The GP2X is the ultra-open source successor to the GP32, which enjoys a cult following and a remarkably high level of development. The GP2X is a Linux-based handheld that can run virtually any Linux application, including hundreds of exisiting games. A flood of games is sure to be ported rapidly for this thing. And game developers looking for an easy way into a powerful system (2x200mhz processors, 64mb of system memory) will love the fact that the SDK is included in every box! Plus, this plays movies, reads books, plays music, views photos, etc. We wanna play with it!
Craig Rothwell, proprietor of the site puts it this way in his open letter about the features of the GP2X:
To sum up the GP2X:It can play games. It can play your Movies. It can play your music. It can view photos. It can read Ebooks. It runs on just 2 AA batteries - And it can do all this in the palm of your hand or on your TV screen.
Yes that\'s right, this handheld can connect to the TV, console style. Watch your DivX movies on the TV. Play emulated classics on the TV. Try big screen Quake. Or just play them all on the GP2X\'s large 320*240 backlit screen. You get the best of both worlds.
It runs the free Linux operating system. This means a whole world of Games, Utilities and Emulators are at your disposal. Quake, Doom, SNES, Megadrive, MAME, Media players and Applications to name just a few.
It\'s powerful - Two 200mhz CPU\'s with 64meg of RAM, custom graphics hardware and decoding chips. Takes SD cards and has 64M of NAND memory. Plenty to play with. One of the most powerful and advanced handhelds today.
That means it can play movies without any re-encoding. Just put them onto an SD card. Any size. Any resolution. No messing about. The GP2X scaling chip will resize to fit the screen. No other handheld can do that.
It\'s cheap. Just ?124.99.
It\'s open. You want to develop your own games for the GP2X? Go right ahead. The SDK is included with the system free. Not since the days of the Amiga has a system been so easy to develop for, commercially and for fun.
The GP2X isn\'t just another wannabe be Gameboy. Its a whole different design. A whole new idea for a handheld games system.
But wait, we\'re not new to the scene. Heard of the GP32? An accidental experiment in an open source handheld that went right. Some 30,000 units were sold worldwide, mostly in the UK and parts of Europe. The machine has an astonishing following. The GP2X is the successor.
We hope you will enjoy it.
-Craig Rothwell