GamePark GP2X & GP32

Get ready homebrewers, Gamepark is about to stealthily launch their GP32 successor upon you. The XGP, eXtreme Game Player was confirmed by GamePark earlier this year as the follow-up to their cult-fav GP32. Even though no specs were released at that time, the rumors and geek gossips of the import scene speculated a 64 bit processor with some true multi-media capabilities. With the DS, Gizmondo, iPod Video, and PSP sucking in the mainstream with their games, movies, GPS, Desperate Housewives and puppies, it was a wonder of what GamePark might do to keep interest in the system alive. The simple answer: Keep it OPEN. The Korean-technolust-online-mag Minivian had a unique privilege to see and hold something and help announce the latest GamePark handheld console. Their review of the GPX2 (wait, I thought it was XGP?) found that indeed the system was Open to the homebrew crew and media codec collectors. With support for MP-Anything, DiVX, XVID, WMV, WMA, Ogg, and your standard image file types, the system can handle most medias out of the box. Even more future codecs will most likely be released by the avid homebrew community that surrounds GamePark.

The name may be a bit tricky, but the specs are hot. A Dual Core(!) ARM processor, 64MB of NAND Flash Ram (what does it take to get 512 these days?) SD Card support, 3.5" TFT LCD screen, runs Linux (yes it will play that 10 year old version of Doom, give it up already guys.), supports video playback at 720*480 with a smooth 30fps rate, and can play video continuously for 6 hours. All on 2 AA batteries. Oh, and one more thing: it supports TV-Out (video, games, photo slideshows, audio. Pretty much everything.) from the get-go. Geektastic!

The GamePark GP2X launches November 30th for $179 USD.
Official GP2X Site.
Pre-Order the GamePark GP2X At Lik-Sang.

UPDATE 10/18/05: From Wikipedia: The GPX2 began as a project by the Korean company GamePark as a successor to the GP32 but was eventually discontinued. This prompted many of the staff (including the majority of engineers) to vacate and create their own company, GamePark Holdings (GPH) to create, produce and market what would eventually come to be known as the GP2X. GamePark continues to produce their own hand held, a 3D handheld system similiar to the PlayStation Portable known as the XGP, a device more contrary and abstract to the originial 2D nature of the GP32 (contrasted with the logical evolution of that device in the GPX2).

The worse epidemic of portable gadgets of all shapes and sizes is the tangled mess they leave in your bag. Sure, portable typically means sans wires, but they all have them. Thingamajigs don't just charge wirelessly. Well, I guess they can, but do yours? No! Most likely you, like all other geeks, learned to wrap and tie a long cable faster and easier than tying your own shoes. But even with wrapping skills in hand most of us are too lazy to mess with it each time we use a device. Well in that regard, Cableyoyo comes to your rescue. This device is thin enough it can be pocketed and not show a geekyline (That's the pantyline created in your pants pockets by all your gadgets.) You can easily throw multiples of the Cableyoyo in your tech bag and not worry about untangling whenever you need gadget juice. And, it works with ALL the handhelds we cover here on Portagame.

[Cableyoyo via GadgetMadness]

I really don't know how geeks and/or bloggers are going to survive this week with the Launch of Star Wars Episode III on Thursday at Midnight. If you, the innocent public, have never heard a geek orgasm (and it's not pretty), you will by the end of this week. Perhaps multiple geekgasms. Starting today, E3 is taking on L.A. and the internet, and all its kinds of bloggers, by storm. If you happen to have a Willy Wonka golden ticket and are inside the E3 doors, you'll most likely notice hundreds of teenage-to-twenty-something video game geeks walking around with a digital camera and 50 memory cards on a giant keychain and a laptop, most likely light--but any will do, permanently open with one hand strapped to it. This known as an E3 blogger (and yes, they are half-droid for you curious Star Wars fans). The E3 bloggers Laptop serves two purposes. With a camera fed directly into the laptop, it serves as navigation so the blogger can avoid eye contact and immediately take a picture of any game and/or "booth babe" that gets within range. The second purpose is to blog the picture they had just taken.

And sadly, this year, I will not be one of the E3 blogger half-droids. No, sadly I'm missing this show due to a recent "incident" involving myself, my car, some dude, and his car. No one was injured, it's just the traffic lawyers that like to charge more than typical bloggers make. So I'll be armchair quarterbacking E3 this year with most the other Portagame editors. I do know of one editor that was able to make it and we look forward to his updates. But in the meantime we'll keep you updated on all the other news we find about E3 that you might have interest in (99% will be portable gaming, but we'll probably make the obvious PS3 and Nintendo Revolution announcements). And since there ARE so many bloggers at E3 this year, it will be easy for us to datamine the important stuff and spit it all out here. So, sit back, relax, it's E3!

(PS: We did create a series of other sites that will track the most prominent RSS feeds of all the the systems that will be displayed at E3 (and beyond) , but due to another agreement we have, we can't publicly share them just yet. You'll need to wait until we make a formal announcement, which will be this week or next week).

Too many Nintendo DS posts. I need more Sony PSP, Tapwave Zodiac, Nokia N-Gage, Gizmondo, GP32, and Classic posts.

Any suggestions? Any one want to be an editor or contributor to any of those categories?

Oh, I'm not complaining, I love what my DS has done for me. Just feel that we've given the system too much news recently and last thing I want is for Portagame to become a DS only site. Any and all contributions or tips are welcome! Submit your handheld gaming news.

Some link lovin to the guys at GP32 Xtreme. They have assembled an excellent site for the GP32 that is updated almost every day. If you GP32 nut heads haven't experienced GP32 Xtreme yet, you probably shouldn't own a GP32. News for the system doesn't come any fresher than this.

Since we made the announcement that we were now covering GP32 and all it's emulator and extreme app silliness, we've received several emails asking "So Jason, what exactly is this GP32?". I could answer all those emails one by one, but I might be too lazy. Instead, I offer this: a quick accounting of the GP32.

Based out of Korea, the GP32 is the primary product of GamePark Holdings. Boasting a 32-bit ARM9 RISC processor, a nice 320 X 240 TFT screen, SM card compatibiility, a USB port to hook to your PC, MP3 support, and the latest DiVX and XviD codecs available, the GP32 is not your ordinary handheld game system contender. The closest we have to compare to it domestically is the Tapwave Zodiac.

The cult following of the GP32 is most impressive. There are hundreds of emulators for the GP32 OS for all your favorite dinosaur games on all the old-school dinosaur systems. Developers constantly release goodies for the GP32 OS, mostly file organizers and media players. And many communities exist in support of the sysem. Like Palm, the development of applications by independent developers is highly supported, encouraged even, by corporate headquarters. If you've always wanted to make a game for a console, this might just be the best place to start.

The GP32 comes in three flavors: Basic ($149), Front-Lit ($169.90), and the Back-Lit BLU version ($179.90). For those of you familiar with the Afterburner Kits for the original GBA, you should know that front light holds its own on TFT screens, but nothing compares to a solid back light.

The games base for GP32 is ever expanding as well. Along with all the homebrewed independent games, and all the emulated classics, the GP32 has an impressive line up of import titles. GP32 EU has a comprehensive list of available games to get you started.

So, after all is said and done, the GP32 is one kick ass little system. The import has all the makings to keep even the most picky of pocket gamers (hi, dmgice!) content. Do we own one? No. Do we wish we did? Hell yes! Will we get one soon? Most definitely.