GP2X likes my batteries

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I have been learning about the GP2X I received the other week. I have an arm gcc tool chain setup on my windows box, and my linux box. It could have been a much easier experience. However hopefully now the gp2x dev wiki has gathered enough information so new commers should have an easier time.

It has a bunch of potential to be a really nice device. It just needs a whole bunch of bug fixes. I think the people at GPH will eventually fix things up.

So I wait until I can afford a power supply for the unit. So that I do not have to recharge batteries all the time. Having to copy the file to the SD card via the card reader, then put it in the GP2X and reboot is no fun at all. Considering boot time is 25 seconds or so. Which means a lot of iterative development will not work if I need to wait 1 minute between changes. I am used to waiting 1 second between changes.

In the meantime someone else has already gotten python, and pygame working on the machine. Which is great! As soon as I get my power supply(about $40 AUD at dick smiths) I'm going to play around with that.

If someone can get tcp/ip over usb working with the machine, then iterative development with python should be a bunch easier. All the software is available for it. It just needs to be compiled into the kernel, and tested. Unforuntately GPH has not released the code for their modifications to linux. So this will have to wait.

I want to add a gp2x module to pygame. With all the extra things that can be done with the GP2X. For example, turning the red led light on and off. Putting the LCD to sleep when a game is paused. Nicely named constants for all of the joystick buttons. Putting the second CPU to sleep. Using the hardware overlays, scaling, and other abilities of the video post processor etc etc.

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