I want a GP2X !
Did you hear about the GP2X when it was released in November 2005 ? I personally didn’t. Well, at the same time, I must tell Nokia was releasing the Nokia 770 internet tablet which caught all the attention. That makes me think one day I should speak on this journal about the importance of marketing, even in the free software world. So, let me spread the word about the GP2X in case you didn’t know about it.
The console and the company’s general strategy
The GP2X is a handheld game console created by a south korean company, GamePark Holdings. The most distinctive characteristic of the console is it uses Linux as its operating system and is designed to be open. Regarless of my taste for free software and open source, I think that strategy is excellent. GamePark Holdings is a so small company, at least compared to mastodons such as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, that trying to be their direct competitor would have been pointless. They would never have attracted big game editors and distributors. Instead, they’re playing on a slightly different market with a slightly different target and no direct competitor. They can focus on the console and on earning money with it. They can relie on a large high quality software base and on an active faithful community. Finally, that’s not a very dangerous adventure for them, they’re not playing on a too high scale, they don’t depend on too many other companies.
A console but also a media player
The number of good games on Linux is quite limited. Fortunately, the GP2X is able to emulate many different game systems, such as the NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Megadrive/Genesis, Game Boy, PC Engine, Neo-Geo, and Neo Geo CD consoles, as well as various arcade systems via MAME. That brings the possibility to play to thousands of excellent games for free.
Even if the layout of the console is not well suited for this purpose, it can also be used as a media player. The GP2X natively supports codecs and formats such as DivX, XviD, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis. The GP2X unit’s primary storage is the Secure Digital card slot, which can currently take SDs up to 4 GB.
From a hardware point of view, the GP2X also features two CPUs ARM920T (host 200 MHz) and ARM940T (200 MHz), USB 2.0, 2 × AA battery, a 320×240 color TFT LCD screen and a TV out. However, it is missing Wifi and Bluetooth support.
Developing games for the GP2X and community
A Software Development Kit (SDK) is available. It provides the SDL library which has been ported to the console. Development is done on a normal Linux box thanks to the use of a cross-compiler. Python, Pygame and even Ruby have also been ported.
The openness of the GP2X makes it really attractive for a game developer. Creating your own game and playing with it on a real console sounds so cool! That’s why many developers got interested in that console. There’s already a well established community. Most importantly, development appears to be really well documented.
This console is a must-have! I want it! GamePark Holdings has a good pricing strategy too, you’ll get a unit for about 150€, which is quite affordable (or not!). Unfortunately, I need to save money for my future internship in China or Japan (I don’t know yet where I will go). I’ll see the state of my bank account in a few weeks ;)