Game Park Handheld Encourages Open Development

DarkZero writes: "The Korean company Game Park has just started shipping their new handheld game system, called GP32. It has a USB port, internet connectivity, Wireless RF for multiplayer games, and most importantly, it stores its games on Smart Media cards and encourages open development of games by its fans. The first shipment will be available in a few days, most notably from Lik Sang, which has a lot more information about the product here and here."

Opportunity?

Perhaps Open Games [sourceforge.net] can lend a hand?

Nice to see a game company that ...

Adhere to pre-established standards and use already established media formats.

Hey, it probably shaves off their costs too.

Finally, they get it...

If you don't release the specs, people will reverse engineer it anyway... so why not do the world a favour and release them straight away. Besides, this will most likely show the company developers itself some neat tricks they never thought of... and it will make their console sell much better :) So, nothing to lose, but a lot to gain... If I see those consoles in the shop, reasonably-priced, I might even get one myself now :)

Sounds good to me

Except their website says:
Sorry, still working on a version that supports Netscape and other browsers.
Check back later. This site works only on IE5 or Later.

Like I haven't heard that before
"Windows sucks! Open Source is good! But since everybody else uses Windows there is no point in developing for multiplatforms."

To me, that destroys the spirit of Open Source.

This is pretty cool.

But have you played PocketNES on the GBA? Its pretty fucking sweet.

Site is Here [pocketheaven.com]

I load this shit up on my 128 megabit flashcard, and play all day at work, and This sure as HELL isn't Nintendo supported :)

gonna have great games

Capcom is developing for it.. and I see a few cool titles from them in the games list.

This could be a GB/GBA killer... espically if they release a Devkit that can be used under linux, BSD, and that other operating system...

Imagine if someone was to port SDL to it, game development for it would accelerate tenfold.

To go Straight to the ENGLISH version of this page

Try this link

http://www.gp32.com/English/main.asp [gp32.com]

GBA Compatability?

I see it uses an ARM-7 just like the GBA... only running at 75MHz rather than the measly (IIRC) 16MHz that the GBA pushes...

With the right software, would it be possible to emulate the rest of the GBA hardware in realtime and use the SMC to store GBA roms, thereby giving this handheld an already large library GBA games?

Just a thought, though the legality of that kind of thing would be dubious at best really...

Talez

All they need now is Java!

If they could release a JVM for the device, imagine how large the development community would be. Possibilities...... -GameNutz

wireless beowulf cluster of gamepads!

cool toy!.

web site allegedly supports only IE

I tried pointing Mozilla at the site, and it tells me it doesn't support Netscape, only IE. Now, I happen to be on my iBook at the moment, so it did cross my mind that perhaps they hate OS X. Or, perhaps, all the other slashdotters are using IE?

In any case, don't you think it a bit odd, that a company that is supposedly promoting open source software, is not even open to all browsers? I say, wolf in sheep's clothing -- let's not get all gushy about everyone who makes claims to openness -- let's use a little bit of litmus here before we start posting pure corporate marketing propaganda on slashdot.

MAME please.

Please? That would rock, having a GBA-type handheld that could play MAME, or atleast some of the less memory/CPU intensive MAME titles. MAME needs a game-oriented low-cost handheld platform.

(I cant see wether this is wishfull thinking or not, as the links seem to be down.)

game machines require games

The success or failure of game systems depend on two factors:

1. The quality of the games that are available.
While open source/free software development is a noble concept, if the games aren't built, they will not come. Honestly, how many of us here who play games use Linux or Free BSD boxes *exclusively* for game machines? I play games on Windows boxes because the games are there. Until there are handheld games the quality of those produced for GameBoy, the GP32 will never sell well. If I want to play "snake", I can do that on my cell phone.

2. Inertia.
If I've invested in a hardware platform for games that I'm satisfied with, I'm going to continue to use that platform, and buy more games for it. The GP32, or any future handheld game system, will have to offer qualities or features that aren't on my current platform.

Sweeet

If you are interested in the development for this device, you can check out the SDK, emulator, and other items here [devrs.com] from Jeff Frohwein, the staple of the Gameboy, gameboy advance, and other hand held home brew development 'scenez'.

I hope it works out well in practice. The only thing I fear is that we will only have a batch of emulators running on the gp32. For most home brew development platforms (ps1, dreamcast, gameboy, gameboy advance), emulators and demos are about all that exist; full games, even puzzle games, can take an awefull long time to develop.

Toodles

How Can They Stop Piracy

Considering the GP32 uses the easy-to-copy Smart-Media card to store games, how can they stop freeloading software pirates from copying the games? Commercial game develepors would probably stay away from it if it becomes (or even is preceived) as a pirates' platform.

I haven't lusted after a device in a while

This is some cool cool stuff. 75 Mhz is not just over four times as fast as the GBA, it is faster than all the previous generation consoles. Imagine a portable gaming console that is faster than a N64, but renders at half the resolution. Smooth graphics indeed.

Everything is so standard that this could have so many uses besides the normal 'game system'. With wireless RF it could be used as an RF remote, chat program with other people, a wireless LAN debugger, or to unlock cars. It is an MP3 player already. It could emulate just about anything. If you had a wireless LAN that would open up all sorts of possibilities like internet browsing and PC communication.

Unfortunatly though, I think this will fail as a game system, because they just won't be able to get it out there where people will notice it. Game should be plenty easy to develop for, but that doesn't matter if no one is doing it. If history teaches us anything it is that this won't be a gba killer, but I still want one so bad.

Also, if the games are on smart media, how is it that they can cost only 34 dollars?

Open Handheld Platform... more than games?

I'm glad the dev'r site could be viewed from Konqueror, gosh! but anyway - is there not a lot of potential if this is even marginally successful? The usual game ports/emus, yes, but even the possibility of a new rich handheld platform?
USB connectivity? Smart card? program a sweet little shell on there (probably specialized, as there's essentially no keyboard), and use it as a PDA! Could be lots of fun.
der_m

How long will it be...

...until someone ports NetBSD to this thing?

Non-troll question

But does it run Linux?

Seriously. It has an ARM9 and 8Mbyte RAM, you could port ARM Linux to the thing and use it as a poor man's Ipaq.

Oh - one more thing - imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!

Open standards my ass.

Their site doesn't support Netscape or other browsers (read:gecko). They're "working on it." It's embarrasing and hypocritical when /. links to a site which won't even render with free software. Mark this down as flamebait if you wish, but who we think we are kidding here?

Just Two Face Buttons?!

Why on Earth do they have just two face buttons? Sure, triggers are nice and everything, but the addition of just two more little plastic buttons on the front would allow much greater depth (or at least convenience) to any game.

Better yet, squeeze on six face buttons and we'll be able to properly play all those Capcom fighters that are coming out for it. I'm still puzzling over why Nintendo didn't put more buttons on the GBA, and now this system has the same problem too? Is there some kind of conspiracy?

Does The Display Has Backlight?

The GP32 site does not mention whether the display has backlight. If it has backlight, it would have a huge advantage over the GBA. The display on GBA without BL is so difficult to see under non-optimal lighting condition. It is a waste of all the extra colours avalible on screen. It is also spinning out a new industry for accessories to provide front or backlight on the display for the unhappy GBA owners.

Logo

Looking at the website, the first thing I noticed was how much their logo resembles the Sega Dreamcast logo.

Indeed, an ill omen.

price against gba

I just looked on lik-sang, and the price of the gamepark is 199 while the gba is 69 (at amazon.com). it seems that they priced this way out of the market, when you could by a gba and three or four games for the price of one gamepark. Also, for 200, you are entering the territory of consoles and pdas. for a little more you can get a pda, which will play many games (albeit with a much worse interface), but you get all the fratures of a pda. also, if you just wanted a game system, well, you could spend the 199 on a gamecube.
I would have considered buying this for around 100 , but for almost 200 it doesnt seem worth it, considering you are guarranteed hundreds of games for the gba over the next few years. and among those, there will be many excellent games (like golden sun). whereas with the gamepark, what are you guarranteed? hundreds of crappy tetris clones?
cristiana

Price

Looks very cool but unfortunatly costs $199 and that doesn't compare too well with the GBA which has more games and costs around $80.

But as a purely geek toy, I like it. For Joe sixpack, no chance.

some screenshots and some games.

You can see some screenshots of the games and you can even download some games and an emulator Here [skynet.be]

Sheesh, a little late, eh?

I included in-depth info on the GP32 as part of my last story submission [slashdot.org] (originally titled, "Wireless Handheld Gaming"), but apparently Taco didn't think it was too interesting, so the whole GP32 section was snipped out. Somehow discussion about wireless GBA via add-on peripherals doesn't seem as interesting without a point of reference, such as a handheld that icludes such capabilities built-in from the start.

I'm personally watching Korea as far as Japanese-style games development goes. Nowadays it's not uncommon to see huge Japanese fan bases for Korean games, mostly RPGs and sim games. Not only is a Korean company now the home of SNK's venerated King of Fighters series, but original games like Tomak [thegia.com] are coming out and impressing Japanese fans.

< tofuhead >

Neat

I never really believed that thing would ever be released...

Slow Taco

I tried to submit a story in September about the GP32, but obviously it wasn't posted on /.

My site (www.HandheldHQ.net [handheldhq.net]) has been covering the GP32 since October, so I'm not simply bragging when I say it's got more coverage than nearly any other site. I hope my site doesn't get Slashdotted from merely posting it here, but oh well--at least some more people can learn about this handheld, which I am really hyped about.

First come the clones

Man, I should buy one, especially when I have no idea if they'll have any fun games!!!

Watch five independent clones of Tetris or Nibbles or something pop up for the system three days after release. Then, once home developers are familiar with the tech, more involved games will follow. (This is the same thing that has happened with the GBA.)

Re:Yeah!!!

*sigh*

games here [lik-sang.com].

read the links...

Re:Like the name...

I had the same reaction. I think a lot of other folks won't catch it, though (like the ignoramous who 1st replied to your post).

I'm betting the CEO/President/founder/whatever is named Park. It's a little surprizing to me that a non-native english speaker would be savvy enough to think up that play on words/names.

So, are we supposed to pronounce it gamepark or gamepok (the Korean family name anglicized to Park is actually pronounced pok or pahk)?