GCW Zero - new retrogaming handheld looks great

[Ben Richards]

Thanks RevQuixo! I got it to work with Firezilla and loaded the update and other files from the GCW site. It took a little time but got the SNES working and it is nice. What is everyone using for Neo Geo, GBA, and Sega Genesis/Mega. I see some are using GnGeo for Neo but I have seen little on the Sega side. Still trying to get the Wi-fi working, do you have to put the address in or will it find it? Mine says can't find?

 

[Moon Jump]

Got mine today as well, shoved in the mailbox. I got it charging now. The whole thing feels really lite, kinda cheap feeling to me. I only putzed around with the included games so I guess now I gotta hop online and look up all the stuff in order to update and get games running on it, like Ben I hope I don't brick it. It took me forever to figure out what I was doing when I was putting stuff on my PSP.

 

[Cyclops]

Awesome to hear that people are getting theirs!

 

[Ben Richards]

Well, I have been playing around with it for awhile. The Dingoonity forum has been most helpful. I finally got Wi-Fi to work somehow. I tried allot of times, changing things, etc. and finally, it worked. Still don't know how to control the volume and I tried putting in a MicroSD card but didn't seem to work. Someone on the Dingoonity forum has a link to a google page with allot of DL's and got some good versions of Doom, Hexen, etc. The Super Nintendo emulator works great and is easy to use, although I have noticed some sound and graphics distoration. I got a Neo Geo emualtor installed(gnGeo), but can't get it to load games. So far, I am pleased. The unit does feel lite, and when I plugged it in to charge, the plug was not snug. I think I am going to wait until a good friend of mine helps me with it, as I am worried about screwing it up. Went back to playing my Sony Experia while I wait for him to help me. I think in a couple of months or a year, when everyone has time to work with it and figure it out, it will be awesome. Right now, it is just getting started and most of programs are still being tested and working to get the bugs out, still would love to see a good MAME or FBA working on it to see the arcade games though. Finally, I am just glad I got it!

 

[ChopstickSamurai]

It took me forever to figure out how to control the volume. While holding the power button up (like you would for turning off the unit) press up and down on the d-pad to turn the volume up and down. You can also press left and right to control the brightness as well.

There is a bit of a learning curve because of the lack of documentation, but I've been pleased with my Zero so far. Sucks it's taken so long for all of them to ship.

 

[Mike26]

Tried what you guys said about pm'ing justin directly yesterday, this morning got this reply:

Justin Barwick says:
All consoles will ship in the next two weeks a status update explaining all should be out tonight

Glad you guys got your systems, for me I'm pretty pissed. And trust me, I am the last person to complain about delays. I guess that's changed.

 

[Ben Richards]

One of the things that I'm really enjoying on the GCW is the remakes of some classic games. There is a remake of Streets of Rage that is awesome. It combines all 3 of the games, adds new stages and characters, and has a ton of options. It plays well and there is so many customizations that it will keep you busy for awhile. There is also a pretty good remake of Ghouls and Ghost too! All is freeware!

 

[NeoEsZ]

Ben, do you have a link to the Streets of Rage remake for GCW? I still have mine sleeping in the box, but I would totally break it out for that.

 

[Ben Richards]

Sent it to you via PM!

 

[Mike26]

The all important explanation update:

# Shipping and Availability of Units

A fulfillment company was approached to deal with shipments in order to speed up the delivery process. However, due to their unfitness in handling the task, we now severed ties with them and are back to shipping the units ourselves.

We are in the process of obtaining exact shipment details/numbers of the units handled by the fulfillment company and will inform you about the accurate number of devices shipped so far, when the details are available to us. We want to stress out that the delivery process has never stopped and the units continue to ship.

 

[Moon Jump]

Got mine too...woot.

Ben,

here's how I got it up to speed in case you need to.

1) Get Wi-Fi working from the settings area...once you are connected you are halfway there

2) Get a ftp client like filezilla...once it is loaded use the ip address that you get in the network settings of step 1 to ftp into your device

3) Upload the latest firmware to the GCW:
http://www.gcw-zero.com/updates

4) Upgrade the firmware

5) Now that you are upgraded you should have a Network option on the GCW...use it along with:
http://boards.dingoonity.org/gcw-releases/gcw-zero-manager-for-windows-alpha-0-1/

for all your future system management / uploading

Followed everything to the T and the Manager still doesn't work with mine. I was able to get some of my OLD files onto my micro SD card with an NES Emulator. The speakers on it suck and have a gravely sound to them, thankfully everything sounds right. Is there a main list of where to download the OPK's from or do I just fish through the forums? I lucked out with the NES OPK I found, I just threw in the old ones off my external HD and they worked.

 

[RevQuixo]

Followed everything to the T and the Manager still doesn't work with mine. I was able to get some of my OLD files onto my micro SD card with an NES Emulator. The speakers on it suck and have a gravely sound to them, thankfully everything sounds right. Is there a main list of where to download the OPK's from or do I just fish through the forums? I lucked out with the NES OPK I found, I just threw in the old ones off my external HD and they worked.

Well if you can get filezilla working there is no reason to use the upload manager truthfully. In terms of releases..at this point the dingoonity forums seem best.

 

[Moon Jump]

Anybody else having this problem with their Zero? I heard some folks had problems with the D-Pad but I've got a problem with my A button. It likes to stick.. A LOT. I was trying to play a game of Excitebike and I was going from the B to the A button and the A button refused to go down and it's got a loud click when I finally get it down. Everything else is fine, but I wanted to see if anybody else had this problem before I go running back to the guy asking for a replacement.

 

[dgame]

Yes, the dpad and button sticking is a known issue. Contact him for a replacement.

 

[Moon Jump]

It's not the D-Pad, the D-Pad is alright, could be better it's my A Button. Sucks because I was going to bring it with me to Las Vegas and it's a bitch to use.

 

[Moon Jump]

I got a reply back from Justin saying that I should lube it with silicone. My dad and brother are in automotive and they use this stuff called Fabulous Blaster a spray on silicone that's really slick and works great on just about everything. So I got the tip sprayer, and squirted all four buttons and also the D-Pad. I let it sit then I wiped it off and worked the buttons and D-pad to work everything in. The fucking button still sticks.

 

[Xian Xi]

I got a reply back from Justin saying that I should lube it with silicone. My dad and brother are in automotive and they use this stuff called Fabulous Blaster a spray on silicone that's really slick and works great on just about everything. So I got the tip sprayer, and squirted all four buttons and also the D-Pad. I let it sit then I wiped it off and worked the buttons and D-pad to work everything in. The fucking button still sticks.

Got a pic of it sticking?

 

[Moon Jump]

Kinda hard to see, using my iPhone to take the photo. It's not that it sticks after I press down on it, which it is in the picture. It sticks in the up position and won't go down unless I REALLY press down hard on it. You can also see how shiny it is from the spray I put on it which I just rubbed more of it off then hit it with air duster too.

 

[Mattroid]

Sticking gets better the more you play it. I took it on a business trip over the last several days and played it on the plane and in the hotel a lot. They still stick but are not nearly as bad as they were on day one.

As for links to OPKs, etc, this stuff has been posted a lot in this thread already, but I'll post them again:

Firmware Updates: http://www.gcw-zero.com/updates
Small batch of games, emulators, and tools: http://www.gcw-zero.com/downloads
A bunch of games and emulators: https://docs.google.com/folderview?id=0B9EgGumkJaabSE9TaEdFbVVBSlU#list
More games and emulators (more likely to be updated): http://boards.dingoonity.org/gcw-releases/

Also, a guide that was sent out recently that tells you a bunch of neat stuff you might not know or might be wondering how to do: http://wiki.surkow.com/Quick_Start_Guide

I got the analog nub to work with SCUMMVM, which is a lot better than the d-pad. Just install Mice in Joy (mice.opk on the google docs page), then edit your .scummvmrc file found in /usr/local/home (easiest to find in DinguxCmdr because FileZilla won't show files that start with a period by default) to include joystick_num=0 in the [scummvm] section.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get G-Sensor to work with Descent II, but it's probably similar in that I need to edit a config file or something.

I have not tried it yet (I just use FTP) but there is an app that supposedly makes transferring files and such to the GCW easier: http://www.harteex.com/?page=gcwzeromanager

 

[Ben Richards]

Well, it has been a few days and I am growing to really like the Zero. I have the GBA, Super NES, Genesis/mega drive emulators working and they seem to work pretty good. I installed the Neo Geo emulator and it will run, but I haven't got any games to work on it yet and I am still searching for a good PC Engine/turbo emulator. The games are good too and some like King of Fighters, Streets of Rage, and Sonic are different but fun. I can't get some to work even though they are installed (Duke Nukem,Hexen and Hexen 2, and the flashback port, as they either hang up or missing some files. I think that it is so new, we are just scraping the edge with what will be an awesome little system!

 

[RevQuixo]

Well, it has been a few days and I am growing to really like the Zero. I have the GBA, Super NES, Genesis/mega drive emulators working and they seem to work pretty good. I installed the Neo Geo emulator and it will run, but I haven't got any games to work on it yet and I am still searching for a good PC Engine/turbo emulator. The games are good too and some like King of Fighters, Streets of Rage, and Sonic are different but fun. I can't get some to work even though they are installed (Duke Nukem,Hexen and Hexen 2, and the flashback port, as they either hang up or missing some files. I think that it is so new, we are just scraping the edge with what will be an awesome little system!

The Doom / Descent / Hexen / Flashback games require files from the original PC versions to work. Unless you have the original discs or have a source for the files you are probably out of luck.

 

[Moon Jump]

Seems the Fabulous Blaster worked. I only notice the A Button gets stiff and sticky when I go between the B and A buttons really fast. The D-Pad feels a lot better now after greasing it up as well. I was able to get a NES and SNES working, but I noticed with a few games the graphics are missing. In TMNT IV on the SNES Krang in stage 1 doesn't show up and the hovercraft that Rat King flys in Stage 3 is totally missing. I know it's a work in progress so I'll wait and see. Final Burn works alright, figuring out the button layout is a pain in the ass, it took forever to get the buttons right on AvP to what I wanted. Nothing seems to run Neo-Geo games, Final Burn and the GNNeo didn't work. I made sure I had everything updated and it tells me the files are either missing or out of date. Sucks because I wanted to play some Twinkle on the flight to Las Vegas.

 

[Xian Xi]

View attachment 8350

Kinda hard to see, using my iPhone to take the photo. It's not that it sticks after I press down on it, which it is in the picture. It sticks in the up position and won't go down unless I REALLY press down hard on it. You can also see how shiny it is from the spray I put on it which I just rubbed more of it off then hit it with air duster too.

Are the holes a bit small for the buttons? Or is there enough space around the button. Usually you need a 0.5mm gap around the button for it to not rub.

 

[theMot]

Has everyone got theirs? I still haven't had any update on where mine is at.

 

[Xian Xi]

I got a shipping notification but it isn't arriving until December 9th. Right now it's sitting in California.