CAANOO

Caanoo
Manufacturer GamePark Holdings
Type Handheld game console
Release date
Discontinued September 2011
Media SD / SDHC card
CPU 533 MHz Host ARM9
Predecessor GP2X Wiz

The GP2X Caanoo, branded as CAANOO, is an open source, Linux-based handheld video game console and portable media player developed by the South Korean company GamePark Holdings. It was released on August 16, 2010 in South Korea, United States and Canada, and were also sold throughout Europe. It is the successor to the GP2X Wiz, and was showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010.[1] The device's launch price was about US$150.

The Caanoo is not a direct competitor of handheld consoles like Nintendo DS or PlayStation Portable, but rather an alternative open source device. Because of that, any software that is compatible can be run without the need of creating custom firmware or other homebrew applications. This is the last open-source gaming device by Gamepark Holdings, as they ceased production and development of gaming hardware to focus solely on software.[2]

Hardware

Specifications

NB: the CPU embedded on Pollux has a good tolerance to overclocking (until 750 MHz the system shouldn't have problems, just a shorter battery autonomy.)

Not all CPU/SoC are created equal and these results are theoretical. Some may not be able to push much past stock frequency. Overclocking will vary between each Caanoo.

Games/Applications

The Caanoo can run several applications that emulate consoles or computer systems, such as DrPocketSnes for the Super NES, GnGEO for the Neo-Geo, Hu-Go for the PC Engine, PCSX ReArmed for original PlayStation games, MAME4all for arcade games and Picodrive for the Mega Drive/Genesis and its add-ons, as well as freeware homebrew games/applications. These applications are created by the community itself and not by the manufacturers. Most, if not all of this software can be found at OpenHandhelds, a community-driven website.

Gamepark Holdings also had a website focused on downloadable content named FunGP. It sold commercial Caanoo and Wiz games, as well as some retro Arcade games. It has since ceased operations.

Caanoo is not compatible[3] with software built for previous GPH devices (such as the GP2X Wiz) without an application to allow it to do so. A compatibility layer named Ginge allows for most software to be compatible, and most applications have already been ported.

Multimedia capability

The Caanoo is a video player, an audio player, photo viewer and E-Book reader.

Video

Audio

Photos

E-Books

External TV output

The SoC Pollux embeds (besides to the primary LCD controller) an NTSC/PAL encoder with internal DAC to manage an external analog video signal (CVBS output: 720×480 or 720×576 pixel interlaced, respectively 60/50 Hz vertical sync and 15 kHz horizontal sync).

See also

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 13, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.