Archos GamePad - Out 1st Quarter 2013

nesjess

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I know there are a lot of these Android-based gaming/tablet devices out there that come from HK, but this one that Archos plans to release in early 2013 looks pretty sweet and legit.

http://www.archos.com/products/gamepad/index.html?country=us&lang=en&p=1#a

Brief Specs:

- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- 7" touchscreen
- 1.6 GHz Dual Core CPU
- Quad Core Graphics
- 8GB internal storage. Up to 64GB additional storage with microSD.
- 1080p HD
- Wifi
- Button mapping tool that allows you to assign touchscreen controls to the hardware controls.

Price will be $200.

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Wow that actually looks pretty slick. And $200 isn't TOO bad.

Yeah, it's pretty much your standard Android tablet but built for gaming. I always thought the PSP was the ultimate portable emulation machine, but this trumps it on so many levels. The same price as a 3DS XL and cheaper than a Vita? Sold!
 
I'm not sure how well the controls are going to end up working. Evidently the buttons fool the OS into thinking they're touch screen inputs.

Also looks like they skimped on the screen resolution a bit. Only 1024x600 which is less than the Nexus 7 and fewer ppi than the Vita.
 
Well, I would think they aren't trying to compete with the Nexus 7 or the Vita in specs, but form a happy medium between gaming and tablet at an affordable price. They could make it as good as both products in both respects but it would probably be 2-3X the price.
 
Yeah, I was going to say that, but then not exactly due to the touchscreen and not sure if it's convenient for devs to mod the hardware, but what do I know. Either way, this is on my wishlist. :)
Well yeah. I suppose it's more closely related to the Xperia Play, really. I'm not really sure how well a lot of touch screen games' controls will translate over, but I'm curious to see how the button mapping works.
 
Well yeah. I suppose it's more closely related to the Xperia Play, really. I'm not really sure how well a lot of touch screen games' controls will translate over, but I'm curious to see how the button mapping works.

Button mapping is more for touchscreen games that have "virtual controls" on the screen. Essentially, you assign one part of the touchscreen to a specific button and repeat as necessary.

Did you see the button mapping demo vid? You have to scroll down on this page.
 
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Actually, talking this over with a friend, the Nexus 7 is the same price but much better hardware. I guess if you want the convenience of game controls built in, then yeah, the Archos is great. But as far as quality of product and hardware specs, probably better to just get a Nexus 7 and use a bluetooth controller for gaming. Not as practical, but probably a better experience and product in the long run.
 
So, I wonder how well MAME for Android would play on this.

I'm guessing pretty good. I used to play MAME on my old Motorola Droid X and it played just fine and that hardware isn't as good as this Archos. But like I said, if you want peak portable performance, the Nexus 7 is probably the way to go.

This was an old video I made where I demonstrated MAME on my Droid X. You can skip to like 9:00.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=169920
 
This looks cool, particularly since there is a MAME build for Android. Its a very old build of MAME (37), but it'd still be cool.

I have actually owned an Archos device in the past, and my one issue with them is that they used to beat you into paying extra for everything, including the media player and web browser. Maybe its not true since its now since expectations have changed. The device I had (604 wifi) was out before the tablet craze. It was sort of halfway between an iPod Touch and a modern tablet.
 
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