!!!!!!!!!????!!!!&

[tix]

WHAT ABOUT THAT THEN ???????????????????????????????????????

www.pdarcade.com

 

[tomjack264]

Oh dear it does look like a winner

 

[bradley]

i dunno how often that site updates its news but just incase the post goes to far down the page i'll post this link otherwise no one will have a clue what your talking about

http://news.search.com/search?version=x&ta...ch.ne&q=tapwave

tapwave zodiac, it sounds and looks very very nice from what u see in the video but doesn't talk about the machines speed, battery life and screen res, but it does look like quality stuff thou, i need money.....

 

[sensible GP32]

oh dear :huh:

does anyone have any information on this thing?

 

[hando]

Interesting, but well, it is still an expensive PDA in handheld shape. For me the only difference is just more ergonomic shape for playing. I have a PDA, and beside using a PIM i dont use it to play games (even that there is a lot of games and even emulators for it).

 

[bradley]

but now theres no reason not to use a pda to do it. the shape and power of the machines were the only issues, this is addressing both of those

also if u can make apps with the screen rotated the standard way since this has a touch screen it doesn't even need to cut back on the application side compaired to the non gaming designed models, if theres no disadvantage and can appeal to both sides this thing could own all

so could all be down to price as the only limiting factor, just need to wait and see how much its going for

 

[Sonic-NKT]

searched a bit arround...
its seems to have a ARM9 with 200MHz (huh...)
and also an Ati Imegeo (or something like that) grafc accelerator
and SD cards i think....
i is really powerfull but also the price should be at something between 300 and 400 US $
i dont have so much money...
with the real hombrew software this should be my handheld after the gp32... (if not the gp64 or something like that is better)
ok bye

 

[Bohica]

This looks quite neat - ergonomically. Agree with Hando - it's a modified Palm Pilot, but it'll be interesting to see how these competes with the N-Gage. If Tapwave want to go down the convergent technology/usage route they will need to prove mobile phone support.

As for the games, who knows? I'm sure they'll be good. I'm certain they'll be pricey. Again, look at what an N-Gage title retails for.

Like the way it uses SD cards too. Hugely underrated format - especially as you can now by 256Mb for £45.

Best of all, I'm really glad to see the portable gaming market being driven forward. I've nothing against Nintendo, but it's a shame that we were limited for so many years to one platform (I know we had the GG - no battery life and the excellent Lynx (still play mine)) - but it was really GB or bust.

Personally, I love my GP32 - I'm not interested in PDA functions and I don't want a hybrid phone/games machine.

Looking forward to seeing the PSP though

M.

 

[sensible GP32]

you should still be able to dev on thou'

its a little to close to home for comfort -_-

 

[NeoAP]

Nice...! I also agree with Hando. It's probably a modified/extended Palm, but it sounds good, but sure that does the N-Gage too, but the N-Gage wont survive. It's a tough market, and many companies like Sony is getting into it too.

 

[Dolfhin]

I'm not going to spend 300-400 bucks on a handheld. For that money i could buy a next generation consule with 2 games!!!!! It look nice but its way to expensive.
Anyway a 200 mhz chip is nothing special not much beter if the GP32. The video chicp seem to be very good

 

[generalnmx]

Hmm. It's a bit early to tell right now, so I won't make any assumptions. However, let's look at this logically. The Zodiac has better specs, and can supposedly function as a PDA - which means it can use a Palm Keyboard. A keyboard, in my opinion, is the one thing the GP32 is really lacking. If a keyboard was ever made for the GP32, it could very easily be marketed as a note-taking type PDA.

It remains to be seen what the capabilities of the Zodiac will turn out to be, and if emulators will be made for it (or if it will use a standard OS like OS5). Pay $230 for a GP32 FLU + 128MB SMC Card, or $350 for a better GP32 + PDA with more emulators. Time will tell...

 

[woogal]

If I remember correctly (it's been a long while since I read anything about the zodiac, or helix as it used to be called) it should use a modified version of palm os 5. I'd imagine it might also support quite a bit of other palm hardware as tapwave was formed by a group of old palm execs (which means if palm stick to their usual business method, they'll wait and see if the zodiac is a success then buy tapwave out in a couple of years time).

 

[k_man316]

I think it's a great concept and will do better than the N-gage. One interesting thing is that is will already have most (or is it all) of the current Palm compatible games available for it, including emulators. I'm not sure how the emu's run on it, but there's a chance for Mame and some others.

We'll see about the price though, $299 is a lot. Still, I remember paying about that for my TurboExpress handheld so you never know!

Screenshots appear impressive, but I think something to remember, at least from my experience, is that most palm/pocket PC games aren't as polished in terms of gameplay. I remember seeing some impressive titles for the Pocket PC so I picked up a Dell Axim. Well, I grew bored of most of the games after a while. I think the only one I really kept playing was a golf game.

Still, this might have potential. Not as much as the Sony PSP though!