The GP2X Caanoo, more commonly known as Caanoo, stylized CAANOO, is an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

, Linux-based handheld video game console and

portable media player A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored o ...

developed by the South Korean company GamePark Holdings. It was released on August 16, 2010 in South Korea and were also sold throughout Europe. It is the successor to the GP2X Wiz, and was showcased at the

Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publisher ...

2010. The device's launch price was about US$150, which didn't reach any retail stores in North America. The Caanoo is not a direct competitor of handheld consoles like

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

, but rather an alternative

device. Because of that, any software that is compatible can be run without the need of creating custom firmware or other

homebrew Homebrewing mainly refers to small-scale, non-commercial manufacture of a drink, typically beer. Homebrew or home brew may also refer to: Computing * Homebrew Computer Club * Homebrew (package manager), for macOS and Linux * Homebrew (video game ...

applications. This is the last open-source gaming device by GamePark Holdings, as they ceased production and development of gaming hardware to focus solely on software.

Hardware

Specifications

* SoC (System on a Chip): MagicEyes Pollux VR3520F * CPU:

ARM9 ARM9 is a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by ARM Holdings for microcontroller use. The ARM9 core family consists of ARM9TDMI, ARM940T, ARM9E-S, ARM966E-S, ARM920T, ARM922T, ARM946E-S, ARM9EJ-S, ARM926EJ-S, ARM968E-S, ARM996 ...

26EJ 533 MHz embedded on SoC (architecture version ARMv5TEJ) * GPU: 3D hardware engine embedded on SoC ( OpenGL ES 1.1 support) * 3D performance: 133M Texel/s and 1,33M Polygon/s * main RAM: 128 Mbytes DDR SDRAM 133 MHz (peak memory bandwidth: 533 Mbytes/s) * video buffer: about 16 Mbytes of main RAM are reserved for the video/texture information * Operating System: Linux based * Flash memory: None (128 Mbytes reserved to the OS) * Connection to PC: USB 2.0 High Speed through EXT Port * USB Host: USB 1.1 standard socket * Supports SD / SDHC memory cards (up to 32 Gigabytes) * Accelerometer * Vibration Motor * High precision analog stick * Display: 3.5 inch OLED 320×240 pixel (resistive touchscreen) * Stereo audio DAC: Wolfson Microelectronics WM1800 * Embedded Microphone and stereo Loudspeakers * Power: Internal 1850mAh Lithium Polymer Battery (approx. 5/6 hours game/video playback) * Dimensions : * Weight : * WiFi via adapter (USB dongle – Purchased separately) * Colors: Black/Blue, White NB: the CPU embedded on Pollux has a good tolerance to overclocking (until 750 MHz the system shouldn't have problems, just a shorter battery autonomy.) Not all CPU/SoC are created equal and these results are theoretical. Some may not be able to push much past stock frequency. Overclocking will vary between each Caanoo.

Games/Applications

The Caanoo had only four commercial retail games: ::*''Asura Cross'' ::*''Propis'' ::*''Rhythmos'' ::*''Wiz Party'' The Caanoo can run several applications that emulate consoles or computer systems, such as DrPocketSnes for the Super NES, GnGEO for the Neo-Geo, Hu-Go for the PC Engine, PCSX ReArmed for original PlayStation games, MAME4all for arcade games and Picodrive for the Mega Drive/Genesis and its add-ons, as well as freeware homebrew games/applications. These applications are created by the community itself and not by the manufacturers. Most, if not all of this software can be found a
OpenHandhelds
a community-driven website. Gamepark Holdings also had a website focused on downloadable content named FunGP. It sold commercial Caanoo and Wiz games, as well as some retro Arcade games. It has since ceased operations. Caanoo is not compatible with software built for previous GPH devices (such as the GP2X Wiz) without an application to allow it to do so. A compatibility layer named Ginge allows for most software to be compatible, and most applications have already been ported.

Multimedia capability

The Caanoo is a video player, an audio player, photo viewer and E-Book reader.

Video

* Container files:

AVI Avi is a given name, usually masculine, often a diminutive of Avram, Avraham, etc. It is sometimes feminine and a diminutive of the Hebrew spelling of Abigail. People with the given name include: * Avi (born 1937), Newbery award-winning Americ ...

* Video formats: DivX, XviD, MPEG4 * Audio formats: MP3, WAV * Maximum Resolution: 640×480 pixel * Maximum Frame Rate: 30 frame/s * Maximum Video Bitrate: 2500kbit/s * Maximum Audio Bitrate: 384kbit/s * Captions: SMI

Audio

* Audio formats: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WAV * Channels: Stereo * Frequency Range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz * Power output: ? * Sample Resolution/Rate: 16bit/8–48 kHz, in 8bit/22 kHz

Photos

* Supports

JPG JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image ...

, PNG,

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , see pronunciation) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on 15 June 1987. ...

, Bitmap File Formats

E-Books

* Supports txt files, it can also read pdf format through various apps.

External TV output

The SoC Pollux embeds (besides to the primary LCD controller) an NTSC/PAL encoder with internal DAC to manage an external analog video signal ( CVBS output: 720×480 or 720×576 pixel interlaced, respectively 60/50 Hz vertical sync and 15 kHz horizontal sync).

References

External links

Official Gamepark Holdings Homepage

GP32x Community Website

News on Caanoo exclusive game projects (in English)

NewsWeeZ Caanoo News and Files (in English)

PDRoms Caanoo News and Files (in English)

Caanoo File Archive

Spanish homebrew videogames community (GP32Spain)

GbaRL.it Caanoo Review (in Italian)

{{Seventh generation game consoles ARM-based video game consoles Seventh-generation video game consoles Linux-based video game consoles Products introduced in 2010 Handheld game consoles