Tony Narlock Living life in the cloud

FLOSS on gaming handhelds: The GP2X Wiz and Dingoo A320

The GP2X Wiz and Dingoo A320 are two superb solutions for console emulation. This is a head to head comparison of both.

Dingoo A320

The Dingoo a320 is comparable to a Nintendo DS in price. It's bundled with a proprietary OS with an SDK (Software development kit). Hardware is nice. It even has an FM Player and a mic. It charges via a normal USB connector (the one you may already use with your cell phone or G1). Screen is backlit.

The stock emulators have poor performance.  ThinkGeek's featured photo of Super Mario World on the dingoo is pristine, but the truth is mario's face may meet that rocket because of the choppiness of the emulation.

Linux support comes to the rescue on the Dingoo with Dingux. Implementing it however involves some clever hacks. Sadly, Dingux doesn't support the FM player or the mic yet.

Gamepark GP2X Wiz

The GP2X Wiz by Gamepark is in my opinion superior. The display is brilliant. It runs Linux natively. Think of it like a gameboy advance with a Lithium ion battery, backlight, OLED screen. It even has the specs and software to play MAME games.

GP2x also supports a bustling homebrew community featuring emulators. After all, that's what an open handled is all about: Giving developers the rights to create their own open source applications.

GP2x is a handheld done right. Unlike the DRM-imprisoned PSP, Gameboy and iPhones the wiz actually gives you freedom. It's an textbook instance of how FLOSS can make a seemingly ordinary piece of hardware into an enterprise-class super device . Look at DD-WRT and OpenWRT. Look at Cyanogenmod for Android. Look at Linux on the desktop.

If you paid your rent and have 200 bucks lying around, grab one of these things.

My opinion: Dingoo Digital in China needs to understand their overseas niche is in homebrew. They should make their operating system Linux-based. If you have moderate knowledge of computers (Can put files onto an attached storage device) and want a handheld, grab the GP2x. You won't regret it.