Support NeoGAF

[Gunsmithx]

I've had it for a few months now and I'm enjoying it with no mods so far. It does what I got it for, let me play my 8 and 16 bit games on the go. I've played a mix of nes, tg16, snes, gb/gbc/gba games mostly.

While the process could have been better I don't really have any complaints about the unit.

 

[desu]

Well, the whole thing is kind of blowing up right now. Like 30% of the backers still have not received their GCW and Justin just doesn't bother to send them nor really reply to comments or emails. More and more frustrated people show up in the comment section now (not surprising since he started sending them out 6-7 months ago, and you can even buy them from ThinkGeek, yet so many people are still waiting for their paid GCWs).

I will most likely sell mine in an instant if I should ever get one. Will never back again anything Justin is involved in.

 

[Noisepurge]

havent seen my unit yet either

 

[KodeAndGame]

Well, the whole thing is kind of blowing up right now. Like 30% of the backers still have not received their GCW and Justin just doesn't bother to send them nor really reply to comments or emails. More and more frustrated people show up in the comment section now (not surprising since he started sending them out 6-7 months ago, and you can even buy them from ThinkGeek, yet so many people are still waiting for their paid GCWs).

I will most likely sell mine in an instant if I should ever get one. Will never back again anything Justin is involved in.

Yeah, I actually got a defective unit and sent mine back to get replaced and I'm getting no ETA. Finally I asked for a refund and still haven't heard anything back so I'm going through my bank to see what they can do. What a shit show.

EDIT: I get that this is a new business selling new hardware and that the logistics of all of this are very hard and resources at this point must be low so in that way I empathize for Justin and whoever else may be on that "team". But for me personally, I'm at a point where I don't have my product, I don't have my money and I'm getting zero communication so I'm stuck.

 

[Surkow]

For the people who can still distance logistics from software development - we will have some interesting firmware changes coming.

 

[Fularu]

I use mine daily, finished Soul Blazer and started Feda.

The SNES emulator has lots if slowdowns though and the dpad is garbage.

I'll probably just end up buying a 7800b.

 

[Lyte Edge]

all is quiet on this front for awhile. I kinda want one - is there anyone "happy" with it (who hasn't had to do some mods to get it into a satisfying state?)

I haven't touched it since I got mine last year. The incredibly-shitty d-pad is what really killed it for me. $135 down the toilet.

I still cannot believe that there are KS backers who have yet to receive their systems. That is just inexcusable.

 

[zephervack]

all is quiet on this front for awhile. I kinda want one - is there anyone "happy" with it (who hasn't had to do some mods to get it into a satisfying state?)

Im actually really happy with it, I use it mainly as a "true" handheld device, meaning that I can actually take it outside.

Here is my usage scenario.

I needed something to play Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country without lag, PSP cannot cope with it, hence why I got the GCW.

Between the Kickstarter and I actually getting my unit, I ended up getting an nVidia Shield.

Once I got my GCW, I was planning to sell it since the Shield can run everything 0 problems, but I ran into one problem with the Shield, which is its damn size, its pretty huge.

So I decided to give the GCW a try and I love it, it runs those demanding SNES games fine.

So when I am at home I play with my Shield, on the go, I play with the GCW.

And by far the coolest thing I like to do is Sync my saves, the GCW has a built in FTP Server, so I just got a FTP client app for my Shield and I copy and paste the save files between them wirelessly, no computers or cables, that way I can play the same games and never lose progress.

All in all im very happy with it and im looking forward for more Software and emus to come.

For the people who can still distance logistics from software development - we will have some interesting firmware changes coming.

Im not technical enough to understand the impact of this, what exactly does it mean?

 

[desu]

For the people who can still distance logistics from software development

Ehhhhhhhhhhhh, okay ..., I mean you're on the dev team and probably have nothing to do with what Justin is doing (or well not doing for weeks and months), but that comment felt like a slap to the face. Well whatever.

 

[Surkow]

[...]
Im not technical enough to understand the impact of this, what exactly does it mean?

The practical effect is that games no longer default back to 30fps if they couldn't reach 60fps (caused by vsync with double buffering).

Ehhhhhhhhhhhh, okay ..., I mean you're on the dev team and probably have nothing to do with what Justin is doing (or well not doing for weeks and months), but that comment felt like a slap to the face. Well whatever.

It's bad if there are logistical issues, but it's not like development has suddenly stopped (development is done independently). It feels rather heavy handed to dismiss a device solely based on problems with the hardware provider.

 

[Tobor]

all is quiet on this front for awhile. I kinda want one - is there anyone "happy" with it (who hasn't had to do some mods to get it into a satisfying state?)

Mine is great now that I've started using it. I've been running through some old games and it's working great. I've tried NES, Genesis, SNES, GB, and GBA games. All good.

My only compliant is a lack of sleep mode. Other than that, it does exactly what I bought it for.

 

[Fularu]

The practical effect is that games no longer default back to 30fps if they couldn't reach 60fps (caused by vsync with double buffering).



It's bad if there are logistical issues, but it's not like development has suddenly stopped (development is done independently). It feels rather heavy handed to dismiss a device solely based on problems with the hardware provider.

How hard would it be to add a sleep mode?

 

[Surkow]

How hard would it be to add a sleep mode?

Although the functionality is available, some device drivers don't wake up reliably from sleep mode. This is why it is not enabled in the current firmware. It'll require some device driver changes before it can be practically usable.

 

[postcognition]

For me everything other than the D-pad is excellent. I wonder, just how impractical would it be to mod it? I would totally frankenstein it with a psp if I had the skill, haha.

 

[sörine]

For me everything other than the D-pad is excellent. I wonder, just how impractical would it be to mod it? I would totally frankenstein it with a psp if I had the skill, haha.

This is where I'm at too. Is there a good d-pad mod to follow out there? I'd like to have all those CPS2 and NeoGeo fighters actually be playable.

 

[thechristoph]

I finally set mine up with the October firmware and played around some last night. The shoulder buttons leave a bit to be desired but I think the d-pad is fine. Not quite sure what other people are talking about when they say it's bad. PocketSNES is great.

 

[Tobor]

I finally set mine up with the October firmware and played around some last night. The shoulder buttons leave a bit to be desired but I think the d-pad is fine. Not quite sure what other people are talking about when they say it's bad. PocketSNES is great.

I don't get the dpad complaints either. I don't play fighting games, but I have played some platformers, and it's been fine. Must be a fighting game thing.

 

[postcognition]

For me it doesn't work well in anything that requires good responsiveness switching between holding various directions, even after I broke it in pretty thoroughly to eliminate the vast majority of the creakiness and varying pressure levels in different directions. ( which is what was recommended originally by Justin). Basically if I'm holding one direction and switch to another, it is highly unresponsive. To try to put it in concrete terms, steering the bike in a pokemon game would be very unpredicatable, and I wouldn't be able to turn at the tiles I wanted to, whereas the menu navigation would be totally fine.

 

[Tempy]

I don't get the dpad complaints either. I don't play fighting games, but I have played some platformers, and it's been fine. Must be a fighting game thing.

There are build quality/QA issues where some D-pads will be unresponsive/squeaky, and face buttons getting stuck in a pressed state. This obviously doesn't occur in all units. Consider yourself lucky if your unit does not have any of those problems.

 

[Blue Submarine No. 6]

There are build quality/QA issues where some D-pads will be unresponsive/squeaky, and face buttons getting stuck in a pressed state. This obviously doesn't occur in all units. Consider yourself lucky if your unit does not have any of those problems.

Whether it is actually faulty or not doesn't change the fact that the d-pad is a spongey, moderately unresponsive POS - for a handheld built "by gamers for gamers" I find it a huge disappointment, though it's a definite improvement on the GP2S. Still, I've used my Zero a lot ant I'm glad I've got it for 8 & 16 bit stuff on the go. No sleep mode is a drag but most of the EMUs have save states.

 

[polyh3dron]

I finally set mine up with the October firmware and played around some last night. The shoulder buttons leave a bit to be desired but I think the d-pad is fine. Not quite sure what other people are talking about when they say it's bad. PocketSNES is great.

My A button keeps getting stuck.

 

[cheststrongwell]

I've barely touched mine. Bought the Shield while waiting for it.

 

[Ludovico]

My A button keeps getting stuck.

Yeah, my d pad seems to get the job done, but the a button getting stuck all the time and the lack of a sleep mode really put me off playing the system regularly.

At this point I rarely have time to play games, but I figured if it was more capable than the PSP and had sleep, it was just what I needed. Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case so far.

 

[Tobor]

Whether it is actually faulty or not doesn't change the fact that the d-pad is a spongey, moderately unresponsive POS - for a handheld built "by gamers for gamers" I find it a huge disappointment, though it's a definite improvement on the GP2S. Still, I've used my Zero a lot ant I'm glad I've got it for 8 & 16 bit stuff on the go. No sleep mode is a drag but most of the EMUs have save states.

It's definitely on the spongey side, but if yours is truly unresponsive, than something's wrong.

I played City Connection last night, an NES game that requires hard left to right dpad movement. It also has a fighting game style maneuver where you roll the dpad from one direction to the other then up to do a reverse jump. The dpad was responsive the entire time. I had no issues. An unresponsive POS dpad would have shown up in that game for sure.

 

[Vitacat]

Hey all, OP here. Haven't checked in in ages.

So yeah, mine came a while back and I feel pretty much the way everyone does. It's OK, but I really am not using it at all.

Maybe I'll sell it, maybe I'll keep it. Not sure.

 

[krae_man]

I just got his "I had a family emergency this time..HONEST" email and decided to check if there's any new software updates. I see there's MAME now. I think I'll give that a go.

 

[thechristoph]

I finally set mine up with the October firmware and played around some last night. The shoulder buttons leave a bit to be desired but I think the d-pad is fine. Not quite sure what other people are talking about when they say it's bad. PocketSNES is great.

Okay, after a few nights of playing games (mainly an FF6 mod, so not much in the way of action / platformers / fighting yet), I am starting to get the complaints about the d-pad. I don't think the issue is that it sticks, I think that it moves around in its slot, which causes it to rub at the corners of each of its 'arrows'.

Changing direction while walking around is a problem with this d-pad. Say I'm walking to the left, and I want to turn upward. Normally you'd roll your thumb toward the up arrow on a d-pad to do this. If I do this on my Zero, my character keeps walking left. I have to lift my thumb off the d-pad and re-anchor it on the up arrow. When I roll, I also can feel and hear the edges of the d-pad scrape against its cutout on the body. There's visible paint rub on the d-pad itself, too. I have some rub on my A-button, but that never gets stuck.

Are d-pads and buttons normally painted? I don't think they are. Maybe it's not even paint. The people at the Dingoonity forum suggest putting a tiny dot of divers' silicone grease on a toothpick and rubbing it around the d-pad. I've got some coming, so I'll share how that works.

 

[Surkow]

Someone from our team has been working on prototypes of improved designs for the D-pad and buttons. Eventually these might become available as replacement parts. Feedback is appreciated.

 

[postcognition]

Looks promising. I'll be interested to hear what kind of cost and turnaround time it will take to get the new d-pad.

 

[thechristoph]

The silicone grease worked quite well. I followed a Youtube tutorial for applying the grease and I've had no trouble since. The d-pad still squeaks a bit when I really jam it to the right, but I have to try to make it happen. Switching directions is no problem now.

I've also seen someone mod an original Gameboy d-pad into the Zero. Apparently it takes some cutting of the d-pad to make it work right, but it's an attractive mod and it seems like it'd be very comfortable to use.

 

[Lyte Edge]

The silicone grease worked quite well. I followed a Youtube tutorial for applying the grease and I've had no trouble since. The d-pad still squeaks a bit when I really jam it to the right, but I have to try to make it happen. Switching directions is no problem now.

I've also seen someone mod an original Gameboy d-pad into the Zero. Apparently it takes some cutting of the d-pad to make it work right, but it's an attractive mod and it seems like it'd be very comfortable to use.

Very interested in slathering my GCW Zero with this grease now.

 

[Coda]

Just came across this handheld and now I want one even though I just dropped a lot on a Mother 3 GB Micro. Ugh, still wish I could play FinalBurnAlpha on a handheld. This would be perfect for that, portable and powerful.

 

[Lyte Edge]

There are STILL people who haven't received their shipments yet!?

Project Update #77: Status Update March 19th, 2014
Backer_white For backers only Posted by Justin Barwick

Long overdue Status Update in the past year I’ve learned a lot and also made a lot of mistakes but with this being a new project and a new venture those were bound to happen and I have learned a lot along the way to ensure a lot of them never happen again in the future.

First mistake from day one I should have had PR in place and never been the voice for GCW as it takes away from things I need to get done to ensure product flows out the door and new innovations and developers get onboard to make GCW even better then it currently is.


In the past 5 months a lot of family emergencies and family events have happened in my life I won’t go into major detail on any of them but feel you at least deserve an explanation of as to why I’ve been shipping but not actively commenting.


In October 2013 my wife was diagnosed with cancer and we had to commence treatment to fight it thank the lord we beat it in December 2013.


In late January after my last big update and a huge pause in updates was because my mother-in-law went into an unresponsive coma and eventually passed away on January 27th, 2014. and was buried on Feburary 7th, 2014, other members here have seen the proof as this was an actual fact. I then tried to be there for my wife and help her through her grief.


1st of March, 2014 my wife let me know she was not happy and wanted a life change and wanted me to continue with the project and wished me all the luck.


She moved out of the house to pursue a new life we legally separated, It has been a tough road this last 5 months and I apologize for making you wait while I dealt with all these changes to my family and life.


I have continued to ship consoles even with these events going on and will continue to ship them as I made a commitment and promise to you and the community that now surrounds GCW and the GCW Zero.


The project and company will continue to grow and become even better now as I can commit more time to it as some of the things that prevented me to dedicating more time to it are now not an issue although I wish with all my heart that some of it was still an obstacle.


Now to address other things some people complain about the sticky buttons and d-pad we tried our best to resolve those issues as best we could and for some reason on some consoles it still presents itself as an issue that can be resolved in most cases with silicon lube.


This is a project and as such we tried for perfection but as with any project there are minor flaws and I wish we could have resolved it completely.


We are not a well-funded company like Sony or Nintendo that can do a recall or start over a whole production run when an issue presents itself I wish that was the case because if it was the sticky d-pad/buttons would have never been an issue.


As for warranty delays yes repairs/warranty is slow I admit that but we only have one engineer here in America that addresses each console sent in and once we can grow as a company will bring more on to address this and make the process better.


Next topic I won’t say names but we have a couple people that have a lot of conspiracy theories and assumptions but as they are not part of GCW or its daily operations they have no facts or knowledge and just try to cause a scene and cause discontent with in the project or community.


Finally to address Mr. Justin McDonald and his claims and discontent yes it is my fault he got his shipment late I will admit that but I did work things out to ensure he got the majority of his order.


He would have you believe he is due 100 units that was the case when he made the order and we were not sure of the final price of each unit both wholesale and retail.


This was discussed at length with not only him but Ithic.com, DragonBox.de aka Evil Dragon of Open Pandora and Pyra fame, and finally WraithOfKhan that the final price was more then was initially paid by them for their orders.


Ithic.com and Dragonbox.de both paid the difference and received their shipments and WraithOfKhan agreed to a lower number of units as to which was the amount he paid for with his initial order minus the final price difference.


Justin McDonald is due a total of 4 units plus a KickStarter and an SE unit which equates the price difference from what he paid initial and what the final price actually ended up being. He was already given a prototype unit by QbertAddict awhile back.


BAFELTON please private message me about the one who states they did not get their SE as I have not been contacted via e-mail from anyone stating they didn’t get it. I will verify the information and if that is the case get one out ASAP.


In closing I want to thank you for your patience and understanding and faith in GCW as a company and product. I will be stepping back as the voice of GCW and addressing all the internal things of GCW and a new PR person will be answering your questions in the coming weeks in the comments section and status updates.

 

[Tempy]

Well, it sucks what happened to his personal life, but on the other hand it's also not quite nice to air out your dirty laundry to everybody.

 

[cheststrongwell]

So sick of these updates. Excuse after excuse. He should just stop reading comments.

 

[zephervack]

Holy shit at that last email, it almost sounds like its all made up, its just too much, cancer, death, divorce and pissed customers. Im surprised he is keeping it together.

 

[cheststrongwell]

I do feel bad for him. I think he just got in way over his head.

 

[thechristoph]

There are STILL people who haven't received their shipments yet!?

Someone said in the Super Retro/Action Squad Kickstarter thread that the person doing all the work shouldn't be the leader of a project as well, because you can't put your all into both. I thought that was very astute, and it applies well here. If that clown that was appointed as the COO contributed anything but cringeworthy forum posts and actually OPERATED the business, this might have turned out better. But who knows.

For the record, I'm still really enjoying mine. It's very sad that this is such a travesty, because this device has tons of potential. Started playing some Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) the other day. The grease job is holding up fine. Get to playing!

 

[postcognition]

Yeah, at the end of day I'm happy to have mine. It's a compact, affordable, and capable device with truly killer battery life.

 

[Vitacat]

Well, I've put mine on eBay. It's a nice device, but I really haven't been using it, so might as well sell it to someone who will get more out of it.

Anyone here still enjoying theirs? Have there been any interesting new emulators or games lately for it? I've totally lost track.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Well, I've put mine on eBay. It's a nice device, but I really haven't been using it, so might as well sell it to someone who will get more out of it.

I really need to do this. Or just run over it a few times. Both options sound good.

 

[Gunsmithx]

Well, I've put mine on eBay. It's a nice device, but I really haven't been using it, so might as well sell it to someone who will get more out of it.

Anyone here still enjoying theirs? Have there been any interesting new emulators or games lately for it? I've totally lost track.

No, gonna put mine up on bst this weekend, its a nice little device and works pretty well with all the 8bit and 16 bit games I've thrown at it but in the almost year it took to get I've become much more of an og hardware gamer so I barely emulate anymore, shame cause it does what I wanted it to do.

 

[thesurfshop19]

Well, I've put mine on eBay. It's a nice device, but I really haven't been using it, so might as well sell it to someone who will get more out of it.

Anyone here still enjoying theirs? Have there been any interesting new emulators or games lately for it? I've totally lost track.

I'm still enjoying it, mainly for the Super NES catalog.

 

[Fularu]

Well, I've put mine on eBay. It's a nice device, but I really haven't been using it, so might as well sell it to someone who will get more out of it.

Anyone here still enjoying theirs? Have there been any interesting new emulators or games lately for it? I've totally lost track.

Haven't touched mine since I got a 7800b

 

[Tempy]

Still need to buy some silicone grease.

 

[thechristoph]

Well, I've put mine on eBay. It's a nice device, but I really haven't been using it, so might as well sell it to someone who will get more out of it.

Anyone here still enjoying theirs? Have there been any interesting new emulators or games lately for it? I've totally lost track.

I really need to do this. Or just run over it a few times. Both options sound good.

Bummer!

I still play mine a few times a week. Currently playing Aria of Sorrow on ReGBA. Works great, except there isn't really a good compromise between 1:1 and fullscreen GBA resolution.

 

[Ludovico]

Tried playing Pokemon Red when the Twitch playthroughs were just starting, apparently the GB emulator sucks because I had constant sound issues, mainly popping and cracking. It also wouldn't let me modify cpu speed for that emulator, and several other options.

Got my psp back out and haven't had an issue, PLUS it actually has sleep mode for 99% of the apps I use on it. Go figure.


I really wanted to love my zero, but so many issues have really soured me on it.

 

[Awakened]

Tried playing Pokemon Red when the Twitch playthroughs were just starting, apparently the GB emulator sucks because I had constant sound issues, mainly popping and cracking. It also wouldn't let me modify cpu speed for that emulator, and several other options.

I haven't noticed any sound popping in gambatte (which you can grab off the Google drive) in the little I've used it. The GCW version of that emulator doesn't have many features, but the core emulation is better than OhBoy.

 

[Ludovico]

I haven't noticed any sound popping in gambatte (which you can grab off the Google drive) in the little I've used it. The GCW version of that emulator doesn't have many features, but the core emulation is better than OhBoy.

Thanks! Pulled it from the site and I'll try transferring over later tonight.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Bummer!

I still play mine a few times a week. Currently playing Aria of Sorrow on ReGBA. Works great, except there isn't really a good compromise between 1:1 and fullscreen GBA resolution.

I can do that on my GB Micro without any issues.

I guess I still prefer the old PSP for emulation, too.