Digital Gadgets

Gamepark announces redesigned XGP and surprise XGP Mini

Added phosphor effect, similar to z26. Useful on ROMs which alternate sprites from one frame to another, resulting in an annoying flicker. When using phosphor mode, a pixels colour is mixed with its previous value, resulting in a blended image that doesn’t flicker, emulating the phosphoresence effect on a real television.

Added ‘pp’ developer commandline argument to set the “Display.Phosphor” property, and ‘ppblend’ to set the amount to blend pixels in phosphor mode. Also added ‘Alt p’ key to enable/disable phosphor effect while ROM is emulated. By default, phosphor mode is only used when necessary, as specified in the stella.pro file.

Since the open-source GP2X handheld gaming console has earned itself quite a devoted little following, we’re sure that several of you will be excited to learn that Gamepark (but not Gamepark Holdings, who had split off to release the GP2X) has released photos of two upcoming models that may or may not pack the same PMP and emulation goodness — these may be geared towards the commercial market — into slightly different packages.

Renamed ‘cheetah’ commandline argument to ‘cheat’. Added per-frame cheatcodes (4 characters long), which are evaluated each frame. Added cheatcode GUI, where cheats can be named, edited, saved, etc.
Cheat codes are now saved to stella.cht file and are automatically reloaded when Stella starts.

First is the the redesigned XGP (Extreme Game Player) handheld, which ditches the swivel screen design that we once opined “looks a bit like the bastard child of a PSP and a Sidekick,” for a more traditional Game Gear / Lynx / Nomad-type form factor, while one-upping the GP2X in screen size (4-inches vs. 3.5), the addition of a DMB TV receiver, and a little standard known as WiFi.

Improved ‘joymouse’ functionality. While in GUI mode, any axis will simulate mouse movement, and any button will simulate a mouse click. So the GUI can be completely navigated without a mouse. Improved CommandDialog and LauncherDialog wrt joymouse functionality. These dialogs are used more than any other on devices without a mouse, so joystick axis movement switches between GUI objects, rather than simulating the mouse. This leads to much faster selection of objects.

The real surprise, though, was the XGP Mini, an obvious rip-off of homage to the Game Boy Micro, which like the GP2X and XGP, sports an SD slot and 64MB NAND memory, but 32MB less RAM than the 64MB found in its brethren.

Added mapping of multiple SDL joystick axis to Event Mapping. Added joystick hat support, and mapping of multiple hats to Event Mapping. Added remapping of paddle emulation to the keyboard or joystick axis (the mouse is still used by default for paddles). Related to this, use more precise analog values when analog axis are mapped to analog-type events (such as paddles).

Treat joystick events as other types of controllers based on the virtual port entry in stella.pro. This means that mappings for a joystick will emulate other devices when necessary. Added ’sp’ developer commandline argument, which sets the “Console.SwapPorts” property and swaps the arrangement of the virtual ports. Useful for games like “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, where the joysticks are normally swapped. Added ability to set which Stelladaptor device emulates which virtual joystick port (’sa1′ and ’sa2′ commandline arguments, which accept ‘left’ or ‘right’).

Although release dates are unknown for either model, the XGP will supposedly retail for around $300, while the XGP Mini (pictured after the break) will cost $150.