Silly Name, Great Concept – GP2X Wiz

I'm throwing an almighty strop until I get one

Open Source handheld consoles are a revelation, and the new GP2X Wiz from GamePark is no exception.

Based on Linux, its red and black body houses a 2.8inch high-res OLED touch screen.  There are two D-Pads, two shoulder buttons and further buttons on the right hand side to allow you flexibility in your methods of control.  The internal memory is 1GB but this is extendable using the SD card slot.

MAME emulation allows you to run free emulations of a large range of classic consoles.  This means that you can play your favourite retro games from the Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amiga, Sega Genesis, NES, SNES, Gameboy and Gameboy Advance among others.  The list even includes DOSBox.

The unit comes with a few flash games installed but you have to download the emulators and the games from here.  Once that’s done, you’ll have access to past gems such as Quake, Albion, Boomshine, Super Mario War and Ruck-Man; the list goes on.

In addition to its gaming capabilities the Wiz offers a range of extra features.  It supports video formats including MPEG4, Xvid and DIVX.  Also included are a music player, planner, alarm, calculator, comic reader, voice recorder and an e-book reader to name a few.

I feel as though I’m bombarding you with lists here, but this is a very flexible handheld with a long list of features.  As with most things Linux, there is a spritely online community of developers, and this can lead to some interesting user-generated content.  As well as the free stuff there is also the option to trial commercial games.

There are one or two minor quibbles with some of the games.  While the vast majority of them work perfectly, some can be a little temperamental and require you to reconfigure the controls in order to make them playable.  Please see the video below and prepare to develop a crush.

With that said, I still plan to throw an almighty strop until someone buys me one.  They’re available from play-asia.com for around £108.