I had one. Screen died in 3 weeks. Hit or Myth was a GREAT game, but other than that, it was mostly a scam, not really a console. But it really did do what it said: wireless, games and, um.... Sweden's most wanted list.
n-gage was good, it runs the entire symbian os library and has a library of actual 3d games
i had one, it just needed a bluetooth headset and 256mb mmc card to load the cracked games
>n-gage was good
it was underpowered, oversold/over hyped, awkward to use and the games were your average symbian shovelware coded using javasir. whoever at nokia thought this was a great idea was a spastic.
red faction, splinter cell, call of duty, rayman 3, ssx, pandemonium
you didn't even need to buy the games, cracked game files were available the same year
Oh, you only mean one shitty java game which looks like a downscaled ps1 game. There were better looking games even on win mobile and palm os.
2 months ago
Anonymous
Symbian is not java, mong... And not really. I have an ngage, ngage qd, 3 gizmondo and a drawer full of tapwave zodiacs. I also have some assorted palm pilot stuff. The ngage was really only gimped by it's screen size, though at that time it was smart because it was also a phone and needed to be compatible and have a long lasting battery, which is what drained the palm pilots and gizmondo batteries so fast. It was basically a smart phone only closer would be an n95(which I also have). It had internet through wap, MP3 player, video player, java midp1.0, symbian v6(iirc) and custom ngage firmware which the games were created for. Every single ngage game is miles ahead of the most advanced java mobile game from the same era, period.
2 months ago
Anonymous
>I have an ngage, ngage qd, 3 gizmondo and a drawer full of tapwave zodiacs.
Did you always invest in the losers?
Symbian is just psion epoc32 but with all the nice things about it removed for normalgays
2 months ago
Anonymous
>Symbian is just psion epoc32 but with all the nice things about it removed for normalgays
Pic related
I got into all this shit from the gp32, and back in the day on gp32xtreme all the handheld got talked about because there was only a few of them, so, I only know of the zodiac through online forums. The zodiac is cool in its own right, its very sleek but it's shoulder buttons deteriorate over time, much like the gizmondos rubber casing. It's got touch screen and basically all the features of a nice palm pilot, but it's orientation is landscape and the button layout is geared towards gaming. It's analog stick is reminiscent of the neogeo, which is actually quite nice. It's really only the shoulder buttons that suck, but it is comfortable to hold. Idk why they didn't come out with a 3d thps4 to rival the ngages awesome tony hawk port, it was completely capable. It runs tons of 3d shit well, it's only slightly outclassed by the gizmondo, which is actually cool AF if you can appreciate the time period it came out at. Though, the gp32/gp2x really pushed the "open handheld" name into what it is now, with all these chinkhelds. The ngage, zodiac, gizmondo, etc... were all commercial systems that had physical releases for their games, the homebrew/hacking scene allowing these consoles to thrive was shunned by the companies. Everything changed in the handheld market when homebrew became a selling point for your console. Sorry for the rant.
>It's analog stick is reminiscent of the neogeo
You mean it had one of those 8 axis click sticks?
2 months ago
Anonymous
>Symbian is just psion epoc32 but with all the nice things about it removed for normalgays
Sorry, now pic related
2 months ago
Anonymous
>You mean it had one of those 8 axis click sticks?
Yes, it's clicky but somehow also sports 360 input? Idk how that works
2 months ago
Anonymous
>tapwave zodiacs
was this an america-only thing? i know about the giz and the ngage but i swear it's the first time i hear about this one. i dont remember a thread on /vr/ either, which is weird, considered the love for failed consoles in this board.
2 months ago
Anonymous
I got into all this shit from the gp32, and back in the day on gp32xtreme all the handheld got talked about because there was only a few of them, so, I only know of the zodiac through online forums. The zodiac is cool in its own right, its very sleek but it's shoulder buttons deteriorate over time, much like the gizmondos rubber casing. It's got touch screen and basically all the features of a nice palm pilot, but it's orientation is landscape and the button layout is geared towards gaming. It's analog stick is reminiscent of the neogeo, which is actually quite nice. It's really only the shoulder buttons that suck, but it is comfortable to hold. Idk why they didn't come out with a 3d thps4 to rival the ngages awesome tony hawk port, it was completely capable. It runs tons of 3d shit well, it's only slightly outclassed by the gizmondo, which is actually cool AF if you can appreciate the time period it came out at. Though, the gp32/gp2x really pushed the "open handheld" name into what it is now, with all these chinkhelds. The ngage, zodiac, gizmondo, etc... were all commercial systems that had physical releases for their games, the homebrew/hacking scene allowing these consoles to thrive was shunned by the companies. Everything changed in the handheld market when homebrew became a selling point for your console. Sorry for the rant.
2 months ago
Anonymous
so interesting hardware but no games? a classic.
2 months ago
Anonymous
It's got some stuff. And lots of compilation stuff also it plays palm pilot games to boot, but it doesn't have the exclusives ngage or gizmondo had.
2 months ago
Anonymous
2 months ago
Anonymous
>palm pilots
The motorola ones, or the ARM based ones? The latter were like 10 times more powerful
2 months ago
Anonymous
I had both but now I just have some old black n white screened ones from like 99. The 2004ish palm pilots were cool, I had a z22 at one point, but I don't recall it being cooler than the ngage, it was good for puzzle touchscreen games like bejeweled though. Also solitaire, I like solitaire on the zodiac though, it's comfy.
>Using yewnes instead of GPFCE.
What are you doing. Anyway, funny thing is that NES emulation was better on Symbian compared to iOS/android until around 2015.
The "N-gage design is based off of Goatse" thing is a myth, the one "source" just being some dumb guy shitposting on YOSPOS.
Would be hilarious if it were true, but ultimately it's an industry wive's tale.
I had one of these in JR high until it was stolen. It was amazing. Purchased one of the late-production models that found their way into eBay a while back, now they're $400.
Easy to hack, good emulators/homebrew (it's how I beat quake for the first time), had a fantastic aesthetic. Colors was a cheesy GTA style game that you could only get if you hacked the system, and honestly was a pretty decent game. SSx3 was a pretty good port I also beat. Trailblazers was pretty sweet as well, good for an arcadey game. There's a beta build of it for the Xbox somewhere. Many of the unfinished games for the console had promise, I often wonder what it would've been like if they didn't screw up launching the system so bad. I'm also deeply interested in one of the few prototypes for the widescreen Gizmondo, which I'm not even sure exist. It's video player was good and it also was a pretty nice MP3 player, I often watched Red VS Blue and other stuff I got off limewire on it when I was in class. Chicane was fricken kino as well.
Emulators ran okay enough, they were fast-ish most of the time. The AR tech demos were neat, there was a tank game that used the AR cards which were pretty fun. Overall, a fun system. It's a shame it was so poorly managed and doubly a shame there isn't an emulator for it.
The consoles exist in circulation, but for $400 it's not worth it unless you have autism, nostalgia, or money to burn. The vibe was incredible, though.
8/10 would've wanted more.
Unfortunately gizmondo was a cover for some illegal shit iirc. I own 3 (only 2 batteries tho : )myself and agree with most of what you're saying, but I'm pretty sure it was some kind of mafia money laundering scheme or something. Feel free to look that up as I'm wobbly bobbly on the deets.
>money laundering mafia biz
Probably, they were definitely involved in sketchy business, but it's absolutely baffling how fleshed out the system is for such a purpose. I imagine there was some intent to make it a real system.
Would've loved to see WiFi on the system and some sort of thumb stick.
In either case, I love the aesthetic and I'm grateful to see this thread on Ganker.
First And foremost this is /vr/, kiddo. Secondly, yeah totally it's a beefy handheld for its time, also sports my favorite version of carmageddon by far. It makes no sense to be even more mismanaged than the Saturn us launch. Possibly sabotage? Could've been some bad blood between colleagues or maybe they just dumb luck put together a killer R&D team. Imagine designing the most powerful handheld at the time just for some mafia morons to mismanage it, or worse knowingly destroy what could've been a gold mine handheld system. A shame really, they really stole some pages out of Bernard stolarinos book
>me
YOU GOT BLUE BALLS, GREEN BALLS, YELLOW AND ALL
I'M GONNA GET THEM STICKY BALLS
me
Gizmondo was a pretty good device, it just lacked software because lack of interest.
Was it? It has like 14 games and I've never seen one in person. Very interesting rabbithole if you look into how the company died
I had one. Screen died in 3 weeks. Hit or Myth was a GREAT game, but other than that, it was mostly a scam, not really a console. But it really did do what it said: wireless, games and, um.... Sweden's most wanted list.
Did anyone even actually play a Gizmondo?
I remember wanting one of these when they were relevant
n-gage was good, it runs the entire symbian os library and has a library of actual 3d games
i had one, it just needed a bluetooth headset and 256mb mmc card to load the cracked games
>The N-Gage is good because I can play games that aren't N-Gage games on it
it was an app store away from being an iphone
>my new RTX card is good because I can play games that aren't bespoke NVIDIA tech demos
What a stupid analogy, god this place is moronic
What? Yeah that's the point of a GPU, to crunch graphics in games that aren't just tech demos.
got 'em
you just described the PSP
Give it a rest, Niles.
>n-gage was good
it was underpowered, oversold/over hyped, awkward to use and the games were your average symbian shovelware coded using javasir. whoever at nokia thought this was a great idea was a spastic.
it played tony hawk's pro skater, your argument is invalid
i don't give a fricking shit if it played with your balls while a nokia employee was tonguing your anus. it was terrible and always will be.
red faction, splinter cell, call of duty, rayman 3, ssx, pandemonium
you didn't even need to buy the games, cracked game files were available the same year
rayman was surprisingly good on it. i enjoyed that game.
> the rest of your post
i know man i had one back then.
I had one then and now and it's still great. Tacophone propaganda brainwashed you, don. Its a very impressive handheld, especially for the time.
>Underpowered
>It could run PSX games at full speed without even needing a GPU
have a nice day
You mean shit java games that look like downscaled ps1 games.
Tony hawk on ngage is pretty fricking spot on and boasts a multiplayer feature. Stop eating so much ass, sister manon.
Oh, you only mean one shitty java game which looks like a downscaled ps1 game. There were better looking games even on win mobile and palm os.
Symbian is not java, mong... And not really. I have an ngage, ngage qd, 3 gizmondo and a drawer full of tapwave zodiacs. I also have some assorted palm pilot stuff. The ngage was really only gimped by it's screen size, though at that time it was smart because it was also a phone and needed to be compatible and have a long lasting battery, which is what drained the palm pilots and gizmondo batteries so fast. It was basically a smart phone only closer would be an n95(which I also have). It had internet through wap, MP3 player, video player, java midp1.0, symbian v6(iirc) and custom ngage firmware which the games were created for. Every single ngage game is miles ahead of the most advanced java mobile game from the same era, period.
>I have an ngage, ngage qd, 3 gizmondo and a drawer full of tapwave zodiacs.
Did you always invest in the losers?
Symbian is just psion epoc32 but with all the nice things about it removed for normalgays
>Symbian is just psion epoc32 but with all the nice things about it removed for normalgays
Pic related
>It's analog stick is reminiscent of the neogeo
You mean it had one of those 8 axis click sticks?
>Symbian is just psion epoc32 but with all the nice things about it removed for normalgays
Sorry, now pic related
>You mean it had one of those 8 axis click sticks?
Yes, it's clicky but somehow also sports 360 input? Idk how that works
>tapwave zodiacs
was this an america-only thing? i know about the giz and the ngage but i swear it's the first time i hear about this one. i dont remember a thread on /vr/ either, which is weird, considered the love for failed consoles in this board.
I got into all this shit from the gp32, and back in the day on gp32xtreme all the handheld got talked about because there was only a few of them, so, I only know of the zodiac through online forums. The zodiac is cool in its own right, its very sleek but it's shoulder buttons deteriorate over time, much like the gizmondos rubber casing. It's got touch screen and basically all the features of a nice palm pilot, but it's orientation is landscape and the button layout is geared towards gaming. It's analog stick is reminiscent of the neogeo, which is actually quite nice. It's really only the shoulder buttons that suck, but it is comfortable to hold. Idk why they didn't come out with a 3d thps4 to rival the ngages awesome tony hawk port, it was completely capable. It runs tons of 3d shit well, it's only slightly outclassed by the gizmondo, which is actually cool AF if you can appreciate the time period it came out at. Though, the gp32/gp2x really pushed the "open handheld" name into what it is now, with all these chinkhelds. The ngage, zodiac, gizmondo, etc... were all commercial systems that had physical releases for their games, the homebrew/hacking scene allowing these consoles to thrive was shunned by the companies. Everything changed in the handheld market when homebrew became a selling point for your console. Sorry for the rant.
so interesting hardware but no games? a classic.
It's got some stuff. And lots of compilation stuff also it plays palm pilot games to boot, but it doesn't have the exclusives ngage or gizmondo had.
>palm pilots
The motorola ones, or the ARM based ones? The latter were like 10 times more powerful
I had both but now I just have some old black n white screened ones from like 99. The 2004ish palm pilots were cool, I had a z22 at one point, but I don't recall it being cooler than the ngage, it was good for puzzle touchscreen games like bejeweled though. Also solitaire, I like solitaire on the zodiac though, it's comfy.
>Using yewnes instead of GPFCE.
What are you doing. Anyway, funny thing is that NES emulation was better on Symbian compared to iOS/android until around 2015.
>it needed 25 buttons to please them
those are the standard symbian buttons
>yospos shitpost
See, told ya it was fake
The "N-gage design is based off of Goatse" thing is a myth, the one "source" just being some dumb guy shitposting on YOSPOS.
Would be hilarious if it were true, but ultimately it's an industry wive's tale.
still looks like it
yes, that's a myth
I had Nokia 6600 back then and ngage design makes sense for the back when
ENTER
I had one of these in JR high until it was stolen. It was amazing. Purchased one of the late-production models that found their way into eBay a while back, now they're $400.
Easy to hack, good emulators/homebrew (it's how I beat quake for the first time), had a fantastic aesthetic. Colors was a cheesy GTA style game that you could only get if you hacked the system, and honestly was a pretty decent game. SSx3 was a pretty good port I also beat. Trailblazers was pretty sweet as well, good for an arcadey game. There's a beta build of it for the Xbox somewhere. Many of the unfinished games for the console had promise, I often wonder what it would've been like if they didn't screw up launching the system so bad. I'm also deeply interested in one of the few prototypes for the widescreen Gizmondo, which I'm not even sure exist. It's video player was good and it also was a pretty nice MP3 player, I often watched Red VS Blue and other stuff I got off limewire on it when I was in class. Chicane was fricken kino as well.
Emulators ran okay enough, they were fast-ish most of the time. The AR tech demos were neat, there was a tank game that used the AR cards which were pretty fun. Overall, a fun system. It's a shame it was so poorly managed and doubly a shame there isn't an emulator for it.
The consoles exist in circulation, but for $400 it's not worth it unless you have autism, nostalgia, or money to burn. The vibe was incredible, though.
8/10 would've wanted more.
Unfortunately gizmondo was a cover for some illegal shit iirc. I own 3 (only 2 batteries tho : )myself and agree with most of what you're saying, but I'm pretty sure it was some kind of mafia money laundering scheme or something. Feel free to look that up as I'm wobbly bobbly on the deets.
>money laundering mafia biz
Probably, they were definitely involved in sketchy business, but it's absolutely baffling how fleshed out the system is for such a purpose. I imagine there was some intent to make it a real system.
Would've loved to see WiFi on the system and some sort of thumb stick.
In either case, I love the aesthetic and I'm grateful to see this thread on Ganker.
First And foremost this is /vr/, kiddo. Secondly, yeah totally it's a beefy handheld for its time, also sports my favorite version of carmageddon by far. It makes no sense to be even more mismanaged than the Saturn us launch. Possibly sabotage? Could've been some bad blood between colleagues or maybe they just dumb luck put together a killer R&D team. Imagine designing the most powerful handheld at the time just for some mafia morons to mismanage it, or worse knowingly destroy what could've been a gold mine handheld system. A shame really, they really stole some pages out of Bernard stolarinos book
I think that was another hanhwld that was a laundering front but the name escapes me
>-ime
me. Even what you posted was better.
Reminder that the n-gage came out the same year as the fricking psp.
>October 7 2003
>December 12, 2004 (in Japan)
Not retro.
I think the cutoff should just be 2005. Frick me if it's considered a seventh generation console