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When a PDA is better than a GBA for Gaming

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the not-very-often dept.

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."

47 of 438 comments (clear)

  1. Only buy what you need by Svet-Am · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If all you want is portable games, buy a portable game device (GBA, NeoGeoPocket, etc)

    If you want other functionality, buy a PDA.

    Period.

    Why is this an issue?

    --
    [move .sig! for great justice, take off every .sig!]
    1. Re:Only buy what you need by GoofyBoy · · Score: 2, Insightful


      You can get Mame on a PocketPC. Thats a huge library of games there.

      Touchscreens are a great substitute for mouse control.

      I can play Gameboy or NeoGeo or NES or any 8 bit consoles in emulation mode. I even played Apple ][e games in nuclear green monochrome on my PocketPC.

      With removeable memory cards I can carry around a large number of games in the equivlent size of one carterage of a portable game device.

      --
      The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
    2. Re:Only buy what you need by bensagenius · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Because when I'm waiting for a meeting to start, I'd feel like a real asshole whipping out a Gameboy. At least maybe SOMEONE in the room will think I'm using my Palm for legitimate reasons!

      --
      I am not left-handed, either!
    3. Re:Only buy what you need by ardiri · · Score: 2, Informative

      > Hell, even the new ARM-based b/w Zire could be used for playing
      > games with these emulators for a mere $99.

      as a game developer for Palm OS, and other handheld platforms - i know first hand the issues with porting/writing emulators for the platform. we have written a GameBoy emulator (yes, to 16Mhz m68k) and an Atari 2600 emulator to multiple platforms - however, the processing power available, in addition to the memory constraints imposed by the operating system (4k stack), no global variables in ARMlets; make it very difficult or, virtually impossible to have emulators run on them.

      based on our experience and understanding of the platform, emulation for stuff such as Atari, NES, SNES, GameBoy is definately possible; GameBoy Advance at a full 60fps is possible with high-end PDA's (ie: 200Mhz+) as will coin-op ports. however, something like MAME; with its generic engine - if ported will definately run, but maybe not full speed.

      the bottom line is that porting to Palm OS is difficult; hence, why MAME/DooM et al have existed on Symbian, Pocket PC - but, not on Palm :)

      the tapwave zodiac is a 200Mhz CPU; and, in our experience we have found the Tungsten|T3 cream all over it for pure CPU power (comparing FPS in our 3D engine). however, it does have a 2D accellerator; that some people may take advantage of - and, is actually more 'geared' towards gaming.

      i own a Tapwave Zodiac (two actually), GameBoy advance and over 60 PDA devices (www.ardiri.com/pdas.jpg) - not one device suits my every day needs yet :( i am still waiting for that perfect device *g*

  2. Not silly? by Psmylie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "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"

    Are you kidding? I see that all the time! On slashdot, even.
    Besides, who only spends a grand on a gaming machine?

    --

    psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo

    1. Re:Not silly? by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "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"

      Are you kidding? I see that all the time! On slashdot, even.
      Besides, who only spends a grand on a gaming machine?

      Hell, I say it all the time!

      Not only that, but the games you buy for PCs are barely working. At least with a console there's a QA systems that forces the developpers and distributors to only release gamnes that actually work/can be finished/won't destroy your machine.

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    2. Re:Not silly? by DrEldarion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Besides, who only spends a grand on a gaming machine?

      You could EASILY get a damn good gaming machine for $1000. Much less if you already have a monitor/keyboard/mouse/case.

      Blazing-fast video card - $250
      Processor/Mobo combo - $250
      Hard Drive - $100
      CD Drive - $10
      Mouse/Keyboard - $50
      Case/PS - $75
      17" CRT - $100
      Speakers/Sub - $75
      Misc: $50

      Less than $1000, and I'm overestimating on some of those things (you can get cheaper cases, cheaper speakers, cheaper hard drive, etc)

    3. Re:Not silly? by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Are you kidding? I see that all the time! On slashdot, even."

      It's a ridiculous statement anyway.

      1.) PC Games are not like PS2 games. Comparing the two is like comparing Deep Space Nine to Babylon 5. Very distinct audiences and tastes here.

      2.) Since PC games are so different from console games, people like to indulge a little here in there to make their machine a better game machine. Only they don't spend $1,000 for a game machine, they spend $1,000 on a computer and a hundred bucks here and there to make it a better game machine.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    4. Re:Not silly? by MoneyT · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How are they different. Be honest here. Name a large difference between console and PC games.

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    5. Re:Not silly? by DunbarTheInept · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd rather have a game that's barely working, but intellectually challenging, then yet another brain-dead button mash fest.

      --

      Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.

  3. Limitations... by anaphora · · Score: 5, Funny

    But can a PS2 play Solitare? Didn't think so.

    Everything has limitations.

  4. Karma whoring "duh" response: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can sit in the back of a crowded presentation at work, or in the back of my math class, with a PDA, doing various things, but if I'm seen sitting there using a GBA, that's somehow "disrespectful". Even though either way I'm clearly not paying attention.

    This is why TI Calculator games are the most wonderful thing in the world. No one is going to see anything odd about me pressing buttons on a calculator in a large lecture hall.

    1. Re:Karma whoring "duh" response: by angle_slam · · Score: 4, Funny
      This is why TI Calculator games are the most wonderful thing in the world. No one is going to see anything odd about me pressing buttons on a calculator in a large lecture hall.

      Unless it's a literature class.

    2. Re:Karma whoring "duh" response: by kisrael · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Even then, it depends on the game and how slick you are.

      Most people don't type in math equations watching the screen constantly, pressing buttons in semi-regular bursts for 10 minutes like they do when they're playing tetris. It's generally pretty obvious when someone isn't paying attention because of a game; most people are just to polite to remark on it.

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
  5. Isn't the PDA dead? by Thinkit3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If it doesn't have a cell phone built in, it'll be in a scrap heap soon.

    --
    -Libertarian secular transhumanist
  6. Since when by UrgleHoth · · Score: 2, Funny

    is wisdom conventional?

    --

    Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
  7. 'Zat so? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    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.

    My impression is that every time person X buys anything person Y doesn't have (console, PC, graphics card, game) person Y insists that it's silly...

    1. Re:'Zat so? by WegianWarrior · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My impression is that every time person X buys anything person Y doesn't have (console, PC, graphics card, game) person Y insists that it's silly...

      And it's certainly true if the item that person X has bought outpermforms and costs less than the item person Y has.

      However, this 'wisdom' that is refered to in the ingress is what I like to call 'beancounters wisdom'. While it may appear ecomomicaly reasonable to "save" around 800$ by buying a dedicated gamingconsole instead of a multipurpose computingplatform (ie, a personal computer), I find that it isn't. A PC (or a Mac for that matter) is seldom used solely for gaming - it can be used as a typewriter, to help you organise your life (and remaning money =) ), get you online and so on. That, and a PC will often be superior at certain sorts of games, as well as often arriving with its own display device, which means that mum and dad can watch the news without junior having to break of his game...

      That aside, I own myself two PCs (three if you count the old 486), one PSX, one PS2, one Plam and a GBA... so perhaps the wise thing to do is to get them all and use the one best suited at any one task?

      --
      Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
  8. Well...PDA/GBA have games in the same genre,,, by FatSean · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...well, generally. While PC and Console games do overlap, there is enough of a difference in the software library to choose one over the other (or just choose both!). PDAs are clunky. I'd never buy a piece of portable electronics that expensive...my cell phones live a harsh life. A $100 gameboy getting dropped onto concrete is sad but acceptable...a $300 PDA is not.

    --
    Blar.
  9. To play oldschool games? by icejai · · Score: 2, Interesting
    PDA's are getting pretty powerful these days, but trying to compete with the likes of Nintendo and Sony is just insane.

    If I could, I'd make some kind of palm gaming application so that people could download ROMs of their favourite old-school games, kinda analogous to iTunes and their pay-per-download system.

    99 cents for all-you-can-play-forever ROMs?

    That'd be super sweet.

    1. Re:To play oldschool games? by stonecypher · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except that it never works. That's what Sega Game Channel was, that's what Intro Distro was, that's what the eReader is. People won't buy it if it has a limited life, and people think of things they download as impermanent. For some reason, media matters at one level or another.

      Granted, Sega had bigger infrastructure costs than you'd have these days, and the nostalgia is stronger now than it ever has been before. But really, for just how long do you think people will extoll the virtues of Dragon Warrior 1 after they actually start playing it again? I found a copy and a working NES at funco land for $8 together, and I shugged and what-the-helled it.

      I got into the first dungeon, and opened the locked trunk that had the key to get me through to the other side. As my inventory was full I could not take the key. I dropped an item, looked in the box again, and it was gone. I fought my way back to ground and then back down; still gone. I'd have to recreate 6 hours of gameplay over that I didn't know there was an inventory limit, much less that trunk contents were a one-time-only grab.

      Granted, many games do hold up to the test of time - crysalis, koei games, et cetera - but the market is still too slim.

      $10 "greatest hits" discs will always win. Besides, that's $2/rom, and you can take it to friends' houses. Good enough?

      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
  10. Forget action games by homer_ca · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Forget action games by cK-Gunslinger · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Instead of PDA + GBA, why has not anyone tried GBA + PDA? I mean, you could just add a touchscreen, stylus holder, flip-down KB, and a small CPU/mem to an ordinary GB Advance. I think that would be more akin to what a "gamer" would want. Perhaps that's what the N-Gage was going for? But why the high prices?

  11. You're ridiculous by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:You're ridiculous by XaXXon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I dunno if you actually played any of those hdtv games for xbox, but I was unimpressed by it.

      I bought the kit for pushing component video out of an x-box and took it over to a friend's house who has a 56" Sony HDTV projection screen. I cranked it up to 1080i and pretty much the only thing I saw was that it slowed down. The loading screen with the matrix letters were crisper, but that was it. I noticed no change in-game other than it being slower (noticably chunky in spots that were smooth in standard resolution).

      This doesn't really surprise me, though, as all an xbox has is a slightly upgraded geforce3. That card doesn't exactly have an amazing fill rate -- it's 2 generations old. My Radeon 9700, however, pushes 1600x1200 in games quite well. Granted, it cost $200 more than the entire xbox, but that's the price if you want high-res graphics. Just don't be saying that 1080i on an xbox touches my computer.

      Everyone whines about cost.. I say get a real job and don't worry about it. Gaming is a hobby. Hobbies take money. Some people work on their car and buy 20" lift kits. Some people fly remote control airplanes. I pimp the hell out of my computer. I buy lights, I buy fans, I drill holes in the case, and I buy damned expensive video cards, and I don't complain about it (well, maybe a little, but I still buy 'em)

      I guess it's all about how you want to spend your money. I work hard; I play hard.

    2. Re:You're ridiculous by damiam · · Score: 4, Funny
      I think it's insane that a friend of mine just spent $500 to upgrade his PC to get Halo playable

      I think it'd take a lot more than a hardware upgrade to make Halo playable.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    3. Re:You're ridiculous by Frederic54 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      yup, and the price for a 60 inches 16:9 HDTV is?

      --
      "Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
  12. there's a big difference... by mantera · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's one important factor that is often ommitted from such considerations; battery life, which is a very finite resource. I personally carry in my bag a cybershot camera that i use to videoblog and a clie, and although convergence devices have hit the market that provide a PDA with video capabilities i'm not so tempted to buy one any time soon for that very same reason. The camera would take just over an hour of video before it runs out of battery, which i personally use almost daily, and that wouldn't affect the PDAs battery at all. Separation of concerns is a good thing, and i'd imagine that gaming that'd be intensive enough to consume a PDAs battery mean it's better to have a dedicated gaming device even if that means carrying two gadgets. PDAs are meant to be reliable and a PDA that's out of battery power isn't reliable at all.

  13. My DooM 3 Machine by dolo666 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz
    Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
    2x250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
    Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English (I'll get a multi-button mouse if I can find one good for gaming, and a gamepad)
    SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
    8GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 8x1GB
    ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
    Accessory kit
    Mac OS X - U.S. English
    APP for Power Mac (w/ or w/o display) - Enrollment Kit
    Klipsch ProMedia GMX 5.1 Speakers & Monster 2-meter Cable .Mac Promotional Bundle
    Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
    iSight
    Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel) + Apple DVI to ADC Adapter
    DVD Studio Pro 2
    Soundtrack
    Final Cut Pro 4.0
    Shake 3 Mac OS X
    AppleWorks 6.2.7
    Command and Conquer Generals
    BloodRayne
    Halo
    Masters Of Orion III
    Myth III - The Wolf Age
    Return to Castle Wolfenstein
    Star Trek Elite Force 2
    Unreal Tournament 2003
    WarCraft III
    WarCraft III: Frozen Throne
    Adobe Creative Suite - Premium
    Doom 3 (not included in price)
    Snak (not included in price)
    $22,089.35
    Anything I'm missing?

    1. Re:My DooM 3 Machine by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Funny

      The memory costs $5000 because it's better than other memory. Really.

    2. Re:My DooM 3 Machine by vidnet · · Score: 4, Funny
      Anything I'm missing?

      A girlfriend?

      On the other hand, girlfriends come and go, but the love from a Dual 2ghz G5 is pure and everlasting, until people outspec it on their PDAs next year.

    3. Re:My DooM 3 Machine by schapman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      if you want a good mouse for gaming.. check out Logitech mx700 you can't beat logitech for mice. and they will soon have that mouse in bluetooth w/ a sweet keyboard combo. Logitech(R) diNovo(TM) Media Desktop(TM)

      --
      Wouldnt you like to be a pepper too?
  14. Yea by mao+che+minh · · Score: 3, Insightful
    A console can still not achieve the versatility of a PC when it comes to gaming. I prefer consoles to PCs due to convienence, but I do recognize that gaming on a console is still laregly confined to the "local area". Only the Xbox has truly brought full-fledged online gaming to the console masses (local storage, patches, large centralized gaming network, etc - basically everything that makes online PC gaming so good).

    The problem with this, is that Microsoft has been using its endless bags of cash and an unfair monopoly status to swing this much weight into a new market. If they weren't able to lose hundreds of millions of dollars to do this, it would have never happened. Online console gaming would still be largely non-existent. Just something to think about: is Microsoft good in this case, or are they bad?

  15. Yet Another Example by rastakid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here is Yet Another Example (YAE) of playing games on a PDA: I'm the proud owner of the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500, and I've finished ID's Doom and Lucas Art's Monkey Island I (using ScummVM ported for the Zaurus) on my PDA. Just take a look at the Zaurus Software Index to see which games are available. So yes, I think PDAs are growing more and more into gaming platforms, keep an eye on them. Ow, and besides gaming, you can do a lot other things with PDAs, which you can't with GBAs and others.

    --
    In need of reliable and affordable server monitoring?
  16. Or buy both...in one! by Cpt_Kirks · · Score: 3, Informative

    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).

    1. Re:Or buy both...in one! by stonecypher · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, everyone in the AGB development community is up in arms about the Tapwave.

      I think it's going to fail, for the same reason that the GP32, the Cybiko, the Wonderswan, and the other parade of near misses have. Or, rather, for the list of reasons:

      1) Nobody's ever heard of the damn thing. You're on slashdot and people are all "the what?"

      2) Tapwave can't undersell the hardware like Nintendo can. $300 for a portable gaming machine has never gone over well, and it never will.

      3) This thing isn't getting a game library of any real size.

      4) I can buy a tapwave at:
      Toys R Us? No.
      Babbages? No.
      The Mall? No.
      Walmart? No. ... anywhere other than mail order? Sorry.

      See, being able to sell to kids is kind of important for something like a game platform. The Cybiko had long distance wireless! That should have won them the war! Except it was ugly. I mean, shit, you could get those things in stores that exist in middle America. They had the Cybiko at Walmart for $50. And it still lost.

      Why? Because they tried to brag that they had games like stuntcar, klondike, skiing, snake, and checkers.

      OMG! Checkers! King me, random person a mile away! I am the master of Draughts! ALL PHEER MY MORRIS SKIZZNILLZ! (don't have much of a ring to it, do it?)

      I am happy that this device got off the ground. I am impressed that it can play all dozen of the PalmPilot games in a ridiculous quarter-screen box. Wow, it's even got a graphing calculator, which is clearly the first thing I look for in a system that costs me over four times what the industry leader with all the games wants.

      And there is nothing, I say nothing, about Zelda which is anywhere near as cool as Acid Solitaire. Without Acid Solitaire, I'll have no idea what the kids at school are talking about, with Marjora's Mask, which allows you to peek at *two* cards from the top of your draw pile.

      The company's too small to court real developers and without real developers its market is too small to attract them on its own. GP32 had the right idea shipping an emulator, but you couldn't buy one without living in Korea, and besides, the GP32 is ugly enough to get you beat up every day.

      Adults don't remember how a kid's life works. This thing is doomed. The AGB has only one thing to fear, and that thing is the PSP.

      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
  17. WindowsCE by mirko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The mentioned PDA uses WindowsCE, I consider it annoying as it means it is quite unsync'able with something else than Windows (OK, there's a commercial conduit for OSX but even...).
    Now, I'd have been quite happy to see it compared with a Linux PDA :
    the GBA has an ARM7500FE while my Zaurus has a StrongARM@202.
    I can play Doom (prBoom) and Quake on my Z (OK, let's forget Quake ;) no, why wasn't this comparison more open ?
    Maybe because this came from an individual which could not afford anything else than what he actuallly tested.
    It's a pity because it just is not exhaustive.

    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
  18. It depends what you're after... by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    Ever tried to find a decent flight simulator on a console? Good luck searching for one. There are plenty of games (and genres of games) that are better on a PC than they are on a console.

    Some of us older gamers can remember the time when consoles couldn't even save games unless the cartridge came with built-in storage (ie, almost anything that came before the PS1), and it's only recently that online multiplayer gaming has become possible on the latest generation of consoles.

    Still, try finding a real equivalent of Everquest or even Warcraft III on a PS2/X-Box/GC. You can get close, but not close enough to earn you a cigar.

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
  19. First PDA by MagerValp · · Score: 2, Informative
    "My first PDA was the HP 95 LX, the very first palmtop computer featuring 256KB of RAM and DOS 3.22! In fact, this was the first true PDA released to the market, capable of doing more than just the super-sized electronic organizers."
    The HP 95 LX was (as far as I can tell) released in 1991. PDAs had been along for a long time by then. I own two Atari Portfolios (80C88 @ 5 MHz, 128 kB RAM, DOS 2.11, released in 1989) myself, but there are even older ones, like the Psion Organiser 1 from 1984.
    --

    READY.
    #
  20. Re:Both PDA and GBA are silly. by more · · Score: 3, Informative
    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.

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    -- Imperial units must die --

  21. Don't buy the original GBA. by rufo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My advice to you: Avoid the original GBA at all costs. The SP is much more comfortable to hold (for me, anyway), has a 10 to 15 hour rechargeable battery and (most importantly) a lit screen. The original GBA does not have a lit screen, and while it looks fine in sunlight, if you're indoors or on a cloudy day it's a complete bitch to see, even if you're sitting directly beneath a lamp. (Penny Arcade isn't joking in this particular comic) Our family owns both an original GBA and the SP... The original GBA is basically regulated to second-player status in multiplayer games, whereas the SP is used most of the time, mainly because you can't see the original. Go easy on your kid's eyes, get the SP.

    --
    My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
  22. HP 95LX Not First by bill.sheehan · · Score: 2, Informative

    With all respect to the author, the Atari Portfolio antedated the HP 95LX by a good two years. I believe the Portfolio claims the title of the first commercially available palmtop.

  23. What you want by neglige · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    It heavily depends on what you can do with it besides playing games. Ever tried to write a letter with a PS2? Or run a database? No, modding the XBOX to run Linux does not count. Truth is, it is silly to buy a PC just to play games. But the PC will still be with you a few years from now. And it might even be useful. And you can do more with it than with a console.

    The same holds true for PDAs. If you want to store your contacts, adresses and events, a relatively cheap Palm device will do nicely. If you want to have insane multimedia capabilites and all those nice little extras, you want a PocketPC -- which costs about 3 times more (YMMV). And those devices can also play games.

    But can the GBA store your appointments?

    --
    My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
  24. Battle Damage! by Snowmit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A $100 gameboy getting dropped onto concrete is sad but acceptable...a $300 PDA is not.

    It's not even necessarily sad. A month ago, I was running to catch a bus (you know that period of time when the bus is pulling out and you are running alongside it and you're sure the driver can see you in his reaview mirror but he isn't stopping and for some stupid reason you keep running in the hopes that you can reach the front door and knock on it and then he'll be forced to notice you and stop and let you on?).

    My GBA SP popped out of my pocket and bounced twice on to the road, where it proceeded to get run over by a bus.

    Ruefully, I collected it and turned it on. It works great. The only ill effects were that the cartridge popped out (it also still works great) and some serious scratching on the top cover. I like to think of it as battle damage.

    Seriously, these things are like Timex.

    --
    I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
  25. $1,000? by symbolic · · Score: 2, Insightful

    At the same time, no one says that it's silly to spend $1000+ on a PC to play games

    I might. I was able to put together a very capable system for less than half that (good enough to play PlanetSide without any problems). I guess the price might be somewhere near $1,000 if you absolutely had to have the best graphics card available, but for me (and many others, I suspect) it's an unncessary luxury. 250 fps? Please. Who cares? As long as it does at least 30-40 fps most of the time, the rest is all surplus.

  26. GBA SP vs PDA by figa · · Score: 2, Informative
    Back in the day I bought a Casio EM500. It was a cheap PDA, it could run Mame, Doom, and Hexen pretty well, the screen was great, and the buttons worked for gaming (unlike the iPaq at the time). Two months ago I bought a Gameboy Advance SP. Here's why I bought a Gameboy rather than another PDA:
    • I didn't feel comfortable flashing the PDA on the train. It's a lot of $$$ to wave around.
    • I felt like I was destroying the PDA by using it. Though I was careful, I scratched the screen playing Pocket Slay. I can't stand using a PDA through a sheet of plastic, and at some point I pushed some grit around. When I played Mame games, I felt like I was going to kill the the buttons eventually. This is an unsettling feeling on a $300 device.
    • The buttons on most PDAs aren't really configured for gaming. They're normally all on the bottom in a row.
    • The PDA form factor is still pretty big, relative to the GBA SP, which is about the size of a big pager. When it's folded, it's pretty sturdy, so I don't have to worry so much about snapping it in half or cracking the screen.
    • Gameboy programming looks like a lot of fun. The architecture reminds me of the Amiga. It's a whole other world from writing games for the Pocket PC.
    • I found that I never used any of the PDA functionality of the PDA, no matter how hard I tried to incorporate it into my life.
    • The GBA SP only set me back $100. My Casio depreciated $200 in the space of two years. The GBA is likely to hold half its value for the next two years for a TCO of $50 versus $200 over the same period.
    • People stopped writing apps for the Casio's MIPS processor. That risk is still inherent in the Pocket PC world.

    Needless to say, I'm happy with the GBA. There are some things I miss about the PDA, though.

    • It would be nice to have compressed video playback. That's not happening on the GBA.
    • I'm missing the ability to play NES games and other ported or emulated games. I think there's an NES emulator for GBA, but I don't have a flash cart setup.
    • There are very few strategy games for GBA. I'm playing Advance Wars 2, and it's a great game. It's unfortunate there aren't more like it. I may find myself playing Pokemon. The platform is really geared to the 8-12 set.
  27. The author's guess: by batura · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "My guess is that a good 50% or more of PDA users bought the PDA for playing games."

    My guess is that he's wrong. Totally wrong. Buying a PDA for games doesn't seem to make much sense at all. The fact that are games is a nice distant second use, but for most people, I doubt this has any revalence at all. Wall Streeters playing Puzzle Bobble on Lunch? hmm, maybe, but I wouldn't think so.