June 14, 2010 at 21:38Dingoo A320 - a fruitful year!
It's no secret that in the United States, E3 , the largest event in the gaming industry , is in full swing . Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft - all show their latest in entertainment. And you will never see only one revolutionary product at this exhibition. This is the Dingoo A320 Handheld Game Console. More than a year has passed since the appearance of this rather controversial gadget “on stage”. There is no point in repeating all praises in honor of Dingoo, its detailed unbox and review was already on Habré. Better try to understand the reasons for its truly wild popularity among geeks.
So, the dream of mankind about a portable device on which you can indulge with impunity nostalgia for the Nintendo, Sega, NeoGeo and Capcom gaming systems was realized by a small and rather poor companyShenzhen Dingoo Digital Co. Yes, right out of the box, without manipulating the firmware and dancing with a tambourine, you can emulate games from the above consoles simply by copying them to the device’s memory.
In fact, the device borrowed the design of the bottom of the Nintendo DS console. However, unlike the Japanese relative, the Dingoo A320 received the following bonuses:
- CPU Ingenic JZ4732 @ 336MHz folk Chinese architecture MIPS (software overclock to 433MHz)
- built-in audio player with the ability to play loseless formats
- video player playing movies without conversion ( analysis of supported formats )
- the possibility of charging from USB (although rumors are circulating that the active use of the console while charging kills the battery)
- 4Gb built-in flash memory
- Tv out
When the first euphoria from owning the device passed, Mario was walked 4 times up and down, Metal Slug caused hallucinations, and Sonic came at night, threatened with a finger and tapped with a stick and, it would seem, it was time for the gadget to settle on the shelf for the gadgets purchased on DealExtreme , something happened. Even as many as two "nothing."
SDK and Dingux
Users suddenly realized that, firstly, the SDK was available for development under Native OS ( old and newer ), and secondly, the Spanish engineer Ignacio García successfully sorted the Linux kernel for this miracle of the Chinese electronic industry. The first mention dates back to June 1, 2009. The project is called Dingux .
The code is rooted in RockBox , an alternative firmware for mp3 players. How long, short, but SDL was spoiled on Dingux, which dragged a bunch of ports of games and applications written for GP2X, Dreamcast, and other favorite gadgets. Dingoo A320 has "grown" with such lotions as the MSX emulator, ZX-Spectrum, Atari, and even Amiga! Well, about the different OpenTyrianand others do not have to talk to them. Yes, however, see for yourself. True, it is worth mentioning that the video is very bearded, in the real system today everything is much more beautiful and stable.
Dingux lacked support for a TV-out - unfortunately, the author “scored” the development for a long time judging by the date of the last update. Again, suddenly the author of the port of the PSX emulator (psx4all) introduced to the public quite a working utility for enabling TV-out from under Dingux. True, overclock (336 MHz only) does not work, but the fact of progress cannot but rejoice - the Dingux business lives and triumphs.
Homebrew
Just list what dingux enthusiasts managed to release over the past year:
- great scummvm
- Sony PlayStation emulator - PSX4ALL
- Amiga emulator - UAE4ALL
- alternative SNES emulators (with support for custom chips), NES, NeoGeo, GameBoy, GBA, GBC
- MAME4ALL , including under Native OS
- and of course DOSBOX
- ATARI emulator for Native Firmware from ALSP
- Vitamin ZXTune Chip Music Player for Dingux
- and finally (yes!) the ZX-Spectrum emulator - Unreal Speccy Portable for Native OS! (Russian-Ukrainian project)
And this is only a small part of what was really released. This did not include all sorts of C64, Amstrad, Atari, Colecoo Vision, MSX emulators, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom and Heretic ports, a free clone of Heroes Of Might And Magic . In addition, there are also our own projects, development competitions are regularly held, the number of developers is growing steadily.
Modding
Further more. Let's get back to the hardware. Like any more or less successful project, the console was cloned. There were options with “unsolicited” firmware, as well as products that carry only a 2Gb flash on board. According to unverified data, these are models designed for the domestic Chinese market. “Apofigeeim” at the moment is the appearance of the Dingoo A330 , which has 2 times more RAM (RAM 64Mb vs 32), the ability to connect a wireless joystick and the design of a smaller Sony PSP. This product is not from the original manufacturer , but from a completely different “candle factory” founded (?) By a native of Shenzhen Dingoo Digital Co. Today, there is already a Dingux port for the A330. Some especially talented users of the original A320 do not wait for favors from Chinese developers and independently increase the memory for their console.
Of course, the creators of the console did not even suspect that their brainchild was waiting for SUCH success. Or maybe they still don’t suspect ;-). Now, at a price of $ 80, the Dingoo A320 is the best solution for handheld emulation. Plus, this is a great way to save time for a real linux geek: go ahead and compile ! The prefix has an older brother WiZ , and in August the older sister Caanoo will appear , but about them next time!
How to buy?
Perhaps someone asks himself the question: “Where can I get it? Give two! ”Unfortunately, in large Russian retail chains, the Dingoo A320 is not for sale. Oh, so sorry!
The answer is actually simple: DealExtreme and Chinavasion as a direct channel of purchases or eBay , Price.ru and Molotok.ru as a secondary market and intermediaries.
I strongly recommend buying devices directly ! Moreover, I personally advise it Chinavasion, despite the fact that there is paid delivery. They have a little faster formation of the parcel and the sending of the goods after payment, and then Russian Post (well, you understand).
As part of the increased popularization of the Dingoo A320 in Russia , the “Write It Yourself” contest is now underway, where you can simply WIN the device !
Where to find out more?
- Dingoo A320.Russian Resource
- Dingoonity - an international community of dingoo enthusiasts
- Dingoo-Scene - an Australian blog with dingoo news
- # a320ru - Twitter hashtag for thematic Russian posts
