Zodiac Vs Gp32

[crzyman101]

crimson fire just released there long awaited gba emulator. i dont know how in the holy hell they did it with the big N thretening to sue for infringing. i have no idea whats hapening. he should have gave more details on leagal status. im still planing on buying a gp32. the only thing that kinda drew me away from the gamepark was the smc issue. where u have to buy a card to save all ur shit. that kinda pisses me off. so im still thinking about it. zodiac (cheap version runs for about 299.00) and has way more features then gp32. but gp32 runs for 200 and has a bigger communtiy. the dibate is large. but simple. some things that they could do to make the gp better is to make it run on a palm os. and also to put some strorage in it so people wont have to go out and buy smc. im still thinking long and hard on which one im going to get and right now im leading for the gp. i heard the the emulation for gba is becoming almost perfect so with a little patietnts ill have what i always wanted. ID LIKE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS SO PLZ RESPOND GUYS.

 

[DaveC]

crimson fire just released there long awaited gba emulator. i dont know how in the holy hell they did it with the big N thretening to sue for infringing. i have no idea whats hapening. he should have gave more details on leagal status. im still planing on buying a gp32. the only thing that kinda drew me away from the gamepark was the smc issue. where u have to buy a card to save all ur shit. that kinda pisses me off. so im still thinking about it. zodiac (cheap version runs for about 299.00) and has way more features then gp32. but gp32 runs for 200 and has a bigger communtiy. the dibate is large. but simple. some things that they could do to make the gp better is to make it run on a palm os. and also to put some strorage in it so people wont have to go out and buy smc. im still thinking long and hard on which one im going to get and right now im leading for the gp. i heard the the emulation for gba is becoming almost perfect so with a little patietnts ill have what i always wanted. ID LIKE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS SO PLZ RESPOND GUYS.

Oh no.. Not another GP32 vs Zodiac thread.

Well, I have them both, A Zodiac 2 and a GP32.

First the screen resolution on the GP32 seems better suited for emus that used to run on a TV. This is because they fill the screen at 1:1. On the Zodiac the higher res makes games very small at 1:1 and when you scale them to full screen they become distorted and look icky.

I can't see why you are whining about having to buy a SMC on the GP32. I mean they are around $40 for a 128Meg card. A GP32 plus a memory card is still cheaper than a Zodiac.

Emulators are almost all pay only and they are locked to your Zodiac. This means you need to re-register if you need to exchange your Zodiac like if the joystick breaks.

The battery in the zodiac is hard wired in like the ipod, so when it wears out you need to send it back to them for replacement. The GP32 uses standard AA batteries.

Forget GBAz on the Zodiac for now. Even the GBC games run slow. You can get a GBC/GB emu for free on the GP32. The GBA function on the GBAz is not implemented yet, so it is GB/GBC only at the moment. I would wait to see if they get the GBA emu part out before Nintendo sues them.

On the plus side for the Zodiac the screen contrast is good, and it is a PDA if you need a PDA. It is good for MP3s, photo viewing, address book, etc. That is mostly what I use my Zodiac for right now as there aren't many games for it yet other than Palm games.

 

[IntenseWage]

Are you serious? It has trouble running GBC games? Ha! Chalk up another point for GP32.

 

[*Dc*hardcoregamez]

i was interested in zodiac but for now im ahppy with my gp32

 

[Drumaster]

Have you actually looked at the $300 Zodiac? It comes with a 32 MB Internal Card. Which is taken up mostly by the PalmOS. You might fit one or two very small games on whats left over after PalmOS, but nothing really usefull.

If you buy the $300 zodiac, if you plan on doing ANYTHING other than writing small documents, you will need to buy a 128 MB (or higher) card. Just like you have to do with the GamePark.

So in the end, you end up paying $400 for the Zodiac 1 + a 128 MB card, you might as well just get the Zodiac 2 for the same price.

32 MB and 128 MB are not internal hard disk space but RAM!

"2 models—32MB* and 128MB* RAM (*12MB reserved for system use)"

So it's much better to get a 128 MO of RAM if the game is huge in textures for example.

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

32 MB and 128 MB are not internal hard disk space but RAM!

"2 models—32MB* and 128MB* RAM (*12MB reserved for system use)"

So it's much better to get a 128 MO of RAM if the game is huge in textures for example.

Ahh I see, I was wrong, I based my limited understanding of the zodiac on 3rd party information rather than the offical site which says on it in big red letters 32 & 128 MB RAM

Off topic, how much harddrive space does each version have? (I plan on getting a zodiac eventually...)

 

[Drumaster]

No hard disk space.

"Dual expansion slots for MMC, SD, and SDIO cards."

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

No hard disk space.
You have to buy secure digital card like the smc on gp32.

Ahh, ok so it doesnt come with a card or internal flash memory. And the 32 - 128 MB is RAM, ahh makes sense now.


It does, however, contain a PalmOs...on ROM then?

 

[Drumaster]

I sold my gp32 FLU and now I can't decide if I'll buy a BLU one or a Zodiac! :unsure:

 

[Drumaster]

It does, however, contain a PalmOs...on ROM then?

Yes it does and it also needs RAM to run it (12 MB) like your PC for Windows.

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

It does, however, contain a PalmOs...on ROM then?

Yes it does and it also needs RAM to run it (12 MB) like your PC for Windows.

What version of windows are you using that needs 12 MB of RAM? version 1? LOL

Are you serious? It has trouble running GBC games? Ha! Chalk up another point for GP32.

I wouldnt count those eggs yet.

 

[Drumaster]

(Drumaster @ Mar 30 2004, 05:42 AM)

It does, however, contain a PalmOs...on ROM then?

Yes it does and it also needs RAM to run it (12 MB) like your PC for Windows. 

Umm what version of windows needs 12 MB of ram? version 1? Lol

 

[Drumaster]

Will we be able to use PWADS with Doom on Zodiac or is it a "not free" payable version?

I'll buy a BLU if we can't because I did a huge work on my PWADS and I want to use them on my handheld console!

 

[Jr2swiss]

How good will the never winter nights be, it seems like a nice idea.

 

[jcbnetwork]

Are you guys sure that the Zodiac memory is just RAM? Because if you look at a PDA like a Palm Zire, they come with 2MB of memory. And that memory is used to store programs and program data.

I had always assumed that the Zodiac was like a PDA in the form that you could actually store programs on the 32MB of memory (-12MB for the OS).

Why would tapwave want to create 2 devices which would be quite different in developers eyes. Who would develop a game requiring the full 128MB of ram knowing full well that there are countless other zodiac owners who wouldnt be able to run that program? I am thinking you guys are wrong and the 32MB and 128MB are actually memory in the terms of PDA memory. Besides, what about the space required to save all the contacts in your address book? Where are those saved? Those couldnt be saved in RAM because they would be erased when you turn the power off. So obviously the zodiac must have some kind of internal storage, and I'm willing to bet its the 32mb or 128mb.

The people that actually own the zodiac should answer this. Can you add programs to your zodiac without having to purchase a separate memory card? If so, then there is just no comparison with the GP32 and the Zodiac.

For the price of a FLU + memory card you can get a Zodiac I.

Sure the zodiac emu scene is not as good as the GP32 scene is right now, but at least they have the hardware potential to emulate systems we could never emulate on our GP32s.

 

[Drumaster]

Here some links to convince you :

Search, it's written on the page.

http://www.tapwave.com/product/index.asp

And developpers will develop games like pc developpers. It works with 32 MB RAM but It's better with 128 MB!
That's all

And what would be the intrest to sell 100 dollars more just for a little more memory whereas secure digital provides much more space and knowing that anyway you'll buy one because 128 MO isn't enough when you can get more?

 

[jcbnetwork]

Just because they mention the word RAM does not convince me.

YOU are the ones who should research some more and will realize that...

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Don't be confused by the terminology:

both systems have 12 megs of heap memory or you can veiw this as system ram.

the rest of the ram in both systems should be viewed as something similar to an internal hard drive.

-----------

So as you can see, its only 12MB reserved for acting as RAM and the rest is considered STORAGE.

 

[Drumaster]

Just because they mention the word RAM does not convince me.

YOU are the ones who should research some more and will realize that...

----------

Don't be confused by the terminology

RAM doesn't convince you?! Do you know what RAM does mean?!!!!

It means Read Access Memory not Write Access Memory!!!

So you can't write by yourself on it so it isn't Hard disk!!!

And it's not written "Internal memory" so don't be silly!

And they didn't put this "Zodiac1 comes with 32MB RAM
Zodiac2 comes with 128MB RAM " if it wasn't true!

YOU are the ones who should learn more about computer and will realize that...

 

[Robster]

jcbnetwork, you're kind of on the right track BUT:

The memory is RAM, but it is non-volatile. It can be put in a low-power "sleep" state where it retains its contents, but will take a long time to run the batteries down. But if you remove the batteries, you will lose all of your data. I don't have a Zodiac, but I do have a Palm and when I'm changing the batteries if I leave the batteries out for more than a minute, everything is lost. It's not such a major problem because the desktop PC software allows you to easily back up your entire system.

Because EVERYTHING is kept in RAM, if you have the memory filled up with MP3s (and address book etc) you may not be able to play a game which requires a few MB of working memory. So no game is going to "require the full 128MB" because then that would be the only thing you could put on your Zodiac!

So the basic Zodiac doesn't have the distinction between RAM and program storage like the GP32 does. The memory cards that you can put in the Zodiac are useful for data, you could probably put MP3s on them and play them directly from the card, but if it's an application you'd have to copy it to the main memory to run it.

 

[Drumaster]

So games and emu have to be copied?

But if you remove the batteries, you will lose all of your data.

So he can't name it Hard drive 'cause hard drive has physically written data it can't loss when it turns off.

If I believe what you said Robster it's RAM because it's temporary and it's empty when you turn off your console.

but if it's an application you'd have to copy it to the main memory to run it.

It's bad, on gp32 all apps are launched from smc...