Right well not strictly software but thought this might deserve it's own first play thread anyway as I know some people were interested when it cropped up in my Handheld Emulator thread a while back so without further ado I begin with some piccies...
The unit on charge
Piccies of the box & accessories
It did have a little charge when I cracked it out the box & I fired it up very quickly & played about with changing the language to English & had a quick browse of the settings.
It comes pre-installed with GBA & Neo Geo Emulators.
The lay out is exactly the same as a PSP menu.
It's quite weighty & has a very sturdy feel, buttons are nice & tight & well laid out.
Screen is nice & bright & very clear...doesnt seem too small which is something I was worried about, will be interested to see how it fares on games like Axelay though when a bigger screen would make it easier to see the bullets etc.
Only downside I've found so far is it takes Mini SD cards which I dont have any of
I thought the Mini bit was maybe a mis-print & it meant Micro SD but alas no so I have to go buy a Mini SD adaptor now for my 4GB Micro card
So far I've only played around with a few games...
Played a bit of Batman Returns & Axelay on the SNES Emu.
Both seem to run full speed & look amazing on the little screen.
Crystal clear & easy to see, no noticable blur either on the fast moving sections
I still get my **** handed to me on a plate in Axelay...been so long since I played it last time.
Also tried some Robocop on the NES emu.
Perfect as the original, plays just as well & runs full speed from what I can see as well.
Got some MD games running at the moment & I was pleased with how well Gynoug run but not so impressed with Rocket Knight.
Gynoug was perfect & as good as I remembered Rocket Knight on the other hand suffered really badly from blurring & artifacts, it also seemed to frame skip a bit in places as well so might have to see how it fares with a few more later like the Thunderforce series, Sensible Soccer & Eternal Champions.
I've also played about with the CPS2 & MVS Emulation & thats pretty good.
Tried AvP on CPS2 & Eightman/Pulstar on MVS
AvP seemed to run fine but it's been so long since I last played it that I cant remember how fast it was.
Eightman again run perfectly fine however my version of pulstar is corrupt & the graphics werent working so will try with another version later.
I've got Kof'98, '02 & Metal Slugs lined up to tinker with over the weekend so will see how they fare on the ickle beasty.
Finally to give the video a workout I tried an episode of the Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu Anime on it & it was perfect playback.
No noticable blurring, subs were easy to read & colours were nice bright & vibrant
I have noticed though that the sound on some SNES games is slightly off.
SFX sound ok but the music is deffinitley not what I remember on things like Batman Returns & Donkey Kong Country
Still I dont have the sound up anyway so it's not a huge problem for me but I know for some of you it will be a massive issue & may well affect whether this is a machine for you or not.
Not sure how important it might be to some of you but I tried the FLAC audio function as well & I have to admit I was really impressed.
Crystal clear & much better than MP3 encoding...never tried it before but I know it will now be my Audio Codec of choice.
If you only buy it for that feature I dont think you'll be let down.
TV-Out is good...not great but bearable.
Games all run full screen & same speed as on the Dingoo itself.
Video playback is fine if a little grainy.
I did notice though that it stops to buffer the video files regularly which I think will get annoying during long films, Anime episodes isnt so bad but 2hr movies I reckon it will get to be a right royal pain.
Something important though that you should all know...Frameskip is auto enabled for all emulators, turning it off makes them all VERY slow & clunky I dont recommend turning it off at all.
You can set a number of frames to be skipped though so you can lessen the effect & in esscence slow the emulator down if your finding games run too fast.
In essence it's a good system does everything I expected & for the price I cant complain.
There is a growing community for it (Including it's own forum) & I'm hopeful for some ports of other Emu's like PC Engine, MAME & Amiga in the future...how well it will handle MAME will remain to be seen but I'm not holding out much hope to be honest.
You may notice I have neglected to menton any of Dingoo's own software like 7 Days, Drift Racer etc. but thats because I havent started on them yet...I've been too busy reliving old classics & generally just getting to grips with the thing
lol
I will however get these played with over the weekend & start a first play thread for each if I feel they warrant it...if not I'll just pop my findings in here for you all.
Like I said as a ?60 Media/Audio player it's downright perfect as a games machine...well it's good for it's price point but only time will tell wether it continues to live upto the expectations of the more discerning retro gamer but for me...I'm more than happy with it & glad I took the plunge.
Neil
The unit on charge
Piccies of the box & accessories
It did have a little charge when I cracked it out the box & I fired it up very quickly & played about with changing the language to English & had a quick browse of the settings.
It comes pre-installed with GBA & Neo Geo Emulators.
The lay out is exactly the same as a PSP menu.
It's quite weighty & has a very sturdy feel, buttons are nice & tight & well laid out.
Screen is nice & bright & very clear...doesnt seem too small which is something I was worried about, will be interested to see how it fares on games like Axelay though when a bigger screen would make it easier to see the bullets etc.
Only downside I've found so far is it takes Mini SD cards which I dont have any of
I thought the Mini bit was maybe a mis-print & it meant Micro SD but alas no so I have to go buy a Mini SD adaptor now for my 4GB Micro card
So far I've only played around with a few games...
Played a bit of Batman Returns & Axelay on the SNES Emu.
Both seem to run full speed & look amazing on the little screen.
Crystal clear & easy to see, no noticable blur either on the fast moving sections
I still get my **** handed to me on a plate in Axelay...been so long since I played it last time.
Also tried some Robocop on the NES emu.
Perfect as the original, plays just as well & runs full speed from what I can see as well.
Got some MD games running at the moment & I was pleased with how well Gynoug run but not so impressed with Rocket Knight.
Gynoug was perfect & as good as I remembered Rocket Knight on the other hand suffered really badly from blurring & artifacts, it also seemed to frame skip a bit in places as well so might have to see how it fares with a few more later like the Thunderforce series, Sensible Soccer & Eternal Champions.
I've also played about with the CPS2 & MVS Emulation & thats pretty good.
Tried AvP on CPS2 & Eightman/Pulstar on MVS
AvP seemed to run fine but it's been so long since I last played it that I cant remember how fast it was.
Eightman again run perfectly fine however my version of pulstar is corrupt & the graphics werent working so will try with another version later.
I've got Kof'98, '02 & Metal Slugs lined up to tinker with over the weekend so will see how they fare on the ickle beasty.
Finally to give the video a workout I tried an episode of the Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu Anime on it & it was perfect playback.
No noticable blurring, subs were easy to read & colours were nice bright & vibrant
I have noticed though that the sound on some SNES games is slightly off.
SFX sound ok but the music is deffinitley not what I remember on things like Batman Returns & Donkey Kong Country
Still I dont have the sound up anyway so it's not a huge problem for me but I know for some of you it will be a massive issue & may well affect whether this is a machine for you or not.
Not sure how important it might be to some of you but I tried the FLAC audio function as well & I have to admit I was really impressed.
Crystal clear & much better than MP3 encoding...never tried it before but I know it will now be my Audio Codec of choice.
If you only buy it for that feature I dont think you'll be let down.
TV-Out is good...not great but bearable.
Games all run full screen & same speed as on the Dingoo itself.
Video playback is fine if a little grainy.
I did notice though that it stops to buffer the video files regularly which I think will get annoying during long films, Anime episodes isnt so bad but 2hr movies I reckon it will get to be a right royal pain.
Something important though that you should all know...Frameskip is auto enabled for all emulators, turning it off makes them all VERY slow & clunky I dont recommend turning it off at all.
You can set a number of frames to be skipped though so you can lessen the effect & in esscence slow the emulator down if your finding games run too fast.
In essence it's a good system does everything I expected & for the price I cant complain.
There is a growing community for it (Including it's own forum) & I'm hopeful for some ports of other Emu's like PC Engine, MAME & Amiga in the future...how well it will handle MAME will remain to be seen but I'm not holding out much hope to be honest.
You may notice I have neglected to menton any of Dingoo's own software like 7 Days, Drift Racer etc. but thats because I havent started on them yet...I've been too busy reliving old classics & generally just getting to grips with the thing
lolI will however get these played with over the weekend & start a first play thread for each if I feel they warrant it...if not I'll just pop my findings in here for you all.
Like I said as a ?60 Media/Audio player it's downright perfect as a games machine...well it's good for it's price point but only time will tell wether it continues to live upto the expectations of the more discerning retro gamer but for me...I'm more than happy with it & glad I took the plunge.
Neil
Even if things aren't so perfect at least I'm throwing money in a direction that will go towards making a more perfect product next time, that's the way I look at stuff.
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