Gamepark Wiz

If you've been reading along here, you'll know that I'm pretty into the Gamepark Wiz. If you haven't, that might mean that you're new here, so welcome. I'll do a bit of an overview of the Wiz for those of you that are new, then let's talk a bit about the state of things on the GP2X Wiz.


The Wiz is the new portable handheld from GamePark Holdings (GPH). GPH is the Korean company that produced and marketed the GP2X line of portables, and they were started by individuals that quit the company named "Gamepark." Gamepark was responsible for the GP32 hand held videogame console.

The most popular use of the Gamepark Wiz is open-source creations (mainly games but also some apps). The development environment is available free of charge, and there is an great online community supporting this open-source scene at GP32x.com.

Emulation has always seemed to be the most popular application of the Gamepark line (GP32, GP2X, and Wiz). This varies from emulation of older gamesystems like the Game Gear or the TurboGrafx 16 to computer systems such as the Commodore 64. It also includes emulators simulating a broad range of systems like the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (or MAME).

The most exciting recent news is that the Giana's Return freeware game has been released as a public beta on the Gamepark Wiz. If you remember the Great Giana Sisters, then you'll want to check this out. I've heard of people buying a Wiz just for this game.

Of course, emulators like Mame4All continue to get updated and run more games faster. The GameBoy Advance emulator "gpSP" is running well, and of course older systems such as NES, Genesis, and SNES are all emulating smooth. Ported games such as Quake, Rise of the Triad, X-COM, and Quake 2 are rather exciting for the old-school PC gamers. I feel like the Wiz is just hitting its stride, so now is the time to pick yourself up a Gamepark Wiz!

Giana Sisters Download

The Giana Sisters download is finally available for you GPH Wiz users. This is the recent release from the Giana's Return team. From what I understand, this will be the public beta release to find errors in the code and determine the next steps for releasing it to other platforms.

To be clear, though, this is the full game of Giana's Return. It's quality is that of a commercial GP2X Wiz game! It is being released under the "beta" tag because the team wants gamers to test the game out and submit their opinions. If you have a GP2X Wiz, I would suggest that you take this opportunity to check out this new Giana Sisters download which is hosted over at PDRoms.

If you don't already know about or have a Gamepark Wiz, I suggest that you check out our GP2X Wiz review.

GP2X Wiz Bubble Train (like Puzz Loop, Zuma, or Luxor)

Bubble Train was the winner of the GBAX 2006 Coding Competition. It's a great puzzle arcade game along the lines of Puzz Loop, Zuma, or Luxor. When released for the GP2X, the menu input was hacked to account for the lack of mouse input. Now, the Wiz version uses the stylus to control the menus. Check it out. If it looks like your type of game, I think you'll enjoy it.
Download here!

GP2X Wiz Review: Ready To Rock

Here it is, kids. The GP2X Wiz. My sources tell me that the final production units have left Korea and are ready to be shipped to you. UPDATE: While writing this article, I was notified that the Wiz shipment has already arrived at Play-Asia.

The GP2X Wiz is a hand-held game console, personal digital assistant, handheld organizer, and portable media player all rolled into one. It's like a light-weight pocket-sized open-source PSP with a touch screen. Or maybe it is a single-screen Linux-based DS. Actually, if you've been following this scene for a while you'd know that it's a sleeker, lighter, smaller, and faster GP2X with a better screen.

Additionally, if you've been following my posts leading up to this GP2X Wiz review (or maybe the GP32 and GP2X scenes), you may know that I have a slant toward homebrew development. I am interested in writing and porting games, emulators, and applications to handheld game consoles. That's why I've been drawn to the Gamepark Holdings systems in the past, and the Wiz is no exception.

The GP2X Wiz is the latest and greatest in a line of open handheld consoles. It runs Linux, which should tell you, right off, that it's open for hacking. Unlike traditional console manufacturers like Sony or Nintendo, Gamepark Holdings (aka GPH) encourages consumer creativity by making development tools available to anyone that would like to try their hand at writing software for their system. They make it easy to write and port games by basing much of their programming interface on SDL.

Many of the people reading this are already familiar with systems from "Gamepark Holdings" (and "Gamepark" before them) like the GP32 and the GP2X. When the GP32 came out, it was an awesome device. The best hackers and developers came together to create a great community and library of homebrew games, applications, and emulators. This community carried the GP32 through several hardware iterations and ultimately to it's successor, the GP2X. The GP2X was based on a new CPU, ran Linux, and (in later iterations) supported stylus input. The growing community remained largely intact through the transition from GP32 to GP2X even though the system architectures were very different and source code was largely incompatible.

Ultimately, the GP2X scene flourished while systems like the Tapwave Zodiac came and went. Even against giants like the PSP and DS around, the GP2X scene proved that there was a place for truly open game consoles. Now the scene is ready for its next rightful successor, the GP2X Wiz. This time around though, the successor won't have to displace developer's prior work. This time, the source code is almost entirely portable from the GP2X to the Wiz, so we get the vast library of the GP2X with the extra speed, portability, and sharpness of the new Wiz.

Let's go over some details. The Wiz is based around a 533MHz ARM9 CPU (which seems to be overclockable maybe even past 700MHz, but don't hold me to that) and 3D video hardware thanks to MagicEyes' Pollux. It uses SDHC for storage in addition to it's 1Gb of built-in flash memory. The screen is a beautiful 2.8 inch AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) display. All this stuff weighs in at just under 140g which, combined with it being just 121mm wide, 61mm tall, and 18mm deep) makes the Wiz a perfect addition to your pocket or backpack.

Developing (writing code) for the GP2X Wiz has been a breeze. I'm actually fairly impressed that GPH was able to use the same binary format on the Wiz that the GP2X used. That allowed me to use the same compiler, toolchain, and libraries that I had for developing on the GP2X (which was from the Open2X project). The only real change that I made was specifying the use of shared libraries instead of statically linking libraries as I had done with the GP2X.

To be honest, I really like the little thing. It seems to be put together way better than the GP32 or the GP2X. It seems really solid like a commercial game console should. I say this because there were things about the previous GP32 and GP2X that seemed cheaply made. The screen looks great. Heck, the whole machine looks great.

I must say that the system is small! To me, overall, this is a positive. Though, there are some drawbacks of having a small machine. Obviously, with a smaller handheld comes a smaller screen. Whatever this screen lacks in size, it makes up in clarity, though. The AMOLED is pretty. I don't know if it's the best machine for watching portable movies. Your laptop or portable DVD player should be better, but really if you want to have some anime ready for whenever you find yourself sitting around waiting for something, this is great for that. Another thing the miniturization brings is the potential for cramped hands. I noticed this a bit during some of my sessions with the Wiz. I don't know if this is a real concern, though. To me, it's just another side-effect of size reduction.

Now, let me address a couple things that seem to be of concern to people. First of all, "What's with the two dpads?" Well, I think that's a legitimate question. I say, though, that the jury is still out on this one. My take on it is that the "second dpad" (which is actually the four completely INDIVIDUAL A/B/X/Y buttons configured to look like a dpad) is a novel idea. When the DS came out, I thought it was gimicky, and I didn't understand why people would want an extra screen and a stylus. The same could be said for the Wii. Neither followed convention. The Wiz's controls are a step in an unknown direction. I think people will easily get used to using them as 4 individual buttons (just like a conventional controller). What I hope to see, though, are some interesting new games that use this "second dpad" in new novel ways.

Next on the list, interestingly enough, is the first (actual) dpad. There has been some (unwarranted as far as I can tell) concern in the community that there are problems with this controller. I actually wonder if these concerns were planted as an attempt to knock the Wiz down a notch or two. To me, there is no concern here, so let's just move on.

The final concern that I want to mention is the "diagonal tearing" issue that seems to be bothering some people. If you have watched any YouTube videos of the Wiz running games or emulators and have not noticed a diagonal going through the screen, then please don't concern yourself with this. I understand, though, that some people are bothered by things like this. I have noticed the diagonals, and, to be honest, it doesn't bother me. They do catch my eye sometimes, and I think the problem itself (from a technical point of view) is an odd and interesting issue.

It seems that the OLED screen that GPH uses is actually a 240x320 screen that is laid on its side to be viewed at 320x240. This is the same thing that was done with the GP32. I guess it's easier to find manufacturers of small portrait displays than landscape ones. Perhaps that is due to PDA's and cell phones driving much of the market. From what I can tell, using the 240x320 screen should not be a problem at all, but there is something diagonal that is noticable at times. I've been working with handheld systems for a long time, and I've seen what guys in these scenes are capable of. I really feel like this is an issue that will either be solved with a firmware update or in software (like either in the SDL libraries or the individual games). To me, this is more of a challenge than a problem.

As I was writing this, I just found out that there have been some changes in the GP2X Wiz production units that are now in stock at Play-Asia.com (as compared to the pre-release test unit that I have in my hands). The game Snake On Dope is no longer a built-in game presumably due to some copyright issues with the music. The Flash games, which are completely in Korean on the test unit, are now available in English. The list of built-in native games includes Animatch, Boomshine2x, Myriad, Square Tower Defense, Tail Tale, and Wiztern, while the list of flash games includes IQ games like "Addition and Minus", "Crisis Ladder", "Look For the Coin in the Saving Pocket", "Look For the Missing Number From the Order", and "Look For the Same Pictures". The "IQ" games are brain training games something along the lines of "Brain Age."

The GP2X Wiz is great. If you liked the GP32 or the GP2X, it's a no-brainer. If you had a GP32 or a GP2X and didn't like it, then you need to evaluate why and decide if the Wiz addresses any of your past problems (like maybe you disliked the joystick on your GP2X or the screen on your GP32). If you haven't had the chance to play with a GP32 or a GP2X, then I highly recommend leapfrogging those systems and give the Wiz a chance. It's obviously the latest and greatest in the line. Obviously everyone has their own opinions about what they like and dislike, but I don't see anything here that would be a negative surprise. I think that what you see is what you get. If you want a small, lightweight, open-source, home-brew, gaming-console/media-player, look no further. The Wiz is in stock and ready to ship. I hope you liked the Ready To Rock GP2X Wiz Review.

GP2X Wiz NGPC Emulator

This is going to have to be a quick post. "Real Life" has taken over recently, and I've been fairly busy. In fact, I really have to go now so that I can help set up a for big birthday party for 2 of my daughters.

So, here's the deal. Someone asked me if I was going to port RACE (a Neo Geo Pocket Color emulator) to the Wiz. See the above video for the answer. The video shows the GP2X Wiz running the English version of "SNK Vs. Capcom Card Fighters' Clash 2 Expand Edition". There were a couple hurdles to get it running. The main one was that it needed to be set to a different sound sample rate than the original GP2X version was using. I had some code for this from the PSP port, though. I now need to get together with TJ Hooka and see about adding some new features to the code. That's all for now. I'm sorry this one is so short.

GP2X Wiz First Impressions

As you may have seen yesterday, I got ahold of GP2X Wiz test unit. I want to post about my first impressions of the unit after only having messed with it for a day (and only a few hours out of that day).

The first thing that I noticed, which I already mentioned, is the size. I knew this was going to be small, but it just seems much more cute and pocket-sized than expected. I think that the build quality might lead me to be a bit more impressed with the size. I'm used to the GP32 and the GP2X. They're both nice machines, and I've given them plenty of use. It's just that when you pick one up and compare it to a DS or PSP, they appear somewhat cheaply made. The Wiz doesn't suffer from this. It looks like it should be sold on a shelf right along side of a PSP or a DS.

The next think that I noticed was the weight. Obviously, after seeing the Wiz, you'll want to pick it up and see how it feels in your hands. It's light. It looks like it would weigh more, but they did a good job of keeping this pocket-friendly. My Sony camera, which is smaller and has about the same size screen, is heavier than the Wiz.

As you may have noticed from my pictures, I spent most of my evening messing with the Giana's Return port. It's hard for me to get a new handheld and just look at the games. I want to get my code running on it. Fortunately, it was unexpectedly easy to get the code to run, though, as you will see in the following video, it wasn't optimal. For any of you GP2X developers out there that are thinking about getting a Wiz but aren't sure that you want to port all your old games/apps, all it takes is a simple re-compile to get it running. In some cases, the GP2X binary may even work. After that, you will want to tweak things for the Wiz, but it wouldn't be any fun if it were too simple, would it?

Here is a video of the initial, unoptimized, Wiz port of Giana's Return. I have already sped it up, so don't worry about it looking slow.


Now, I will try to address some of the questions that I got about the Wiz. Of course, take these as my initial impressions. My opinion of things may change by the time I get to do a proper review.

There seems to be a fair ammount of concern about the dpad, mainly because of a post made on the gp32x message boards. From what I can tell, this concern is unwarranted. I have not noticed any problems. I haven't yet set up MAME (or any other emulator) to try any fighting games or whatnot, so I can't discuss quarter-circle moves or anything of the sort. I can say that it feels fine to me, and there is something inside that causes the pad to pivot. When you push down on the left side, the right side goes up. You can also push down on the middle of the dpad, so I can see why there is some confusion. Diagonals seem fine, but (as mentioned) I haven't played much.

The battery seems fine. When I do a proper review, I would like to do some tests to see how long the battery lasts when in use. For now, all I can say is that it's WAY better than when I first got ahold of my GP2X and put alkalines in it. Though, that's not saying much. The Wiz's battery seems good, but it's too early to make any real judgement. The battery indicator, however, seems off. I have to assume that they will change/fix the firmware's battery indicator before the final release. One last thing about the battery is that it has 2 screws holding it in place. I'm not sure why this matters to people, but it is a question that I received. On one hand, it seems like an odd design decision, but on the other hand I'm not sure I'd want to remove it anyway.

There's been some question about "diagonal tearing" on the screen. In my opinion, this is mainly an issue that homebrew developers are concerned about at the moment. Most of my use of the game was with Giana's Return, and in the game, I haven't noticed any problems. I have noticed what I assume to be the "diagonal tearing" issue when there are screen changes. For example, when the user chooses a menu item that starts the game, the screen changes from menu to game. Then, your eyes might notice a diagonal during the screen shift. I don't want to dwell on this too much because I believe that it will get fixed in the future and programmers can code around it if it becomes a problem for them.

Another question was about dead pixels. I don't have any dead pixels. Though, in the interest of honesty, I must mention that I did notice what seemed to be a sort of stuck pixel. There was a pixel that seemed to have the blue stuck on. It was only noticeable at all when the screen would change to black, otherwise I couldn't see any problem at all. The interesting thing is that it went away. I can't explain it, but I've heard of LCDs having such things before. Now, I don't notice any problems at all on the screen.

I do, however, notice fingerprints. If you've got OCD and you can't handle finger smudges on your handheld game, then the Wiz might cause you to curl up in the fetal position and find your happy place.

Since I received this unit, I've been hit with some bad news about the Wiz. GPH has pushed their launch date back yet again. This time it's only pushed back a couple of weeks. It's great news for the consumer that these test units are in the hands of reviews and developers. That means that they're close to a final product. Obviously, they're not as close as they previously thought, because the launch has been pushed back to the first or second week of May. I'm told that Play-Asia's Wiz pre-orders will be sent out right away on the launch date. Of course Play-Asia can't ship them until GPH supplies them. GPH is making a great product here, and they must need a bit more time to make sure it's done right.

Giana's Return

Wow, nice trailer. Giana's Return is the unofficial sequel to the classic game "The Great Giana Sisters." This is not to be confused with the official Giana Sisters sequel on the Nintendo DS. Giana's Return is a homebrew title being developed by a team headed by Kojote (of PDRoms fame).

I have been in close contact with a couple members of the team, and I have seen the game in action. This is not just some silly little game made by some random hobbyist. I've worked with the main coder before on projects. He is one of the best that I know. Also working on the project are professional graphic and audio artists. This is no Bob's Game, which is all hype. This project has kept relatively quiet, but I think you'll find that it's just as good as many commercial titles. If you know Kojote, you will know that he won't release anything until it's completely ready and perfect.

I expect it to be released on the GP2X to start out. Depending on when it is ready, I'm hoping that it will also be available on the GP2X Wiz. After that, I expect it to be ported to other systems like maybe Dreamcast and such.

If you're still skeptical, just check out the trailer. Does it look like the work of some hack that couldn't make it in the game industry, or does it look like a team of devoted fans have worked on it for several years? I think the answer is obvious.

GP2X Wiz Almost Here

The Korean handheld is scheduled to be released in April. Despite the silly name, the Wiz packs a punch in the power department. A 533Mhz 3D flash engine powers the Linux based handheld and should provide homebrew developers with plenty to work with. You can develop your own software for the Wiz and there's an active community supporting the various incarnations of the handheld at GP32x forums.

It also comes with games already preloaded on the system and has various improvements over the first GP2X model, such as an OLED touch screen, 1gb of flash memory storage and Lithium rechargeable battery (no more AA batteries!). While the picture shows two d-pads, the community suggested the company change the right d-pad back to regular buttons and that's how it will contain when it's released.

Don't expect it to compete with the PSP or DS, but as a hobby machine for watching videos and playing retro games with the inevitable emulators and free software, there's plenty of fun to be had! 
More information once it's released.

GP2X Wiz Homebrew (Quake 2, X-COM, MAME)

My sources tell me that the GP2X Wiz is due to be released around March 5th, but prototypes of the Wiz are already in the hands of some great homebrew game developers.

These guys have been hard at work getting games ready for the launch early next month. I'm not talking about some silly little games like pong or tic-tac-toe that any mediocre programmer can whip together. I'm talking about games that you've actually heard of and played before. Check the full post to get an idea of what I mean.


Open systems like the GP32, GP2X, and now the GP2X Wiz are popular platforms for running older games. Sometimes great games that you know and loved from years past have their source code released by the original developer. That allows homebrew developers to port the game to these platforms. When source code is not available, you often see homebrew developers making their own version of an old game or creating an emulator to play the original game on this new platform.

Recently, I've seen and read about some interesting games running on the Wiz. Have you ever played UFO: Enemy Unknown (aka X-COM: UFO Defense)? Well, thanks to a guy called "Pickle" you can play it and it's sequel X-COM: Terror from the Deep on the GP2X Wiz.

In fact, this Pickle guy has been pretty busy lately. He's got games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Quake II running on the Wiz. Here's a video of Quake 2 running.



I mentioned emulation as a way to run popular games. A lot of people get these handheld consoles just for the emulation of older systems. I believe that emulators running on the GP2X Wiz will range from emulating systems like the Commodore 64 to the Playstation PSX. One of the most well known and popular video game emulators is MAME. If you didn't already know, MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and its job is to run all your favorite arcade games. A developer called "Franxis" has been working on bringing MAME to the Wiz. Here's a video he made of his latest version.



Of course, whenever we're talking about playing your old games on any system, it's worth noting that you need to own the original game to legally play the game. In fact, you will need files from your original version to play the games mentioned.

Coming Soon: GP2X Wiz

The GP2X Wiz is the next cool handheld from Gamepark Holdings. Some of you might know of their GP2X handheld, and you might even rembmer the GP32. All of these systems are geared more toward the "homebrew" scene that likes tinkering with cool new gadgets than consoles that require you to own official commercial titles.

There is a whole group of developers that write and port games, applications, emulators, etc. to these systems. Often, this translates into free open-source games and tools for the enjoyment of all owners of such systems.

DJWillis is such a developer, and he has recently received a prototype Wiz console to test. He was kind enough to post a couple pictures of the Wiz sandwiched between a older GP2X and a GameBoy Micro. This ought to give you a good idea of the size of the Wiz.


You can find a blog post about his impressions of the Wiz here. In upcoming posts, I plan to discuss some more details about the GP2X Wiz including system specs, upcoming games, release dates, etc. I also hope to get some better pictures and videos of the machine in action. Stay tuned!

Bob's Game: Future Play-Asia Product?

Robert Pelloni has spent the last 5 years of his life making a game about Yuu. From the looks of it, it's a commercial quality title.


Click here for the high-quality version of the video

You can find more about Bob's Game at his website http://www.bobsgame.com/ or read more in the full article (link below) to get some more info.


Well, it's probably a lot higher than commercial quality compared to some of the garbage some game publishers try to pass off on us, but we try not to concern ourselves with those sort of titles here. He has done all the programming, all the artwork, all the sound effects, and all the music by himself. It is quite an achievement, but the ultimate goal for Bob is to get it into the stores and ultimately the hands of actual gamers.

As I mentioned, Bob has worked on this game for the last 5 years of his life. I don't mean that he came home each evening from his day job and spent his free time working on the game. What I mean is that he had no "real" job and no "free" time. From what I can tell, this game was his life for the past 5 years. He taught himself game programming, music tracking, and pixel art. It is quite an achievement. I've never seen a "homebrew" game programmer produce anything near this magnitude.

Now, Bob is trying to get his game published. To do that, he needs support from a publisher and Nintendo. To this point, he has not used any official Nintendo development tools, and Nintendo never seems to like playing with the little homebrew kids. They require that games be developed with their Nitro SDK, but to get that you need to be a Nintendo licensed developer. So far, they have not let poor Robert join in any of their reindeer games (by which I mean, they have not licensed him).

Bob's latest tactic is to hole himself up in his game development studio (also known as his tiny apartment room). According to Bob, "When Nintendo decides to approve my developer license application I will leave the room. I cannot finish "bob's game" for Nintendo DS until I have the Nitro SDK! I am supposed to receive a decision in 6-8 weeks. It has been 16 weeks!"

So, there the story sits for now. "Bob's Game" is pretty much complete. It just needs a publisher and some licensing. If you want to read more about this intriguing story, head over to http://www.bobsgame.com/. If you want to view some other videos of the game, check out Robert's youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/robertpelloni. If you want to know how to help, he has some instructions on his page about how to contact Nintendo to request that they license his development efforts.