Gizmondo question

[fishsandwich]

The Gizmondo is officially dead so I suppose this belongs in the classic section.

Anyone know the deal with SmartAds? How does that work? Will I have problems getting a Gizmondo equipped with SmartAds to run? Is there some sort of registration process?

Hell, is there anyone on the board who even knows what the hell I'm talking about?

There's a fantastic article on the Giz right here on this website...

http://www.digitpress.com/columns/didyouknow.htm

[MachineGex]

I read a few months ago that some of the top execs. got in some trouble. Can't remember what, but I think is was money related.

[fishsandwich]

I read a few months ago that some of the top execs. got in some trouble. Can't remember what, but I think is was money related.

Thanks, I guess. I was asking if anyone knew about the SmartAds function on the Gizmondo itself, not the people who sold it.

The Gizmondo Saga involves organized crime, guns, fraud, 200 million in losses, a great plan to swindle investors, a wrecked Ferrari, Danni Minogue, a Florida floor covering company, fake Homeland Security agents, Sting (from The Police), Electronic Arts, counterfitting, prison sentences, a Halo sequel/spinoff, more organized crime, money laundering, and a powerful little handheld that came and went with little fanfare.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmondo


Anyone know about SmartAds on the Giz and how it might affect playability? Is there some sort of registration that needs to be done?

How many people on this board actually HAVE one? Anyone? Do you like it? Thoughts? Anyone?

[Steve W]

The Smart Adds program was never started. They would have needed to have at least 50,000 Gizmondo units sold before they would have started the ads, but the company crumbled before then. The Smart Adds would have been sent to you through the cell-phone style SIM card that's installed in your Giz. I got one right after what could laughingly be called the US launch, and since I didn't read the instruction manual before using mine, my SIM card was never activated, so I couldn't get any Smart Adds even if I wanted them. I think it was a common occurance, from what info I picked up from the Gizmondo mall kiosk in Dallas.

Anyway, the Smart Adds program would have you getting advertisements when you'd start up and shut off (I guess when you put it to sleep too) your Gizmondo. It would have been a little more interesting than just a simple ad, though. For example, 7-11 stores were one of the proposed customers for the ads, and you'd watch a commercial for something like Sprite, then get a coupon onscreen for something like 50¢ off a bottle at 7-11. The GPS function would show you where to find your local 7-11 location and lead you there, and then a bar code would be on the screen, so the sales person would scan it and it would be like a virtual coupon for 50¢ off. It seemed like they put a little bit of thought into the Smart Adds program. The company never hit critical mass with the Gizmondo though, so it wasn't financially viable to launch it.

I really like my Gizmondo. One of the more interesting game consoles I have in my collection. Just the background on the handheld's creation is reason enough to own one. The fact that it was a really promising game device is icing on the cake. I just wish it would have lasted long enough for some of the Augmented Reality games to hit the shelves. I think I read somewhere that one of the titles would have been the original Unreal Tournament, and the Giz would have used the camera to register movement and act as a virtual mouselook. That would have been cool!

[zektor]

Funny that you just posted this, as I *just* received my first Gizmondo. Don't worry about the whole Smart ADDS ordeal, you'll never get adds on your Giz. You should look into installing OTaku's service pack B however, so you can run homebrew. The emulation on the device is pretty fantastic, I must say. NES, SNES, Mame...there are alot of happenings in the "dead" Gizmondo world. I love this handheld.

As for my thoughts on it. It rocks. The thing is a work of art. It is well built, feels great, controls are awesome, screen is clear and bright. There are a few games out for it, and honestly I have only tested two so far. Sticky Balls (I know, BAD name!) is pretty good, and Fathammer Classics is awesome, at least to me being a Fathammer fan. I really have nothing bad to say about it other than it's manufacturer/company going bust. This could have been HUGE. It still can now with the recent introduction to the homebrew world. I played Super Mario Bros 2 on it today for an hour. It was like handheld crack. Also, some unreleased titles are floating around on the net like "Colors", which is a GTA type game. I have it sitting here on the HD, just have to give it a go (tomorrow!)

EDIT: Ohh, and to be more clear on that Smart Adds deal, no, you'll never have to worry about that or registration or the like. Just turn it on, boot up and play. Thats all. No need for a service provider or anything of the sort.

[slapdash]

Are there any good sources for the games -- not downloads, but actual games? Or better yet, CHEAP sources of them?

[retrogmr]

There's one seller on EBay who appears to be an ex-delaer; he puts the same sets of games and accessories up every couple of weeks or so. Good guy, has quite a bit of promo stuff and other goodies he's not listed (but would probably dig up if you ask). I picked up a set of 8 titles from him for pretty cheap.

His EBay ID is satuvwoude

Game are probably the only things you'll score cheap; everything else was released in such scarce numbers they tend to go for a couple bucks when they pop up (cradle, GPS kit, and some of the unreleased titles).

[Ze_ro]

Funny that you just posted this, as I *just* received my first Gizmondo. Don't worry about the whole Smart ADDS ordeal, you'll never get adds on your Giz. You should look into installing OTaku's service pack B however, so you can run homebrew. The emulation on the device is pretty fantastic, I must say. NES, SNES, Mame...there are alot of happenings in the "dead" Gizmondo world. I love this handheld.

How is the Gizmondo scene coming along anyways? I have a GP2X, which I'm very happy with, but I'm always curious about what else is out there. With the Gizmondo mostly dead now, what's the going price for a system? Does the service pack in any way prevent you from playing commercial games on the machine?

--Zero

[slapdash]

There's one seller on EBay who appears to be an ex-delaer; he puts the same sets of games and accessories up every couple of weeks or so. Good guy, has quite a bit of promo stuff and other goodies he's not listed (but would probably dig up if you ask). I picked up a set of 8 titles from him for pretty cheap.

His EBay ID is satuvwoude

Ah, I just missed out on one of his 8-game bundles last weekend... I'll try to keep checking in. Thanks for the pointer!

[fishsandwich]

Funny that you just posted this, as I *just* received my first Gizmondo. Don't worry about the whole Smart ADDS ordeal, you'll never get adds on your Giz. You should look into installing OTaku's service pack B however, so you can run homebrew. The emulation on the device is pretty fantastic, I must say. NES, SNES, Mame...there are alot of happenings in the "dead" Gizmondo world. I love this handheld.

How is the Gizmondo scene coming along anyways? I have a GP2X, which I'm very happy with, but I'm always curious about what else is out there. With the Gizmondo mostly dead now, what's the going price for a system? Does the service pack in any way prevent you from playing commercial games on the machine?

--Zero

I FINALLY got my Gizmondo in the mail and I'm close to having all the relased games. I must say that I'm smitten with the Gizmondo. It's a really nice piece of hardware... very high quality. The released games are kind of mehh but not as bad as I'd heard. The Richard Burns Rally game doesn't suck... it's just incredibly, ridiculously difficult. I understand this is par for the course with Burns Rally games.

The unreleased (but easily downloadable) games are where the real fun begins... after some tinkering and trial and error I've gotten them all to work. Hit and Myth is like a combination of the modern Gauntlet games and a bit of Smash TV (at a slower pace.) Conflict Vietnam is a very cool adventure game... kind of like Soldiers of Fortune with better graphics and squard manipulation. That car game (Chicane or something) is much more a true racer than Richard Burns and is very playable. Carmagaddon is a lot of fun and completely trashes the N64 version (Carmagaddon 64 is THE WORST GAME on the N64 in my opinion... worse than Superman 64.) I need to compare it to the PC version as I think it's supposedly based on it heavily. Colors is a total GTA rip-off that shows a lot of promise and I'm eager to give it a closer look.

The emulators are the best yet (I'm using a Zodiac and an N-Gage for comparison.) Nearly perfect (or damn close) SNES emulation and the key layout is just like the SNES. GBA emulation is spotty at best. PSX emulation slow. Anything older than that 32-bit plays awesome.

I was surprised how easy it was to get all the unreleased games and emulators running.

My only beefs thus far are the screen resolution (it should be higher dammit) and the long time it takes to power up.

[Steve W]

Yep, the Gizmondo is a nice piece of tech. When the first mall kiosk in Texas opened right after the US launch, I went to the Galleria Mall in Dallas to check it out. Man, I wanted one, but they had thrown the kiosk together in just a few days (since their original location couldn't be opened by launch day), and they weren't set up for checks yet. So while driving home empty handed, I ended up stopping at my bank, withdrawing enough cash for the Gizmondo, a carrying case, and a copy of Toy Golf, and went back to get one. It's a really nice machine, with a lot of innovations that would have propelled it ahead of machines like the PSP if the company wasn't all an investment money scam. Global positioning, augmented reality, text messaging and online play, it would have been great if it had taken off. Think of all the innovation that's been happening on the DS with the touchscreen, and imagine what developers could have done with GPS and camera mouselook.

I've got Sticky Balls (my favorite game for it), Toy Golf, Trailblazer, Richard Burns Rally (my least favorite game), and POD. I bought Richard Burns Rally just for the heck of it, and pretty much hated it. It's not a bad game, it's just next to impossible to stay on the freakin' road at a decent speed. That was the first rally racing game I ever bought, I didn't know I would be driving on gravel and sliding all over the place. POD looks pretty primitive, like an old Amiga game, but it keeps up the frantic pace pretty well, so you don't mind too much. Trailblazer is a good twitch game, and Toy Golf is pretty hard. The courses aren't easy to complete under par. Sticky Balls rocks. It was originally designed for the PSP, but when Tiger Telematics bought the company, they made them switch over development. It would have sold pretty good on the PSP, i'd bet. It's like a cross between billiards and Bust-A-Move.

A friend sent me a bunch of the games he downloaded, but I haven't been able to get them to work. Although, to be honest, I really haven't put a lot of time into it. I need to find my SD card reader and fool around with the files. I've been wanting to play Carmageddon, Hit & Myth, and a bunch of the others, but I gave up on it fairly early. I've already got an early beta of Colors, and it's not too impressive with only one single mission and unfinished environments, so i'd like to see the near final product.

I got offered the chance to work for Gizmondo! The mall kiosk in Arlington, TX needed a part-timer, and after I helped a customer figure out what a Gizmondo was, the manager lady offered me a job. I should have taken it in hindsight. It would have been cool to get access to some of the unreleased software and stuff.

[fishsandwich]

I've got Sticky Balls (my favorite game for it), Toy Golf, Trailblazer, Richard Burns Rally (my least favorite game), and POD. I bought Richard Burns Rally just for the heck of it, and pretty much hated it. It's not a bad game, it's just next to impossible to stay on the freakin' road at a decent speed. That was the first rally racing game I ever bought, I didn't know I would be driving on gravel and sliding all over the place. POD looks pretty primitive, like an old Amiga game, but it keeps up the frantic pace pretty well, so you don't mind too much. Trailblazer is a good twitch game, and Toy Golf is pretty hard. The courses aren't easy to complete under par.

I got offered the chance to work for Gizmondo! The mall kiosk in Arlington, TX needed a part-timer, and after I helped a customer figure out what a Gizmondo was, the manager lady offered me a job. I should have taken it in hindsight. It would have been cool to get access to some of the unreleased software and stuff.

Working (however briefly) for gizmondo would have been super cool. I wonder what you could have scored?

I played that damn Toy Golf game for hours. Never made it past the third course. That game is harder than it initially looks.

[zektor]

There are more good things to come homebrew wise for the Giz...stay tuned

I also actually got ahold of two unreleased confidential cards for the system. Some games on these were previously known not to even exist...such as "Ball Busters". I am contemplating selling these cards, but really have not made up my mind on that one yet

[Steve W]

If you plan on selling them, let me know. Ball Busters looked kind of cool, like Robo-Squash for the Atari Lynx.

[zektor]

If you plan on selling them, let me know. Ball Busters looked kind of cool, like Robo-Squash for the Atari Lynx.

I actually released Ball Busters, so a quick search of the net (Gizmondo fan sites) should lead you right to it. As for the original cards, nah, I won't be selling them.

I really really like this handheld. It really is too bad that it didn't stay afloat. At least there's the homebrew aspect. As for titles for the system, Trailblazer is my game. It's like the "Tempest 2000" of the Gizmondo. So addictive, and I have never gotten bored of it.