The Zodiac, Tapwave's PDA-inspired entry into the handheld gaming market was officially unveiled today, just shy of it's imminent official launch this October - just in time to duke it out with Nokia's soon-to-be-released N-Gage, in fact. Nokia won't be sweating too rapidly yet though; not only is the Zodiac only out in the next month - it's also rather expensive with pre-orders for the two available devices weighing in at $299 and $399 respectively.

Not that you don't get a reasonable bang for your buck it has to be said - Zodiac 1 (the cheaper option), has 32mb of RAM, whilst Zodiac 2 has a hefty 128mb at the gamer's disposal. Moreover we're talking high resolution colour screen's (480x320, 16bit), USB ports, Bluetooth, expandability, stereo sound and an analogue controller more than year before we're likely to see Sony's arrive with similar functionality.

North American's can currently pre-order this rather stylish little beast through www.tapwave.com, and with specifications boasting a 200mhz Motorola CPU, ATI Imageon graphics and built-in Palm OS software, we're sure the Zodiac can certainly carve a niche for itself at the very least.

Software support is healthy from the outset as well, with games such as Tony Hawk's, Neverwinter Nights, 2 and all expected to arrive at some point. Indeed, hopes at Tapwave are understandably high when you learn that the Zodiac features MP3 and playback, as well as typical PDA software for office-types, and the product's ability to combine with a Bluetooth mobile and enable web browsing and SMS sending will certainly appeal to an attractive demographic of potential gamers.

The Zodiac can even allow for eight player's to compete wirelessly which is sure to put the shivers up Nokia, and all in all it's great to finally see a bit of for in the handheld market, which can only be a good thing for us gamers. Hopefully we'll get word of the Zodiac heading to soon.

By Luke Guttridge

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  1. err Unregistered 6 years ago

    there are cheaper ways - check e-bay

  2. tpancoast Unregistered 6 years ago

    This article barely mentions the Palm compatibility. This is a gaming site, but that's still one of the most important features. It's not pretending to be a PDA.

  3. Notedog Unregistered 6 years ago

    Awesome, I cant wait to get it.

  4. Eastman Unregistered 4 years ago

    Palm compatability is excellent. Compatable with all the latest palm software. gaming graphics on it are great. Who ever wrote this review need to reconsider their corear because this unit in fact has a 400 mhz processor. Also, USB ports, hah this writer is a little slow or he knows nothing about PDA's. It had two SD slots that are expandable up to 1 GB. The built in yamaha speakers are outstanding. Built in blue tooth allows you to play in multi player enviornments wirelessley. Overall I would have bought this just for the PDA. Once I got it the gaming is unbeatable. Graphics are nice. You can play your own sound track in games through the MP3 Player. Or you can just watch movies, kinda like an I river. Best PDA ever i love it cant pass it up for the price. Hope i helped some one out here:)