The Gp32 is made by a
Korean Company called Gamepark. It is their first ever gaming device.
Although the GP32 will never compete with the mass market appeal of the
GBA or PSp, it is still very popular among some gamers who love
homebrew and emulation.
The Gp32 is a 32 bit machine, with a large colour
screen and a cpu capable of upto 166mhz. It is available in two
versions:- the FLU (Front light unit) version, and the non-FLU version.
The console has only been officially released in South Korea, but many
gamers in Europe, the USA and the rest of the world have imported. To
date, around 20,000 GP32's have been produced by Gamepark.
The Gp32 takes standard AA batteries, and has a
battery life of about 10 hours. Data is not stored on cartridges or
CD's and is instead stored on Smart Media Cards, the same type as many
digital cameras use. Games can be downloaded to PC and then transferred
to the users GP32 using the USB link cable.
There are several available commercial games for the GP32,
including "Dungeon and Guarder", "Mill" and "Astonisha Story R".
Unfortunately, none of these games have been officially released with
English language versions. Therefore, the appeal of the GP32 comes from
homebrew and emulation.
The Gp32 development scene is very mature. Available
emulators for the system include SMS, NES, SNES, Atari ST, Commodore
64, Gb, Gbc and more. The Snes emulator is brilliant and is improving
all the time. Alongside brilliant emulation, there are also some
amazing ports in the scene. PC Doom has been ported and works almost
flawlessly (it even supprts custom wads). Others include KOF 91 and
Rise of the Triads.
The Gp32 is not just a games machine. It can also
handle various different types of media. A brilliant DivX player is
available from Gamepark themselves, which will play video back at great
quality if encoded correctly. The Gp32 also comes with an in-built MP3
player. Various different MP3 and OGG players are also available. There
are also programs which allow the reading of text files and the
displaying of JPEG's.
The amount of different things it can do is staggering.
However, the GP32 may not be for everybody. It is
certainly not "pick-up and play". just getting the thing to work
requires competence with a PC. People without a good internet
connection will also have difficulties. Many people are also put off by
the lack of commercial games available.
The GP32 will not be to every gamers tastes, but for
the lucky few, it can prove to be the find of the year.
Links to various GP32 related sites can be found in the links section of the site
