Zodiac 1st Impressions

[gary]

well, i have been a GP user for quite some time now - but the zodiac was just too tempting. mine arrived a few days ago and i have to say it is very nice! the overall build quality is outstanding - the nice metal case gives weight. the analogue pad still workds well with the classic 2d games. and its BLU which is a massive plus point.

the emus i have running are Ljz - the snes part runs nr perfect on most games with sound - it works at full screen with smoothing - its still not a full public release but you can assume it will be almost perfect emu when released.

genesisis with sound but buggy - prob the same as GP when not using sound - i would say that gigadrive on Gp is better for now - more stable

NES emu is simply perfect! full screen with smoothing - no frame skip at all.

pc engine emu is as good as the GP version and uses full screen and smoothing - no frame skipping. even boots some games that the GP one doesnt - darius being one of them (still no super grafx or cd game support yet tho) - street fighter doesnt work as usual : (

there is more but thought i would just post some initial thoughts for any other gp users considering the move.

btw - i still have my gp and will always love it : )

laters
gary

 

[Squidge]

I find the possibility of putting your favourite emulators and games into storage ram for instant access/loading a nice touch also. No more delays whilst reading from the flash card

Nice thing about LJZ is that you can be playing a game, power off the device, and then when you power it back on, you just continue from where you left off with no delay whatsoever. Perfect for those "Boss just entered room" moments...

 

[gary]

yeh, the instant on/off function is excellent. and touch screen makes such a big difference to naviagtion - can get around the OS so fast.

everyone should buy one...right now : )

 

[Han]

The Zodiac does look really tempting... How much did you pay for yours?

 

[gary]

i paid about £220 including shipping fromthe US to the UK
then another £60 for a 512mb SD card!

pretty good really

 

[triksR4rabits]

Thats pretty cool. If if wasnt for that damn battery... I wonder when/if a new zodiac will come out

 

[Han]

triksR4rabits: What's up with the battery?

 

[Josquius]

Its a non removable rechargable which stops working after so many charges if I remember right.

512 mb...hmm... Any chance of Saturn emulation on it then ?

 

[triksR4rabits]

Its a non removable rechargable which stops working after so many charges if I remember right.

Thats basically it. Like any rechargable theres only so many charges youll get out of it (granted that number will be very high though) and in order to replace the battery you have to send it back to the company, which an expensive pain in the ass. Also, god forbid zodiacs cease to be made your basically sol.

 

[Han]

That is really stupid...

 

[CrazyDesi]

I bought it only to sell it back. The people at Tapwave are nice and all but they ruined a vacation for me . Because of this I doubt I will ever get one again.

The joystick that came with mine was broken and I was hoping to use it on a one month trip, but couldn't. When I tried to send it in for repair and said they would give me a prepaid label to send it in with. This so called label never came.

After that I tried to return it. They again said they were gonna give me a prepaid label but still didn't come.

The Zodiac is great, but you have a very high chance of getting one that doesn't work. Ask Prophet on the ZodiacGamer boards. He'll tell you.

 

[Phil]

HAHAHAHA!

saturn emulation, thats rich! saturn couldn't run itself, its even very hard to get any games running on pc emu, i think it can only run 8,

seriously its nver gonna happen

 

[Squidge]

i paid about £220 including shipping fromthe US to the UK
then another £60 for a 512mb SD card!

pretty good really

Which model did you get - the 1 or the 2?

Also, last time I ordered something from the US, it took two weeks before I received.... a bill from the courier for import duties and tax charges! Hiked the price up by another £70.

Must say though, build quality looks excellent, but reliability is pretty much on par with Windows98. People are complaining about broken analog joysticks, faulty sound, faulty earphone sockets, faulty displays, etc. I visited Zodiacgamer yesterday to find someone who'd RMA'd three times so far due to the unit being unreliable (well, faulty) after a peiod of months.

I hope they get this sorted for the retail release (if it ever happens - are Tapwave and Gamepark part of some parent company by any chance? There release dates seem to be VERY close together now)

 

[Axeman]

i paid about £220 including shipping fromthe US to the UK
then another £60 for a 512mb SD card!

pretty good really

Where from? Just curious!

 

[craigix]

Hey, I will have them on my site for £199 + vat in the next few days if anyone wants one, most probably pre-set-up for dev too. Email me to reserve as numbers limited.

-Craig

www.gbax.com

 

[EvilDragon]

Hey, I will have them on my site for £199 + vat in the next few days

A model 1 or 2?

 

[craigix]

1 & £199
2 & £249

+ vat in UK

Best I can do for now...

-Craig

www.gbax.com

 

[Squidge]

Is this with american 110V PSU or UK 240V PSU ?

 

[mattmagoo]

Oh Craig, congrats on the compo for Retro Gamer, did u have to pay, or did u just give em a GP32 and get free advertising

pretty cunning.

And is it a BLU, coz the mag sez it is??????

 

[gary]

to answer a few questions:

1. i got a zodiac 2 (128mb ram version) for £220 inc shipping.

2.i bought if from a guy through the zodiac gamer forum named "inomad" - hes a us resident who bought via the tapwave site and then shipped to me - he was very reliable and informed me of updates almost on a daily basis.

i know theres a lot of issues with the zodiac - apparently it was with earlier models - teething trouble i would guess - im pretty happy to take that chance - afterall, i got fuul speed snes emu on a MASSIVE screen!

also - i'd go for the zodiac 2 with 128mb of ram - theres a good chance that neo geo emu will be pos in the future what with daves cyclone emu, bug SD cards and 128mb of ram - rumours are it will be possible for the lower meg count games - one can only hope!

craigs offer of £249 for a zod 2 seen good - especially if its dev ready - this means you dont have to wait for programmes to be "signed" by tapwave - you can just download them fom the developer and play - for example, yoyo's LJZ emu is only playable on a zodiac with the "developer key" installed. its not available to everyone so if it comes with it - thats one problem solved. This is because any programme that uses the actual zodiac hardware specific features needs to be sent and approved by tapwave before the general public use it. (in a nut shell)

laters
Gary