I found this on DCEmu forums... This is what it must feel like to roll in a 1987 Ford Escort. While the rest of the gaming public was playing with their long-awaited PSPs last week, I spent 96 hours test-driving the Gizmondo, putting it through its paces, hoping to see how it stacks up to other gaming handhelds on the market. One thing to note: Despite earlier reports, the Gizmondo has pushed back the US release of its device until Q3—thereby avoiding the complete suicide of trying to toe-up with the PSP. I was told, however, that the unit I trialed would be nearly identical to the final product, minus a few software upgrades. I’ll admit to being pleasantly surprised. Lightweight and ergonomic, the Gizmondo is made from a rubberized plastic that feels sort of like velvet. It’s a weird, but not unpleasant sensation. The 2.8” TFT color screen is bright and prominent—all of the games and videos I watched on the Gizmondo were easy to see, even in outdoor settings where there was lots of ambient light. Finally, the button configuration is intuitive, obviously designed to be instantly familiar to anyone that’s ever used a Playstation or X-Box controller. The Gizmondo is a jack of all trades. Its Samsung ARM9, 400 Mhz processor along with the Nvidia GoForce 3D graphics accelerator combined to make watching videos easy, though I experienced some pixelation and a choppy frame rate while trying to watch the Halo 2 and Nelly videos that came pre-installed. Window CE-based, the Gizmondo comes pre-loaded with Windows Media Player 9, so it supports MPEG 4 playback. It also comes with a built-in MP3 player is a nice addition—though it took me a minute to release that the volume control could be adjusted by pressing the two shoulder buttons—the controls weren’t as intuitive as I’d like. Strangely, the Gizmondo’s sole speaker is positioned right under the keypad, which meant I was constantly muffling the sound whenever I was playing a game, or holding the Gizmondo in two hands while watching a video. Thankfully, storage’s not a problem. In addition to 32 megabytes of on-board memory, the Gizmondo also features a SD slot for removable storage—and the unit had no problem recognzing a card full of music and picutres I inserted. For good measure, the Gizmondo designers also threw in a Bluetooth radio, GPRS connectivity, a SiRF-designed GPS chip, and, finally, a VGA camera. Yet, the Gizmondo manages to master none of these features. Take, for instance, the camera. I know the few folks that go out and buy one of these won’t be doing so for the camera—but the Gizmondo has one of the worst I’ve seen (even worse than the original Treo 600). The pictures were reddish, and the resolution horrible. Sending messages is also a bear. With no keyboard, I was forced to bang out SMS messages or try and enter contact information into the contact app (yet another feature) on a tiny virtual keyboard, using the rocker and a button. This is sub-optimal, at best. (It makes you wonder why they even bothered.) Far more discouraging, however, were the games. If—as the entire history of console systems suggests—content is what sells hardware, than the Gizmondo is DOA. I played their flagship title—a Grand Theft Auto-like game called “Colors”—for an hour or so, and while the 3d graphics were impressive, the gameplay was boring, and long. Trailblazer—an action game where you race along a course in space—was fun, but certainly not worthy of any real attention. This platform needs some developer love, and quick. I just don’t see how they’ll get it, with Sony and Nintendo commanding so much attention right now. The final nail in the coffin is the $400 pricetag. Did these guys learn nothing from the N-Gage? With few, if any, compelling games and nothing that really sets the Gizmondo apart, besides an impressive spec sheet, its hard to imagine anyone running out to pick one of these up. It’s a shame, too, because the Gizmondo has potential. The only chance they have is to hire a smart marketer and some crafty developers to position the Gizmondo as something other than a game device—punch up its GPS skills, or something. Even that’s a stretch, but its either that or an early retirement. Right now, I’m leaning towards the latter. Link to review
That seems to go along with what I expected out of the Gizmondo, although the design may be a little better than I thought. They do need some game help though; I saw a clip of Colors a little while back, and like the article mentioned, it was impressive graphically but very boring. Work on the price and get some better gaming support and the Gizmondo could do a lot better, IMO.
It would be cool if they can incorporate those old school emulator programs in it so you can play some of your old arcade, NES and other game system favorite in it as well...doesn't take much space at all.
Gutter, Fair points to be sure, and truthfully I think we are a beta product, BUT...wait until E3, we have some great games coming out that take advantage of our unique feature set. The Giz is nice, but wait until you see what we have in store before making a decsion, the PSP is better than us as a gaming platform today, but NOT in the future, and certainly not next year. Give us some time, we will make a difference. DaDakata Giz Studios President www.gizmondostudios.com
The camera is fine on every unit I have tested, I have never seen what Gutter is talking about, and the video capture is really cool. I believe he had issues, but I can't comment on what I have not seen. I can say that our OS is still late beta and needs significant tweaking along with our GPS feature, and that is why we are delaying launch... DD
I believe that Gutter is actually quoting someone else, not speaking from first-hand experience, so I doubt he can really comment too much on those issues. If you guys really do have a lot planned for E3, then that's going to be one crowded E3. You'll have the PS2/PSP/PS3, Xbox 360, and Zelda/DS/Revolution/(GBnext?) stuff, and then maybe some other stuff (something about an NGAGE2). I hope you guys don't have anything get swallowed up by all the other things, especially if they are indeed some great games. That's a pretty big statement about the Gizmondo vs PSP as a gaming device in the future though. I agree that you guys should do a lot better given some time, but that is still a big statement, especially with all the dev support the PSP has gotten already. Late 2005-2006 will be some great times for gamers. Not sure if DaDa can talk about that or not, but I wouldn't doubt it if you could end up doing that. It really depends on how great the modding community is, but as long as it can run some stuff off of memory sticks/cards, it seems possible. I'd love for it to happen, especially on the PSP, although it may take some time if actual hardware-mods are necessary.
PSP is the future of hand held gaming. Nintendo made a mistake by releasing the DS. I know that your going to back up the company you work for, but I dont see any company over throwing Sony in the hand held market. Even when Nintendo only had gameboy, they were able to beat their superior competitors *in terms of hardware* Nec and Sega GameGear, maybe if you count the Atari Lynx. The most important piece for any hardware company is the software. Sony is the king with 3rd party software/support at the moment.
If we play it after midnight or anything like that does it turn into a Gremlin? Want to know for future reference.
I wish I could say more, but I am in London today, just coming off a meeting of seeing some super secret stuff. We don't have to beat Sony, all we need is a slice....and trust me being a small company means we are much more agile to the market place, and have a broader view of marketing apps for the unit. E3 is not a problem for us RC, we have a booth the same size as MS X-box, and have a prime location in the south hall. If our booth is not the talk of the show, then I will be amazed, I have been in the biz for 10+ years and been to every E3, I have never...NEVER seen a booth or setup like we are going to have, it is FREAKING awesome ! Now, all that said, I have said before it is a risky venture for sure, but don't count us out.....I have my PSP as well as my Giz...... DD
How about sending me a test copy to review for my computer company =) I used to have a gaming magazine company with my partners that we never followe up on called Games2.com doing reviews and stuff..but we got so busy we left it behind....loved going to E3 and getting samples sent to us heheh....to test and review...
It'll be very interesting to see what they come out with for software and apps. You would think that being on the Windows CE platform would give modders and programmers free reign to make it do almost anything.
The whole MS X-box division, or just Xbox 1? It doesn't sound like MS has much planned for the Xbox for the rest of the year, so I don't think their booth will be as big as others. Now, if this includes the next-gen Xbox, then that does sound like a big booth. IMO, Microsoft will probably go all out at E3, and will pretty much have to be the talk of the show if they want to suceed in round 2 of the console wars. If they aren't, then they may have a hard time convincing people to buy a Xbox 360 instead of a PS3/Revolution. Plus, I'm sure Epic and other game engine developers will have some stuff to show off some of their engines, and it seems like Epic always gets lots of praise any time they show just a screen shot of Unreal Engine 3.0. The thing is that it could very well be true that the Gizmondo booth will be better than any booth ever at E3. The problem is that I think most booths at E3 will be like this. Having 3 next-gen consoles practically debut at E3, not to mention impressive game engines and current-gen games, will pretty much solidify this as one of the, if not the, best E3's ever. It certainly won't be anything like recent E3's and maybe not even any E3's afterwards (until maybe the PS4, Xbox 720, and Evolution come out ). Any other E3, and I could see you guys possibly being the talk of the show, but not this one. However, I'd gladly like to be surprised since that would most likely mean the $400+ price tag for the Gizmondo would suddenly seem like a great price.
You know what is missing from every game. Humor. Everybody likes to laugh. Hire some funny people to improv the games.
People won't pay $400 for a product that's competing with similar, cheaper products with better name recognition and better 3P game selection. If I were marketing the gadget I'd come up with a way to secure significant, big name game lines and find a way to price myself beneath or at most equal to the PSP. I don't think having the coolest booth at E3 is going to be the deciding factor.
