If it was a portable N64 that wouldn't play OoT or Super Mario 64 would things be different?
I've said this is an interesting device, and
was even vocally impressed by how it runs games like Star Fox.
However, now I've changed my mind and I've said I won't buy it because one of the flaws it has is a really big one where I'm concerned. I will not buy this device, because they cheaped out on the resolution and that makes it unable to play a couple of my favorite games properly. Games that I planned on playing on it.
It's about as easy as not buying a vacuum cleaner that only cleans carpets when your house has hardwood floors.
I want a product that will run specific games at playable quality. This product will not do that. Therefore I, myself, Rydian, George Gates, member #244492, do not plan to buy this product.
Just like I don't have a 3DS, and don't have any current plans to get one. None of the existing games are games I want. This may change in the future, but for now, no plans.
I can't, but just because issues are small in number doesn't mean they're small in effect.
Just like the SNES emulator for the DSTwo. It's the best there is on the DS, and in many places it plays Super Metroid properly... but in some areas it plays at single-digit framerates.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUWjVxAD9Q8
I still try to contribute to it's development
via bug reports and testing,
but due to it's flaws, I choose not to use it myself.
In the case of the GCW Zero it's not just downloading and running some homebrew, it's a ~$140 purchase, and I'm not going to spend that just for curiosity.
Like, let's say I didn't know anything about the PS3, and wanted to buy one to play PS2 games on, only to find out that the models available now don't play PS2 titles. Is it unreasonable for me to decide against purchasing it after learning that?
If a device can render internally at hi-res, then it should have no problem displaying hi-res. Nearest-neighbor/2:1 scaling has been considered a free action even on mobile GPUs for years. The PSP can even do it with it's GPU, and that's a 2004 GPU.
Modern chips like the GCW Zero is using are much more powerful.
The only time a higher resolution causes slowdown is when the higher resolution is what's being rendered internally/natively.
This would not affect sprite/scanline-based emulators that scale up. This WOULD affect native homebrew that do resolution-dependant rendering (Descent, etc.), but going 320x240 over 640x480 is forced quality loss, while letting the games render at 320x240 scaled would let them run as fast as on a native 320x240 display, without hurting other software.
Hey now, don't mistake me for wanting cycle-accurate emulation or something. I'm one of the people that wants to play games,
and unfortunately this problem gets in the way of actually playing the games.
They mention cost each time, even in the FAQ on the kickstarter page itself.
HOWEVER, it is possible they're simply not aware of these issues, since like I said they only happen when the actual output resolution is the same as the normal native even when the SNES is trying hi-res mode and most people run their emulators at a higher resolution output which allows all the pixels to fit... so sure, I'll hop on and ask them if they're aware of the issue and if they'd consider an LCD change to accommodate for it.