GCW Zero

[Will Fawkes]

Its a handheld console that made a bit of a splash last year. OK fine it was funded about the same time the ouya was so got drowns out by that thing. Still it has funding and even though there were delays its a thing. Friend of mine owns one. I've got one on order.

It does console emulation ranging from 8 bit Atari up to the 16 bit era (it could do PlayStation and Dreamcast but not a lot of effort is going there so while proof of concept emulation is a thing it isn't very good.) I don't advocate software piracy but there are some interesting homebrew titles out there and hacks that turn what was commercial material into something so different it might as well be original. Emulation is a thing. Like it, don't... Its there even if all you want to do is stick to the open source/homebrew software.

Ok fine it emulates stuff so what? Completely open toolchain based on Linux, has SDL 2 (though 1.2 is more stable at this point) and some other standardized libraries like python.

There are also a few doom ports (odamex and chocolate are the two that come to mind,) as well as eduke32, decent, quake, and an assortment of homebrew games like powder, dink Smallwood, blockrage, open born, streets of rage remake, and other stuff being developed. The key here is its an open console anyone can do stuff for. Want to be gonzo and port abiword to it and bang out a draft on your handheld plugged into a TV with a computer plunged into its OTG adapter? You can! What about dosbox? Already done! And yes it will run the original dungeon keeper. Poorly but it runs!

It has WiFi, an fm radio, tilt sensor (nice for playing decent), HDMI and av out (sorta kinda not working all the way but eh. Give it time, its supposedly almost done.)

http://gcw-zero.com

Main page and also leads to store links if you want to buy one from thinkgeek or other non us based retailers. However thinkgeek is your best option.

http://youtu.be/SQGWEZJiSqE

Recentish YouTube review. Please note most of their software is in the forums linked to from the main site. The curse of a low numbers compared to the glut of Chinese tablets.

[longbyte1]

I do like the physical design. Next model should come with a touch screen

[Will Fawkes]

Maybe. I mean that would be kinda nice but I'd rather roughly the same hardware configuration with a duel or possibly even a quad core design with maybe a few more buttons to make PlayStation/Dreamcast/n64 less of a chore.

Still. Even though the kickstarter was early last year it's only been getting traction this year. And I really don't want to have iteration after iteration after iteration going so fast the guys that got the first ones won't wonder if they should have held out for next year's model.

That's the nice thing about consoles vs PC: platform uniformity. You program!/test for a spec and that's what it'll be like for everyone barring some kind of bad juju pissed off spirit or something.

I'm personally more interested in homebrew and engine ports than in the emulated stuff. Sure I'm going to look through emulators because it's sort of amazing what romhavks exist, but come on, I like native titles. They're nifty.