State, Future Of Portable Gaming Probed

Thanks to Boomtown for completing their earlier article on the history of portable gaming with a second and third, final part, in which they check out the Sega Game Gear ("...one of the finest handhelds ever crafted, but also one of the most problematic") and Neo Geo Pocket Color ("caught by the same thing that killed the Lynx - lack of third-party support"), before moving on to the all-conquering, frontlit Game Boy Advance SP ("so much better, it's uncanny"), the GP32 ("...an amazing idea"), and into the future with Sony's "bulkier, multifunctional" PSP.

Comments

Ok....and while you're developing on the GP32

[Anonymous Coward]

...the development community for the GBA is blooming as well now that you can learn to develop for the price of a flash cart and loader (not to mention all the other "benefits" of the cart and loader).

So when a good community app comes to fruitition, it's more likely to come to greatness on a platform many people are already using.

Tapwave Zodiac

[aliens]

The Zodiac is poised to become the next big homebrew device. Many GP32 programmers are already looking at it as it is also based on an ARM9 CPU, but has many more features.

It costs a little more up front but its ability to act as a PDA and its design out do the GP32 on all fronts.

Give it a look see and check out Zodiac Gamer for a good deal of info.

I myself just got a GBA SP, and am loving it. Haven't had this much fun since the original SNES (DC comes close). Just wish it was a lil bigger, too small for my hands.