Tapwave Zodiac officially dead

[Slipdeath]

Well it never really was alive to begin with, but the website (www.tapwave.com) has now announced that it has dropped support:

We are sorry to inform you that the Zodiac business was discontinued and service and support are no longer available as of July 25th 2005.

Resources that may still be helpful to you can be found at http://www.tapwave.com/resources and http://www.tapwave.com/support. This includes links to websites where you can find a variety of useful tips and information as well as purchase e-books, Audible books and magazines, Palm OS applications, Zodiac skins, and third party Tapwave Certified games.

Additional products, accessories, and game cards may still be available from COMPUSA, Fry's, and J&R while supplies last.

We thank you for your past interest and support and apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. If you have an outstanding claim with the company, Ueker and Associates will be contacting you shortly.

Sincerely,
The Tapwave Team

[Nez]

Oh well the only thing I like about that system was its joystick wich I thought was perfect.

The games I played however blew.

[AFGiant]

I saw that thing at its start, have not seen it since. The ghost of the Game.com strikes again!

[neuropolitique]

Too bad. I've always wanted to get my hands on one, but they were always too epensive. Ever since they released that promo video before it was released. God that video was awful.

[smork]

I saw two new for sale last week -- the salesman was looking at me hungrily, as if he'd never eaten, but I game him my best "I ain't no sucker" look. RIP, Tapwave.

[Cauterize]

Damn that was probably the quickest handheld/console death ever!

Ive never seen a Zodiac in action, what are the homebrew emulators liek on it!?

[slapdash]

Well, hopefully systems are a little cheaper now... Wouldn't mind picking one up. Hmm... how many game cartridges did they release in total? I picked up six cheapies; gotta be only a couple more I'm missing, right? (Looks at Online Rarity Guide) Looks like I'm only missing the two by Pazzazz Game... Anyone know where I can get them cheap?

EDIT: Found the games reasonably cheap, so I'll snag them I guess... Still could use a cheap unit though.

[Slipdeath]

Well, hopefully systems are a little cheaper now... Wouldn't mind picking one up. Hmm... how many game cartridges did they release in total? I picked up six cheapies; gotta be only a couple more I'm missing, right? (Looks at Online Rarity Guide) Looks like I'm only missing the two by Pazzazz Game... Anyone know where I can get them cheap?

EDIT: Found the games reasonably cheap, so I'll snag them I guess... Still could use a cheap unit though.

Yup 8 in total, although they decided to make the majority of their games download only. It's a shame really.

[dojosky]

Sad to see it be dead already jeez... I picked up a zodiac 2 complete with everything for $150 so if you know where to look you can find it easily ... I liked the rumble feature on it but the games itself r ok ok and its sleeker than psp kinda too thin but its not a bad machine... Honestly I haven't played with mine too much but I believe jonjandran has one too so I'm sure he'd have better knowledge and information on those systems than I do....

[jonjandran]

Sad to see it be dead already jeez... I picked up a zodiac 2 complete with everything for $150 so if you know where to look you can find it easily ... I liked the rumble feature on it but the games itself r ok ok and its sleeker than psp kinda too thin but its not a bad machine... Honestly I haven't played with mine too much but I believe jonjandran has one too so I'm sure he'd have better knowledge and information on those systems than I do....

It really was a nice system with a lot of potential. But Tapwave never let homebrew developers in on how to program for the ATI graphics chip, so there was a lot of untapped potential.

Maybe now they will let the homebrew developers in on a few secrets and the homebrew and emulation will take off.

I doubt it though, the PSP seems to be getting all the attention.

Oh and I HATED the thumbstick. It was near impossible to play games with it. :/

[RetroYoungen]

I really wanted to pick up a Zodiac, but it was just too damn expensive for me. There was one RTS for it that looked pretty cool, and there was an Atari collection you could play on it I think (that was designed for a Palm device). It looked pretty sleek, I saw somebody playing one last year at CGE (I think it was last year, might have been 2003).

[Sothy]

I never even heard of it.... either the most ill launched system egver or somethings wrong with me....

I have one of these though

[DeputyMoniker]

This CAN'T shock anyone...I mean, really.
I wanted one of these a while back, before the release of the PSP. I only wanted it so I could emulate on it though so I never spent the $300-400 it would take just to get a better screen than the GBA. Didnt Game.com have a shorter life than this? I was kinda young but it seemed like the Game.com barely outlasted it's launch.

[ianoid]

If you're stupid and want to collect systems like this (or for me, it's just software so far), you may want to check out www.ebuyer.com for some cheap tapwave game action. Search tapwave.

And if anyone has any of the other games they don't have for sale there available cheap, pm me. I would be happy to complete my US collection. According to DP, I only need 3 more titles.

[Snapple]

You mean the Zodiac didn't make it?!

*feigns shock*

[Damion]

The only reason I even consider a Zodiac was for emulation and honestly I never saw it.

Though I might get a Gamepark GP2X for that. Cause honestly PSP is losing the homebrew happyness that I once felt.

At least with the Gamepark I would not have to worry about the function getting turnicated a week later.

[slapdash]

And if anyone has any of the other games they don't have for sale there available cheap, pm me. I would be happy to complete my US collection. According to DP, I only need 3 more titles.

I think the US GPX2 site has most/all of the Tapwave games, but I can't recall the URL.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Zodiac??? exists??? and now it´s finished??? what´s the Zodiac???

[slapdash]

A PDA meant to play games. Nice big screen, but not a lot of games or fans, I guess.

Ian, here's the site I was thinking of -- what games are you missing though? As I recall, there were two that were really third party, but I can't recall where I found those.

[ianoid]

ebuyer.com still has 5 of 8 titles, most for $5.

Spy Hunter seems readily available, but for $15 or more.

The two Pazzazz titles, Tiger Team and GTS, seem to be available for $20. I'd prefer to get those for under $10.

Anyone get a lead on cheap tapwave consoles, do post. I'd gobble one up for under $100. $250 is a bit much to spend.