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They're not exactly mainstream, but there is a small following dedicated to their Zodiacs. http://www.tapland.com/ and http://www.zodiacgamer.com/ are the two big sites that I know of, though there is a lot of info repeated between the two.

Tapwave only recently started offering the Zodiacs retail - they were only available thru the Tapwave website for the first few months.

It's a PalmOS 5 device that happens to have a slightly different form factor. Or, at least, that's what I tell my boss when I get caught playing Bionic Commando in system architecture review meetings. Then I flip over to the built in memo pad before I show him that I'm actually diligently taking notes.

It's a really nice piece of hardware to have if you're a gamer/gadget geek who was forced to grow up and get a job. Half PDA, half classic game emulator, and it'll run any Palm software compatible with OS5 or earlier, so you can keep all those apps you've become reliant on. Just as soon as GBA emulation gets working, we'll be all set.

You've completely missed the various emulators available for the Tapwave Zodiac, haven't you? Try checking this site and this one.

a beta of the snes is out now if you registered as a developer. it has to be signed by tapwave for the rest of us to get a crack at it, so who knows when that will happen.

from what people are saying some games run very well, but no sound yet. this is about a week after work was started on porting the emu from the gp32. hopefully it will get even better very soon, and a have a signed version released.

look in the forums at zodiac gamer for a link to the beta if you can run unsigned apps

oh, and the zodiac kicks ass. great controls and a great pda. just got a 512mb sd card for it too, gotta start re encoding movies to fit on it now.

What the N-Gage is good at is being the first of do everything devices.

Unfortunately it's too early for this to be done properly with a phone. The zodiac does a better job without the phone features. It marries, a PDA and a game console fairly well.

In a few years, if they can continue to shrink the size of components we'll see a successful N-Gage 2.

With only 2 hours of battery life for a game, it's not exactly something you'll want to be playing on train rides to work if you need the battery for the rest of the day for important stuff.

Just for curiousities sake, check out the Tapwave Zodiac. It seems to be picking up in the States where the GP32 left off.

Perfect if you're in the need for a PDA, and seems to have a good community of homebrew starting up not to mention 100's of good Palm OS games, and some prilimanary support from Sega for some old Genesis classics.

Here's a good place for more info

Sadly, the GP32 may be dying. GamePark has suspended manufacture until April. Rumors still persist of a European launch one day. You can get one at gbax.com or Lik-Sang while they last.

The Zodiac however, is now shipping. They have to get through the aparently large amount of pre-orders. I hope to get mine by Thanksgiving.

Since Tapwave is only shipping to U.S. addresses right now, and many emulator authors live outside the country, some emulators may be delayed.

Help out. Sign up as a developer, download the SDK and get coding!

Good points, Walt. In case you haven't seen it, check out Zodiac Gamer. Good site.

I think you will find, if you look here, that the Zodiac *HAS* first-run games on the way.

Personally, I would much rather have a gaming PDA with the Zodiacs specs over a 16mhz toy.

Plus the fact that GBA games will be running on the Zodiac soon...uh, forget I said that, mmmkay?