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Palm OS Based Gaming Device Nears Release
Sokie writes "During the past few weeks Tapwave, a startup founded by a couple former Palm employees, has been slowly unveiling the features of their upcoming Helix (Flash heavy link) handheld gaming device. So far, the specs include a 480x320 16-bit color display, dual Secure Digital (SD) slots, Bluetooth connectivity for wireless multiplayer (Wi-Fi available through SDIO), multiple analog controls including triggers, ATI Imageon graphics, and dual rechargable lithium ion batteries (no word yet on battery life). In addition to some cool sounding hardware, several prominent game companies are already signed on to develop games for the Helix, including Activision and Midway. It will also run traditional Palm apps like Calendar and Address Book. Tapwave will continue to unveil a new feature each week for the next few weeks, and the product is supposed to launch in September or October and retail for about $299. PC World has some additional info."
But who are they targeting with this product? Who wants an expensive "gaming" device?
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I have my doubts this new machine will be successful.
The reason is simple: you need high-quality first- and third-party games in order to make it popular--and I haven't heard of such announcements from the makers of Helix.
Nintendo's Game Boy series have done well not only because of the fairly wide range of games developed in-house, but also games developed by third parties. Sony's upcoming PSP machine will likely get quite widely support from third parties, too, given Sony's marketing muscle.
I just don't see this as a "good buy" right now; why put money down on one of these when the PSP is on the way (albeit next year) or when the GBA is a stellar system? Yes, your calendars, your notepad, and all your other programs can go with you, but if games are in mind, this isn't the best out there.
I think handheld computing could take off (again), so the question becomes: wait for a system with the power of my former desktop or buy now and get a system that might be as useless as today's PDA (well, it wouldn't be useless, but it's just such a damn hassle right now). I'd personally wait; I'll just keep using my Palm IIIxe on occasion.
The Political Programmer
This is a 16-bit system? Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the GBA in my hot little hands (Advance Wars 2 is the shiznit, btw) a 32-bit system? So why am I impressed again? Oh, I know, it's their content-free Flash website that took to long to download even with my trusty T3 line pumping into work. Spare me.
PalmOS will undergo massive changes over the next couple of years, at least if Palm is going to stay in business, so developing for this thing is not going to be fun. The rest of the gaming stuff is proprietary and expensive. And on top of that, the device is itself quite expensive.
In a few months, the T3 will be out with a 320x480 screen and Sony's Clies will have come down to that price. Those cover PDA users who want gaming pretty well. And for gamers who want PDA functionality, the main players are adding more features as it is cost effective.
And Microsoft is pushing PPC quite aggressively, and while the UI on PPC sucks, that doesn't matter for gaming, and the PPC kernel is probably better suited to gaming than PalmOS.
Finally, cell phones are pushing hard into the gaming area, and they seem to be doing quite well. They don't give you stunning graphics, but they have entertaining games, often written in cross-platform J2ME: much easier to program and much bigger target market for vendors.
Traditionally, a company like this might hope to get acquired, but who's going to buy these guys? Maybe Palm will buy back its ex-employees as they did with Handspring, but that's about the best that can happen.
Overall, I think this device has no chance in hell.
It's the graphics capabilities, the sound capabilities, etc, that determine how cool a system is.
Back in the 1980s, Sega developed the marketting technique of 16-bit. Their Sega Genesis was better than the NES not because it was 16-bit, but because it had better capabilities. IE: it had a dedicated Z80 (8-bit CPU!) for sound, and its PPU could do more interesting things with more sprites and more colours than the NES' PPU.
The SNES is the same thing: a custom Sony CPU with wavetable support for sound, and a really awesome PPU which had things like mode 7 FX. The CPU in it was 1/3rd the speed of the Genesis cpu because the CPU of your gaming system does not determine how cool the system is overall.
The Palm gaming platform is no different. Who cares if one part is 16-bit? It's all about how the entire system works as a whole.
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Let me express my cynicism this way:
This appears to be one of two things. Either it is an overpriced gameboy with low-end PDA specs, or an Ipaq for people who think themselves too stupid to figure out how to download native games, or currently available NES, SNES, Gensis and MAME emulators onto their own Ipaq. Its only advantage over the current batch of XScale PDAs, it seems, will be developer support, unless you believe that Compaq's and Palm's engineering and battery life advancements at the time of this device's release will be found inferior to this one's, which seems unlikely. Maybe they'll forgo a modern screen to save power, but then why not just get a gameboy? Will developer support for a gaming platform manufacturer not a major name in the industry, who is furthermore in COMPETITION with major names in the industry, be, itself, competitive? I find it hard to answer that with a yes.
And let's be clear on this: this device is not out NOW. It is not, at least as far as specs go, competing with presently available devices like the 200MHz Ipaq 1910, say, selling for $250 or 400MHz Ipaq 2215 selling for $370. It is not, at least as far as available titles go, in any place to come close to competing with existing platforms like the Gameboy. This device, the existence of which at all is purely speculative, is priced at $299 for a release at best several months to come.
If you want a handheld computer and want to play games on it, buy an Ipaq 1910, also with SDIO, currently available for under $250 depending on where you shop and play Age of Empires, Everquest, PocketQuake, PocketDoom, SNES, NES, Genesis, SMS, MAME and the upcoming titles now.
If you want a handheld gaming system with titles available NOW, go with the Gameboy.
If you want to wait several months to pay a PDA price for your next Gameboy without any certainty as to whether titles will in FACT be available at all, then this is the system for you. Hmm.