Ask your questions about the Archos GamePad here

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

We've got an Archos GamePad here. You have questions about the Archos GamePad. We can try to answer them

Ask away folks. My first impressions are here.

 

[Jonneh]

After you've played some games, of course:

1. Is the screen terrible enough to even make the games you're playing look bad as well? Do your photos look crappy on the screen too?
2. How much lag, if any, do the latest and greatest graphic-intensive games cause?
3. Could you fire up some emulators and tell us if the Archos controls work with them? SNES in particular, but any old gaming emulator of your choice.

Thanks Jerry!

 

[Sapient2k7]

I really want to know if the viewing angles are equal to or better than a nintendo 3DS as it is pretty terrible compared to my EVO LTE but for games it is not that big a problem.
Another question I have is about the lag, is it apparent in actual games?
Like the poster above I am interested in emulator performance? Can you try some emulators for SNES, GBA and/or PS1 and give information about performance?
Is it sony mobile compatible?

I am also interested in the game mapping tool, how does it work? can we try the feature with emulators?


Thanks

Edit:
Read up on the product at archos page, revised some questions.

 

[Kanoon]

Hi Jerry. Before you played the GamePad, did you install the firmware update or is that preinstalled in the US one?

The European Gamepad sucked before the firmware update (lots of lag and control issues) but that's all supposed to be fixed now. See this updated YouTube review (it's what made me decide to purchase one): The Archos Gamepad - a lot of things are fixed - revisited after 1st firmware update - YouTube

 

[Kanoon]

Adding to what Jonneh asked, do you need to map emulators with Archos' mapping tool or do the emulators pick up the GamPads physical buttons as a joypad (i.e. setting controls using the emulators themselves)?

I've been wondering about this for ages. I want one for N64 emulation and some N64 emulators don't have both the d-pad and analogue stick on the screen at the same time.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Will definitely be trying emulators.

My unit has the update out of the box. It's still slow and laggy compared to the current crop of 7-inch tablets

I've not had a lot of time to really mess with it yet, but I can say it plays Shadowgun like a champ. No lag at all in the game, so I'm wondering if it's just a poorly optimized build of the OS. The real trick will be games that use the DVM and not native code, and I'll be looking at those as well.

Edited to add: All the complaints of bad battery life seem true. About 90 minutes of Shadowgun takes the thing from a full charge to deep in the red and reminding you to plug it in.

 

[Kanoon]

Thanks! Looking forward to the review.

 

[hexmora]

I bought the Archos Gamepad and i like it a lot, i use mostly for my AR Drone. when it comes to the Emulators, Ive only used the Gameboy Advance and he Nintedo DS. The GBA is actually really good. the NDS is super slow. its like playing New mario bros in slow motion.
the ONE THING i hate most about the Gamepad its that once i click the button for stand by, after maybe 3 or 5 minutes, it shuts down automatically. and to turn it back on, i have to press the power button for 10 seconds. then let go and press it again for 4 seconds in order for it to boot up. its really irritating to have to be doing that every time i want use the gamepad for a google search or facebook use.

is there a way to change the setting so that it does not shut off when i put it on stand by?

 

[npaladin-2000]

Why oh why didn't they put a Tegra into a device meant for gaming? Has Archos offered any reasoning behind this decision? I'm sure they must have a good reason, I just can't figure out what that might be...

 

[mstrblueskys]

We've got an Archos GamePad here. You have questions about the Archos GamePad. We can try to answer them

Ask away folks. My first impressions are here.

After two weeks, how do you like it?

 

[Kanoon]

I just got one. I'm very pleased with it so far!

FOR JONNEH:

1. IMHO The screen may not be the best technologically, but a good looking game is still a good looking game on this device. It doesn't ruin the experience at all.
2. I've got Shadowgun, NFS Most Wanted and Sonic CD. All of them work fine. Unfortunately it would not let me download my GTA3, so I'm going to have to purchase GTA VC which is supposed to be compatible.
3. SNES, GBA and PSX emulators run perfectly. I'm still trying to figure out the MD/Genesis one, and the N64 emulators unfortunately have a little slowdown on some game. This may be something that can be fixed with some tinkering with the options. I'll see.

NOTE/TIPS:

1. When you boot up an emulator, click on the gamepad icon and press "clear" to stop the gamepad app. Then go into the input settings and manually configure the buttons yourself (all emulators pick up the GamePad controls as an actual PC controller, which is awesome).
2. Another thing I thought was pretty cool: you can browse the Android OS and select stuff solely with the GamePad controls. No need to use your touch screen.

I'm sure I'll find lots of negative points about the device as I go along, so (unless Jerry already answers it) I'll post an update another day.

 

[Kanoon]

Okay another update. I got the Mega Drive emulator working with the physical buttons. Some people don't like the d-pad, but I don't see it as too much of a problem (you can use the left analog control for games such as SF2). I've also purchased MC4, NOVA3 and Ravensword: Shadowlands. MC4 runs great. NOVA3 runs okay but not great. And Ravensword: Shadowlands also runs great. Playing RS with physical controls is an amazing experience. So much better than using the screen.

To give you an idea of what you can have installed at one time; I've got all 3 games , 11 emulators and some other minor apps installed. So I've now just about reached my internal SD memory limit. PS/GBA/SNES/MD game are in my external memory card. So far everything is working without problems.

NOTE/TIPS: Some games come pre mapped, but there is always free keys left over so you can map additional controls. This comes in handy for additional mappings such as menu screens etc.

PS: Sorry if I'm starting to sound like a walking advert, but I really am pleased with this device and am just sharing my experience.

 

[johncpl]

Hi, I just registered to post this. I just got my Archos Gamepad today, and I updated the firmware from the website (it may have been the same that was on it already.) Anyways, aside from the dead pixel it came with, I thought it was ok. Then I started playing Mupen.

I was told the firmware fixed simultaneous button fixes, yet when I press and hold certain buttons, like L trigger, R trigger, Y,B, or L2 (maybe another), and then press one of the analogs, it will temporarily cancel out the held down button. This is annoying as hell, you cannot hold down Z in Ocarina of time and strafe with Link. Why did they claim the firmware fixed button issues yet this persists on mine?

 

[Kanoon]

They claimed the firmware fixed button issues because they DID fix it.

I've played on hundreds of games on emulators (N64, Genesis, SNES, PSX, NES, GBA, Lynx, GBC, MAME, AMIGA, MS, GG) , and also many android games (the latest being Carmageddon which works perfect with the mapping tool). I've never had any problems with it.

I suspect you may have both the mapping tool and the hardware mapping on at the same time. This can cause issues because it's literally using two separate controllers with conflicting button inputs for the one game. I use Mupen. What you should do is:

1. open Mupen

2. stop the mapping tool (button emulation)

3. go to Mupen's input options and map the controls like you would with a regular PC or bluetooth joypad

4. Enjoy

To be honest, the joypad on the Archos GamePad works better that my bluetooth controller for Android or my PC controller. With the bluetooth controller, Mupen doesn't recognize the D-pad and analogue controls as separate buttons. With GampePad's built in controls it does.

There is plenty of valid criticism remaining for the GamePad, but it's firmware fix is not one of them.

 

[Jpeterson37]

I was wondering if there well be a gaming grip like the one below that is designed for the gamepad

Thanks

 

[eddy1975]

hi jerry

i bought an archos gamepad for emulation gaming
but i have a problem getting to my roms on the sd card.

i installed mame4droid but when i link the pad via usb to pc....it sees my sd card but i dont get to see the roms map they revered to....there is only a LOST.DIR map in there
but when i open file manager on the pad i do see them on the sd card.
change of rompath didnt help either....

anny idea what this problem is? thanks in advance.

i have the same problem with all the emulators....snes msx etc...

i cant find anny info on the net on this.......
i feel bad for buying this pad......ive been trying for days now and nothing works.....going a bit crazyhttp://cdn-forums.androidcentral.com/images/smilies/mad.png

 

[Kanoon]

You shouldn't be having that problem. For Snes, msx, Megadrive etc., I created a file and named it "ROMS" and put roms for each emulator in a separate sub-folder ("MD ROMS", SNES ROMS" and so on). When you start up one of the emulators, click on "load games" and find the folders. For the MAME emulators, they create the ROM folder for you within their own "Mame4Droid" folders. But you'll have to put it in the right one (i.e. when you click on the rom folder, their will be another folder named "rom" within that folder, and so on).

 

[eddy1975]

thanks kanoon

i have tried to do that......
just now i installed supergnes
made a map on sd card called it snesROMS and put super ghouls n ghost in it.
but when i start the emulator it says it cannot find games on the sd card....
when i look for my map in the rom directory the map isnt there???
but when i link to pc the map is visable.

i never had problems with emulators on my android phone......
do u think my pad is faulty?
sorry for my english.

thanks agian

 

[Kanoon]

Yeah, it may be a faulty product. If that is the case, you should get it replaced ASAP. My GamePad is working flawlessly. I've never had a problem with it.

 

[eddy1975]

Oke thats what i also thought.....
I will get it replaced!!

thanks for ur anwser!