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Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

Tapwave Zodiac Creators Update On Handheld 23

Posted by simoniker from the leo-pisces-capricorn dept.
Thanks to Zodiac Gamer for reprinting a progress report on the reception to the Tapwave Zodiac handheld gaming system, as the creators of the Palm-compatible device mention accolades such as a CES 'Last Gadget Standing' award from PCMag, and also note they've "received a very small number of units back for joystick-related issues", mainly involving calibration problems. The post also comments on newly released games enhanced specifically for the device, singling out the Atari Retro pack, which ZodiacGamer had earlier previewed, and discussing upcoming titles: "Doom II is going through final single-player testing and sign-off and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 is in our final phases of multiplayer testing."
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Tapwave Zodiac Creators Update On Handheld More

Tapwave Zodiac Creators Update On Handheld

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  • TapWave as a PDA, not a GBA replacement... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RevAaron ( 125240 ) <revaaron AT hotmail DOT com> on Saturday January 24, 2004 @07:40PM (#8077755) Homepage
    I said it before- here and elsewhere- and I'll say it again. If I were in the market for a many functioned PalmOS PDA, I would get a TapWave Zodiac. And I can't say I would plan on buying more than a couple games, a few classics or puzzle games that I would play often.

    For $400, you get a pretty nice PalmOS machine. A fast CPU, a big and nice screen, bluetooth, dual SDIO slots, and a heaping helping of RAM. For $300 you get all that, but with 32 MB instead of 128 MB of RAM- still a nice price for a nice machine. Similarily equipped Sony or PalmOne devices often cost more- and none of them have dual SD slots. Definately a handy thing to have, especially if you don't have both CF and SD.
    • Both the $300 and $400 models of the Zodiac have the same amount of volitile work RAM, thus can play the same games and have the same performance. It's just the flash-ram storage that's different. An extra $100 apparently buys you an extra 96MB to store your files and programs. Both, I believe, have flash card slots if you need extra space.

      You may know this, but I feel it is important to point out to the public at large. When they see a difference in "RAM", they automatically assume that one is more po
      • Do you know how much volatile RAM the Zodiac has? How much heap space?

        As I pointed out a couple times, both models of the Zodiac have two SD slots, one a plain-old SD slot and one SDIO. Both can be used for SD flash RAM cards, and the SDIO slot can be used for adding wifi, a camera, etc etc.

        Man, I really wished the Zodiac had a little camera, ala the Zire 71. If it did... I'd probably buy one, even without PalmOS 6! I have really wanted a little camera in my PDA for a while, for capturing those moments I
        • To answer your question, according to this page [tapwave.com], apparently I was half wrong. They both have the same amount of system memory (12MB), but it is not volitile RAM. It's allocated out of the internal Flash RAM.

          Thus, it looks like the 32MB model only has 20MB of "storage" space, for instance.

          And then there is the 8MB of video RAM, but that's apart from everything else.
    • I had an opportunity to play with a Zodiac yesterday, including the new Atari Retro pack tweaked for the Zodiac. It is a very impressive device, both as a PDA and a games machine. Basically it's a damn good generic peice of pocket-sized computing hardware.

      Shame I already have a PDA that I don't use. I have room for my wallet/keys (one thing), plus one other device and it just has to be my mobile phone. While I clip my iPod onto my belt, that's only for going to and from work -- not for every moment of t

    • I am in the market for a PalmOS PDA. The TapWave Zodiac does indeed look great.

      However, I'm waiting for them to add OS X support.
  • OK, don't mean to be a tool (third pr0st!@) by submitting the only two readable posts so far, but ...

    Anyone heard about their plans to bring PalmOS 6 to the TapWave? Anyone know if there will be a software upgrade for the existing devices, or if not, a new device with the newer OS? Any rumors?

    In my other post, I said that if I was going to be buying a PalmOS PDA, I would get one of these. I won't buy a PalmOS device until at least PalmOS 6- I need the functionality of something closer to a "real" OS. P
    • Well if you knew what the hell you were talking about it'd help. I don't know for you, but my IM client on my Tungsten T2 stays online when I go in the address book.
      • Some apps are set up to handle it. Partially, it depends on the IM protocol. But I've used plenty of networking apps- IRC is what I use most- where I have to go through the whole reconnection process if I ever have to leave the app and start another. Mind you, with some DAs/hacks you could get at some data- paste an address from your address book, stuff like that- but I am talking about totally leaving the program.

        Heck, on the Tungsten C that I had for a while [1] I had to re-establish the wifi connection
      • I don't know for you, but my IM client on my Tungsten T2 stays online when I go in the address book.

        PalmOS 5 is not a multi-tasking, protected mode operating system, and it shows. It causes problems for the UI (e.g., when you switch between applications, views change capriciously) and for robustness (applications that crash often take down the whole handheld).

        The fact that a few applications manage to "stay online" doesn't make the OS multitasking. DOS had TSR programs and various other hacks, and that
        • Don't forget- somewhere in the PalmOS 4.x series, Sony added a super primitive form of multitasking. Basically, all it did was allow one background thread which recieved only a tiny chunk of the machine's resources. All the thread could do is pipe data to the mp3 decoder chip on the lil guy's motherboard. that way, you could listen to mp3s *and* be in the addressbook at the same time! What an invention!

          Hmpf! "PDAs don't need multitasking" they say! Ha! The PDA may not care, but I do! If I am going to spe

  • Last gadget standing. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lord Graga ( 696091 ) on Saturday January 24, 2004 @07:58PM (#8077851)
    No wonder. This is the first well-designed multi-application device that I have ever seen. It's a PDA, a REAL pda! Not a PDA-like OS. And, it has a gaming mode and other special features that is independent from Palm OS. That is interesting, because that's what peoples wants! Nobody likes N-Gage in a year, because it's *another* multi-application system that tries to solve it's needs with a new OS/etc. Zodiac uses Palm OS, an allready existing OS that peoples will actually make programs for. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't any N-Gage support in Nokias next "(gaming+phone)/2;". That's why they are screwed, and that's why Zodiac will live: If it will suck as a gaming machine it will still be a quite powerfull PDA.
    • It's a PDA, a REAL pda! Not a PDA-like OS

      Newton had something that might be called a "real PDA OS". The Sharp Zaurus has a "real OS that works well for a PDA". But Zodiac and Palm have neither. The reason that they work so well is simply the enormous efforts that application writers put into the platform. Zodiac's OS is a Frankenstein monster, a combination of the outdated PalmOS 5 platform with some gaming features thrown in.

      and that's why Zodiac will live: If it will suck as a gaming machine it wi
      • Newton had something that might be called a "real PDA OS". The Sharp Zaurus has a "real OS that works well for a PDA".

        Ha! It is about time someone else said that- so I didn't have to. I often bring up the fact that I want my PDA to have something resembling a "real OS," or at least, provide multitasking and some other so-called "perks" that I expect in an OS, be it on a computer that fits on my desk or in my pocket.

        PalmOS users often say- why would you need a PDA to have multitasking? A PDA isn't meant t
        • PalmOS 6 is the answer, at least, the answer most PalmOS users and licensees are looking at. Hopefully it'll be a good answer, but I have some reservations.

          I agree with those technical issues. But I see a more fundamental problem: Palm's history and attitude. They started off as ex-Macintosh hackers and basically just repeated technically what they did before: lots of low-level hacking, nice apps, and no understanding of the longer-range issues. In fact, arguably, they repeated what they did with Macin
          • Qtopia has wasted years rewriting the low-level graphics stuff but doing no better than Palm or PPC on apps.

            And not just no better, but quite a bit worse. Heck, I have found better and more available Linux/Unix adaptations for WinCE than for the Zaurus. It is easier to simply recompile a Linux app for the Zaurus, but a lot of those apps aren't usable on a PDA.

            The right thing to do would be to develop an updated Newton-like environment (dynamic language, persistent database, XML data interchange, etc.)
        • When transitioning from 68K to ARM, Palm made a 2 stage process. PalmOS 5 is the first stage, making the ARM devices backwardly compatible with 68K devices. This is done by an "open box" emulator called PACE. Basically the OS is running seperately from PACE, and any program running in PACE will have all of it's OS called translated into ARM PalmOS calls. It's sort of like a WinNT running a Win3.1 program (or a PPC Mac running a 68K Mac program), but without as many protections.

          As part of the first stag
    • Zodiac uses Palm OS, an allready existing OS that peoples will actually make programs for. Not to nitpick, but the rest of your argument kinda falls apart because you included this line. Let's put this in terms of what the N-Gage really does: N-Gage uses Symbian Series 60 OS, an already existing OS used in over a dozen phones that people will (and have, a good couple thousand at a casual glance) make programs for, as well as the ability to play Java apps. There's even Macromedia Flash support for the d

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