Any Zodiac Ownwers Here?

[triksR4rabits]

btw - my snes is better than your megadrive - sorry, i just felt like i was 12 again!!!!

:lol:
cute. But seriously- everyone must really STOP talking shit. WHO CARES!!??? I have a gp and I'm damn happy with it. Works brilliantly. The Z is simply too expensive for me and the battery scares me off, but if the battery issue was fixed, hell I'd probably be on the zodiac forums.
The fact is, its a more powerful system. The gp is, what, 3 years old? But look how fantastic it is! The main reason for this is the tight friendly community that surrounds it- hell thats the real reason I bought a gp. I posted a question and recieved like 15 speedy extremely helpful resonses. Thats when i knew the gp was for me. As far as the topic starters question goes, I think Gary did a good job of answering it. This whole zodiac vs. gp thing is exactly whats turning developers off the gp... be happy with what you have on dated hardware. I think most of us are.

 

[Aaaaaaaa]

comparing the z1 to the blu is a bit like swings n roundabouts.

SWINGS RULE!!!11111!!!!

 

[PinkSpider]

comparing the z1 to the blu is a bit like swings n roundabouts.

SWINGS RULE!!!11111!!!!

Both make me feel sick! Esp after a heavy dose of alcohol!

 

[Mark]

comparing the z1 to the blu is a bit like swings n roundabouts.

SWINGS RULE!!!11111!!!!

This, here, is my favorite post EVER.

 

[generalnmx]

Some things never change...

 

[Squidge]

Hmmm, this thread seems to be getting a little out of hand. Maybe a closure is required?

 

[DaveC]

hi,

i just wanted to know, if any zodiac owners were here.

how good the snes part of LJZ? because i really want to have a portable snes and LJZ is update one time a week.
is it fun playing with a zodiac? what are the disadvantages (except the price...)

thx.

Don't think of playing SNES on a Zodiac, at least not for a while yet. There are some GPL issues to work out. This means if you are not signed up as a developer with Tapwave, No SNES for you...


And I think the battery is about 500 charges, this is what is stated in the GBA SP manual and since they both use similar LiIon technology I would imagine it to be similar.

 

[DaveC]

Hmm... I have to say, I'd find 1000 charges a bit little, even if that is the minimum. Were I to own one, I doubt I'd charge it more than once every couple of days (probably after maybe 6 months of charging each day), but that still would mean it wouldn't last more than maybe 6 years time, if it stayed my favourite toy.

Ok, so it'd probably last somewhat longer since novelty value of everything fades after a stretch, but I'd still much prefer to be able to keep using it until CPU-death forced me to stop, not battery-death.

Plus which, there's the fact that its also a PDA to take into account - which means it'd probably be used far more regularly than a games machine only would for, say, diary functions and such as well.

1000 charges is probably enough, but it would, to me, still feel like the Sword of Damocles. Much, for that matter, as the SMC-death problem with our beloved Gamepark does; but SMCs cost a lot less to buy more of than a new battery (and I fully intend to make sure I've got 6 more, 4 unopened, before too long).

The thing is you MUST keep charging it. To me it is just something else to remember to do. It is a PDA so the battery will drain even if you don't use it. If you don't charge it you will lose everything in RAM and have to restore everything back. Also it is bad to leave LiIon batteries in a non charged state as they will lose their viability (ever notice that when you buy a device with LiIon it always comes partially charged?). So it is not like the GP32 in the sense that you can just put it away for a few weeks and forget about it. The Zodiac like any other PDA needs regular "feeding"

 

[DaveC]

... as the SMC-death problem with our beloved Gamepark does; but SMCs cost a lot less to buy more of than a new battery (and I fully intend to make sure I've got 6 more, 4 unopened, before too long).

What is the SMC death? doesn't any flash media last indefinetly as long as you don't keep writing to it? I know that flash memory can only be written to a finite amount of times but what if you don't write to it?

 

[Daz_Genetic]

ever notice that when you buy a device with LiIon it always comes partially charged?

The Zodiac comes with absolutley no charge in the batteries.

 

[GamePark128]

Gp32 > Zodiac

 

[PinkSpider]

GP32 == Zodiac

 

[GamePark128]

GP32 == Zodiac

no, GP32 is way better than the Zodiac, sure it has "3D" games, but does it have a divx player?












NOPE!

 

[Dozer]

GP32 == Zodiac

no, GP32 is way better than the Zodiac, sure it has "3D" games, but does it have a divx player?












NOPE!

I'm sure it plays videos.

 

[Squidge]

Are you sure? Last I heard, the movie players for the Zodiac included SmartMovie, MMPlayer, Kinoma Viewer and others. The first two for sure support DIVX (I've tried them), and there's also players for other formats.

Edit: GamePark128: Also, since your having a pointless argument, let me point out that Kinoma viewer (for example) can run videos upto 90fps smoothly as the Zodiac has mpeg4 decoding in hardware...

 

[spray]

GP32 == Zodiac

no, GP32 is way better than the Zodiac, sure it has "3D" games, but does it have a divx player?
NOPE!

actually you can remove the " "" " Stunt Car Extreme is as 3d as they come, i know some elitist will tell me its technically not but doomii looks pretty 3d as well to me!

hehe, that is the best argument ever! do you even know what a zodiac is :blink:

 

[DjAdolf]

In regards to emulation, which system has more power and stability? GP32 or Zodiac?

 

[spray]

In regards to emulation, which system has more power and stability? GP32 or Zodiac?

well, its kinda hard to answer that question at the moment.

basically, yoyo has written a SNES, Genesis, NES, GB/C, NGP/C & WS/C emu that he calls LJZ.
however, due to it being under GPL, tapwave have not yet released a public license for it.

so currently, i'd say the gp32_console is the better machine, and i've got a feeling that as of June 10th we're going to be as set as we could be.

but, as and when LJZ is released it will be a very close call.

 

[Huxley]

so currently, i'd say the gp32_console is the better machine, and i've got a feeling that as of June 10th we're going to be as set as we could be.

Even so, if we have nothing left but the emulators and homebrew software written for the GP32 up to this point, that does give us a slight advantage over the Zodiac because we can run this thing for longer on two AA's. Horses for courses - depends what you wanna get out of a handheld. Personally, I couldn't care less for PDA functions and a backlit screen. I can't pretend I'm not jealous of the potentially advanced emulation, mind.

There's NO doubt the Zodiac is a really nice piece of hardware, but I'm happy with my GP32. It was half the cost and arguably better value for money.

 

[DaveC]

ever notice that when you buy a device with LiIon it always comes partially charged?

The Zodiac comes with absolutley no charge in the batteries.

Yours drained in shipping/storage then. Mine came charged. I remember when I picked it up at the post office I turned it on in the car to make sure it worked and didn't have any dead pixels.