could a chinese gba knockoff with sd slot be a possible portable emulator? E-COM VCP3008

my first games were on a gba, and that was all I had for along time. I recently stumbled on this thing with a very familiar shape, one site stated that that is an sd slot, so it seems there should be a way to make an emulator out of one of these. there is an easy way to get software on and off with computer, so would there be any chance of running games from gba and older, maybe some n-gage and wonderswan, it has enough buttons for nes. I supose the default programming probably won't play old roms so the firmware might need to be replaced. I can't find much info on it and that's probably a bad sign. Any thoughts?
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I hope this use of links to the product page is acceptable.
http://smile.amazon.com/VCP-3008-Blu...7693683&sr=1-1
or
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130945251002...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I don't why you're looking at something like that.
PSP with CFW can run some emulators. GBA, Megadrive/Genesis (Sega CD too but not 32x), PC Engine/TG16, SNES.

Other things to look at are Pandora and the like. You can emulate a lot of old stuff on those, although for the price of one a PSP looks like better value imo.
PSP is pretty good...you can mod it easily, then you have its library, plus a lot of PS1 titles and then you can emulate GBA and some other old stuff.

SNES a couple of games apparently don't run that well but plenty are fine. N64 is mostly glitches of one sort or another.

I haven't tested NES or Gameboy/Gameboy Colour on PSP as I have emus for those on my DS lite. But I assume they would be fine.

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Originally Posted by deadlegion

I don't why you're looking at something like that.
PSP with CFW can run some emulators. GBA, Megadrive/Genesis (Sega CD too but not 32x), PC Engine/TG16, SNES.

Other things to look at are Pandora and the like. You can emulate a lot of old stuff on those, although for the price of one a PSP looks like better value imo.
PSP is pretty good...you can mod it easily, then you have its library, plus a lot of PS1 titles and then you can emulate GBA and some other old stuff.

SNES a couple of games apparently don't run that well but plenty are fine. N64 is mostly glitches of one sort or another.

I haven't tested NES or Gameboy/Gameboy Colour on PSP as I have emus for those on my DS lite. But I assume they would be fine.

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I was just thinking of posting this. NES and gameboy/gbc run great the emulator I use for gb/gbc(gemp 3.3 emu) is funny about loading games that have battery backed saves some will load others just crash the emu. as for nes(nesterJ emu) I haven't tried every game but I'll say that is as close to 100% as your going to get
I personally didn't have much luck with snes I've tried a couple different emus but they would only run a couple games at full speed but that may be cause I'm using a psp 1001 not a slim which is supposed to have better hardware(don't know how true that is)gba(gpsp emu) also works great I have so far only run into 1 game not working
gens(picodrive emu) smae as the nes and gba I've only encountered a couple games that didn't load or play right. a psp with cfw is way better than some gba imitation for running emus and ps1 games.

SNES is all about having a 2k, 3k or street iirc (no idea about Go). A few games won't work properly but most will get pretty close if you fiddle with emu settings.
It's probably the most painful emu of the lot (not including N64 because that's woeful really) due to settings adjustments.

If you're using any emus it's best (as a general rule though there are some exceptions) to turn off any sort autosaving and not use savestates.
Overclocking is generally a must for later platforms.
But many of the emus I mentioned only really require you to go into the menu and change some thing initially, exit and then play what you want.

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Originally Posted by deadlegion

I don't why you're looking at something like that.

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I stumbled across it looking fore something else, liked my gameboy advance. Till now I never heard anyone say anything nice about the psp. Now that I think of it I still haven't heard anything. I never really saw any games I was interested in for the psp, at least none I didn't already have on my ds.

ps I was vaguely interested in what kind of fighting moves they gave Bulma for dragon ball evolution since it was on no other platform, not enough to buy a psp though.

unless that thing has comparable computing power to a psp you aren't going to emulate shit with it.

The PSP has tons of great games for it but it is also great because it has PSX support via PSN so not just the PSP games and this is before it even gets hacked

The only thing I never did like about the PSP is the silly thumb stick and some PSP games do need it, PSX games don't really need to use it as the D-pad you can set the normal D-Pad as the PSX D-Pad and the thumb stick as back buttons either lower or upper as the PSP only has L and R rather than R1/R2/L1/L2 that PSX pads have (PSP does not support analog for PSX games this is fine mostly as analog is optional is almost all PSX games that support analog with only a very small number of analog only games)

Homebrew/Ports/Emulators are well established on the PSP with plenty of options e.g. emulators there are plenty of different versions by different coder with mostly minor pro's and cons between with the exception for odd proof of concept emulators that did not get any further development

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Originally Posted by scrapjack

I stumbled across it looking fore something else, liked my gameboy advance. Till now I never heard anyone say anything nice about the psp. Now that I think of it I still haven't heard anything. I never really saw any games I was interested in for the psp, at least none I didn't already have on my ds.

ps I was vaguely interested in what kind of fighting moves they gave Bulma for dragon ball evolution since it was on no other platform, not enough to buy a psp though.

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Well basically what I meant is what you're looking at is crap and PSP is fine for what you want (like I said N64 is useless and Sega CD 32x doesn't work on the Picodrive port).
I got my PSP Street for nothing and it was pretty much brand new (no box or charger but had never been touched by kids).

If you want to avoid PSP because you hate it for whatever reason then look at the linux type handhelds, iirc at least one of the recent ones is quite powerful, but it's really expensive.
I mean you could get a used PSP and a used DS lite console (and probably a cheap R4 or whatever clone card) for less than the price.

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Originally Posted by deadlegion

Well basically what I meant is what you're looking at is crap and PSP is fine for what you want (like I said N64 is useless and Sega CD 32x doesn't work on the Picodrive port).
I got my PSP Street for nothing and it was pretty much brand new (no box or charger but had never been touched by kids).

If you want to avoid PSP because you hate it for whatever reason then look at the linux type handhelds, iirc at least one of the recent ones is quite powerful, but it's really expensive.
I mean you could get a used PSP and a used DS lite console (and probably a cheap R4 or whatever clone card) for less than the price.

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in my area psp's and ds's are running $40-$75. $75 is your best one without games and a memory stick duo will run you $20 or less depending on the size you want. honestly for the money a psp or a ds/dsi would be more worth it than some chinese clone machine.

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Originally Posted by Grouch

in my area psp's and ds's are running $40-$75. $75 is your best one without games and a memory stick duo will run you $20 or less depending on the size you want. honestly for the money a psp or a ds/dsi would be more worth it than some chinese clone machine.

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You don't need a memory stick duo. Grab a dual micro SD adaptor off ebay for like $1 or whatever and use micro SD cards. 32GB card is under $20, not sure how much 16GB are but you should be able to get 2 x 8GB at least and the adaptor for less than $20.
Like everything, bigger is better though.

The top of the line linux handhelds cost like around the same as a new 3DS, or a Vita.
DS lite and old PSP aren't really worth anything. Hell I don't think EB buys/sells them here anymore but you can still buy used Wii consoles.

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Originally Posted by deadlegion

You don't need a memory stick duo. Grab a dual micro SD adaptor off ebay for like $1 or whatever and use micro SD cards. 32GB card is under $20, not sure how much 16GB are but you should be able to get 2 x 8GB at least and the adaptor for less than $20.
Like everything, bigger is better though.

The top of the line linux handhelds cost like around the same as a new 3DS, or a Vita.
DS lite and old PSP aren't really worth anything. Hell I don't think EB buys/sells them here anymore but you can still buy used Wii consoles.

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I use sony M2duo adapter with a 4gb sony m2 I bought 2 of them off amazon earlier this year for $20 or less. so yeah memory cards are dirt cheap.

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Originally Posted by deadlegion

Well basically what I meant is what you're looking at is crap and PSP is fine for what you want (like I said N64 is useless and Sega CD 32x doesn't work on the Picodrive port).

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To to save confusion

That is Sega CD and 32X games run just fine, it is Sega CD-32X games that don't that are few and far between to start with and are generally just graphically improved versions of games already in Sega CD format, mostly those Movie/Game hybrids that are kinda lame and badly acted not many of those are that good, only a very few exceptions there so you are not going to miss much there

N64 is as you say not really worth it more of a proof of concept than anything else then again N64 on a PC is not that great to start with but alot more usable/playable

For portable gaming/emulation the PSP is still one of the better platforms to do that on, though not the only option

I also use a 2x32GB micro SD's (High quality ones [Early Samsung Class (10) cards though you can get higher quality than those now saying that I have never had any sort of issue, no lag and fast loading]) in a duo converter that is a lot cheaper than good quality Duo cards or M2 cards of the same size/speed

I also still have a DS with a Flash kit for both slot1 and slot2 giving my both GBA and DS games aswell as a few lower end system (SNES is so so though, Genesis mostly work good but the screens are a little small for those systems Master System NES ect work nice and older portable systems like GBC and GameGear run perfect) and a 3DS with the DS flashkit Supercard DSTWO that is kind of an advanced DS kit that can play SNES and GBA better that most the other DS kits from that one slot though not perfect for all games, not looked at the updated GBA emulation though, but it will still not be as good as GBA from the GBA slot by either a GBA flash kit or a GBA slot pass through memory kit that run all the games from the other slot (the DS card port via a DS flash kit)

For GBA though there are many ways to play though both Portable or via a TV/Monitor

I have an oldish GP2X also that can play alot of emulated and homebrew stuff, well it is a homebrew console but it uses normal AA batteries (that ran low very very quick) and no way feels as nice as an official handheld console so it now collects dust and simply does not get used I would rather pick up my 3DS or PSP and blast through on those or even one of my GBA SP's except I no longer have a GBA flash kit, I would rather use an official console though any time over a clone, I don't even like clone pads for the same reason they never do feel or work as good as the original they rip off not so much the grip as the shape tends to be ok though some do have ridges that are not as nicely finished (I can see just from the images that it has ridges that the official GBA that shape does not have) it is more the buttons and the D-pad and or thumb sticks that just do not do it justice and makes you left feeling robbed.

Personally I would not touch what is in the images shown and from I found on it, you may not be able to replace the games on it anyway sounds more like the software is specially done for the device that looks like a mix up of free homebrew games rather than an emulation machine of licensed games, at a guess based on linux but a very limited version to prevent extra homebrew or other software from running on it

If it was something coders had an interest in they may hack it eventually but to be honest I can't see that in the slightest, there have been 1000's of knock off consoles over the years and they mostly get passed by the most that ever gets done is the rom is dumped from them but that is about it, they hardly ever made re-flashing that easy for everyday gamers or anything like that or re-purpose those for emulating other systems

I have a ds or two, one had the ds slot burn out but the gba slot works. I also picked up a 3ds cheaply ($20) recently, could you direct me to a tread were I could find some more detailed info on using one of those for an emulator? I didn't think they could be used with out opening, and the last ds I opened was a pain repacking the springs.

You want a DS flash kit the best being the SuperCard DSTWO but they stopped production in favor of developing a flash kit for 3DS games that currently do not have any homebrew for or last I checked and can only play 3DS games

For the older DS though you have more options for DS and GBA like a DS flash kit and a GBA flash kit or a DS flashkit and a 3 in 1 or 2 in 1 or GBA Expansion, GBA port card that acts as extra memory or as a pass through device to run GBA games from the DS slot

The cheapest way for a standard DS or DSLite is a 3 in 1 or whatever else they are known as and a cheap DS flash kit like one of the cheapo R4 kits, you will possibly need extra software for GBA games to run through the 3 in 1 cart otherwise GBA runs fine, the 3 in 1 as previously mentioned can be used as extra ram that some emulators support like SNES emulation (note as previously stated in another post 16bit consoles display is too big for GBA screens so either can be squashed or just over sized cutting parts of the image out)

Recomended way for a standard DS or DSLite is a bit more costly using a good DS flash kit like an Acekard2i (No longer supported by the 3DS) and a GBA flash kit (the GBA flash kit will cost more than a DS flash kit due to the chips used do not go for a cheap GBA kit though)

Half way good and works perfectly well is the Acekard2i plus a 3 in 1 that I would recommend over any R4 kit and is still a cheap way to go

Get the DS kit first if you want that will let you play all the emulators on it's own the extra ram thing is optional anyway

3 in 1 = 1. GBA game support 2. Extra ram used by some emulators and the DS browser 3. Rumble for the few DS games that support it

If you are curious I own a DS kit called the M3 DS Real with GBA Expansion (you can also get the GBA Expansion with Rumble, I got the rumble card separate though at the time) That is also one of the best kits for the DS and DSLite again not supported by the DSi or 3DS though due to firmware on those consoles, that kit is not a cheap one though

When looking at Micro SD cards for the kits make sure you do get a quality one as some may make games lag and or become corrupt easy and loose data

R4 carts patching will be required for newer DS games, can point you in the right direction for detecting if a game needs patching or not though so not a huge issue
M3 Real may also need some games patching it is an older kit that did not support auto patching
Acekard2i (I honestly don't remember if games required patching, sorry I don't have that one to hand but was sure it did not need anything patching)
Supercard DSTWO requires no game patching but this one is not going to be easy to find on sale

GBA 3 in 1 carts are used as a pass through to play GBA games from the DS side flash kit, some DS flash kits may need extra homebrew to do this though
GBA flash kits work independently to run GBA games directly from the kit itself there is a new kit out by the way for GBA but otherwise these can be hard to find now

It isn't easy to find DS/GBA kit combos now, well over here anyway. And it has always been easy to find modchips, flash cards and the like here.
If you look around you could probably find a random DS flash card easy enough, but I have only bothered using NES and GB/GBC emus on my DS lite.

Really the PSP is a simple solution, just throw CFW and emus+roms on it. It will run GBA (ok not everything 100%) without any extra special hardware.