When a PDA is better than a GBA for Gaming

An anonymous reader writes "Conventional wisdom says that it's silly to buy a $300+ PDA to play games when a $100 Game Boy Advance SP is going to be better at it. At the same time, no one says that it's silly to spend $1000+ on a PC to play games, when you can do the same thing with a $199 PlayStation 2. FiringSquad just posted an ASUS PDA review that focuses on some of the games that only a PDA has the horsepower for, and helps readers figure out how to pick out the right PDA."

Comments

Forget action games

[homer_ca]

I tried gaming on a 400Mhz Dell Axim. Morphgear is a pretty good arcade and console emulator, but it's just a little choppy with the sound on. The big problem is the controls. The directional pad is a little mushy and imprecise. Maybe it's better on other PDAs. The IPAQs I've seen in stores have a more substantial click on the pad. I also don't think the buttons were built to take the constant pounding of gaming and they're obviously not replacable. Still, for non-action games like Final Fantasy or Nethack it works fine.

You're ridiculous

[stratjakt]

no one says that it's silly to spend $1000+ on a PC to play games, when you can do the same thing with a $199 PlayStation

I say that all the time. I think it's insane that a friend of mine just spent $500 to upgrade his PC to get Halo playable, when he could have bought an Xbox for about 100 bucks used.

I much prefer sitting on the couch playing games up on the big screen than sitting in a task chair 18 inches from a monitor. I prefer a thumbstick to a keyboard and mouse. I also prefer the types of titles that come out on consoles, and find the console exclusives to be some of the best games around.

More precisely, I generally dont care for FPS titles, and am more interested in a fun game than hi-res eye candy.

The one advantage the PC had for me was online multiplayer. An advantage its rapidly losing as more and more people plug in their Xboxes, PS2s and GCNs.

The console is catching up to the PC graphically as well - it's far surpassed the low-end PC's with so many HDTV ready titles showing up. 720p or 1080i on a big screen for me please.

And of course, the cost of entry is miniscule, compared to PC hardware. Perhaps ATI and nVidia should find a way to subsidize their hardware through software sales to try and close the gap.

Or buy both...in one!

[Cpt_Kirks]

The Tapwave Zodiac is no longer vapor. It's shipping now.
Games are problematic, most Palm games should run, others are being worked on. It's pretty open for development, so many emulators are possible.

Specs are:
Memory: Zodiac1 = 32MB*
Zodiac2 = 128MB*
* 12MB reserved for system use.
Processor: Motorola(R) i.MX1(TM) ARM9 processor (200 MHz)
Graphics
Accelerator: ATI(R) Imageon(TM) W4200 graphics accelerator (with 8MB dedicated SDRAM).
Display: 3.8 inch transflective display
480 x 320 (half VGA), 16-bit color backlit display (65,536 colors) Portrait and landscape display capabilities Digitizer for enhanced interactive game play, navigation and text input.
Sound: Yamaha(R) audio component and stereo speakers
Standard 3.5mm stereo headphone plug
Earbud-style headphones included
Support for select third-party portable speakers
Vibration: Supports silent notification and interactive game play.
Controls: Variable pressure analog controller (joystick), 2 triggers, 4 programmable action buttons, 1 special function button,
1 home button, 1 power button, and 1 Bluetooth button.
Expandability: Dual expansion slots for MultiMediaCards, Secure Digital (SD) cards
and SDIO cards, including digital cameras and more.*
Zodiac Connector for additional peripherals.
* Slot #1: supports MultiMediaCards, Secure Digital Cards (SD).
Slot #2: supports MultiMediaCards, Secure Digital Cards (SD), and
SDIO cards.
Wireless Connectivity: Built-in Bluetooth radio with dedicated activation button.
Ideal for multiplayer wireless gaming, sharing information and connectivity to other compatible Bluetooth enabled devices.
PC Desktop Connectivity: USB Cable, USB Cradle (sold separately)
Cover: Protective Flip Cover
Wrist Strap: Convenient strap
Battery: High-capacity Rechargeable Lithium Batteries - 1540 mAh
Power Supply: AC Adapter / Battery Charger (120 volt AC, 60 Hz) International connectivity kit (sold separately)
Size/Weight: 5.6" (143mm) x 3.1" (79mm) x .55" (14mm) / 6.3 ounces
Color: Zodiac1 - Slate Gray, Zodiac2 - Charcoal Gray
Software Specifications
Operating System: Tapwave enhanced Palm OS 5.2T
Writing Software: Graffiti 2
Included Software:
Games: Stuntcar Extreme, AcidSolitaire
Media:
Music: Tapwave MP3 player
Photos: Tapwave JPEG Photo Viewer
Video Playback: Kinoma Player 2
Video Creation: Kinoma Producer (Quickly and easily converts AVI, QuickTime, MPEG1, MPEG4 files for use on the Zodiac entertainment console).*
*QuickTime software required to use Kinoma Producer on PC
eBook reader: PalmReader
Organizer: Address Book, Date Book, To Do List, Memo Pad
Other Stuff:
Alarm Clock (Tapwave Alarm Clock with integrated stopwatch & MP3 music feature),
Wireless-based chat & shared whiteboard (PhatPad by Trumpetsoft)
Graphing Calculator (powerOne by Infinity SoftWorks)
Microsoft(R) Word(R)-compatible Word Processor (WordSmith by Blue Nomad)
Connectivity: Web Browser and SMS client for use with compatible Bluetooth enabled phones (bonus software on CD).

Re:Both PDA and GBA are silly.

[more]

The phones have 40% of the CPU of PDAs and 20x the CPU of GBA. It is sufficient to run most games, especially if compared to the GBA. The power consumption of modern phones for running the games is very, very low. Basically, the phones have a slightly more battery-saving architecture than the PDAs, but the difference in CPU performance is very small.

A Nokia series 40 phone that runs two weeks without reloading runs for 4 days with the CPU fully loaded, and a Symbian series 60 phone runs for 2-3 days with the CPU fully loaded. The batteris are not the problem, I have to admit that the form may be a problem for you. It is not a problem for me or my children.