TAPWAVE

[FarSight]

I'm sure by know most people have seen tapwave the new gaming system + pdu thats been launched today in the US.

www.tapwave.com (go here to read more)

I love my GP32 but I'm thinking of pre ordering one of these.

Check out the spec. I guess it will run Genisis and SNES maybe even GBA at full speed "Looks Pritty cool too".

Hardware Specifications

Memory: Zodiac1 = 32MB*
Zodiac2 = 128MB*
* 12MB reserved for system use.

Processor:
Motorola® i.MX1™ ARM9 processor (200 MHz)

Graphics
Accelerator:

ATI® Imageon™ W4200 graphics accelerator (with 8MB dedicated SDRAM).

Display:
3.8 inch transflective display
480 x 320 (half VGA), 16-bit color backlit display (65,536 colors)
Portrait and landscape display capabilities
Digitizer for enhanced interactive game play, navigation and text input.


Sound:
Yamaha® audio component and stereo speakers
Standard 3.5mm stereo headphone plug
Earbud-style headphones included
Support for select third-party portable speakers

WOW...
Vibration:
Supports silent notification and interactive game play.

Controls:
Variable pressure analog controller (joystick)
2 triggers, 4 programmable action buttons, 1 special function button,
1 home button, 1 power button, and 1 Bluetooth button.


Expandability:
Dual expansion slots for MultiMediaCards, Secure Digital (SD) cards
and SDIO cards, including digital cameras and more.*
Zodiac Connector for additional peripherals.
* Slot #1: supports MultiMediaCards, Secure Digital Cards (SD).
Slot #2: supports MultiMediaCards, Secure Digital Cards (SD), and
SDIO cards.


Wireless
Connectivity:

Built-in Bluetooth radio with dedicated activation button.
Ideal for multiplayer wireless gaming, sharing information and connectivity to other compatible Bluetooth enabled devices.


PC Desktop
Connectivity:

USB Cable
USB Cradle (sold separately)


Cover:
Protective Flip Cover

Wrist Strap:
Convenient strap

Battery:
High-capacity Rechargeable Lithium Batteries – 1540 mAh

Power Supply:
AC Adapter / Battery Charger (120 volt AC, 60 Hz)
International connectivity kit (sold separately)

Size/Weight
5.6” (143mm) x 3.1” (79mm) x .55” (14mm) / 6.3 ounces

Color
Zodiac1 - Slate Gray
Zodiac2 - Charcoal Gray



Software Specifications

Operating System: Tapwave enhanced Palm OS 5.2T

Writing Software:
Graffiti 2

Included Software:

Games:

Stunt Car Extreme, Acid Solitaire

Media:
Music: Tapwave MP3 player
Photos: Tapwave JPEG Photo Viewer

Video Playback:
Kinoma Player

Video Creation:
Kinoma Producer (Quickly and easily converts AVI, QuickTime, MPEG1, MPEG4 files for use on the Zodiac entertainment console).*
*QuickTime software required to use Kinoma Producer on PC

eBook reader:
PalmReader

Organizer:
Address Book, Date Book, To Do List, Memo Pad

Other Stuff:

Alarm Clock (Tapwave Alarm Clock with integrated stopwatch & MP3 music feature),
Wireless-based chat & shared whiteboard (PhatPad by Trumpetsoft)
Graphing Calculator (powerOne by Infinity SoftWorks)
Microsoft® Word®-compatible Word Processor (WordSmith by Blue Nomad)

Connectivity:

Web Browser and SMS client for use with compatible Bluetooth enabled phones (bonus software on CD).

 

[unlucky]

sounds cool but i'm just not made of money sadly so out of my reach atleast now i have a gp32 and have ordered a new laptop :/

 

[thebluenewt]

introducing zodiac™
the first true mobile entertainment console.

Lies... all lies!

 

[extremegamer]

If i'm not mistaken, wasn't the Tiger Game.com more along the lines of the 1st mobile entertainment if you count it had a touch screen, calender and other crap built in with also access to internet and email? Secondly, my this thing cost a lot. This thing, though highley impressive, is not going to last long. With portables in the U.S. if you don't have pokemon or mario, you're not going to last long. Hard for a portable to beat Nintendo in the U.S. despite how good it is, just look at Game Gear and Lynx at the time, both were better than gameboy, but eventually bowed out to gameboy. :rolleyes:

 

[khephren]

It looks great, and so is the spec. But I don't have that sort of money floating around, and if I did, i'd wait for the PSP. If only it was a bit cheaper.

 

[Neomorpheus]

Looks nice but how much is it gonna be? (in £ please)

 

[alienz]

Looks kind of good.

But according to http://www.zophar.net/palmos/palmos.phtml

There are only a couple of gameboy emus and one non-free NES emu that's not very good.

I'll wait till there's more emulators before getting this thing.

 

[Sponge BoB]

200mhz. is tha fully clocked or will we be able to over clock tis to like 300 mhz. that would be cool

 

[mithris]

Ofcourse one have to get one of those.. who cares if there are no games for it?
you know.. it's the guy with most gadgets when he dies who win.

---
mithris

 

[nerd of nerds]

SOOOOOO, who is gonna make a gp32 emulator for this actually considering that the dreamcast was 200 mhz (yes i know that it was 128bit) this may be able to do psx....

 

[Demonix]

Cheaper to buy a laptop

 

[Billyy]

yeah, if you want a REALLY crappy laptop.

 

[FroZtByte]

This is cheap compared to other PDAs with similar specs (after all, it is a PDA at heart). And that's without Dual SD slots, etc.

I wouldn't say it's a gameboy advance/PSP killer, but it will hit hard in the PDA market and should do quite well (although not as well as others) in the handheld market. And it will probably evolve it's own little community so it's not that bad.

Your alternative is buying a games console and a PDA (if you want both sets of features), which would be a huge cost.

I would buy this, but I have no job, no money and as soon as I get a job, I'll be saving up to build a mini-itx PC (I know there's not much building involved but it'll mean I have a tiny PC I can use for media (DVD/Mp3/div-x etc)).

 

[Avigrace]

I will get one of these.

Lets not forget one thing - It looks fantastic

The PDA development scene has been waiting for something like this and I would suspect a very health scene. It has all the features of a PDA, it does multimedia better than my GP32 and it has a 3d engine,

 

[FarSight]

Just some more info. These are the games Tapware will launch with,

Duke Nukem
Doom II
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Neverwinter Nights
Galactic Realms
The Green Myste
Billiards
MegaBowling
AnotherBall
RifleSLUGs-W
Interstellar flames
One for all Solitaires

The best thing about tapware is theres bound to be a great emulation scene on it, Some EMU's (snes) already on the way (whoooo) . But because it runs on 'Palm OS' there are already Loads of emus and games avalable for it.

 

[ldaneels]

Hi,
Well, the Zodiac will instantly get a huge library from the Palm OS software.
Admittedly, the software will not be optimized for their OS, but I don't really mind if I'm getting 100s of free software available at launch.
For the emulators, I can guarantee you they will come. Firstly, Jeff Mitchell will most likely port CaSTaway (by his own words) & already has several interesting software available for Palm OS. Secondly, the tapwave has been mentioned on several big emulation websites & people have already expressed their interest in the device.
The GP32 started from nowhere & now enjoys a healthy community, I don't see what would prevent Tapwave from doing the same.
the Zodiac will just catter to a different, more mature public.
The price is certainly high, but as stated above, the system targets a different audience than the GBA or GP32 one.
I personally don't mind paying that much considering the possibilities offered by it. I think the issue with the price is not a real one as the tapwave is simply not only a gaming machine.

Loic

 

[Dozer]

hmm, just looked into it properly, and it does look nice yeah. Even the zodiac 2 doesnt seem too bad value as it quadrupled the amount of ram for only an extra thrid on the ram. Looks nice and thin too, so nice to carry in ur pocket as an mp3 player (gps just that little bit too big for comfort). I hope it drops a lot in price because in maybe a couple of years ill upgrade my gp. I expect the gps specs will look a bit crappy by then too.

 

[Klown]

I'm going to buy one after its been out for a few months.

 

[vf10a]

They only ship to US addresses argh. Rekon there will be some round on ebay or anything soon?

 

[hando]

Too expensive. Different audience - we said it also when GP32 has come out. I hope it wont end with only a few games. The rest of titles are just Palm crap (not optimized for use with accelerator) so i dont see a point to be happy about that. For playing them i can use cheaper PDA (have one and actually i can say that playing on PDa sucks). I wish this console lot of luck as it is actually really great for emus. In the meantime i want Rise of the Triad public release )