Gamepark Holdings Announces GP2X Successor: Wiz

[Ze_ro]

Looks like Gamepark Holdings has finally announced the Wiz, a follow-up to the handheld GP2X. They've also released a brochure (links to a LARGE image) showing many pictures and screenshots. Here's the gyst of it for you 'tl;dr' folks:

 

System Specs:

• Chipset: MagicEyes Pollux System-on-a-Chip
  
• CPU: 533MHz ARM9 3D Accelerator
  
• Built-in Flash Memory: 1 GB
  
• RAM: SDRAM 64 MB
  
• Operating System: GNU/Linux-based OS
  
• Storage: SD Card (Presumably SDHC, since the GP2X now supports it, though no official word yet)
  
• Connection to PC: USB 2.0 High Speed
  
• USB Host: USB 2.0
  
• Power: Internal 2000mAh Lithium Polymer Battery (they estimate 5 hours of battery life)
  
• Display: 320×240 2.8 inch OLED Touch Screen (OLED is supposed to have a much better refresh rate than LCD technology)
  
• Built-in Microphone
  
• Physical size: 121 mm wide, 61 mm high, 18 mm deep
  
• Weight: 136 g (with battery) (That's about a third of a pound for you non-metric folks)
  

More info worth noting:

• Will retail for $180
  
• Expected to be available sometime in October
  
• Gamepark Holdings intends to release commercial games for the Wiz every month (The brochure linked above lists 10 games, and has screenshots)
  
• Will have Flash 7 capability for movies and games
  
• Will ship with built-in games (see the brochure for a list of what you get)
  
• Still does all the other multimedia stuff the GP2X could (view pictures, listen to music, watch movies, e-books, etc)
  
• Some kind of PDA functionality
  
• GP2X software will need to be recompiled, but is expected to work
  
• No Wi-Fi
  
• No word on TV-out, though it has an expansion port on the bottom (which looks a lot like the one on the GP2X, maybe they'll even be compatible)
  

Judging from the specs, it looks like it'll be about twice as powerful as the GP2X, but noticeably less powerful than Pandora (Pandora is 600MHz with 128MB of RAM)... of course, Pandora is going to be almost twice the price ($330 according to their site), so you get what you pay for I guess. I'm not particularly thrilled with the physical design of the system, but I'm curious to see how this turns out.

 

--Zero

[+remowilliams]

Somebody beat you to it.

 

I'll quote myself for effect here though, because I'm still shaking my head at what I'm seeing.

 

That's really quite interesting... I hope to hell they didn't find yet another way to totally screw up the controls though.

 

EDIT: OK, WTF were they thinking, the ABCD buttons are a pad?!?!

[n8littlefield]

The gamepad on both sides thing is a deal breaker to me. I can't fathom how bad that would be - how would you press two buttons at once?

[mimo]

The gamepad on both sides thing is a deal breaker to me. I can't fathom how bad that would be - how would you press two buttons at once?

My question exactly, looks like Gamepark managed to screw up again.

I have been thinking about this and the Pandora, which looks a better option, but will it ever be available? iirc the first run will be only 3000 units worldwide

[Reaperman]

they got the size right, but they're still gamepark. Which means that it looks like they've gotten the rest of the console's design totally wrong, and I have a pretty good guess that they've screwed up the firmware and software too.

 

It'll have low build quality, constantly crash and fail to deliver on any promise gamepark makes aside from it being small. Of course if they really do intend to release 10 first-party commercial titles a month, I might eat my words (as long as said commercial titles aren't in korean)

Edited August 27, 2008 by Reaperman

[Ze_ro]

The gamepad on both sides thing is a deal breaker to me. I can't fathom how bad that would be - how would you press two buttons at once?

I thought the same, but then I realized that 90% of the time you want to press two buttons, they'd be next to each other anyways, so it shouldn't be a huge problem unless you have to hit two buttons on opposite corners... but that's almost impossible even on regular controllers (Try hitting X+B or Y+A on a SNES controller).

 

I still think it's a bad design, but it might not be as bad as you think.

 

Of course if they really do intend to release 10 first-party commercial titles a month, I might eat my words (as long as said commercial titles aren't in korean)

Keep in mind this is a Korean company that doesn't even sell their own product outside of Korea. I wouldn't hold my breath for English translations. However, two of the games they show pictures of are a 1-on-1 fighter and a beat-em-up... should be easy enough to play without reading.

 

--Zero

[Ze_ro]

I decided to put together a quick comparison chart for anyone who might be interested in such a thing. I tried to get things as accurate as possible, but everyone makes mistakes.

 

 

--Zero

[nonner242]

I decided to put together a quick comparison chart for anyone who might be interested in such a thing. I tried to get things as accurate as possible, but everyone makes mistakes.

 

 

--Zero

 

 

BTW....I love all my GP's worth every penny....

Edited August 28, 2008 by nonner242

[Reaperman]

wait a minute...

so first there was the wii, now there is the wiz.

 

What's next the Microsoft P-155?

the motorola uRIN?

[dreamcastrip]

wait a minute...

so first there was the wii, now there is the wiz.

 

What's next the Microsoft P-155?

the motorola uRIN?

Too funny!

[Jess Ragan]

wait a minute...

so first there was the wii, now there is the wiz.

 

What's next the Microsoft P-155?

the motorola uRIN?

 

Hey, I wonder if those come in canary yellow?

[+remowilliams]

I'm sorry - second D-pad as four buttons? How incredibly far up their ass have they jammed their heads?

 

Just when I thought Gamepark couldn't possibly have f*cked up controls worse then ever, they go and surprise me.

[Jess Ragan]

And to top it all off, it costs almost as much as the PSP, without that great software support or the ginormous screen. Way to go, guys! Maybe you could include a turd in the package, you know, just to give players even more incentive NOT to buy one.

[Ze_ro]

It looks like someone managed to talk some sense into Gamepark... they're going to change the design to use four buttons rather than the second D-pad. However, it'll also be delayed a month. Seems like a good trade-off to me.

 

--Zero

[christo930]

And to top it all off, it costs almost as much as the PSP, without that great software support or the ginormous screen. Way to go, guys! Maybe you could include a turd in the package, you know, just to give players even more incentive NOT to buy one.

It's not meant to compete with the PSP. You have to bend over backwards to run homebrew and emulators on a psp, not so on a gp2x or the new wiz. They are designed from the ground up to run homebrew as well as commercial games. I'll take a wiz over a PSP any day. I own a GP2X and GP32 and they are both great machines and when this becomes available I'll probably be buying it. The small screen is kind of a turn-off for me, but otoh, it fits in the pocket and gets better battery life despite being nearly 3x the clock speed. They also droped the second d-pad from their design (though it will add delay) which is also a plus (maybe, I never used 2 dpads before). The gp2x runs about 1000 mame games, I would imagine the additional processor speed and 2d and 3d acceleration will push that number up greatly. It will most likely allow psx emulation and possibly n64 emulation as well. I'm surprised to see the luke warm reception it's getting here.

 

Chris

[AtticGamer]

It's a little better now.

 

Still I fear two things: Freezes and short battery life.

[S1500]

The Virtual Boy's controls had two d-pads, but it had plenty of buttons around to keep things balanced for controls. I actually liked the controls for the Virtual Boy. It felt comfortable & was like that one LED game where you're a dragster. Vroom vroom!

[mimo]

It's a little better now.

 

Still I fear two things: Freezes and short battery life.

The battery life is quoted as 5 hours which is the same as the PSP slim. Should be possible as we wont be over clocking so much as the WIZ has a faster processor than the 2X to start with.

[Reaperman]

The gp2x runs about 1000 mame games...

there's an interesting difference between "running games" and what the gp2x does... All I've seen my gp2x do is fail miserably, in kind of a hardware/software/firmware/total way.

 

great that gamepark fixed their button situation (or at least changed their button situation) but the fact that they even considered two d-pads pretty much makes them total idiots, and I'm sure they'll find something else to screw up--they always do. I'm starting to think the chinese are better at designing handheld mp4 players...

 

as for control, I don't know why other handhelds haven't used that *brilliant* microswitch thumbstick snk used for the ngp/ngpc...

naturally I mean for use as directionals (clarification just in case gamepark is listening in)

Edited September 6, 2008 by Reaperman

[Shannon]

I dunno. I pretty much gave up on the GP2X. Seems it never really took off, wherease the GP32 had better quality homebrew stuff (even if it was slower). I will be keeping my eye on this but I've pretty much given up on finding the perfect "portable emulation" machine.

[Ze_ro]

we wont be over clocking so much as the WIZ has a faster processor than the 2X to start with.

Well, until someone ports an N64 emulator... that'll probably need a good chunk of overclocking! Not to mention Jaguar... 3DO... etc...

 

Still I fear two things: Freezes and short battery life.

Indeed. The GP2X was well known for poor battery life... and frankly, 5 hours doesn't sound particularly long considering they stuck a relatively powerful battery in there.

 

Frankly, MagicEyes (the company that made the chipsets used by both the GP2X and Wiz) seems like a pretty small-time Korean company with not much experience. They've gotten a few generations of hardware under their belt, but I still get the feeling that the chipset in the Wiz isn't going to be nearly as polished and refined (both hardware AND software-wise) as the Texas Instruments chips going into Pandora. If there's any weak point in the Wiz, it'll likely be it's chipset... which is kind of a problem, because that's basically the entire thing! Freezes, battery life, hardware bugs and software support all hinge on this.

 

There's been a rumor going around that the Wiz likely won't have TV-out... the chipset actually supports it, but Gamepark apparently had trouble getting it to work. The signals will still be available on the expansion port, but might need some additional hardware in order to actually get it working (unlike the GP2X, which just needed a cable).

 

I dunno. I pretty much gave up on the GP2X. Seems it never really took off, wherease the GP32 had better quality homebrew stuff (even if it was slower).

I'm not sure what you're basing this on... but far FAR more GP2X's were sold than GP32's. As for software, the GP32 File Archive has 951 files (2.1GB), while the GP2X File Archive (on the same site) has 1,550 files (5.2GB). Of course, quality is a judgement call, but I've been quite pleased by what's available for the GP2X... I never owned a GP32, so I can't compare them.

 

--Zero

[nonner242]

Im a very happy GP32 owner. I overclocked the hell outta it back then a ran just about anything I wanted to play. Just wish I modded a couple of LEDs in it to play in dim light. I only added a glass screen to mine. I still turn it on a couple times a week to play some games. Maybe I lucked out and gotta good one.

Never wanted the GP2X cuz I played all my games,movies,MP3 just fine, had a seperate card for each. But now I wanna upgrade...Pandora is looking really sweet to me. But the Wiz is gonna be a nice amount cheaper. But pandora was running T2K......And I kinda like the way it looks too...Ugly but my type of Ugly.