This nifty little unit is the PDA for gamers. Despite the company going under in 2005, it's still the only PDA for gamers. Sure, you can play games on your Pocket PC or Palm Treo, but not like this.
For gamers the Zodiac sports an analog controller that is somewhere between a traditional analog stick on a modern system and the button on the PSP. I actually like Zodiac's solution better than the PSP button. It has a rumbler (ahem Sony), Yamaha stereo sound, ATI accelerated 3D graphics, analog buttons in addition to the stick, shoulder buttons, and a truly spectacular half VGA display (320x480).
Surprisingly the Zodiac was a decent PDA as well. It runs Palm OS 5 and has the usual complement of Palm applications. Some of the game-oriented features worked will for the PDA, like being able to play MP3s while using productivity apps, or using MP3s with the alarms. Made for a nice alarm clock on travel. The dual SD slots are nice, in that you can have a game in one and a card with music in the other.
And the thing is damn sexy. The small, sleek metal case and the jaw dropping display had other PDA users drooling on their shoes. Still does, in fact. The beautiful, minimalist application selector turns heads of people looking over your shoulder.
So what's wrong with the Zodiac? Mostly the problems center around power. The battery is way, way too small for this unit. It probably could have benefited from newer battery technology. The claimed 6 hour work time was, shall we say, optimistic, and that's only when not playing games and using up power on the sound, rumbler and graphics accelerator. Or the bluetooth radio. I found the power was just barely adequate to use the device as a PDA, and completely inadequate to sneak in more than 5 or 10 minutes of game playing time.
The crummy cables that came with it didn't help. The cables are an odd arrangement that combines the power and sync into this odd three way affair. While you could plug the power directly into the unit without the sync part, it didn't tend to stay plugged in, which made for a difficult gaming experience. The system desperately needed better connectors, and maybe a gaming "grip" with power hidden in the handles.
Was that enough to really kill the system and the company? By itself, no. Personally I think the biggest business model problems were the marketing and developer support. While I don't think the $399 price point was too high for the device when you look at it as a PDA, it is too high for a game device. They should have marketed it as a sleek, gadget geek PDA that also played games, versus a game player that was also a PDA. And they should have worked harder at getting third part developer support.
As far as the games go, the small number that were released explicitly for the system were pretty good, but nothing good enough to make the system worth owning just for the game. Personally I think the best game was the 3D racing game (Stunt Car Extreme) that came with the system. It's still fun to play, and still stands up to portable racing games on more modern systems.
So who should run out and get themselves one of these systems? If you collect handhelds, this is a game system every bit as much as your Neo-Geo Pocket, NGage or Gismondo. You'll probably want one. Also, if you're already a Palm user and a game geek, you would probably really enjoy trotting these out at the next meeting. When everyone else pulls out their Treo, you will get some oohs and aahs. You might want to invest in a third party battery upgrade if you do plan on using this as a PDA.
2008 ben langberg, all rights reserved.