GCW Zero Meets Its Goal, supported games announced

[Another World]

The GCW Zero, the linux based gaming handheld, has reached its kickstarter funding goal. The GCW Zero was born from the ideas of Dingoo owners who wanted something more out of their handheld. The kickstarter campaign got off to a slow start, but has now almost doubled its original 130K goal. So the system will be produced, and released with some extras such as a carrying pouch and a mini-HDMI cable, but what else can we expect from this opensource gaming handheld? [prebreak]Continue reading...[/prebreak]

The GCW Zero has a strong following of developers who are not only familiar with Open Dingux, the system's Operating System, but who are also gamers themselves. These developers have been extremely busy porting original projects as well as 3rd party emulation. Below is a partial listing of what we should expect on launch day, and based on the track record of the Dingux community, it will only get better!

Brief List of Expected Emulation

• Atari 800
• Atari 7800
• Atari Lynx
• Atari ST
• Arcade (MAME, MVS, CPS, FBA)
• Game Boy Advance
• Game Boy and Game Boy Color
• Genesis and Sega CD
• MSX
• Nintendo Entertainment System
• Super Nintendo
• TurboGrafx-16 PC Engine

Brief List of Expected Native Homebrew and Indy Games

• Astrolander
• Biniax2
• Blockrage
• Cave Story
• Descent
• Dink Smallwood
• Doom
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Fields of Fresh (June 2013)
• Heretic
• Heroes
• Hexen
• PawByte Mafia (Chibifia) (July 2013)
• Powder
• Puzzletube
• Quake
• Rise of the Triad
• SameGoo
• ScummVM
• Spout
• Sqrxz3
• Strife
• Unnamed Monkey Game
• Worship Vector

The 1st person shooter PC ports feature WIFI support, so you'll be able to enjoy multiplayer deathmatch games with PC and GCW Zero gamers all over the world. Doom engine ports will include Chocolate Doom and ReMooD. Developers have stressed how quickly PRBoom could be ported, which could mean the potential to enjoy hundreds of player made WAD files. Developers have also mentioned how easy it will be to port most Open Dingux games, applications, emulation, and Homebrew. In most cases only a simply recompile will be required for GCW Zero support.

The GCW Zero has gone from one mans dream into a legitimate fully functional gaming handheld. The kickstarter is almost at an end, with just a few hours left to pledge the $135 needed to grab yourself a console. Join the other 1,645 backers and get in on the ground floor, for the GCW Zero is going to set the standard of affordable community-driven open-source gaming devices.

Kickstarter Campaign
Yahoo News Press Release

 

[Surkow]

I'd like to add that Duke Nukem 3D runs natively (it uses an Open Source engine reimplementation).

Two new stretch goals have been added: a screen protector and a 16GB micro SD card. The screen cover pledge has already been met (230k).

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gcw/gcw-zero-open-source-gaming-handheld/posts/394328

A little bit more than an hour is left before the Kickstarter project will end.

Edit: Descent, Doom, Duke3D, Heretic, Hexen, Quake, Rott, ScummVM and Strife are all native.

 

[shoyrumaster11]

Can't wait to buy a GCW Zero myself, actually! Seems like a nice console to do homebrews on. Will buy it for surez! Save me from trying to be involved with the mess known as the PSP Scene. As this little device contains everything I need to make homebrews outside of the DS Scene!

 

[RupeeClock]

On top of the three previous stretch goals, two more were added and one has been met.
$230k gets screen protectors packed with each console, and $250k gets a 16gb class 10 microSD card bundled with each console.
Although these stretch goals were announced too close to the end of the kickstarter, so although the $230k goal was met, it's really unlikely that the $250k goal will be reached in the 50 minutes the drive has left.

Also, you can add Playstation to that list of expected emulators, the GCW Zero is more than capable.


To give you an idea, the GP2X Caanoo with its 533Mhz ARM9 processor, using PCSX ReARMed is capable of emulating many PSX titles at full speed.
The GCW Zero has a 1Ghz MIPS processor, on top of having processing power it also shares the same MIPS architecture as the PS1, and also N64.
This makes it VERY capable of emulating PS1 titles, and possibly N64 as well. It also has a dedicated GPU capable of OpenGL ES 2.0, so it is capable of 3D graphics as well.

 

[DragorianSword]

Wow I think I'll actually might pick this up.
Seems to have a lot of potential.

 

[VatoLoco]

very exciting indeed! can't wait to get my grubby hands on this =D
I see an oncoming homebrew resurgence!

 

[RupeeClock]

very exciting indeed! can't wait to get my grubby hands on this =D
I see an oncoming homebrew resurgence!

Yes, I'm a lot more hopeful for the GCW Zero, it looks like they are really working on this to avoid all of the mistakes of other retro gaming devices.
The hardware shouldn't be subpar and the software development environment should be pretty attractive, hopefully this will flourish unlike the GP2X Caanoo.

 

[Another World]

if you guys see any .opk files released for the gcw zero, please feel free to mirror them to filetrip. i created a gcw zero section for us. =)

http://filetrip.net/others-downloads/gcw-zero/

-another world

 

[RupeeClock]

if you guys see any .opk files released for the gcw zero, please feel free to mirror them to filetrip. i created a gcw zero section for us. =)

http://filetrip.net/others-downloads/gcw-zero/

-another world

That's cool, but I think it's more likely that www.openhandhelds.org will become the file repository of choice for the GCW Zero.
It has been where most all files for the GP2X, Wiz and Caanoo were put, and also for the Dingoo A320 I believe.

I have to wonder how the GCW Zero community would view filetrip.net as they have automatic download links, you know the ones that run the installers.

 

[Another World]

there are no automatic installations, it's an option for the end-user which benefits filetrip by helping to provide revenue to offset the server costs. i don't feel that it is asking to much when you consider everything you get for free (video streaming, personal uploads, image gallery, etc).

i've already been thanked by the ceo of gcw for providing another place to host files. if the 3rd party community embraces it, then great, if they don't, then i'll work with my team to keep it updated as often as possible. either way its a viable option.

-another world

 

[dickfour]

I'm itching to get my SE.

 

[RupeeClock]

there are no automatic installations, its an option for the end-user which benefits filetrip by helping to provide revenue to offset the server costs. i don't feel that it is asking to much when you consider everything you get for free (video streaming, personal uploads, image gallery, etc).

i've already been thanked by the ceo of gcw for providing another place to host files. if the 3rd party community embraces it, then great, if they don't, then i'll work with my team to keep it updates as often as possible. either way its a viable option.

-another world

That's cool then, hopefully things go well for Filetrip hosting GCW Zero files.
My concern was how filetrip users would respond to GCW Zero file downloads being prompted by an .exe download.

 

[Another World]

perhaps you haven't used the site since that update was changed? it no longer forces an .exe on the end-user. it provides a pop-up that offers two methods, the left button installs the automatic downloader, while the right button manually downloads the file the old way.

Filetrip Sponsored Download
Please select your preferred download method by clicking either button above. By clicking the Automatic download button you will download our sponsored installer which downloads files from the Amazon Content Delivery Network. The Manual download button triggers a download from your browser, the file is sent from our servers in France. By downloading a file from FileTrip, you understand and accept our T&Cs

-another world

 

[RupeeClock]

perhaps you haven't used the site since that update was changed? it no longer forces an .exe on the end-user. it provides a pop-up that offers two methods, the left button installs the automatic downloader, while the right button manually downloads the file the old way.



-another world

I am aware of the change, the concern still remains with the presence of an automatic download at all.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

On top of the three previous stretch goals, two more were added and one has been met.
$230k gets screen protectors packed with each console, and $250k gets a 16gb class 10 microSD card bundled with each console.
Although these stretch goals were announced too close to the end of the kickstarter, so although the $230k goal was met, it's really unlikely that the $250k goal will be reached in the 50 minutes the drive has left.

Also, you can add Playstation to that list of expected emulators, the GCW Zero is more than capable.


To give you an idea, the GP2X Caanoo with its 533Mhz ARM9 processor, using PCSX ReARMed is capable of emulating many PSX titles at full speed.
The GCW Zero has a 1Ghz MIPS processor, on top of having processing power it also shares the same MIPS architecture as the PS1, and also N64.
This makes it VERY capable of emulating PS1 titles, and possibly N64 as well. It also has a dedicated GPU capable of OpenGL ES 2.0, so it is capable of 3D graphics as well.

But the problem is that the existing PSX/N64 emulators are for ARM CPUs so it would take a lot of time and dedication to port and optimize them, as well as introducing new bugs in the process.
Once done though it will be awesome. I might actually get one if it runs N64 games well (high compatibility, few graphical glitches and full speed)

 

[RupeeClock]

But the problem is that the existing PSX/N64 emulators are for ARM CPUs so it would take a lot of time and dedication to port and optimize them, as well as introducing new bugs in the process.
Once done though it will be awesome. I might actually get one if it runs N64 games well (high compatibility, few graphical glitches and full speed)

Ah, of course existing PSX or N64 emulators for similar ARM devices like the OpenPandora, are not going to be immediately portable to the GCW Zero running on a MIPS processor.

Did you watch the video though? They were in fact emulating Crash Bandicoot and Symphony of the Night on the GCW Zero, on a video from 9 months ago.
Chances are they ported over the PSX emulator that was developed for OpenDingux on the Dingoo A320, as seen in this video.


Anyhow, even though PS1 or N64 emulators may not exist for the GCW Zero at launch, the system is still more than capable thanks to the 1Ghz MIPS processor inside, boasting enough speed and the right architecture for the job.
It's easier to emulate a system when it is working on the same architecture after all, GCW Zero, PS1, N64, they're all MIPS.

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

I've not been interested in this device just knowing that before you know it someone else will make a faster one then this thing will be obsolete but then someone will make an even faster one than that....

 

[Satangel]

GG community, gg. Always nice to see such projects actually given a chance. Good for the community and the gamers, good stuff.

 

[Rydian]

Unfortunately due to the terrible resolution choice, I'm not planning on getting this thing since it won't even display the SOM/SD3 text properly...

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

Unfortunately due to the terrible resolution choice, I'm not planning on getting this thing since it won't even display the SOM/SD3 text properly...

Give it a few months there will be one that will top it