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[radioheadrule83]

MS are supporting Gizmondo. Only Age of Empires, Mech Assault and It's Mr Pants from Rare announced so far but more announcements are expected.

Would MS support of any other handhelds be significant at all do you think?
Do you think its likely?
Or will they just support Windows CE related platforms?

 

[Ninja Scooter]

what the hell is gizmondo?

 

[SantaC]

yeah isn't that a site.

 

[Shogmaster]

Win win for MS. No money spent on hardware developement, and chance to promote WIN CE, D3DM and sell some already made games as well.

 

[Gantz]

Sounds like a porn company.

 

[radioheadrule83]

It's a new handheld from Tiger (tiger telimatics):

http://www.gizmondo.com/

 

[Wario64]

what the hell is gizmondo?

yeah isn't that a site.

lol!

 

[M3wThr33]

The Gizmondo is trash. It's trying to compete with the Zodiac, but lacks a touchscreen, so the available WinCE/PPC code doesn't work. On top of that, the buttons are impossible to pronounce. 9dots, approximatelyEqualsSign, ThreeLines and Circle are totally awesome.

Edit: I guess they changed it to VCR symbols. Smart move. But it still doesn't have an analog stick like the Zodiac. You'll still need your PDA.

 

[Shogmaster]

The Gizmondo is trash. It's trying to compete with the Zodiac, but lacks a touchscreen, so the available WinCE/PPC code doesn't work. On top of that, the buttons are impossible to pronounce. 9dots, approximatelyEqualsSign, ThreeLines and Circle are totally awesome,

It's got some wacky design issues (the forementioned idiotic button labeling, lack of analog control anything), but it kills the Zod as a gaming device since it's got access to quick port of WIN CE/PPC games, and a much faster 3D capability via a real 3D GPU. The lack of touchscreen is a moot issue, since it's not trying to be a PDA like the Zod.

Both will fail hard though. Zod suck at 3D and Giz is WAY overpriced, lacks gaming focus and marketing.

Edit: I guess they changed it to VCR symbols. Smart move.

Yeah. Probably the smartest thing I've seen them do other than including the GoForce 3D 4500.

But it still doesn't have an analog stick like the Zodiac. You'll still need your PDA.

What's PDAs got to do with gaming portables? Trying to marry them and you get an underpowered and undersupported mess like the Zod.

 

[Kon Tiki]

Is that the final model?

Screens of games look good, needs more than 15 games for a purchase.

 

[Gregory]

From what I`ve seen it certainly seems much more powerful than the DS, although not quite PSP level. Too bad it will flop though, just like every other handheld it seems.

 

[Shogmaster]

Is that the final model?

Screens of games look good, needs more than 15 games for a purchase.

I think it needs to be alot less than $400 or so that it's going for. Wake me up when it loses the camera, and the GPS, adds an analog stick,and cuts price down to around $150 or less.

Hmmmm.... sounds familiar...

 

[Kon Tiki]

Does not look bad at all.


Edit: $400! Ok make that 100 must own games

 

[Shogmaster]

Does not look bad at all.


Edit: $400! Ok make that 100 must own games

Even though some of those pics are not from the Giz versions (like the last two), it should provide for DC level graphics if coded properly. The only real hinderence to that is the video RAM (1MB) for the GPU, but it does have tons system RAM available to it, so if they could arrange some sort of texture streaming from system RAM to GPU RAM, things could look good as DC games.

 

[Kon Tiki]

Portable DC graphics is not bad thing. Maybe Nintendo should buy this from Tiger.

 

[Shogmaster]

Portable DC graphics is not bad thing.

I think it's the ideal thing. PSP's graphics rock, but I think it will rob dev effort from PS2 in the near term, and it's battery life too little.

I'd much prefer DC level portable with better battery life, $130 or less price, and a development model for Junior dev companies or teams to cut their teeth on with far less dev budgets, instead of main console dev teams being tempted to migrate down to portables for the sake of potentially better profit margins.

Maybe Nintendo should buy this from Tiger.

Nintendo should just license the next version of the GoForce chip, or the PowerVr MBX, or whatever ATI is cooking up for this market segment. Besides the GoForce 3D 4500, I don't like rest of the Giz much at all.

 

[FoneBone]

I'd say this is even more DOA than N-Gage, even if it's better designed.

 

[Shogmaster]

I'd say this is even more DOA than N-Gage, even if it's better designed.

Because of the price, I'd say you are probably right.

 

[snapty00]

Get a real version (i.e., made by Bungie, made with a full budget, made with ample amount of time, etc.) of Halo on it, and then maybe it'll be worth something.

 

[Shogmaster]

Get a real version (i.e., made by Bungie, made with a full budget, made with ample amount of time, etc.) of Halo on it, and then maybe it'll be worth something.

MS might do that for their own XBoy, but not for a soon to be dead WIN CE device of the month.

 

[M3wThr33]

Well, I keep going back to the PDA because it's based off WinCE/PPC. Yeah, so was the DC, but I mean that games are going to be related, so they might as well try to implement SOME PIM functions.

 

[neptunes]

Isn't this thing more powerful than the PSP?

It has it's own dedicated GPU (GoForce somthing, developed by Nvidia)

Too bad it'll be crippled by it's rather small media storage.

 

[M3wThr33]

I'm pretty sure it is SD, which can go up to 2GB in size.

 

[Mason]

I hadn't heard of this thing until now. It actually looks pretty cool; it's like a better version of the PSP.

Simply download your movies to your PC and then transfer them to your Gizmondo via USB 2.0. Your files will then be saved to your unit's SD card. Because Gizmondo relies on Windows Media Video, you'll get staggering viewing quality despite tiny file sizes.

And check out the screens:

This game "City" sounds really cool:

City is a multiplayer short-time game, aiming to provide first-class entertainment for Gizmondo gamers in limited time situations. Like when you are taking a bus ride or just waiting for a friend.

City utilises the unique GPS functionality of the Gizmondo. It incorporates a player's physical location into the game itself, creating a unique virtual gaming world that can extend to the off-line world. City involves the players even further with the Gizmondo's messaging possibilities through GPRS as well as the device's Bluetooth. Not forgetting the in-built digital camera to help personalise the gaming experience even further.

http://www.gizmondo.com/games/item.asp?id=7

 

[neptunes]

I'm pretty sure it is SD, which can go up to 2GB in size.

Last time I checked official games use a new proprietary solid state media manfucatured by M-Systems, the same group who's rumored to supply Xenon's Flash media Storage.

maybe it'll support normal SD's too? :S

 

[snapty00]

Dayum, that racing game actually looks really good.

 

[retardboy]

I've always thought the Gizmondo had great looking hardware, it's just the name that is going to kill it. Where are they going to get resellers when they don't have any name recognition? I think MS should have put their name on it since that thing looks extremely nice hardwarewise. They don't need to make it or anything, just put their name on it so it will at least have some name recognition.

 

[Agent X]

Isn't the screen resolution only 320x240?

 

[Lyte Edge]

While this does look awesome, the PSP is going to kill it. I guess we know the real reason why MS was badmouthing the PSP now though.

I'd consider getting one of these if it supported Pocket PC apps or used the Palm OS system, but it doesn't look to be very "PDA-friendly" in its design.

BTW, I have a Tapwave Zodiac 2. It's a very nice PDA, with a great layout of the analog stick/buttons to make it pefect for gaming. But no game comes anywhere close to looking as good as those Gizmondo games do. I bought the Zodiac for emulation, however, and the emus available are coming along very nicely. Plus the Zodiac is small and quite slim, with two ports for SD cards, so you can have up to 2gb worth of data in your system at one time. It's great for watching movies, listening to music, and playing some old-school games; this was my alternative to getting an iPod.

The Gizmondo seems to be more of a straight-out gaming system than a PDA/gaming system hybrid (so the lack of support on the Zodiac means nothing as there's plenty of Palm OS apps out there you can use), and while it looks awesome, for $400, it's not worth the money since it will get killed by the DS and the PSP.

 

[Shogmaster]

Well, I keep going back to the PDA because it's based off WinCE/PPC. Yeah, so was the DC, but I mean that games are going to be related, so they might as well try to implement SOME PIM functions.

Apparently Tiger Telmatics is just as confused as well. They are putting out a version (no joke) called Bizmondo, with touch screen, and PIM functions. Talk about scatterbrain company.....

Isn't this thing more powerful than the PSP?

It has it's own dedicated GPU (GoForce somthing, developed by Nvidia)

Fuck no. The CPU is a general purpose unit with really slow FLOP performance, and a GPU that's only rated around 1M PPS in games. PSP shits on it by around 8 to 1 margin. Not as bad as kazillion to 1 margin of PSP to DS, but.....

Too bad it'll be crippled by it's rather small media storage.

That's no big whup. Plenty of good games can fit in 128 or 256MB cards.

And check out the screens:

Those are not running on the Giz. I'll bet anything that those are PC versions. Just look at the resolution of the UI interface. If those are screens of the Giz, then the UI would be much chunkier, since they have to be readable @ 320x240.

 

[Project Midway]

Yeah, its bit "confusing" they are using PC screens... check out Interstellar Flames and Stunt Car Extreme at their site to see real screenshots.

 

[Shogmaster]

Yeah, its bit "confusing" they are using PC screens... check out Interstellar Flames and Stunt Car Extreme at their site to see real screenshots.

Well, those aren't the Giz version either anymore (they use to be). Those shots are of the games before the GoForce 3D 4500, running on software rendering.

Here's shot of Stuntcar Extreme now, running on the GoForce 3D 4500:

And here's what it would look like running @ 320x240 on the Giz:

 

[duderon]

So basically, this thing runs vaporware :lol

 

[Project Midway]

Well, those aren't the Giz version either anymore (they use to be). Those shots are of the games before the GoForce 3D 4500, running on software rendering.

lol....so they need someone to update their website...

 

[Shogmaster]

lol....so they need someone to update their website...

Everything about the Gizmondo operations seem half assed, so no surprises there.

 

[FortNinety]

So basically, this thing runs vaporware :lol

No... it will also connect to your Phantom. Take that Nintendo!