OPEN2X?!?!?! Can you eat that?

Ever heard of a project called OPEN2X? Their aim is to bring a new firmware and a new way to make programs for the GP2X by dynamically linking libraries and not static linking as it stands now, thus making the produced executables faster and smaller! The new firmware will bring back many of the features that the Firmware version 4 stripped off the GP2X, such us USB networking, NAND memory access, new boot scripts, faster booting times and many more! You can read more on their progress at their Wiki site{ wiki.open2x.org }! I am eagerly awaiting their first stable public release! Lately with every new firmware release GamePark Holdings has been SYSTEMATICALLY diminishing the many possibilities the GP2X originally had and is trying to turn it into a simple gaming console and not a handheld computer with Linux as it originally was. Hopefully OPEN2X will remedy this. Especially for all of us owners of a newly bought GP2X f-200 which came preloaded with firmware v4.0.0 this project will be salvation! Currently there is no need to downgrade your firmware to a lower one since GP2X f-200 has a touchscreen, and older firmwares don't support it...As things stand now, the only way to easily develop things on your GP2X or have advanced features is to buy a GP2X CRADLE which connects to the EXT port of your GP2X and adds 4 USB ports, TV out,Left and Right audio out, support for connecting Wi-fi dongles and many more!


After a lot of searching around the GP2X file archive and GOOGLE, i came across the best emulator for this handhled according to my opinion. I always was an adventure games fan! Especially the adventures of the "GOLDEN ERA"! I am talking for the masterpieces of Lucas Arts(Loom, Monkey Island 1,2,3, Sam & Max, Full Throttle etc). In order to play them on WINXP i have been using the fabulous emulation environment called SCUMMVM! Guess what...this emulator has now been ported to our beloved GP2X, also with touchscreen support! What more could one possibly want than being able to play one of the fabulous adventures this emulator supports on the bus, or on the train! GP2X is truly the Emulator Fan's "AMIGA" ;-)

GP2X rambling...

The more time i spend with this fabulous piece of Korean technology, the more amazed i become! Yesterday i figured how to emulate Amiga's Workbench v3.1...practically perfect emulation using UAE4ALL GP2X! Along with Qtopia and GPE having been ported to GP2X, this is shaping good! This little handheld already emulates many os environments. I am now trying to figure out a way of using b2x(the basilisk2 emulator for GP2X) in order to emulate MAC OS. In the near future, when i'll have gathered enough knowledge and info i'll start writing detailed guides as to how you can use your GP2X as much more than just a games' condole! GP2X tutorials in general is the only point were GP2X community hasn't invested much time thus far...

Stay tuned!

A looooooong time agoooo....

...in a galaxy far away...there lived a guy aptly named 'a6n0rma1'...
He tried to maintain a blog, but the ongoing war with his job(s) and the studies at the University of Athens...chewed away most of his time. One day he decided to better manage his time and thus came the opportunity for blog maintenance again. His little security droid named 'gp2x' came along to better help him...

In other worlds, sorry for being away all this time, blah blah <\insert excuses here>..., i bought a GP2X so i'll dedicate some of my blogging time to write about this fabulous little gadget, also anything i code/port/stumble upon that is useful for a GP2X owner will be presented here!

Enjoy!

Long time no see...

Ok after a long period of silence, while accepting e-mails with comments of constructive criticism and others with very nice ideas for things that should be added-omited...i ended up with the following list. Let's start voting then and the mods with most votes get to be in the final version...of course more additions are allways welcome!

THE LIST
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These tools-utilities are my recommended ones...i use them all the time and i can assure everyone they are going to make your total oblivion experience a hell lot better and bugfree!!

Official patch(es)
Unofficial patch v1.5.1
TweakOblivion 5.0 build 285
Oblivion Mod Manager v0.9.8
Oblivion Character Wizard v1.1
Oblivion Construction Set
BTMod v2.2
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The actual mods
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2nd to 1st person
All shapes and sizes
Arena capacity crowds
Badder spell FX
Better letters
County names
Different servant greetings
Enhanced taverns'n'temples
Guard torches
House map markers
Housewives
Jump adjustment
Lighthouse
Living economy
Lockpick mold
Louder nirnroots
More books teach
More realistic encumberance
Natural wildlife
No merchant barter chatter
No more annoying comments about your skills
No more annoying messages fixed
No persistant enchantment glow fix
No psychic guards
Open very hard lock spell
Prompt at 2 items
Qarl's logs
Real time
Remove persuasion game replies
Skill perk descriptions enhancement
Skingrad bridge lights
Visually enchanted weapons
Younger hotter NPCs women
Younger NPCs
Elven map redux with colored 3d icons
City Lights - Imperial City
Illumination Within Revived
Illumination Within Revived Optimised
Weathered Direction Signs
Weather Inside
Diverse Grasses
Alive Waters
Better HUD info
Better Signs Uncompleted
Better Bedroll
Book Jackets - Oblivion High Res
Martigen's Monster Mod
Cats&Rats
Simple Compass
Lantern
Spell Icon Replace Final
Paintings'n'Tapestries
Realistic Physics and Force Package
Michikawa Oblivion Music Pack
Adam Frechette Music Compilation FINAL
Real Lava
Grape Texture Change
Immersive Wait
Better Grass
Daedric Umbra Retexture
Gristle's Precious Stones with Xs Glittering Prizes
Colored Enemy Health
Natural Environments
Better Sun
Better Nightsky
Beautiful Stars
Intoxicant Improvement
Natural Faces
Improved Facial Textures
Oblivion Stereo Sound Overhaul
Dwemer Spectacles
Harvest Containers
Brighter Sparks
Enhanced Quest Roleplaying
Natural Interiors
Rusty Items
Cosmetic Compilation
Harvest Flora
Unique Landscapes - Entius Gorge
Unique Landscapes - Stendarr Valley
Unique Landscapes - Ancient Yews
Unique Landscapes - The Dark Forest
Unique Landscapes - The Heath
Unique Landscapes - Ancient Redwoods
Natural Weather unofficial Patch
Shiny Gold
More Immersive Sound
Horses Base
Lightning Strikes During Storms
Enhanced Taverns 'n' Temples
Better Amulet Replacer
Better Ring Replacer
Nighteye Shader Replacement
Sigil Stones Expanded and Extended
Misc Shader Replacement
Clothes Replacer
Hit Shader Replacement
Francesco's Leveled Cretures mod
Francesco's Optional New Armors and Weapons
Qarl's Texture Pack 2
Qarl's Parallaxed textures
Qarl's Parallaxed textures 1.1
DarkUI 2.40
DarkUI Loading Screens 1.10
DarkUI & BTMod Extras
DarkUI Supplemental Pack
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Mods still in debate:
*Growlf's Hot Body and Clothes Full 3.7
*Vim and Vigor

I await any comments or suggestions at a6n0rma1@gmail.com. Use as a subject "a6n0rma1's Oblivion modpack" just to be sure that your mail won't get accidentally or intentionally deleted!

Please note that my intention is to make a High Definition-Ultra Quality modpack so the game will suffer a FPS hit by using my modpack! On my pc though while having installed all the aformentioned i get a constant framerate of about 25-30fps which is more than playable. If you can barely play vanilla Oblivion with your PC configuaration then refer to Koroush Ghazi's excellent Oblivion tweakguide which can be found at his site free of charge (www.tweakguides.com)! After you have properly tweaked your pc and Oblivion with Koroush's tips you should start thinking of using my modpack or another one which tries to up the quality of the game! I am allways on the lookout for Beta testers...if you fell up to the task contact me but this time use an e-mail subject "Test TES4 modpack".

Nice comments...keep 'em coming...

Let's make this modpack a joint community effort!
Taking into consideration some comments from The Elder Scrolls Source :
One idea presented was to slice this modpack to several smaller ones according to the aspect they change so that anyone can choose the ones they like and download only those...nice idea and also solves the big download file size problem but my first thought is that if people start downloading parts of the mod and not the mod as a whole, it's bug free state will automatically be broken since they will undoubtably combine many mods together which haven't been tested and also they won't experience the full modpack deal! I'll see how i'll cope with that but as an idea it seems like a sound plan! Other comments seemed to emphasize on the use of one mod instead of another! That's what i want to hear...which mods would you like to see merged in a bigger modpack so we can test them and make sure they work fine together without braking the original game or destroying the original gameplay experience?

Welcome aboard...

Welcome...to my space! Ideas, code snippets and the rest will soon follow! For the time being i am preparing my Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion modpack which will be weighting at a whooping 900 MB! Many changes from little gampeplay tweaks to complete texture replacements are there! All tested exhaustingly so that the gameplay and overall Oblivion experience is transformed to the better without any bugs or discrepancies creeping in! I'll probably release it as a torrent due to it's huge size, sometime this week fingers crossed! Just a few minor tweaks here and there and hopefully it will be polished enough to justify a release! Stay tuned for more info or screenshots and for the eventual release of the pack! Any ideas for a name are welcome! Keep in mind that this pack will change Oblivion in subtle but unique ways so the name should be something fitting to that description! Also, anyone interested to BETA test this modpack prior to it's release or help me in the making process please contact me here: a6n0rma1@gmail.com . Signing off for the time being! OVER AND OUT!