14 DAY TRIAL // GamePark GP2 handheld gaming platform was launched yesterday, a little earlier than expected. It is a Korean product based on Linux made by GamePark Holdings, that over the years created a strong community around it, especially of persons who created their own games and then shared them.
The new version GP2X F-200 will have a 3.5-inch sensitive touch screen that supports 16 million colors and QVGA resolution (320 x 240), with a fresh 16-way d-pad, while the older version had an 8-way input. It is equipped with 64 MB of RAM, TV Out and dual 240MHz ARM9 CPUs. The software supplied with GP2X F-200 can be used on a PC to copy files from and to the GP2X, or a normal card reader/writer can be used to do the same operation.
It supports SDHC memory cards that will allow a storage space of maximum 32 GB. GamePark showcased GP2X F-200 at IFA 2007 in Berlin, Germany, and it aims at allowing open source software developers tweak the system, port games from other consoles etc. The movies are playing without any re-encoding, the only thing that the user has to do is put them on an SD card, and the GP2X scaling chip will resize them to fit the screen. It uses only 2 AA batteries and can work for 6 hours if you listen to music and 3.5 if you're watching a movie.
There are still some hardware parts that are the same as in the older version, which will bring up the possibility to use the utilities, players and the big collection of games designed for the older model. The estimated price for it will be around $250 and it has started to attract many programmers, but some recommend this console for gamers who already have or want to have basic knowledge of the Linux operating system.