GP2X Commercial Interface Board Cradle goes on sale

They busted out that breakout board last year, now GamePark Holdings have started selling a proper cradle for everybody's fave open source gaming handheld, the GP2X. The GP2X Commercial Interface Board Cradle is still more or less meant for developers -- it does have an RS232 port -- but it does also sport four USB ports (for connecting up a USB mouse, keyboard, or gamepad) and S-Video and audio-out ports if you feel like hooking this thing up to a TV or monitor.

[Gil @ Apr 23rd 2007 2:44AM]

That looks like a parallel port not a serial

[atomicthumbs @ Apr 23rd 2007 3:14AM]

That's not the serial port. That's a JTAG port, which does use the same connector as parallel ports. You can use it to unbrick your GP2X if you do something bad to it.

And:

HELL YEAH THE ENTIRE GP2X COMMUNITY HAS BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS THING

When Open2X comes out, they'll be the perfect combination.

Signed,
A Happy GP2X Owner

[OddManOut @ Apr 23rd 2007 1:25PM]

"That looks like a parallel port not a serial"

Wanna know something scary ? Back in the day there actually was/is a 25-pin serial cable that used the same connector as a parallel ('printer') cable. Of course it only used 9 actual wires inside (I have an old null model cable that has BOTH connectors, 9 + 25, on each end).

Kinda makes one thankful for USB, eh ?

(Though I assume of course that 'atomicthumbs'
has correctly identified this particular plug...)


As for the cradle itself...very nice. I really should pick one of these up, between the ages of maybe 10 to 14 this would have been my dream device/combo, and it's kinda tempting even at 26.

Somebody should send Sony a link to this post or gamepark's home page though. Just in case they ever do get around to releasing a redesign of the PSP, I think they could learn a thing or two from this device.

I mean really, PSP -> Media-centric...internet connectivity...half the games are CONSOLE ports...lowish battery runtimes...it BEGS for a simple/effective way to be connected to ones TV and used in the living room with a keyboard and other peripherals...

That and a VERY cheap 360 style external drive for the PS3 and UMDs might have actually taken off....

[Kichigai Mentat @ Apr 23rd 2007 3:34PM]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you guys just use "GP2X" and "commercial" in the same sentence? Isn't that some kind of grammatical violation, or isn't it supposed to tear apart the space-time continuum?

[paul-engadget @ Apr 25th 2007 7:17AM]

by the time you've paid $190 for the GP2X and another $50 for the cradle, you might as well have bought a Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000 which also runs linux.

the C1000 has more rom, more ram, CF slot (can take wifi, gsm/gprs, bluetooth, ethernet or modem), SD slot (4GB non sdhc cards supported), infrared, usb host. The C1000 supports four different flavours of unix (original Sharp, sharp-based Cacko, pdaXrom and OpenZaurus/Angstrom).