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Emulate Nintendo on Your MessagePad

Posted by pudge on from the yes-that-nes dept.

Green and Geeky writes "That Marvel of a PDA, the Newton MessagePad, has always been a good product. It does a lot of things: plays MP3s, connects to the Internet wirelessly, can be used to bludgeon someone, fits in your pocket (if you're a giant), etc. Now, it plays Nintendo games. Strange, yes, but still pretty cool. I can't play Legend Zelda, Final Fantasy, or Dragon Warrior on my Palm V." And I don't need to waste money on a Game Boy Advance!

6 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. MIRROR by chrisopherpace · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://hnsg.net/~cpace/ninendo/ I'm only on a 512 line, but this should hold for a while, lets keep earthlink off his back!

    --


    Bored? Why not join a decent mess
  2. Re:Anyone figured out how to... by BlueGecko · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Newton uses a huge number of custom proprietary chips relating to things such as its operating system and Newton data soups that have thus far made emulation entirely impossible. The mere fact that the iPaq uses an ARM chip won't allay those problems.

  3. Google Cache Version by CeleronXL · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why doesn't Slashdot link to Google cached versions of pages instead of slamming webmasters using little Earthlink accounts with ~10 MB of bandwidth? Oh well. There's the google version.

  4. Newton's still the best. by Dan+Crash · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you've never actually seen the latest version of Newton handwring recognition in action, take a look here under Newton Usability. "Eat up Martha", my ass. Makes Graffiti look like the kludgy hack it is.

    And did you know you can sync your Newton with iTunes wirelessly? Even the latest iPod can't do that.

    Apple got everything right with the Newton except the size. What a foolish mistake they made cancelling it as a product instead of redesigning it in a slightly smaller form factor.

    --
    He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
  5. Gameboy for Palm OS by stuckpixel · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can't play Legend Zelda, Final Fantasy, or Dragon Warrior on my Palm V.

    Um, actually you can. Gambit Studios has had a gameboy emulator out for the palm os for quite some time. Some of the older palms are a little sluggish, but it works.

  6. 1997 Technology? by XavierItzmann · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Apple Newton was discontinued in 1998.

    The Newton browses the internet wirelessly via Airport (a.k.a. Wi-Fi or 802.11);
    http://www.ff.iij4u.or.jp/~ngc/eng/newtwave.htm

    syncs with nSync (OS X)
    http://www.everchanging.com/newton/

    syncs your MP3 collection with iTunes
    http://www.pixell.net/newton/

    runs a Java Virtual Machine (waba)
    http://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/projects/newton/waba/

    there's been a VNC client since... ever
    http://mywebpages.comcast.net/saweyer/newton/vnc.h tm

    A processor accelerator is available
    http://shop.pixsolution.com/catalog/product_info.p hp?products_id=29

    Apple was one of the original investors in the ARM technology, from way back before Intel ever dreamt of buying it. The Newton runs a RISC StrongARM at 162 Mhz (compare to a 2003/Tungsten T2 running OMAP/ARM at 140 Mhz !!!)

    If anything, the major weakness of the system is its limited memory heap, but we are talking about a 1997 design here.

    Can you say... Apple ahead of its time?

    --
    The next pasture is always greener