Play against other retrogamers online (2)

Almost immediately after writing the last post in my blog I found another site with a gaming league.
It is more active than my previous link, and I have already played some games in season 17. The games played season 17 were:

Week 1 : Bubble Dizzy (ST)
Week 2 - Gribbly's Day Out (C64)
Week 3 - Boulderdash (C64) :
Week 4 - Pleiads
Week 5 - Insects in Space (C64)
Week 6 - A Day in the life (spectrum)
Week 7 - Superfrog (Amiga)
Week 8 - Frostbite (Atari 2600)
Week 9 - Psycho Pinball (Megadrive)
Week 10 - Vigilante (Mame)

A very nice variety of games from old systems and the ones I have played play great on my GP2X.
New season starts Januari 10th, but you can join whenever you want.

Here is the link to the league.

Play against other retrogamers online

I have recently bumped into an old link I had in my favorite list. For years now a league is organized at the yakyak forums. You just have to register there to join a retrogaming league.
When there is a competition, everybody can suggest a game and the game most voted for will be played. Mame is probably the most chosen format, but also C64, CPC, Speccy etc.
Reply with a screenshot of your hiscore of the game and your score will be added. Most (all?) games are playable on the GP2X and you probably have a good chance on the Wiz and Dingoo too.

With gshot you can make screenshots of games on the GP2X. There is a Wiz version too.

Yakyak.org is the Jeff Minter fan forum. Jeff Minter is well known for some of the most entertaining psychedelic shooters like gridrunner and llamatron. He is still active developing software.

It is not only Jeff Minter software that is being discussed there. Main interest is retrogaming.

Here the direct link to the league.

Have fun :)

Game Video: Warcraft 1 - DOS

There are not a lot RTS (real time strategy) games you can play on the GP2X. If you're not familiar with the term, look here. Most RTS games are for more recent consoles and therefore can not be emulated well on the GP2X.
Fortunately the two that started the popular genre, Dune 2 and Warcraft Orcs & Humans are both playable and still pretty fun. Might add a game video of Dune 2 later.

If you're into a lower paced but mesmerising strategy game, Warcraft is great. Don't compare this with later versions of Warcraft that had faster gameplay and better graphics for PC. You should judge this based on what it can provide on the GP2X.

Warcraft plays surprisingly well on the GP2X. Don't play it with dosbox but install the statically recompiled executable for GP2X MH-T has created here. He has added some functionality that makes it even work better than the original version.

To enjoy Warcraft the most, you should change the configuration file that contains the button mapping. The default settings are missing some functionality like one click action and selecting groups. I have copied the settings from Maanju that makes the game play a lot better. Source here
All the info you need, is included in the readme-GP2X.txt. Underneath is the button lay-out I use, you can change it to what works best for you. You can use the touchscreen on the F200 for mouse movement as well.

Adjust latest part in file Warcraft.cfg after this line:

" # Action_combo_mouse_left_button_select_group - acts like left mouse button, when mouse is moved during click, switches to select group "

with:

Button_Y=Action_combo_mouse_left_button_select_group
Button_A=Action_macro_key_m_mouse_left_button
Button_B=Action_macro_key_a_mouse_left_button
Button_X=Action_macro_key_h_mouse_left_button
Button_Select=Action_key_esc

Button_R+Y=Action_key_enter
Button_R+A=Action_key_s
Button_R+B=Action_key_backspace
Button_R+X=Action_key_f2
Button_R+Select=Action_virtual_keyboard

Button_Vol-=Action_volume_decrease
Button_Vol+=Action_volume_increase

Button_R+Vol-=Action_key_f5
Button_R+Vol+=Action_key_f8

A random players review here

Game Video: Super Pinball -SNES

You probably know by now I like pinball, but to make sure you will not forget here is another pinball game video :)
Super pinball for the SNES is the most realistic pinball game you can play on the GP2X.
This pinball doesn't have bonusstages (as far as I know), creatures walking on the playing field or power-ups. Just a plain pinball simulation.. but a very good one!

You can choose between 3 pinball tables Pirate,Wizard and the Joker. It is possible to beat the tables (didn't manage this yet) The Joker should be the easiest of the three so start there.
Physics in this pinball game are very good and add to the feel of realism. After some practice it is possible to hit the targets and as in a real pinball table you can also nudge. Ruleset is also quite nice on these tables.
For a real pinball addict like me, this is a great game for the GP2X and right now one of my most played games.

Here is a review.


It plays well on PocketSNES, but you need to overclock as high as you can to get the most fps. I set cpu speed to 270 and sound to 8000 mono to get 37 fps.

Dingoo: How good is it?

I was interested in buying a Dingoo, price is low, battery life is good, d-pad should be ok and booting time is fast.
Linux can be installed and should attract more developers and programs to the system.

But... what can you do with it now. Personally I'm not that keen on spending money on a handheld that will be great "one day...".
I already own a GP2X F100 and F200 and to buy a Dingoo it should at least have some emulators that work better on it than on the GP2X.
Spending time on forums trying to get answers to this question didn't help.

The best emulator right now is probably Mame4All Dingoo V1.0. I've seen reports that it lags with some games.
Not everything you can download from the file archive seems to be working properly (link to the Dingoo library) and basically there isn't a lot ported yet.
GP2X has got a huge library with a lot of optimised software. Picodrive is absolutely amazing and full speed on it. Haven't seen reports of the Dingoo getting there.

How long will it take for the Dingoo to reach that state? If it ever will...
So still got my doubts, the Pandora will probably arrive long before the Dingoo has reached maturity.

[Edit July 28th]

Good and bad news for Dingoo owners.

Good: Picodrive (Sega Genesis emulator) has just been released and seems to be working great.

Bad: On screen tearing on the Dingoo is probably not solvable with software according to booboo (creator of Dingux)

Game Video: Gem Smashers / M&M's break 'Em - Gameboy Advance

Gem Smashers is a fun and entertaining action puzzler with more than 100 levels for the gameboy advance. In this game you are a creature that smashes gems and rocks while bouncing up and down. Because you are bouncing all the time you need to make sure to avoid the less friendly attributes in the game like skulls.
By clearing the field of all gems you unlock a door to another field or other level.

If you like PopCap type of games that are very popular for PC and often played by women and casual players, I'm sure you will have a great time playing this.

Here is a good review and description of the game.


M&M's break 'Em is pretty much the same game, it just has another theme. I personally like Gem Smasher better but unfortunately there isn't a video on youtube to show it to you. I did find a video of M&M's break 'Em.

Runs very playable without overclocking though seems to be a bit smoother with some overclocking on GpSP (240 Mhz),

Link: neogeoforlife

If you like games with fantastic graphics, most Neo Geo games will not disappoint you.
The system has a couple of the most attractive games you can play on the GP2X.

Graphics only will never be good enough though. A great game needs good gameplay. Fortunately there are quite some Neo Geo games that combine both qualities.

You've probably noticed I don't review a lot of fighting games and might wonder why.
Well... to be honest..... {whisper mode} I don't really like them that much.... {/whisper mode}
Neo Geo has a lot of fighting games, so when you are into these games, you should definitely try some for the Neo Geo (Garou: Mark of the Wolve).



Not only fighting games though. Metal Slug (platform), Magical Drop (puzzle), Neo Drift Out (racing), Blazing Star (shmup). Each of these games are worth a review and a game video and I might add them to the blog later.

If you don't want to wait (and why should you) this site has got some good reviews for a lot of Neo Geo games. Worth checking out.