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Dingoo A32 emulator/console anyone?

ArjunArjun
edited December 2011 in Chit chat
At $70 it seems to be a good deal:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/clearance/on-sale/bd6f/

Anyone have one of these?

The OpenPandora will probably play better and looks better, but it costs nearly 4 times the price I think.
Post edited by Arjun on
Zero - A modern Spectrum emulator for Windows.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.

Comments

  • psj3809psj3809
    edited December 2011
    Plus you would probably wait 3 years till you got a Pandora ;)

    Seriously though the Dingoo does look good, heard some good things about it and theres a fair few emulators for it. At that price it seems like a steal
  • SokurahSokurah
    edited December 2011
    I have one of them - I bought it over a year ago.

    It's okay I guess - the specs are nice, but the thing is that I have an iPhone which fully satisfies my need to play on the go, and I don't really want to carry more around than I have to, so my Dingoo has been in a drawer since the day after I bought it. Not the best ?85 spent.

    ...perhaps I'm not the best person to ask, then. :D
    Website: Tardis Remakes / Mostly remakes of Arcade and ZX Spectrum games.
    My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
    Twitter: Sokurah
  • mel the bellmel the bell
    edited December 2011
    looks interesting

    although i noticed this bit
    No emulator software to load. Just copy over the roms and start playing
    so you dont put yer own emus on? it has em built in?? wonder which? released ones? or their own? and good?
    Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
  • TechnicianSiTechnicianSi
    edited December 2011
    Looks about the same size/style as a GBA Micro. Not bad though.
    Certainly looks better for emulation than Android devices, but even so i'll stick to my hacked PSP 2000 I think :smile:
  • mel the bellmel the bell
    edited December 2011
    TechnicianSi wrote: »
    Looks about the same size/style as a GBA Micro. Not bad though.
    Certainly looks better for emulation than Android devices, but even so i'll stick to my hacked PSP 2000 I think :smile:
    yeah im disapointed with emus on android, specially touch screen, too hard to play games :(
    Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
  • ArjunArjun
    edited December 2011
    mel the bell wrote: »
    so you dont put yer own emus on? it has em built in?? wonder which? released ones? or their own? and good?

    Details can be found http://a320.bluwiki.com/. Somebody has ported a linux kernel for it too, so that will open up homebrew development I suppose.
    Zero - A modern Spectrum emulator for Windows.
    Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
  • morcarmorcar
    edited December 2011
    I wonder if that will work with the A380 because its not that different from the A330 but i know its 100mhz quicker
  • thingleythingley
    edited December 2011
    Forget the A380 - The community just hasn't taken to it enough yet and some of the native emulators are broken (I think!).

    I have a dingoo A320 and I love it! It's probably the best gadget of this sort I have ever owned (And I had a GP32). It's slightly larger than a GBA micro. Most of the emulators are really good and for this type of device it's disadvantages are minor.

    When I say that nearly every Gamepark device has a showstopping bug! The GP32 had the most annoying clicky joystick (I didn't mind - it annoyed everyone else!) and relied on smartmedia. The GP2X wasn't much of an upgrade and needed joystick mods. The GP2X wiz has screen problems (They rot apparently) and the Caanoo has a great screen - but the case hides it!

    The Dingoo's weakest points are clicky shoulder buttons (Didn't like them at first - have got used to them now)and the reset switch (you need to carry a paper clip with you if you plan on crashing the dingoo!). It also has a slot for mini SD - but you can easily get an 8Gb microSD and use an adaptor so that's not such a problem.
  • CKayCKay
    edited December 2011
    The wiz woulda been nice if they hadn't gone down from a 3.5 " screen to a 3 (or was it a 2.8") screen, whether or not the amoled screen is fantastic you don't really wanna gadget that's gonna get screen rot... the Cannoo woulda been a nice enough upgrade from the GP2X if they'd put decent controls onit, and despite what some say the GP2X F200 with it's separate four buttoned D-Pad and touchscreen was pretty decent for retro games.
  • VanTammenVanTammen
    edited December 2011
    this looks really good, does it play speccy? and can you save the game, as if in a pc emulator, or does it play like a console?
  • Alessandro GrussuAlessandro Grussu
    edited December 2011
    thingley wrote: »
    ...the Caanoo has a great screen - but the case hides it!
    CKay wrote: »
    ...the Cannoo woulda been a nice enough upgrade from the GP2X if they'd put decent controls onit
    Could you please be more specific guys? The Caanoo reviews I've read around the Web are nothing short of enthusiastic - they praise the large screen and the responsiveness of the in-built joystick in particular. I would like to know more about that.

    EDIT: I just read an article about the Caanoo case hiding a small part of the display. However, given the resolution of the screen, that should be a negligible fault as far as Spectrum emulation is concerned, since it would only include border area anyway.
    Spectrumpedia, the most comprehensive book ever written about the Spectrum - Zankle Soft - Corrections for games incompatible with the +2A/+3 - TAP files for DivIDE/DivMMC - SetoLOAD fast tape loading scheme
  • thingleythingley
    edited December 2011
    I'll come clean and admit I don't have a Caanoo. I am quite tempted by one but am put off firstly by the controls (it boats an analogue stick - I much prefer a d-pad) and the constant reports of the edge of the screen being hidden by the casing. This is meant to be an issue when you need to use the touchscreen (ScummVM etc.) and the buttons you're trying to hit are off or too close to the edge of the screen. To cap it off the Caanoo is quite a bit more expensive than the dingoo.

    The best way to emulate the spectrum on the dingoo is to install dingux and use a legacy dingux kernel to run GP2Xpectrum. it is an excellent emulator that has just about every feature anyone could want from a mobile spectrum emulator. Saves, High speed TZX loading, Pokes etc. are all covered.

    This is exactly the same emulator that the Caanoo has as well - so if you are after spectrum emulator there's not much point in paying more for it!

    There's another less developed emulator called unrealspec that is available for the dingoo's native OS. This means the dingoo will recognize .z80 files and you can just play them that way. It has fewer features than GP2Xpectrum but is good to have around anyway.

    My other point would be that the Caanoo is likely to have slightly better performance in emulators because of it's ARM CPU. But having said that I've never been all that impressed with mobile emulators of this type once you get above 16 bit consoles anyway. So long as you have good snes, megadrive CPS1 and 2 emulation you tend not to get much better than that! The dingoo is in a good price bracket for the performance it can deliver.
  • richlrichl
    edited December 2011
    Does anyone have one of these handheld Megadrives?
    http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/24257423/Sega-Megadrive-Ultimate-Handheld-Console-Super-Street-Fighter-II-Edition/Product.html

    They're on special at ?27.99 for today only (allegedly) and they look pretty similar but are a proper licensed Sega Megadrive product. It has 6 buttons rather than the Dingoo's 4 and also plays games off memory card unlike the earlier(?) "Streets of Rage" version they released which only played the 18 built in games. Whether you could get it to play anything other than Megadrive games, I don't know, but it still looks pretty cool, especially if you happen to have "a few" more games sitting on an external drive somewhere ;)
  • CKayCKay
    edited December 2011
    Alessandro Grussu wrote: »
    Could you please be more specific guys? The Caanoo reviews I've read around the Web are nothing short of enthusiastic - they praise the large screen and the responsiveness of the in-built joystick in particular. I would like to know more about that.

    EDIT: I just read an article about the Caanoo case hiding a small part of the display. However, given the resolution of the screen, that should be a negligible fault as far as Spectrum emulation is concerned, since it would only include border area anyway.

    Oly tingggggI have agaist Canoo is the analoggggggggggge thumb pad inste3ad of a propere D-Pad, even if a foure buttto ned onealaG P2Xxs, just fromheresya andforums doesn't equate to good cotrols for retro gaes...

    the Yinlips :- http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/6071-yinlips-ydp-g18/page__pid__111595__st__100#entry111595vvvvv
    is gona give you Pandora type perffffamance for athird of the rpice thoughhhhhh losing the full pc desktop minnnndddddd.
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