GP2X Soon To Be Released

If you have had any interest in the retro or handheld gaming scene, then you should have surely heard of the GP32. It was a simple, easy to use handheld gaming unit that was very easy to develop games for. It has a large dedicated following who are currently all very excited about the the imminent release of the GP2X, the successor (or at least, one of the successors) to the GP32. The other successor is the XGP. Why two successors? GamePark, who created the GP32, could not decide on how to follow it up. So some staff members left the company to form GamePark Holdings. This new company started development on the GP2X, while GamePark went on to develop the XGP. The GP2X is more of a true successor to the GP32, being in a similarly-styled case and with a 320x240 4:3 ratio screen. The XGP however has a 16:10 ratio flip-top swivel LCD screen, a numeric keypad, and TV-out support for a digital TV standard that is only used in Korea.

Hence, most of the GP32 community are getting excited about the GP2X. It is also being promoted as having an open SDK for everyone to be able to write software for it. I have placed a pre-order for one of these units. Hopefully it will re-invigorate what used to be the enjoyable pasttime for me of game development. Let's see mid-October when the unit is due to arrive.