Cool accessories are starting to appear for the PSP, like this microphone called the Talkman. Talkman comes bundled with translation software that will convert between English, Japanese, Chinese and Hangul (which I’ve never heard of, perhaps it is a slang the Nazgul use?) You can pre-order Talkman now on Lik-Sang.

Talkman for Sony PSP is a post from: Portagame

“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… We thank you for your past interest and support and apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.”

It’s sad to see it go, but leave us a comment and tell us if you will miss tha Zodiac, or if it doesn’t even really matter.

R.I.P. Tapwave Zodiac is a post from: Portagame

I don’t want to get all you Zod-heads bummed out, but don’t be looking for any Tapwave Zodiac news during E3. According to the official E3 exhibitor list, Tapwave is MIA.

This just further supports their shift in business model from the Zodiac being a Gaming Unit to it just being a Multimedia Unit (which it still does mighty nicely, might I add). With the recent release of Palm’s LifeDrive, I may just rename the Tapwave section to Palm or PDA and cover the other PDA. Then again, I like Tapwave, I might just let ‘em be.

(And for those wondering about OQO and Flipstart, hang tight. I’ll be reorganizing those sections soon).

E3: Tapwave Mysteriously Missing is a post from: Portagame

Tapwave is getting all up in your serious with accessories. Take the pictured Zodiac case above:

Example A: It is metal. Stiff aluminum. Pocket protector for the militant geek.

Example B: It flips open. It stays open. Tapwave Zodiac does not fall out, but stays put. You can play in the case. Enthusiasm. Joy, even.
Example C: Padded like a mail-order bride. Protects your toy. No scratches or dings while encased. Has cut-outs for knobs and dials.

Conclusion: It’s Serious!

[As Seen on PalmAddicts]

BIG PS: I originally saw this case on Tapland some month ago or so and thought “Wow cool, I should post this for Portagame readers!” Then my mind went back to dreaming about a web broswer for the Nintendo DS and promptly lost the previous train of thought. Sorry dear readers. Sorry Tapland. Sorry Nintendo DS (would you just release a browser already!?)

Tapwave Zodiac Metal Casings is a post from: Portagame

A year or so since Kyle Poole owner of Crimson Fire had promised
the world of a GBA emulator on the Zodiac handheld. Since then he had promised to release the emulator at full speed for all those who had paid in advance.

He also made claims that he would go up against Nintendo in a legal pursuit if he had to over the emulator after receiving multiple threats from Nintendo. He posted on his own forum once every few months concerning the progress of project GBAZ, people Obviously got pissed at this.

After months and months of waiting for this perfect hyped up product we found that someone else had taken over Crimson Fire and we still had no word from GBAZ. Wether this was Kyle Poole under a new name or not we did not know. Soon after we saw the first bits of progress as Crimsonfire posted a version of GBAZ under this new management. It did not run very many games and only at 50-60% speed and the software was very restricted, This was a commercial product I remind you.
So after a year of waiting was this worth it?

Hell No!

Was there an alternative? Yes.
Whilst in the meantime a free programmer, Yes thats right free programmer named Yoyofr created a GB/C, Genesis, Snes, Wonder Swan, Neo Geo
emulator by changing modules already created and heavily changing them so that they work well on the Zodiac for the community of Zodiacgamer.com all in return for a Zodiac console donated by the community themselves.

You see the community of ZodiacGamer had put hard earned dollars together and bought 2-3 Zodiacs so that programmers could create
free software that could be used on the Zodiac, One of them had found itself luckily YoyoFr.

His emulator was called LJZ, It stood for Little John Zodiac I believe.
He would update the software sometimes every other day with significant changes done each and every time.
Now the emulator runs at near full speed from what I know and runs the majority of roms, Sure it may not be a GBA emulator but it does emulate just about every other handheld that was on the market and thats enough to
keep you entertained for a long time. This was purely because he felt he would not emulate a handheld thats currently still running on the market from what I believe.

So thats why many of us hope now with the launch of DS he may think about a GBA module to his LJZ. At the same time you do have to remind yourself that the DS is not the follow up to the DS though many do feel so. The successor is named “Evolution” and has already been announced by Nintendo, No doubt this would even be on the market till late 2006.

Anyway rounding up Maybe after this new management at CF and a couple of more months GBAZ will be near perfect, But what about all

those people that paid when it was first announced?
God they must really be straggling themselves right now.
alot have already sold their Zodiacs on to buy PSP’s, After getting bored with software content currently on the Zodiac..
Who can really blame them?

[ Extracted from Sony PSP Takeover ]

SonyBoy

Kyle Poole – The Story so Far is a post from: Portagame

In a business model that is so simple it just makes sense, CrazySoft is renting out downloads of their addictive games for Zodiac and other PalmOS units. For approximately three dollars, you can download the full version of a game for rental. Instead of tacking a time limit on how long you can play the download, CrazySoft is letting you start the game up to 50 times as part of the rental agreement. Ok, big deal, sounds like shareware right? Well, here’s the catch, and it’s a good one: if you end up enjoying a game so much that you “rent” it 5 times, you automatically get the full license and no longer need to “rent” that game. This business model makes sense for open source systems like the Zodiac and I imagine will be effective. Too bad it won’t catch on with more mainstream systems.

[Thanks Zodiac Gamer]

Tapwave Zodiac Games For Rent is a post from: Portagame

They go on to say that The Zodiac's highlight is its gorgeous 3.8in, 480 x 320 16-bit colour transflective LCD. It's not the brightest display I've seen, but without a doubt the best one on a games-oriented device. The screen is surrounded by an anodised aluminium shell that gives the Zodiac a solid, robust feel. On either side of the screen are stereo speakers and the controls: a console-style analog joystick, and on/off and Home buttons on the left-hand side, and a circular cluster of four coloured game buttons on the other.

Anyone stateside want to write a review for us? Or send us one to review. Anything that plays Duke Nukem looks cool to me.

The Register reviews the Tapwave is a post from: Portagame

Tapland Reports on Tapwave NEPUG Presentation is a post from: Portagame

Will it drive sales of the unit? To early to tell, but it definitely has us curious. Perhaps Tapwave will start bundling DN:M or Doom II with the unit to encourage gamers to take the leap of faith to the platform. Either way, we’re glad to see third party developers picking up the title-slack for the system. And we’re glad that at least one Duke Nukem developer can deliver on a promised title (cough, cough, 3DRealms. Forever? Really? Is that the title or the expected release date?)

Tapwave Zodiac Gets First Duke Nukem Title (Finally) is a post from: Portagame

Tapwave has announced that it’s CompUSA retail launch went live today. Along with both the Zodiac 1 and Zodiac 2, the stores will be carrying accessories and two gamepaks initially. The first two games on retail shelves are Z: Pak Adventures, which includes Galactic Realms and Legacy; and the Z: Pak: Fun featuring Paintball, MegaBowling and Kickoo’s Breakout. In a couple more weeks we can expect to see Doom II, and Duke Nukem: Mobile.

Tapwave Zodiac Ships to CompUSA is a post from: Portagame