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Emulate Nintendo on Your MessagePad
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!
Newtendo has hit the big times! However, earthlink just let me know that if I get much more traffic this month, I'm gonna be shut down until next month.
Well, it was nice knowing you.
...install Newton OS on an iPaq?
The iPaq's with ARM chips are basically a Newton with a color screen and more memory. Then we really wouldn't need a GBA.
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!
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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.
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.
I used a MP2000 as my primary computer for almost two years. I was "commuting" between the US & UK and used it - along with a Ricochet (R.I.P.) in the US and Nokia cell PCMCIA card in the UK - for browsing, email, telnet (with PT100, killer app!), etc. So I was wireless when mobile, and on Ethernet when at a desk... All pre-802.11. This was circa 1997 BTW.
It was nice to carry virtually all my computing needs in a "daytimer" sized case. People bitch about the Newt's size, but compared to a circa-97 brick of a 7lb laptop? Is was VERY small.
To date the NewtOS was pobably the most elegant OS ever created... and I've run them all. The only thing it didn't do well, at least until now, was gaming. I played a lot of NewTRIS, and I seem to recall a snood, or snood-like game too but Newtgaming was limited to puzzles or very simple action games (like a sub depth-charging thing that I can't recall the name of)
I might have to charge it back up now and play some old NES game. =) Nice to see the Newt still breathing.
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.
The Apple Newton was discontinued in 1998.
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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.
A processor accelerator is available
http://shop.pixsolution.com/catalog/product_info.
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
Most slashdotters are too young to remember The Newton
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