07-28-2005, 10:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Tapwave Kills The Zodiac
http://www.tapwave.com/
"We are sorry to inform you that the Zodiac business was discontinued and service and support are no longer available as of July 25th 2005." Well, that is a pretty brutal way to find out your device manufacturer is dropping the platform. Given the liquidators name at the bottom of the front page, "Ueker and Associates," I'd say this is a bankruptcy and not just a discontinued device.
I never understood why someone came out with a dedicated gaming machine based on a PDA platform, and a rather anemic one at that. I have no clue what they were thinking. Nokia tried this and failed. You have to have a ton of money and lots of stamina to stick around long enough to get a new gaming platform running now, or have something so totally new it blows people away. TapWave had neither. I feel bad for owners of this device. My understanding is games had to be signed to take full advantage of the platform. Unless TapWave releases the signing keys, there won't be anymore games for the platform.
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07-28-2005, 10:36 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 469
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I agree, but it still is a sad day to see a pda manufacturer going out of business. To me, pda's/pocket pc's are awesome, no matter what the platform. They are and have always been a device that can do so many different things. At one point I actually considered getting the zodiac for gaming and multimedia. Oh well, I guess you could question why they didn't come out with a windows mobile pocket pc instead as a second generation device.
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07-28-2005, 10:42 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 170
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No my Zodiac!!!
I have this device. They are very nice. But I started to notice the devicess game specific dwindle to no more being produced. However standard Palm Games still work very well. This is definately very sad news for me. 
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07-28-2005, 11:16 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 330
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The Zod is a nice little device and was very cheap in the UK. It is a sad day for all Zodiac owners. Just as they where rejoycing at Picard for making TCMP available for it. No more access to zodiac SDK's for the Xforge API's or the hardware specific API's like the rumble or the joystick or even the ATI hardware. And as ED said the signing keys are needed to run any app that takes advantage of the Zodiac's hardware. Codewarrior have even taken Codewarrior for Palm off their site (which affects most palm developers). The palm world is a very strange place.
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07-28-2005, 11:21 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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No surprises here - you cannot make a handheld gaming device mainstream without millions upon millions of dollars in advertising, developer evangelism, etc. They just didn't have the juice to make this succeed. The Gizmondo will suffer the same fate. :?
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07-28-2005, 11:41 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 652
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
No surprises here - you cannot make a handheld gaming device mainstream without millions upon millions of dollars in advertising, developer evangelism, etc. They just didn't have the juice to make this succeed. The Gizmondo will suffer the same fate. :?
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Agreed, I didn't understand the fasination in the first place. To think someone at my job bought one and actually thinks it's better than their PPC. Although they aren't a power user so that may have something to do with that. Oh well, it was a disaster waiting to happen I guess.
__________________
Making use of mobile tech like no other.
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07-28-2005, 11:57 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 102
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
No surprises here - you cannot make a handheld gaming device mainstream without millions upon millions of dollars in advertising, developer evangelism, etc. They just didn't have the juice to make this succeed. The Gizmondo will suffer the same fate. :?
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in other words, you'd betta be Sony (or you'll be sorry)...
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07-29-2005, 01:06 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 189
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You'd better be Sony
You'd better be Sony because they already have serious developer clout, lots of hardware and software engineers and a pre-existing user/customer base. Or you'd better be Microsoft with so much money from Windows and Office that you can afford hundreds of millions of dollars in the name of future profits, just like they're doing for PPC, just like they're doing for XBox, just like they're doing for .net, and just like they might do some day for mobile gaming if no-one steps up to the plate to challenge PSP and PSP eventually annihilates nintendo's portable gaming devices. If Sony actually turns the PSP into the mobile entertainment device it hints at being able to become, M$ will have no choice but to challenge it. Otherwise, Bill's dream of world media center domination will never come to full fruition. Xcube anyone? 0X
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07-29-2005, 02:56 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 238
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Re: You'd better be Sony
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Originally Posted by shindullin
You'd better be Sony because they already have serious developer clout, lots of hardware and software engineers and a pre-existing user/customer base. Or you'd better be Microsoft with so much money from Windows and Office that you can afford hundreds of millions of dollars in the name of future profits, just like they're doing for PPC, just like they're doing for XBox, just like they're doing for .net, and just like they might do some day for mobile gaming if no-one steps up to the plate to challenge PSP and PSP eventually annihilates nintendo's portable gaming devices. If Sony actually turns the PSP into the mobile entertainment device it hints at being able to become, M$ will have no choice but to challenge it. Otherwise, Bill's dream of world media center domination will never come to full fruition. Xcube anyone? 0X
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I still see the PSP becoming like a psuedo-Clie type device as well. I like the new firmware update, the built-in web browser isn't bad (based on Netfront), a touch sluggish, but it has a decent amount of features.
In Japan, Sony did partner up with a company to provide downloadable videos directly to the PSP, kind of neat. I wonder if something similar will happen in the US. http://www.p-tv.jp/
As for the news article, I thought that the Zodiac was a great device on paper, just that it was hampered by the limitations of the POS.
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07-29-2005, 01:31 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 39
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RIP et al
Well, the Atari Lynx, Sega GameGear, NeoGeo, N-Gage, etc. all prove that mobile gaming is on tough business. Now Zodiac runs until it goes over the cliff.
What is next. I believe that the Sony PSP is stumbling. I see them on sale and hear news of Sony dropping the price to $200 in the US before they even get it out in Europe. They are rushing to add a browser and other features that they have also promised forever on the PS2 and still not delivered.
The Gizmondo has yet to fail, but almost certainly will. The N-Gage technology in the Nokia phone lineup seems unlikely to go anywhere. I would like to see WM offer a third platform (beside the phone and PDA) with specs for a game machine that could be smaller than either the PSP or DS.
Now, there is another possibility on the horizon. Nintendo has liscensed the Palm OS, at least the synch portions. AND they now have a touch screen for the bottom half of their DS, the only mobile game device I know that has done that.
Alas, poor Zodiac. You have lots of company in the field of failed mobile gaming systems. You will likely get even more.
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