Zodiac

[Squidge]

Very true. I don't know about you, but I don't mind paying a small amount of money for my games. I payed £8.30 ($15) for Microquad racing game (Mariocart rip-off), which I think is excellent value for money. The most I've payed so far for a single game is £11 (Acedior - an adventure game).

 

[Jr2swiss]

Yes but many of the games are not worth the money. I also don't mind paying for games like Microquad, its a great game but games like THPS4, Spyhunter, etc... They are not worth the $30.

 

[declaration]

There may not be many Zodiac sepcific homebrew games, but there are plenty of Palm freeware games.

it doesnt matter if they run at 320x320, because that is enough.

My most played Z game is probably a frewware Yahtzee clone called Yahdice.

 

[Squidge]

Must say though I use my Zodiac more as a PDA than playing games or using emulators - they are about 5% of it's usage.

 

[generalnmx]

Must say though I use my Zodiac more as a PDA than playing games or using emulators - they are about 5% of it's usage.

Warning: Long post, skip down to the bottom for my actual conclusion in bullet points.

This is exactly the reason why I do not have a Zodiac. Really, it's a very cool little gadget, and I am attracted to its emulators and games, and its development potentional, but the thing is that I already have the GP32 for gaming and dev'ing, and I also have some other techniques to keep myself informed (aka, PDA stuff) - my mobile phone, a pocket notebook (the paper kind), and a calculator watch w/ phone numbers and notes. And, of course, I have a laptop, which is far superior to any PDA in every way except mobility (of course). While my "information databases" isn't nearly as powerful, save the laptop, I find them entirely sufficient for my purposes. Really, I already have enough gizmos on my body, and I barely have enough space for my GP32 as-is. If I were to get something with some better PDA functionality, it would be the Ericcson P-800 to replace my Nokia 3650 (I like Symbian OS and Series 60). These phones can also act as as my anytime digital camera, very small capacity digital video recorder, smallish-capacity voice recorder, and even play games and 8-bit emulators. For some relaxed expections, this greatly reduces the number of devices I carry on my person.

Now you're probably thinking, "but you only talked about the PDA stuff, and barely mentioned the games and emulators for the Zodiac". It's obvious that the Zodiac has more potentional for games and emulators then the GP32 - I'm not some GP32 fanatic who will deny it. But, to me, the Zodiac is a PDA first and a gaming machine second. Just like the N-Gage is a mobile phone first and a gaming machine second. The GP32 is a gaming machine first, and other stuff second. So while the Zodiac looks like an amazing gadget, you can't just look at its gaming capacity and ignore its PDA functions, even if you are comparing it to the GP32. In my opinion, there is only one way you can accurately compare the Zodiac to the GP32 - what you want to do with it. Not what's more powerful, not what has more potentional, not what looks cooler, not even what has more features then the other. The Zodiac and the GP32 are too far apart, in my opinion, to warrent an honest comparison like this. It's like trying to non-specifically compare a desktop computer vs a laptop computer - while both can have the same operating system and even similiar hardware, their intended use is very different. Now let's look at what you wrote:

I would just use it for emulation.

And let's convert this all to bullet points:

- The GP32 is a gaming machine first.
- The Zodiac is a PDA first, gaming machine second.
- The Zodiac is more powerful then the GP32, allowing future emulators and games to surprass the GP32.
- Current emulators for the Zodiac are not amazingly more powerful then the GP32.
- You (original poster) just want to use it for emulation.

Conclusion: Don't buy the Zodiac unless you have money to spare. If you really want far better emulators then offered by the GP32, wait until the Zodiac actually has them.

Now for the reason - if you aren't going to use the PDA functions of the Zodiac regularly, it's not a logical to make such a hefty investment unless you have money to burn. Think of the Zodiac as a GP42 + PDA - it's more expensive, but more powerful (hence GP42 instead of 32) and with PDA functions. But if your goal is to play 8-bit and SNES and Genesis, logically you're better off sticking with the GP32. If your heart is set to one day play Neo-Geo, N64, supped-up SNES and Genesis, etc., then the Zodiac may be a better bet. But, right now, the Zodiac doesn't have THAT much better emulators to warrent the conclusion that it's better then the GP32 in terms of ability, taking the price of the Zodiac into account.

Just to make sure, I'm not saying the Zodiac or the GP32 sucks. I think all of my conclusions were fairly logical, based on the current state, hardware, and overall abilities of the two systems.

 

[Squidge]

Nicely said! I really think of the Zodiac in the emulation department as a GP32 with more ram available. It's not that easy to use more than 8mb, but it's very easy to use the additional memory for roms, so you could load a 16mb rom and still have 8mb free.

It's possible that the Zodiac will get NeoGeo support some time in the future, but N64 is stretching it too far - the N64 is simply too powerful, as the Zodiac contains only software 3D and a processor not much faster than the GP32.

I still believe the GP32 to be the better emulation machine between them however for retro stuff, simply because the analog control on the Z is more awkward to use than the digital one on the GP32 (which is exactly what old hardware used to use) and the fact that the Zodiac is all 16-bit graphics, whereas most of the hardware we want to emulate is better done in 8-bit.

What will be nice is a PocketPC with gaming-style controls rather than the PDA-type controls. The Gizmondo seems to be the first to try this (running the PocketPC's OS WindowsCE), but I think the screen is too small.