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My introduction to Linux Gaming: The GP2X (pawb.social)
submitted 4 months ago by PonyOfWar@pawb.social to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
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I feel like the Linux Handhelds made by GPH in the 2000s are a nowadays almost forgotten piece of history, even though they were in some ways the predecessor to today's Steam Deck. So I wanted to create a bit of an appreciation post for this chapter in Linux Gaming history. Did any of you use a GP2X back in the day as well? For me, it wasn't just my introduction to Linux gaming, but also game development, as I programmed my first games for it using GLBasic. It was a fantastic machine for emulation as well, got introduced to many old games from the 80s and 90s through it.

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[-] 0_o@lemm.ee 10 points 4 months ago

I was obsessing over these back in the day but it was at the upper end of what I could possibly manage to wangle as a Christmas and Birthday present combined.. Then I discovered that a refurbished, like new, PsP 1000 phat could be had for less than half the price that these were retailing for and not only was the modding / emulating scene more active and better supported but it also opened an entire new library of native PsP games.

I don't regret my choice in the slightest. Although I still think these are really cool.

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 9 points 4 months ago

Yes, it was pretty bad. Poor battery life and the damn power cable never stayed in.

Emulated a handful of games, put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Got a PSP instead and spent months playing Everybody's Golf.

[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

That's a cool looking handheld, but... that button naming is cursed. Who puts A and B across from each other?!

[-] Burghler@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago

Wow that's a dumb ordering, why reinvent the already perfected wheel 😔

[-] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago

Only realized it after reading this 😳

[-] SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

I like it.

[-] BabyVi@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

I had great fun playing Pirates! Gold on the GP2X back in high-school. I always lamented the short battery life, lack of wifi connectivity, and no USB host mode. But it was a different era and just having a Linux handheld at all was extraordinary at the time. Makes me really appreciate the Steam Deck for all it's features and ease of use.

[-] llii@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 4 months ago

Yes! I had the first one in black. I was active in the community and made a few skins for the interface. But I sold it a few years after I got it.

[-] SteveNashFan@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Love me some Cave Story!

[-] Thorry84@feddit.nl 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah I think I have one of those still around somewhere. I remember when they released it they didn't release any sources at all, even though it was full of software that required sharing in their license. So the community got together and helped them publish it all. Some of the drivers were still binary blobs, but that was the maker of the chips fault and not GameParks fault.

Once I got one I created a small little side scrolling game engine and a couple of games for it, a couple of other people used my engine to make some games for it as well. To imagine that's 20 years ago. We had a small little forum of enthusiasts setup and shared code in attachments. It's all lost to time now, but those were the days.

[-] Thorry84@feddit.nl 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

One trip to my trusty room of boxes full of old shit and I found it!

Along with its official carrier case and TV out cable in original packaging. The screen protector has seen better days tho.

And it still works just fine:

[-] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 1 points 4 months ago

Nice! Never had the F100. Always wondered how that "Analog stick" (that I think was really just a DPad?) controlled.

[-] Thorry84@feddit.nl 4 points 4 months ago

Yeah the "Analog stick" is just a DPad, it doesn't have pots or anything like that, just binary buttons. And I have to say, it's terrible. It feels bad, it pushes your thumb upwards with a really awkward angle. For some reason it's really hard shiny plastic and the edge stands up so it digs into your flesh. It's concave instead of convex like modern sticks are (and even sticks back then were really). Doing fast inputs is impossible since you need to move it quite far before it responds and diagonals don't work very well at all.

So it sucks, but it just adds to the charm as far as I'm concerned.

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago

I had the same, but modded it to the Nokia Engage d-pad, because it was indeed terrible.

The reason they went with this design was that the GP32 had a similar stick and it was great. No idea what went wrong with the one in the GP2X though.

[-] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

I had a caanoo and it was legitimately one of my favorite consoles of all time. Same era think.

[-] bigb@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

I always wanted one so bad but never picked one up

[-] rah@feddit.uk -4 points 4 months ago

emulation

So not Linux games then.

[-] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I mean they still ran in an emulator on Linux. It had plenty of native games as well though, like Cave Story in the photo.

this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
81 points (97.6% liked)

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