or has already been made, sorry. But here goes: the first step in making the GP2X more user-friendly is to make a program that accesses your files, whose interface is like the Windows one (I can't really see why a mouse can't be implemented, I mean, they did it on the PSP's Internert Browser with threir analog stick, why can't we do it on our GP2X, man! Our analog stick is better, if anything), to make it easier for people who are used to the Windows OS. Secondly, the idea of a file access such as this iTunes idea that's been presented here will make downloading files 200% easier, since you'd be seeing the file transfers directly on your GP2X. Definitely a good idea, but remember: the hardest part in an idea or dream is getting the manpower to make it a reality. Good thinking though!

If you want to make something like this work on a net-connected gp2x then i suggest a port of ipkg, a dpkg-like collection of scripts that handles package dependencies and installation in PDA linux distributions like Familiar.

http://ipkgfind.handhelds.org/result.phtml...g=1&format=

Or how about if I make my installer idea, and then make different packs for everything? Seriously guys, I've got the time, and I'm up for the challenge. I just need to figure a few things out about programming first (and I can already do a little C, as evidenced by my CGC entry 'Winking Man Game').

I already know I have the ability to make a Windows-based installer, albiet using a simple language like Rapid-Q (which I wrote a program that prints jukebox title strips for 45 RPM records in), and given some time, I'm sure I could figure out how to do it on the GP2X in C/SDL.

I'm actually pretty excited about this, as it seems to be pretty much the one thing I'd be capable of doing to help out the GP2X community (even though some don't want it) and I'm determined to make the best of it! If someone else wants to do the iTunes thing, go ahead, but I will be here setting up my little installation packages, as well as a ROM image installer for each emulator.

Yes Exactly!
IT is an installer type idea that I have been trying to convey.
And as far as I know, I have never said anything about implementing it within the OS of either the Gp2x or the users computer.


Yes I agree, a quick-start guid of sorts would help immensely, and it would make new users feel more, err "welcomed" to the console.



Im sorry if you thought I specificly was thinking of some kind of ITunes program, I have never tought mutch about that program, and didn't reallt notice that the OP made any special connections to it. I tought he used it to just make ppl get how he tought the interface could be done.

If you have ever used devpack (dev-cpp package files for easy installation of new libaries) then you know how I belive an installer could work. Except I belive that you should also be able to open installation scripts, that could basicly contain an information string and an url that the installer reads and a simple script that tells the installer what to put where.

I can also see Epicenters idea working.