Post by Jacob Marley on Oct 22, 2003 20:01:35 GMT
Seems like there's some sort of handheld gaming revolution going on at the moment! The GBA has had a virtual monopoly on the handheld gaming market since it launched in 1989...obviously, competitors have come and gone. Some of the casualties being the Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear, Tiger Game.Com, and the Neo Geo Pocket!
The competition KNOWS that Nintendo's continued sustainability is due in large part to their Game Boy line...it's obvious that the N64 and GC were not the successes that Nintendo had hoped, but through it all, the GB line has kept the company afloat.
However, where there's a monopoly, there's a competitor out there read to de-throne the reigning champion! ;D In less than a year, we've received news that no less than 3 competitors will have or have already brought out competing handheld systems;Nokia N-Gage, Tapwave Zodiac, Sony PSP. Keep in mind that some of these systems DO NOT intend to compete directly with the GB as a handheld gaming-only platform. Instead, a few are offering themselves as a viable alternative to the games-only GB system.
I've had my eyes on an N-Gage. Yes, by now we've seen or heard about the less-than-stellar sales and that fact that doomsayers have been vocal about the unit's shortcomings. But when you get down to it and play and use the system for yourself, it's a pretty decent little unit.
The Tapwave Zodiac is a pricey Palm OS based unit. Game support for this unit consists of 4 or 5 next-gen system ports like Tony Hawk 4 and Spy Hunter, and Tapwave raves about the unit's compatibility with the 12,000 existing Palm apps. Meh. This costs the same (and more if you go for the model with the increased specs) as an N-Gage, dev support is pretty iffy, and there's no phone option. It's due to ship later this month.
The Sony PSP will basically be a PS1 type handheld which I am not a huge fan of to begin with. While not much is really known about the size and shape of the system, many mainstreamers are already excited. This is still a few months away from being complete, so no sense in getting to excited just yet.
Which do you plan to buy?
The competition KNOWS that Nintendo's continued sustainability is due in large part to their Game Boy line...it's obvious that the N64 and GC were not the successes that Nintendo had hoped, but through it all, the GB line has kept the company afloat.
However, where there's a monopoly, there's a competitor out there read to de-throne the reigning champion! ;D In less than a year, we've received news that no less than 3 competitors will have or have already brought out competing handheld systems;Nokia N-Gage, Tapwave Zodiac, Sony PSP. Keep in mind that some of these systems DO NOT intend to compete directly with the GB as a handheld gaming-only platform. Instead, a few are offering themselves as a viable alternative to the games-only GB system.
I've had my eyes on an N-Gage. Yes, by now we've seen or heard about the less-than-stellar sales and that fact that doomsayers have been vocal about the unit's shortcomings. But when you get down to it and play and use the system for yourself, it's a pretty decent little unit.
The Tapwave Zodiac is a pricey Palm OS based unit. Game support for this unit consists of 4 or 5 next-gen system ports like Tony Hawk 4 and Spy Hunter, and Tapwave raves about the unit's compatibility with the 12,000 existing Palm apps. Meh. This costs the same (and more if you go for the model with the increased specs) as an N-Gage, dev support is pretty iffy, and there's no phone option. It's due to ship later this month.
The Sony PSP will basically be a PS1 type handheld which I am not a huge fan of to begin with. While not much is really known about the size and shape of the system, many mainstreamers are already excited. This is still a few months away from being complete, so no sense in getting to excited just yet.
Which do you plan to buy?
