GCW Zero

[baddy]

spit at my family ???

[pubjoe]

Sorry, I was speed reading.

Project Update #61: GCW-Zero: Open Source Gaming Handheld by Justin Barwick

I'm only one person with the help of my wife and kid sometime to ship all of these packages. With the delays and added expenses from delays and damages unexpected hikes in shipping costs etc.

If I could dedicate full time to this endeavor I could have them out in a matter of weeks with no issues. But as this is a project with limited man power and resources as everyone has day jobs who volunteers to assist.

It's always easier when you look in from the outside to say well I would do it this way or why does it take so long, But until you actually do the thing your looking at you have no true concept of how long it will take or what it actual takes to do it.

I believe we are doing alot better then most projects on here on trying to get items out and answer private messages etc.

My nights usually consist of having about 30 to 40 minutes family time then answering emails which are usually around 300 to 400 a day. Shipping consoles and discussing things with my developers.

I do apologize for it taking time to do the shipping but we are not Sony or Amazon with a huge shipping divsion at our disposal things do move alot slower.

To speed up the process I've been in talks with numerous fulfillment companies but the answer always ends up it's not viable with the added expense as they want a picking fee for each item and their shipping is more then it would cost me to do it.

I've worked out a deal with Fedex for Smart post and cheaper rates then USPS for overseas that should be finalized Tuesday then you will see a drastic increase in shipping as they will bulk print all of the shipping labels for me and send them over night.

All it will require from that point will be is to slap the labels on and arrange pickup by fedex. I've also arranged a deal with local Goin Postal to assist with this so you should see an e-mail with tracking fairly quickly come Wednesday and going forward.

I will be shipping all pledge gifts minus the etched glasses till the replacement ones arrive I've taken a step to make this upto those who pledged the higher amounts by getting stadium cups and stress balls as addon for this.

Once again I apologize for delays and if you feel I'm not doing a good job on shipping but as I stated before looking from the outside and guessing or thinking you would do it a certain way is not like actually doing it.

[cools]

Mine's going back. The USB is borked and has been out of the box, I've finally got a request to return it for repair/replace.

[TheRedKnight]

Fingers crossed that it will come back soon accompanied by a luxurious stressball

[crunchywasp]

Urgh. Hopefully that's not par for the course.

Other than this thread I've done zero reading about how these have generally been received and what teething problems/hardware issues folks are experiencing.

What's the the general consensus?

I've thick skin so please feel free to tell me to F off, stop being lazy and look it up myself I'd just rather read it here is all

[opt2not]

Urgh. Hopefully that's not par for the course.

Other than this thread I've done zero reading about how these have generally been received and what teething problems/hardware issues folks are experiencing.

What's the the general consensus?

I've thick skin so please feel free to tell me to F off, stop being lazy and look it up myself I'd just rather read it here is all

I'm absolutely loving mine. I haven't had any of the issues that I've read others have had, and I've had mine for about 3 weeks now. I play it everyday, and it seems that it keeps getting better and better with all the updates/releases of the emulators and firmware. It's really easy to update and upload content to. The D-pad and buttons feel great to me, but again, I don't have the issues like squeaking or sticking that some of the other backers have had (perhaps I got the later run of GCW's, they probably fixed those issues by then).

The screen looks great. Bright, crisp, good view-angles and fast response. Playing some of the emulators in their native res looks incredible (especially Genesis games being that they fill up the screen natively!).

I'm not a big fan of the analog stick, mainly because I have big thumbs and I haven't gotten used to it yet. But I have been using the d-pad more than the analog...but this will change when they release an N64 emulator for it. I completely boycotted the N64 BITD, cause I always thought the early 3D games look like complete crap and I couldn't stand the 3-pronged controller. There a bunch of games on that system I missed!
My only other beef is that all the drivers supporting the hardware are not implemented yet. HDMI/Video out, the lock button for instance. But I guess that will come in time.

[pubjoe]

Urgh. Hopefully that's not par for the course.

Other than this thread I've done zero reading about how these have generally been received and what teething problems/hardware issues folks are experiencing.

What's the the general consensus?

I've thick skin so please feel free to tell me to F off, stop being lazy and look it up myself I'd just rather read it here is all

I'm absolutely loving mine. I haven't had any of the issues that I've read others have had, and I've had mine for about 3 weeks now. I play it everyday, and it seems that it keeps getting better and better with all the updates/releases of the emulators and firmware. It's really easy to update and upload content to. The D-pad and buttons feel great to me, but again, I don't have the issues like squeaking or sticking that some of the other backers have had (perhaps I got the later run of GCW's, they probably fixed those issues by then).

The screen looks great. Bright, crisp, good view-angles and fast response. Playing some of the emulators in their native res looks incredible (especially Genesis games being that they fill up the screen natively!).

I'm not a big fan of the analog stick, mainly because I have big thumbs and I haven't gotten used to it yet. But I have been using the d-pad more than the analog...but this will change when they release an N64 emulator for it. I completely boycotted the N64 BITD, cause I always thought the early 3D games look like complete crap and I couldn't stand the 3-pronged controller. There a bunch of games on that system I missed!
My only other beef is that all the drivers supporting the hardware are not implemented yet. HDMI/Video out, the lock button for instance. But I guess that will come in time.

Thanks for the run through opt2not.

Still haven't heard anything about mine.

[crunchywasp]

Thanks for your analysis opt2not, sounds ace

[joeblade]

My only other beef is that all the drivers supporting the hardware are not implemented yet. HDMI/Video out, the lock button for instance. But I guess that will come in time.

So you can't get the video out on this yet then?

Im quite surprised they shipped without the very most basic drivers installed tbh...

[opt2not]

Well it is a kickstarter project...
I'm not an engineer so I can't speak towards how hard or easy writing drivers for HDMI-out is.

But:

[pubjoe]

This arrived yesterday...

[cools]

Mine came in free.

I should chase what's happening with the RMA actually.

[pubjoe]

Handling fee was £8 so it was only a few quid for the actual tax.

Have you sent yours back?

[cools]

Yes. Its being looked at.

[pubjoe]

Picked up the Zero yesterday. I've only spent a short time playing with it. I tried out some pre-installed homebrew games.

The last time I got something like this was the Gp32 12 years ago. I've given everything since a miss.

First impressions. Good general build quality (not Nintendo or Sony good - but compared to the brittle creaky plastics of the gp32, it's superb). Size is just right, lovely screen for it's purpose, decent d-pad, speakers and battery life.

Analogue nub is terrible. It's ultra springy (maybe on par with PSP). Mine seems to have a defect (or maybe a design flaw?) where it gets stuck or grinds the ridges of the case. Maybe this will fix itself with wear but due to it's tightness, I can't imagine I'll be using it for anything really. In FreeDoom I set it up for free look and it was so awkward to hit the mid ranges that I was better off with the d-pad, which at least is responsive.

Still, I've bought this primarily for 8 and 16-bit emulation so it's a non-issue. In fact it probably makes life simpler to just forget about ever playing quake or the like on it - which at the end if the day is hardly suitable for a handheld.

I'll put some emulators on it at some point when I can be arsed.

[FrancoB]

FINALLY got mine today after paying £17.60 to pick it up

On the whole though I'm pretty damn impressed! Build quality is decent, screen looks lovely. The dpad and buttons are better than I was expecting after reading a few not so good comments. They're not SNES pad quality but definitely good enough! The only minor niggle is that my left speaker seems quieter than the right. I ran the HW tests and it's definitely outputting audio in both channels but the LH one does seem quieter. It's perfect with headphones though which is what I'll mainly been using.

So far I've played a few of the preinstalled games, out of the ones I've played I'll probably play UMG the most. I installed Cave Story and that plays beautifully. SMW plays great in Snes9x4d and Castle of Illusion (SMS) seems spot on on Picodrive, I've not played much else in regards to emulators yet. What I've probably been playing the most is Quake2! I've not played it in years and it's plays great. Running Q2 on a small device like that seems ridonkulous but in a good way! The default mapping of the controls works really well and it's surprisingly easy to control using the buttons and the analogue nub. I would say the analogue nub is akin to the PSP one but I never found it to be a problem on the PSP. I would say that there is something wrong with yours Joe, mine feels lovely to play with Stick Q2 on and see how it plays.

The apps/games/emulators are [here] if you didn't know.

What other emulators etc have you lot been installing?

[pubjoe]

It might just be me. I'm not a fan of analogue nubbers.

Honestly, I have so many purchased games that I don't have time but would love to play. Plus I want to be getting more cab time in. Shamed to say it but I'm severely tempted to sell my Zero for the £200-odd that it appears to get on ebay and maybe pick one up again in a year or so.

[pubjoe]

I wouldn't sell it for £100 minus fees, but anything that doubles in value the minute it arrives, I really have to consider if I want it that much. I mean I wouldn't pay £200 for one, so logic says I should take the cash instead.

[pubjoe]

Ok I'm going to be sensible and anticipate another excellent, but wasted piece of hardware collecting dust on a shelf before it happens. I'm having too much fun with the 3DS, and to be honest I'm going through a bit of a meh-emulators phase at the moment for some reason.

If anyone wants to buy my Zero from me for exactly what I paid for it, it's yours.

It should be a bit over £100 (£120ish?). I'll have to check up. I'll include postage.

Otherwise I'm sticking it on ebay for mad profitz.

[pubjoe]

...Oh, and you're not allowed to flip it. You have to really want one.

[edit] Wednesday morning, sold to joeblade.