Console Review: GP2X - Page 5

The photo viewer, just like the music player, has a nice interface overplay with a lot of options. You can zoom in to 400% and out to 13%, rotate, and fit to frame. Using the L and R buttons, you can skip through images in a folder. Image formats supported are JPG, BMP, PCX, GIF, and PNG. The GP2X handled well when processing large JPG files.

All the above is great, but the games is where this thing shines. There are emulators for just about every retro game system out there including Amiga, MS-DOS, MAME, NES, SNES, Genesis, NeoGeo CD, and many more. Now all you need to do is hunt down the ROM files, and you are set.

Besides the emulation, there are a bunch of homebrew games. The 2006 coding competition turned out some great ones, including Geometry Wars and Zuma clones. You can also install Doom and Quake. The possibilities are really endless, and do not stop at games.

Conclusion
The drawbacks to the GP2X are minimal, and at $60 less than a PSP, it seems like you are getting your money's worth. This system is great for people who want to take a stroll down memory lane. I personally love being able to play Q*Bert and Arkanoid again. The emulation of most computers/consoles is pretty good. This software is being improved every day, and the emulation will only get better. That is the best part of an open source community.

If you can get past the fact that this is not a Sony or Nintendo handheld, and things crash here and there, you will do fine with the GP2X. It is nothing out of the ordinary from running Debian or Fedora on your PC.

With a video player, music player, photo viewer, e-book reader, and Linux based emulation and homebrew applications, this is truly a portable multimedia powerhouse. Add to that support for things such as DivX, XviD, and OGG, and you really have the complete package.

Article Author: Ken Edwards

Ken Edwards is the Gaming Editor at Blogcritics, and calls Breaking Windows home. Ken works part time for Student Publications at BGSU as the Webmaster and System Administrator. He is also a freelance web developer.

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