Tapwave Zodiac: The Failed 2003 Gaming PDA

[@LGR]

*Clarifications:* For those curious why I call it a personal _data_ assistant rather than personal _digital_ assistant: In the early 2000s pocket-sized PDAs like the Zodiac were often referred to as personal data assistants, as seen in magazines and other tech publications of the time: books.google.com/books?id=pDgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA56-IA1&dq=%22personal+data+assistant%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbue--mfHZAhWK2VMKHY4yD9wQ6AEINTAD So that definition always stuck with me. But for the most part the terms can be interchanged: www.britannica.com/technology/PDA Also! While I said the games used SD cards, they actually were MMCs, MultiMediaCards: flash memory very similar to SD that uses the same form factor. They still work the same way as SD cards and can be read in any normal modern SD card reader. The Zodiac itself did indeed feature dual SD card slots which were backwards compatible with MMC, and Tapwave made a bigger deal about SD/SDIO in their marketing so it kind of overshadowed the fact that commercial games were on MMC. Apologies for not catching that!

[@jensrobot]

Im more curious about the LGR theme by Andrew Hulshult. Whats up with that?

[@LGR]

I commissioned him to make it for me for this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJPNip6GgLegY5o You can download it here: drive.google.com/open?id=1YgPdZXcLIr-k7InTToLSPeuwthazoR_F

[@jensrobot]

Dang man, thats so awesome. Huge fan of his, thanks for the links!!!

[@Zeon081]

hey LGR, have you ever done Dingoo A320 review? would like to see that.

[@AWriterWandering]

It’s curious that they chose MMC, when the whole point of SD was “Digital rights management”... (back when companies were thinking about distributing preloaded media on these cards.)

[@troypolloy2129]

The Tapwave Zodiac changed my life in a highly random way; there was a wonderful palm-based planetarium program called 2Sky, and the developer created a version of it optimized for the Zodiac control scheme. It was incredibly fluid and intuitive, using the joystick to move around the 3D sky map and shoulder buttons for zooming. The stylus could be used to select and learn about specific objects. And this was all a decade before mobile astronomy programs became the norm. 2Sky taught me my stars and constellations just as I was discovering an interest in science outreach, and I'm now the director of an observatory with one of the world's largest public telescopes. I will never part with my old (and dead) Zodiac I and II.

[@hind__]

Troy Polloy omg that's wonderful!

[@HorseyWithNoNamey]

this is the most heartwarming tech tale I've ever heard.

[@yebo56]

Troy Polloy LGR please post your working device to Mr Polloy

[@harshnemesis]

I love these old pdas, I will never give up my hp ipaq hx 4700 which still works.

[@kaczmaracyck]

Wow. That's great!

[@ChairmanMeow1]

so many late 90s/early 2000s devices tried to do everything average without doing one thing great

[@theJ1M1]

Just Like smartphones

[@elijah4168]

@@theJ1M1 these aren't the same as phones. Smartphones do just about everything, that's entirely the point and it does 90% of those things great, unless it's something hard to even do on a PC like video/photo editing, hardcore gaming, or photo taking.

[@xMilkManDanx]

This describes me perfectly

[@elijah4168]

@Adoki what phone are you using that's "shoddily" made? Most Samsung budget phones can get glass-polymer fuses on the back and the specs are good for the money

[@inactiveaccount6884]

Jacks of all trades but masters of none

[@SAWdudeOG]

“Outgrown a Gameboy” I think there is no such thing.

[@LGR]

Yeeaah, I find that kind of marketing super misguided. What gamer doesn't like having their hobby called childish, right?

[@chillhour6155]

Exactly, why else has the brand been so successful over the span of more then 2 decades

[@berni8k]

And my Windows Mobile PDA from 2004 could run GBA games in a emulator. It was awesome as phones back then had actual buttons.

[@Zenvictplayer]

Not long after Nintendo brings NDS and Sony brings PSP. Face to such strong competitions, Tapwave won't stand a chance.[I don't even know the Tapwave Zodiac at that time.XD]

[@Colddirector]

The only thing I've outgrown is that cursed non-backlit LCD screen. Yech.

[@Manabender]

People who have "outgrown a Game Boy"? You don't outgrow a Game Boy. If you must, you can write "MAN" over "Boy" with a sharpie. But the Game Boy was great for all.

[@midievalcat7770]

YOU TOO OLD FOR A GAME BOY, STOP PLAYIN THOSE BABY TOYS, GET A TAPWAVE ZODIACK. That should have been one of the ads

[@Mr3DLC]

There WAS a game man Saw it in a magazine but forget which one It was basically a giant game boy about as tall as a man I recall it wasnt very ergonomic

[@therealmistermemer]

@@Mr3DLC really? It wasn't ergonomic?

[@ccricers]

Nintendo had a TV commercial with a man in a business suit playing the Game Boy. A voice over said, “You don’t stop playing (games) because you get older. But you could get old if you stop playing.”

[@ibnufasya6408]

@@ccricers lmao 😂

[@gladosthegiant5761]

Fun fact, the tapwave zodiac has appeared on multiple episodes of Stargate SG-1 (TV series) one notible example is on season 9 episode 'Ripples' where when one of many sg-1's is shown, then given an open yellow pelican case with the cure for the prior's disease, in the case is 2 tapwave zodiac as well (it is torwards the end of the episode)

[@kyotra]

"Are you too grown-up to be seen in public with a Game Boy?" The irony of this statement is how immature it sounds.

[@Paul2.4T]

Viljo Vaan facts

[@danijel-ch2gk]

@Tony Oh please ...

[@Splozy]

nintenchildren on suicide watch

[@Jaylin7878g]

I mean it is and was a product made and marketed for use by children.

[@NathanChisholm041]

As a adult I wouldn't be caught dead in public using one!!

[@darkhelmet169]

I miss the early 2000s silver blob design aesthetic.

[@skuzzyj]

Give it another 5 or so years and it'll be in fashion again.

[@HazeMotes]

Everything had to be in a blobey bubble shape back then. I remember windows in old games and programs looked like that too. It all reminds me of late 90's/early 2000's Nickelodeon aesthetic.

[@thestripedmenace]

SkuzzyJ GOD, I hope so! This style is totally my aesthetic

[@smorgasbord26]

It looks like a mockup of a cancelled console from the early 2000s

[@mialemon6186]

Same, between blobby designs and silver on neon colours that were everywhere, all my questionable design choices in life are explained by the early 00s Lmao.

[@TwentyEightySeven]

Considering the year this came out the Tomb Raider port really shows how great the hardware was. I couldn't have even imagined graphics like that on a handheld back then (before the PSP). Pity it was a victim of bad timing and design execution.

[@AgentTasmania]

TwentyEightySeven And yet Duke 3D was cut down to work on it. This stuff is always weird.

[@WedgeStratos]

It also doesn't help the circumstances to consider that Tomb Raider got released to the N-Gage and not this one. The natural path mobile phones were taking were there early on - people just didn't see a need for a PDA when their phone can do some of that too WHILE always being connected to do those things on one device.

[@carso1500]

@@AgentTasmania posibly because they still didnt get the hardware right, with videogame consoles the early games are always worse looking that those released near the end of it's lifespan (or beyond it) because developers learn tricks to squeze as much performance as they can, that is the advantage of a closed system

[@PJKP82]

I remember this thing was used by McKay in "Stargate: Atlantis." I just thought it was a sci fi prop, some alien tricorder, or something. I guess the Tapwave Zodiac works better in the Pegasus galaxy.

[@Ultracity6060]

15:39 You might call it a real Zodiac Killer app. Wait no, don't call it that!

[@FelipeJaquez]

*Ted Cruz laughs*

[@hitkid2456]

Oh lordy

[@Mr3DLC]

Too late:)

[@ArchonZach]

This is the most 2003 thing I've ever seen

[@galloglaigh8198]

What gave that away? The matte silver colour, or the curved/blobby design?

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

Gallóglaigh design is superb.

[@7Andy77]

So true

[@childishbeat]

I was born in 2003 myself.

[@RuruFIN]

We had N-Gage also back then.

[@ReeN1995]

It's kinda weird that i can see myself loving this thing as a child but not as an adult. They screwed up the marketing big time!

[@gaveroid418]

I feel like a child would ignore its issues and just be like "woo, yay, cool!". I think the big problem was they didn't market it enough for games. The analog stick obviously made its design gaming-oriented but the marketing, specifically the box art, felt like it was a PDA that could play games, not a game console that worked as a PDA.

[@largol33t1]

Sadly, that sometimes is the price of breaking completely new ground. You can't figure out how to market something nobody has ever seen before. When this was first announced, my friends and I were blown away and couldn't believe the PDA market had advanced that much.

[@shatterpointgames]

The problem is, to really enjoy it you would need internet for homebrew and stuff. And if you had the internet you would realize how trash it was.

[@-SeventeenF]

4:52 I love the placeholder image they used for the Sony PSP there.

[@bluedragon9925]

These gaming PDA's from the early 2000's really are something that could only have existed in that specific time period. The fact that it wasn't long at all (not even half a decade) before they ended up becoming *completely* obsolete both as handheld gaming systems *and* as portable life organizers/media players due to a variety of factors (far better handhelds like the DS & PSP hitting the scene, PDA's in general becoming unnecessary once smartphones & tablets became mainstream, etc.) shows just how rapid the pace of technology really was back then.

[@Dimondminer11]

Longest run on sentence ever

[@dorpth]

It wasn't so much the pace of tech, as it was companies not learning their lesson in overreach. They kept trying to release products where the tech was there, but it wasn't reliable or affordable yet. See every company that tried to compete with the Gameboy by releasing more advanced tech that was still too expensive and battery-draining. This was compounded by companies not having any clear design vision for features or interface in the brand new popular mobile market. The overreach extended into financial as well. They invested everything into products that tried to do a bunch of things mediocre rather than one thing well, and collapsed when that one product was a failure. The tech for smart phones was there before 2006, but it wasn't remotely practical or affordable until then and Apple had the cash reserves, the brand, and the marketing that it would take for the new device to catch on. I would argue the pace of mobile tech is the same as it was back then (or maybe just a little slower). You still have phone and tablet models becoming outdated in under 4 years (especially Apple). The only difference now is companies know what the public wants and what they're willing to pay, and don't try designing expensive, experimental Frankenstein's monsters. (and if we're talking general computing tech, it was WAY faster back in the 80s and 90s. You had to upgrade memory every 2 years on PCs if you wanted to play the latest games, and the difference between console generations was light years bigger than it is now)

[@eskanda3434]

far better handhelds like the DS & PSP did not cause the death of PDAs it was cellphones and then smart phones that killed them.

[@BobbyLips]

Idk what you're talking about. The cellphone IS the PDA. Treo 650 is a PDA with data/cell service. PDA's evolved into cellular devices. Palm just lost the race.

[@Henchman1977]

480x320 was AMAZING resolution, especially for that year. Flagship Palms at that time were 320x320.

[@xSeRosiSx]

Especially considering the more successful PSP sacrificed vertical resolution for a 16:9 aspect ratio which came down to 480x272 Needless to say resolution isn't a deciding factor if you've got that software to back it up.

[@rcxAsh]

Very true - these PalmOS 5 devices were from several years before the first iPhone, and even that used a 480x320 screen. I had a Sony Clie at the time the Tapwave Zodiac was released, and those times really seemed like the peak of PalmOS. The multi-media capabilities provided by the additional co-processors finally made them quite usable for multi-media consumption.

[@coronapapi]

My modern Android doesn't have much better resolution. Haha

[@Ender275]

It’s actually better than the 3ds

[@hellishinc]

@Matt Russo - Better than the GBA, DS and 3DS.

[@ProtoMario]

I remember this bad boy, it was nuts at the time.

[@LGR]

Sure was, I couldn't believe that kind of power could be done in a handheld!

[@esprithk]

ProtoMario the price kills it. They don't have the concept of moving the hardware first, and make the real money from software sale(game cards). US$299 in 2000 is expensive.

[@mickstark4447]

your a poopweasel

[@RETSZTIRF]

I don't what the fuck?

[@noobassmiata1209]

Rest In Peace

[@eumoria]

Oh my, I had one of these back when I worked at CompUSA. They discontinued it and the policy at comp for employees was that a D55 status (discontinued) meant that you got it for pennies of what it was worth. I think I got it for 35 dollars. Doom II was cool and you could use it as an extremely cumbersome 128mb mp3 player. It ended up in a closet then in the trash :|

[@fedos]

I miss CompUSA.

[@Bucket_tm]

Thats some shenanigans, our store never pennied them out so we had them up until the store closed in 2007. Was an amazing emulator device

[@Supadupanerd]

I worked techbench at CompUSSR, and unfortunately for that I was never privy to any of these crazy deals to be had. Wompwomp.

[@eumoria]

oh yea i didn't mention the emulators. i should've mentioned i was an inventory control coordinator for 4 different stores in the region so i had a large selection to choose from and it was literally my job to know the status of everything lol. got a lot of good finds.

[@greysky1252]

You slugged me right in the feels with this one. Out of all the expensive gadgets of the Turn of the Millennium (like the Cybiko) I always wanted, this was the one thing I actually got. Despite the $400price tag and the protest of the rest of the family my mom got me the Zodiac2 one Christmas. I felt guilty but I was so proud of it. This was one of my most beloved possessions but I was the only one at school and perhaps the whole state who had one. The only other people I could find with one were like 7 kids on a forum site dedicated to the Zodiac. I thought it was such a solid feat of design and engineering. Everything on it felt like it was just in the right place and was of top quality. And it could do so much and gave you so much room to expand upon it. Its graphics processor was great for a PalmOS but the PSP came out shortly after it and could run laps around it graphically. I was devastated when it was discontinued and to this day I never really got over it but I kept using it as a mp3 player for years to come. It represented yet another amazing future I was looking forward to that never came.

[@anonobot3333]

Well I had a similar experience with the psp too! 😂

[@_dmfd]

3:05 They really subliminally made a picture that looks like a bunch of sperm swimming to an egg lol. That's hillarious.

[@blacklion2432]

😂😂 I caught that too.thought I was trippin

[@thatguynameddan2136]

If you go back and look at the ad its attached to, youll see its entirely intentional. Thats what youre supposed to be seeing.

[@tawdryhepburn4686]

It’s not subliminal. It’s... _liminal?_ it’s supposed to be sperm and an egg.

[@ripp3rjak934]

They took the initiative to come up with such a head Turner

[@martinda7446]

Yep, absolutely intentional. I saw your comment before seeing the ad. The fact they actually came up with the idea and went with it is bizarre! Although the earphone idea is very clever, I am going to think of it every time I put one in my ear!

[@doctorcrankyflaps1724]

Never heard of this device. Thanks LGR.

[@chickenbouilloncube7038]

That genesis emulator still sounds better than the garbage atGames puts out

[@TheDoritoFan80]

That's actually true lmao

[@AWriterWandering]

BTW, one must remember that “480x320” was the same resolution as the original iPhone and HTC Dream (the first commercial Android device), released 4-5 years later. And the 3.8” display of the Zodiac was bigger than the 3.5” iPhone and 3.2” HTC Dream displays! (Yeah I know the those were capacitive and had much better color reproduction, but my point stands)

[@danijel-ch2gk]

Nokia 7710 had a 640×320 screen (yup, 18:9 AKA 2:1) but it was a bit of a mess UI-wise. Still, 1998 - 2008 was a decade when fascinating and exciting things happened all the time. Color screens, cameras, MP3, storage cards, crazy designs and shapes, etc ^^

[@user-crane]

Me: *sees a new episode of LGR* -No, ive got stuff to do. *looks away* *looks back* -Ugh. Well, only one. *three hours later* -Oh shiii...

[@PANZERFAUST90]

wow nice generic, copied comment

[@TristanSpeno]

PANZERFAUST90 wow nice 1 year late reply

[@PANZERFAUST90]

@@TristanSpeno one-year-late* idiot

[@lowen__]

PANZERFAUST90 wow nice use of immature insults, boy.

[@PANZERFAUST90]

@@lowen__ nothing immature about my comments, kid

[@slowbasil]

When I was younger I somehow managed to have friends who between them owned Zodiacs, N-Gages and Gizmondos (in fact, I knew a family with 3 Gizmondos which on reflection probably made them the company's biggest customers...). I was so jealous of all of these devices at the time. Seeing your videos on them has made me realise that I was definitely better of with my gameboy! Having said that, the N-Gage was pretty cool. I remember watching one of my friends playing Tomb Raider on the bus home from school and it did make my cruddy Sagem phone look pretty obsolete.

[@erolsunalp]

These where also used on the TV-show Stargate SG1 as props

[@samr8889]

Erol Sunalp oooh THAT is where I recognise its from. :)

[@AltaryaDeFlammes1996]

Holy crap, so that's what they used, jeez i always thought they custom made the PDA thingies for the show and used editing to simulate their screens

[@troypolloy2129]

Yes, I posted this image a few hours ago. I remember them using the stylus as a "probe" and would wave it around like a Star Trek tricorder. photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5151/25/1600/sg1-zod-1.jpg

[@RetroBytes]

I still haven't outgrown the gameboy...

[@MatameVideos]

RetroBytes Dude. Today I dusted my gbc and been playing that thing all day

[@KedViper]

Travis J Hayes That's true up until you try to play a Gameboy or GB Color game. It's honestly amazing how far back the GBA's backward compatibility went.

[@freezetile8588]

Has anyone? :-)

[@Chaos89P]

BlocksLEGO Only edgelords, and even then it doesn't last too long.

[@danijel-ch2gk]

I'll order an 8bitdo SNES30 bluetooth controller. I need it. For my phone. Enough said. ^^

[@porklaser]

I REALLY wanted one of these back when they were new.. But then I got a GBA, like everyone else :) Thanks for sharing this great part of lost early 2000s gaming history. This is a product that came a few years too late.

[@Mikeywil0003]

LGR, please do more mobile device overviews. I'd love to see on on the Sony Mylo, or the Cybiko. There are tons of oddball devices out there.

[@albertstadt9853]

I used to love the Sony Cleo

[@WedgeStratos]

I've got both the Mylo 1 and 2 - a full package would be great to see. I don't even have their headphone kit, so that may be the one that prevents a full device overview. Plus the broken services will leave a Mylo review on a pretty empty note. Unless someone wants to mod that Linux firmware and make MSN Escargot compatible for it.

[@estherstreet4582]

The tapwave zodiac is like a cybiko that doesn't have the excuse of being aimed at kids, tbh. Also it doesn't have the cool mesh network thing that cybikos could do.

[@Kalvinjj]

Oh TRANSFLECTIVE screens, when people knew you can't actually battle against the sun for brightness and just going reflection when it's available is better. Too bad it's gotten entirely forgotten instead of improved upon

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

Kalvinjj I absolutely agree.

[@whut252]

I wish I can force technology of the world into a downgrade

[@FedorovAvtomat]

I had that thing back in the day. It was an absolutely amazing thing, emulation was decent. However the most amazing part of it that it was far better than the iPod Video which was around at the time. Bigger screen which was possibly the best on any machine of the era, the emulation was decent enough which unfortunately ran slow with Genesis. However this was a grade-A machine that was a jack of all trades and master of 4/5ths of them.

[@jamesstewart5005]

FedorovAvtomat Yoyofr was the man and ported the Little John multiple console emulator. It was quite nice.

[@MrGeforcerFX]

James Stewart ohh man so many hours playing gb games on my zodiac.

[@ZipplyZane]

I'd actually expect that, if someone were to take the time to do it, you could make a faster Genesis emulator for that thing. That was running as slow as the Pentium 100 computers at my school. (I installed games on the computers at school and pawned that off as being educational.)

[@MultiLelde]

Can run Tomb Raider in full 3D, struggles to emulate SEGA Genesis sonic the hedgehog 3. What a world we live in.

[@Chaos89P]

MultiLelde I think it has something to do with the fact that the emulator hasn't been fully optimized yet. An console emulator has to mimic the hardware capabilities in software, and I'm guessing the coder(s) for that emulator hasn't gotten to that point yet.

[@Chosen1Creator]

Games consoles are like a forklift and the package it lifts is the game. You would think a much more powerful forklift could easily lift the same package, but with emulation, the more powerful forklift not only lifts the package but instead lifts another forklift that is lifting the package.

[@CherryPixelBun]

Emulators are a lot more intensive than you might think. IIRC Higan-level accuracy for SNES games was impossible just like 5-10 years ago. Most emulators use a lot of tricks or hacks to improve speed. Don't even get me started on plugins. That shit was a good idea at the time but goddamn is it holding N64 emulation back.

[@Chaos89P]

W. Durrsly Maybe the N64 Mini will show them how it's done?

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

Picodrive emulator was never ported to Zodiac. Zodiac could with megadrive but emulator was not as good ad gp32, psp, and gp2x one. :-(

[@SmaMan]

Prediction: The Oregon Trail handheld featured in your other video will outsell the Tapwave Zodiac.

[@LGR]

Ha, that would not surprise me, provided they build enough of 'em

[@Codejoy]

This brings back memories. You actually featured our game at 15:25 :D I have to say for the time that resolution was amazing, the graphics in it was a 2d beast (NOT 3d) and it had some other fun pieces about it. The idea of wireless gaming via bluetooth was promising as was the analog stick. Though some other launch issues (we early adopted this system to design both ZodTris and ZapEm for it) was that the analog stick had a sensitivity issue, the cover for it would ruin the screen and I think there was issue with larger SD cards iirc(it has been a few years :D ) . This was right on the cusp of democratization of game developing. Before nice solid engines (Unity etc) you had to also purchase the IDE codewarrior (I sold plasma to do this, was fresh outta college :D ). In the end this little device got me and a few guys sent to E3 in 04 and 05. Was a good time, ty for the memories with this post :D brings back some fun wild memories of that time my team and I published a game.

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

Shane Thomas Thanks a lot for the free gift. I enjoy Zodtris a lot. Very beautiful and charmful. The Zod is capable of 4sd non sdhc.

[@Suedeash]

Fascinating story man, how easy was it to develop for this?

[@Codejoy]

@@Suedeash it was a pain at the time because it required the codewarrior ide specifically. After that it was all just c++...so not to bad. Nothing like the freedome to develop you get with Unity. If you want to work on something cool with an oldschool feel...check out the arduboy

[@huxleydunsany1555]

I was working for Apple as a Solutions Consultant partnered with CompUSA when the Tapwave came out, and it really stuck with me. As a pretty enthusiastic PalmOS user at the time (I'd only recently retired my Newton 2100 from daily use) the Tapwave demo station kept pulling me over, and I was increasingly torn between a Zociac2 and a Sony Clie UX-50 (their adorable little clamshell PalmOS gadget). I eventually settled on a Palm TX, still hoping to snap up a Tapwave or Clie when they went on clearance sale, but before long I had a Sony PSP and (later) an iPhone 2G and my Tapwave + Clie dreams faded away. Thanks for this fun and informative video - it's neat to imagine an alternate history where Tapwave became the dominant force in mobile gaming!

[@shadowsnake94]

You can't help but love the "extracted from the universe where the No Scrubs music video was filmed" design aesthetic of the early-mid 2000s.

[@jhdkoopman2]

Who needs a Switch when you can have a Zodiac!?!

[@ernestmoreno8244]

JHDK more like the switch was the thing that assimilated it

[@radiantfalcongamevision1113]

it could run DOOM, but why would you want to?(tm)

[@manospondylus]

Zack Stewart The Switch also has Doom

[@LermaBean]

Disappointed Turtle At the exact same frame rate as the original version on the Zodiac 1.

[@char7403]

Eric Lerma it's pretty obvious that you haven't played Doom on the switch

[@joevial4707]

Man I lusted after this thing back in the day... I thought it was so "mature" and that I would be cool if I had one. Lolz...

[@ChristianStout]

I wonder if this could've been a success if the NDS and PSP hadn't usurped it so quickly.

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

Too pricey. As palmos device, it never really shutdown. It was not for kids. If it gets discharged software get erased. A linux os was planned but Tapwave closed down and that effort was lost. It would have lots of linux game ports. :-(

[@mickstark4447]

your a bucket full o buzzards

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

Mike Binks if tapwave zodiac was discharged internal storage was reset. Fortunately it could have a backup in sd card. It was not cheap compared to gba, nds or psp.

[@admiralfrosty3495]

The real market of the DS were kids. Not only was this way too expensive, but it was marketed towards a different crowd.

[@GreenishlyGreen]

Oh my God, this takes me back... I was such a palm person and that hotsync sound was a joy and tcpmp was the best knees. Also fun fact: you couldn't turn a palm anything off! Just to sleep. If there was a battery in it, it was at least on standby

[@TheTrblesm]

Fucking love this channel. Your pacing on reviews is perfect, dude. Perfect.

[@LGR]

Thank you!

[@ikeaaron]

Bluetooth? In 2003?!

[@jamesstewart5005]

FireLeo IV And no wifi so you had to do networking with Bluetooth.

[@kbhasi]

Bluetooth was a new thing back then, from what I remember. I remember Compaq selling Bluetooth modules that clipped onto the silver area on the lids (after removing the blanking plate) of some of their Armada and Evo laptops they had around the time.

[@AWriterWandering]

Well we are talking about Bluetooth 1.2 at best.

[@PedroSilvahf]

I remember reading a magazine from that time saying bluetooth was a thing from the future we only saw on films and stuff

[@Millenia3D]

The N-Gage had bluetooth as well, since mobile internet was really expensive at the time I'd basically tether the N-Gage to my PC via bluetooth so that I could play online with it. Hacky as hell but better than extortionate data rates..

[@GarnetSwan]

Obviously Doom II was too fast because you forgot to push the TURBO button

[@Tallefer]

Naah, it's just a PAL version, poorly ported, running on NTSC device. (jk)

[@omh20]

No you’re both wrong the real reason is that the device is a piece of crap.

[@theysayblue386]

man, the steam deck looks awesome

[@tigheklory]

I got the Zodiac 2 brand new and I loved it so much... It was amazing and feels great in your hands and had some great emulators. The design of the case was just great.

[@fattiger6957]

Kinda seems like a precursor to the psp. The psp lacked organizer functionality, but had multimedia functions. It was a decent mp3 player before smartphones and later for the people who didn't yet have a smartphone. Also it was a great portable video player for the time. I remember watching the south park WoW episode on my friend's psp during lunchbreak

[@notyoursavior78]

I just posted that without the PalmOS and touch screen. I didn't have the money to throw away on this at the time, but I really liked the idea of this. I see use my PSP occasionally for video, does that make me a hipster? Well good. Fine.

[@tyaty]

They were announced in the same year.

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

tyaty Zodiac was releasedin 2003.

[@tyaty]

Because Sony announced PSP the the same year as they unveiled the Zodiac, so they rushed it. It was their main reason for the small game libary,

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

tyaty Oh. So bad. Thanks.

[@TheoPoon]

Thanks for the video, there are few things would like to add. 1. As stated by other comments, 480x320 is the 2k nowadays, it was a good display at the time. 2. The unknown buyer you mention was believe to be Motorola. right before Tapwave was close there were reports they were putting Linux into Zodiac (At the time it was starting to get hip for Linux in mobile, the Sharp Zaurus, Linux mobile phones etc), not long after Tapwave was dissolved, Motorola reramp they e680 line custom OS to e680i, with Linux, and that lives on with Motorola A1000 and Moto Ming series. 3. WIFI was not common at the time, the dual SD slot design was capable of doing SDIO device, which there were SD WIFI card (failed too because it was a standard common function which was buildin to SOC after, and SDIO never really took off) 4. Not much PDA/mobile device comes with a dedicated display chip / GPU at the time, Tapwave was one of them. 5. The plastics were horrible, I have couple of sets here, all of them melt, common thingy at the time. 6. Graffiti was nice, it was the best IME with a stylus at the time, you just need to learn how to use it. 7. A review of Sharp Zaurus would be great with LGR.

[@harshnemesis]

1. The screen was unfortunate considering it was 3.8". Just a year later much better 4" vga screens came out on hx4700 and dell axim 50V managed to do 3.5" in the same year 2. This can be done unofficially if there is interest: I actually installed linux on one of my ipaq hx4700 pdas not emulated under windows mobile but actually replaced the bootloader, got minimal desktop debian on it, runs off sd card. It does work fine and it's just for fun, windows mobile is better. 3. Yeah but wifi increasingly started becoming common, not putting wifi was a big mistake, the model 2 should had wifi at very least. 4. All high end pdas such as hx4700 had it 5. Not with any pocket pc device I had, maybe that was palm thing 6. Nah windows mobile had better writing recognition and had the full screen one too where you could write everywhere and it would then read all what you wrote, besides soft keyboard was better too and you could... wait for it install 3rd party keyboard layouts something that wasn't a thing with apple for a long, long time and iPhone didn't even exist until years later

[@armorgeddon]

The thing I miss the most about my Windows CE device, the version my device had was just called Windows powered which was CE 3.5 I think, is the word recognition of the soft keyboard. It was so good that once trained you basically just clicked on the words it predicted/proposed so you could type ultra fast. Somehow it didn't work as well on my Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone and today on Android devices it totally sucks. My uncle and myself always thought about buying the Sharp Zaurus because we liked the idea of a Linux PDA but inb the end it was too expensive for what basically would have just been an experiment out of curiosity. I'm still waiting for a fully useable real Linux mobile device. Some are on the horizon so I hope those will become sucessfull.

[@westhornhill8284]

I love these weird 'tweener' devices that got killed by smart phones. Looking forward to an Archos 405 review. :)

[@Trekeyus]

Ah yes the 604 wifi still have mine that I got when CompUSA was liquidating and even tried the Linux hack shame that it was so locked down that the Linux was jokingly useless. My n800 is way more useful for Linux. The 604 dose do a good job at video though and the recording is decent. The big issue is the battery on the 604 if you where like me and left it docked most of the time the battery will swell like crazy and might even explode. Thank God the battery is easy to replace assuming you can even find a new battery for it at this point in time.

[@elogy890]

I still have a 605 wifi knocking around somewhere. Shame you can't get the plugins anymore, otherwise it would still be a half-decent media player.

[@8umesugkuo839]

No smarthphones at that era. This is pre ds and pre psp.

[@WelcomToTheNextLevel]

I bought the Zodiac 2, I loved that thing. I brought it with me everywhere and enjoyed playing it while I was at work.

[@MattMcIrvin]

4:33 Sidekick forever! (I think the model pictured is the Sidekick ID, which came out right after they hired me, so it was the first one to ship with some of my code in it)

[@Roobar_Plays]

Wow. It actually had a ton of features...

[@metfan4l]

Wow, never even heard of this thing before. Very interesting and informative video once again!

[@mickstark4447]

your a poopwidget

[@justinz.3993]

I love your old tech retrospectives. No where else (besides my dad, who was a coder at Microsoft in the 90s) will I get cool little asides about dinosaur age tech (IE, older than 10 years old).

[@yukikofujiwara2144]

My dad is the same way to a tee. But IBM instead of Microsoft, and then he jumped to working at a video game publisher and developer in '96 (ASCII/Agetec). Anything from the era, video games, software, hardware, whatever, he loves to give you a story on it, and it's always fun to hear. LGR gives me "my dad" vibes, sans the Japanese accent and old age. He loves id Software games, as well, though he's more or less an RPG kinda guy. He'll still ruin your day in a Quake 2, Quake 3: Arena, and shockingly even Quake 4 death match. He'll ruin your whole life in any given Armored Core game.

[@XanderW104]

@@yukikofujiwara2144 Id hate to play quake with your dad

[@kj5304]

Stumbled upon your channel and glad I did. Great channel and great work. Thank you for the content.

[@stefanofanigliulo7859]

Atleast the n-gage is still remembered to these days, I remember hearing about this only once and that's it.

[@TeruteruBozusama]

I only saw n-gage for 1-2 weeks where I lived at the time, it was on top of a shelf with the games decorated around it and it didn't look like anyone had ever taken them off for a closer look. But after these 2 weeks, it was gone and I didn't hear anything about it again until ProtonJon said he had jokingly convinced a guy to buy one and still felt guilty about it years later..!

[@DeAthWaGer]

I kinda miss mine. Had a custom solid steel case for it and it was in my pocket for half a decade, replacing my Palm Pilot. Loaded it with music, emulators, and even a downloaded version of Wikipedia. Traveled with me across the globe. Once I got an iPhone 4 I sold it.

[@stuthelotusguy]

Nice review! At the time I was the developer building the official C64 game pack for the Zodiac and still have 2 of the Z2 devices. Compared to my Windows PDA of the day it was much more powerful for graphics, but the processor was way behind. 128MB was huge in the day, and the resolution was better than most devices, very sharp and clear. I always hoped it would succeed: the quality of construction was high and the controls felt very good, but ultimately the PalmOS starting point was a major flaw as using the device as PalmOS replacement was painfully awkward. It really sucked as a PDA TBH... Thanks for the video!

[@nerys71]

got any old software backed up for us zodiac softies?

[@MrTruth-yn7pq]

Thanks for making my Friday with this!

[@mickstark4447]

your a poop slushie

[@kyanoang3l0_old]

This harks back to when teen me longed for the "ultimate" customizable mobile device where I could do all of my mobile stuff, like storing/transferring data, listening to music, watching movies, past-gen/retro gaming, and mobile gaming. My old jailbroken PSP with its great homebrew stuff was pretty close to becoming one. Loved that awesome piece of tech to death. I might still try something similar with a jailbroken PS Vita if I ever get my hands on one.

[@butth0le_inspector]

3:05 these earphones looks like spermatozoids

[@Goobyster]

Thats the point It says "conceived to reality" on the top

[@tawdryhepburn4686]

...yes.

[@Felecc]

8:47 Hi Clint. Those are MMC (Multi Media Card), sort of predecessor of SD card. Look at the number of pins, MMC has less than SD. Good video as always.

[@LGR]

That is correct, thanks for the correction! Although Tapwave was really pushing the SD card capability here and it does indeed feature dual SD card slots, not just MMC :)

[@Felecc]

No problem, and I know... kinda. MMC are backward compatible with SD i think. Also MMC were a lot smaller in capacity than SD. My theory is that they used MMC to reduce producion costs. It kinda makes sense.

[@berni8k]

Yep MMC and SD are both forward and backwards compatible. The point of MMC is that its faster than SD cards.

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

LGR one slot is sdio! I have an sd4Gb card for my zodiac(no sdhc) Dymitry tried an sdhc driver but failed with Zodiac.

[@megapro125]

there were MMC plus cards which had about the same capacity of SD cards at the time up to 1 or 2 GB I think.

[@chrisward000]

Great video! I still have one of these in the bottom of my drawer. I remember picking it up for pennies, I guess at end of it’s short life, and easily getting my money’s worth, using it for emulation, videos, music, ebook, and even as a PDA for work. I was a long-time Palm Pilot user, so this was the ultimate device of it’s type to me. The rubber parts are still fine on mine, and iI always liked the solid feel of it. I also have a few, if not most of the games, probably the best is the Tony Hawks game, that is basically a GBA port, although the card games were pretty crappy in general. I can’t say this was some under-rated classic and the games haven’t stood the test of time like the DS or PSP games, but I kind of liked it.

[@churchofguestmob4498]

bɿɒW ꙅiɿʜƆ thats cool where can I get software for Mac tungsten PTA to run games Like he is showing or doom

[@Zacharuni]

God I wanted this so badly back as a kid seeing it in shopping ads. This and the N-Gage seemed so awesome. Even now I wish they'd update the Xperia Play.

[@hind__]

Zach I wanted an Xperia Play soooo bad

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

Zach Xperia Play is the tru sucessor of Zodiac and Ngage.

[@oil_moon]

I feel asleep to one of your videos last night. Not because it was boring, your content is great. Your voice is just so soothing!

[@Weareonenation303]

The way Tapwave made fun of the Gameboy for being "childish" reminds me of that 3DO commercial that called the Super Nintendo and Genesis "baby toys" Both consoles ended up being flops, what a surprise.

[@paulsutton9278]

I'm surprised that even though you covered the homebrew aspects you didn't include those versions of Duke 3D, Doom, Heretic, Hexen, and Quake. While not perfect, they run far better than the official releases.

[@WispyBlueBricksGPX]

Paul Sutton Officials: Are We A Joke To You?!

[@pciev]

Could you imagine how easy software piracy would be on this device because of the SD cards cartridge?

[@renakunisaki]

I wonder if it made any use of the "secure" features? SD cards were supposed to support this whole DRM scheme and replace CDs for music distribution...

[@Coolman13355]

In another comment someone said they actually came on SD precursor MMC. So the cards themselves wouldn't have those built in "security" features.

[@TheRealTHD]

It's so bonkers now to think that our phones do what the Zodiac attempted to do - be our all in one unit for multimedia, productivity, music and gaming.

[@lukewarren9593]

My best friend at the time and I bought Z2s brand new. But after less than 2 weeks of using it we both had the same failure with the joystick: it lost the "UP". Which I remember being a common issue (I think?). So we both got a refund as you couldn't play most of the zodiac games without full use of the only feature that really set it apart. Kind of surprised I didn't see anyone else mention it in your comments. I really wanted to like it! Anyway, great video!

[@saleplains]

Did anyone else find it kind of jarring at 16:18 when he brought the note 8 on screen? After looking at 2003 level tech for like 15 minutes the contrast felt so harsh and abrupt. Weve made such incredible progress.

[@RockBottomRiser21]

Heard Jeff Gerstmann mention this thing on a podcast not knowing what it was but I forgot to google it and now here you are with a comprehensive review. :D

[@RockBottomRiser21]

Oh no it was Jeff who brought it up. I meant I didn't know what it was.

[@andresfest487]

Damn, that hotsync beeps got me right in the feels. I had one of the last PDAs that Palm Inc made before being sold and that thing was the shit back then.

[@marvinracer88]

thisssssssssssss

[@MrRwk314]

right in the feels and thissssss very 4 years ago.

[@TheT3rr0rMask]

Used to have one, absolutely loved it. Remember loading emulators and Palm games on it, plus was the first time I played Doom. Stuntcar Extreme and Animated Dudes were amazing games too.

[@danem2215]

12:17 is this how I found out Andrew Hulshult did your old theme song?

[@imegadeth]

That tomb raider looked close to ps1 tier. Super underrated

[@mmknikjjbi7313]

TheKeeper Vex In fact two and a "half" Tomb raiders.

[@AnTran147]

Got one in good condition (the Zodiac 2) a few years ago. Unfortunately it ended up getting damaged in storage (I don't know how), but it still works so I'll probably be putting it up for sale someday. It was awesome, but I hate how Palm OS devices CAN'T BE TURNED OFF. Still, I loved the analog stick and wished something else could use the design. The closest is the GP2X CAANOO, but that one's stick didn't feel quite as nice.

[@presidentkiller]

I don't know if it applies to every Palm device ever, but at least the m505 my mom had back in the day used the RAM to store your information. If you let the battery deplete completely, it would just wipe everything out. I guess that's the reason why you couldn't completely turn it off.

[@KingofHearts67]

You must have looked like such a hipster taking pan shots of early 2000's tech in that cafe.

[@IanTester]

BTW, that ATI Imageon GPU tech was later sold to Qualcomm. They renamed it Adreno and developed it since. It's in just about every Snapdragon SoC, so most (non-Apple) phones nowadays.

[@michaeldougherty6036]

Thing was pretty good for the time. A friend of mine had one and got into a bit of home-brew for it while in college. We used his work with this "company" of coders to get into E3 2005. At which point he then walked around to the different booths, handing out his resume and showing his demo-reel on this device's (for the time) amazing screen. It got his foot in the door at Activision. And today he works as a senior effects designer at Treyarch, and is doing quite well for himself and his family. So even failed consoles can score you a win at life, if you play them right.

[@kevinsiv3064]

The stinking thing has a higher resolution than the main screen on the New 3ds, released 12 years later. Sigh, Nintendo.

[@handsomebrick]

You know they have to sell things at a profit, right?

[@AnaloguePixelOfficial]

handsomebrick right? So people shouldn't have standards in case the poor corporations have to actually develop and get creative to make up said profit?

[@MaxiM_PL]

Yeah, sorry but Nintendo has no excuse. Vita costs the same as the 3DS and it's 960x540.

[@MaxiM_PL]

Yeah, sorry but Nintendo has no excuse. Vita costs the same as the 3DS and it's 960x540.

[@gentuxable]

Sony has no excuse for their crazily overpriced vita memory cards.

[@arnierc4]

I always found it odd that people disliked graffiti. I found it nearly twice as fast as free hand writing once I was used to it and even used it to write papers for school :P

[@tonychesser8710]

If you got the TextPlus app, it provided text prediction (words AND phrases) and really stepped up the speed. I could write with my finger and manage to take notes on all manner of events. I amazed people with just how fast I could fill the 4KB(?) limit on the Memo app.

[@Pasi123]

It has higher resolution screen than the PSP :D

[@youngbutretro4228]

Pasi123 I was gonna say that

[@fattiger6957]

Higher than the 3ds

[@LermaBean]

Pasi123 Only for it to force the console to compromise on power in both game quality and battery life.

[@MaxiM_PL]

That's because they went for 16:10-ish aspect ratio as opposed to the standard widescreen like PSP (16:9)

[@swosho]

And PSP's screen is higher resolution than the 3DS. What a world we live in.

[@sambrown9494]

Did you ever cover the N-Gage at all? I had one. Screen aspect ratio was nuts but it was a good business phone, could record the built-in radio receiver to stereo .aac files and was a mean C64 emulator to boot. Biggest achievement was listening to BBC Radio 4 live, wirelessly with realplayer walking around Helsinki train station in 2003.

[@Jerbod2]

Clint what's the game called at 15:19 middle row on the far right? The sort of top-down view racing game. I remember playing a game on a PC at school when I was like 7 or so, which was in the 2000's. Looked a lot like that and I've never found which game that was.

[@zanyraccoon6361]

So... if I collect seven of these do I get a wish?

[@RRW359]

Not sure, but you could join SG1.

[@girllionness5944]

oh man i remember when pda's were a thing i always wanted one as a kid bc they seemed so cool

[@harshnemesis]

Oh pocket pcs were awesome, palms were kind of limited and were really budget pdas

[@GermanPeter]

Doom 2 in the thumbnail You know how to catch my attention, LGR!

[@aplasticsoldier9130]

GermanPeter oh cool, its you

[@Monody512]

14:37 Missed opportunity to have the background footage be the level Dead Simple.

[@JazzyWaffles]

Suddenly I am overwhelmed with the desire to see a video like this about old Archos devices. I'm not sure anyone even knows what Archos IS, at least state-side. Do they even still make devices? They did in 2010 when I last checked.

[@Sb129]

It runs Palm OS, it's LGR, I am obliged to press the thumbs up before the page fully loads

[@misunderstoodmidboss]

I remember wanting to buy one and instead saving up to get a dell axim 51v a few days after its release. It was a beast with 16b VGA resolution, 634Mhz CPU with a graphic card supporting OpenGL ES 1.0. After updating it with an unofficial windows update, it even supported SDHC and thus was an incredible music player supporting all kinds of cryptic formats. I still have it in mint condition stacked somewhere, the memories...

[@greggv8]

Someone got Android 3.something running on the highest spec Dell Axim, called it AxDroid. Unfortunately performance was poor because no information was available for the Axim's GPU. The two top models of Axim were among the first to break away from the cramped 320x240 or 320x320 pixel displays with a "massive" 640x480 display, and they could even connect to a VGA monitor.

[@Von_D]

Dragon Ball!? How dare.......

[@JFD62780]

Von's Valiant Ventures Yeah; who developed the thing? Capsule Corp? XD

[@Von_D]

John F. Donnelly According to Wikipedia, there were versions with the letters EZ, VZ, and even Super VZ at the end. No GT though.

[@JFD62780]

Von's Valiant Ventures Keeping in mind DragonBall itself didn't have an extension at first. ;)

[@Tabasa04]

Explains why getting seven of the things together causes a dragon to pop out. My wish had to fit within a resolution of 480x320, though. Instructions were unclear, wound up with a blurry .jpeg of a pair of panties.

[@DancesWithRobots]

The previous Dragonball processor was the Dragonball Z. No I'm not kidding.

[@GuitarAudiologist]

I have a working GP2X. If you want to review it I will send it. I remember drooling over the UMPCs at the time, but only had the money for the Tapwave, Gizmondo or GP2X. It was a mini console war in my mind. Wish I knew a better way to reach you, but I would love to see an in-depth video on the GP2X.

[@Kenthis15]

I had to revisit this video because I noticed that several episodes of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis uses these as props for diagnostic devices. Sales were so bad they were bought to be cheap imitations of futuristic equipment, and that feels very appropriate for the Tapwave Zodiac.

[@asmcint]

I'm kinda curious how that homebrew Quake port looks and plays on the system tbh.

[@constantexpected]

same

[@williamforbes6919]

They run great actually! zQuake runs pretty darned smooth. And mods work pretty well too

[@asmcint]

Nice!

[@Scioneer]

I had another Palm Device called a Lifedrive with the same os version that they ported the Zodiac Quake to and it ran quite well. As far as Lifedrive vs Zodiac goes, the Lifedrive was a more conventional Palm device that simply had a 4gb microdrive built in. The CPU on the Lifedrive was much faster at 400mhz, but it didn't have as good a GPU as the Zodiac.

[@constantexpected]

You got a frames/sec number for that zQuake.. Anyone?

[@Commentator541]

Make fun of the N Gage all you want but I had the original (not the small one released in North America) and IT WAS AMAZING. It could record music off the radio, played mp3s so well, had great batter life (and battery was easily replaceable), games were easy to come by and you could just consolidate them to a one larger card instead of keeping them on their original cards, which meant turning the thing on and off like any console. Symbian had A TON of apps for it, and the system NEVER CRASHED!!! NOT ONCE! I had the thing for 2 years, sold it for a nice price. Only thing I never figured out was the two point ports on the left, I guess they were AV out?

[@kiisseli1337]

I had it too and for gaming it was a joke.

[@Kanakotka]

N-gage was not a PDA. It was a phone and a gaming console, and it was pretty decent on both regards. Its pricepoint was way above where it was and technologically it was far before its time. The funny thing is that devices now are basically what the N-Gage and devices like this pioneered.

[@joshmaier18]

I remember reading the ads about zodiac in electronic gaming monthly, I really wanted one but I never was able to find it for sale

[@kodabar]

One thing a lot of people don't realise about the Zodiac is that one of the SD slots is SDIO-capable and you could use a SD WiFi card with it. Not that there were many such cards and only a couple of those were properly compatible. But you really could use it with WiFi. I've still got several Zodiacs and I've got a WiFi card in one of them.

[@lmoore3rd]

1:00 Yay! Somebody remembered the Gizmondo. We made a tech demo on it the way back when. Not a great dev experience but sometimes you gotta take work when you can get it. The N-gage was just a Nokia 3650 in a taco. Those Nokia Series 60 J2ME phones were a much more pleasant experience to work on even with the early phone SDKs.

[@spac18]

Lyndon Moore I played many hours of FIFA on my ngage qd, was pretty satisfying