Adios, Tapwave: A Neat Handheld Goes Bye-Bye

Here's a bit of sad news: Tapwave, manufacturer of the Palm-based Zodiac gaming handheld, has shut its doors. We said nice things about this product repeatedly, and gave it an award in 2004.

The Zodiac took the Palm OS--still one of the best operating systems ever built for a mobile device--and put it in a handheld with a beautiful oversized screen, fast graphics, impressive audio, and built-for-gameplaying controls. It was an extremely slick design and I didn't encounter a single person around the PCW offices who tried the Zodiac and wasn't impressed.

Of course, the world of gaming is all about the quality and quantity of titles that are available for a particular platform, and as far as I know, the Zodiac never became a thriving platform for developers. (It could run off-the-shelf Palm OS software, but really shined with applications written for it.)

Then there's the competition that the Zodiac recently received from Sony's PSP, which is--in a general sense, anyhow--a rather Zodiac-esque little gadget. (Whether the arrival of the PSP directly contributed to Tapwave's death, I don't know.)

I was going to send you to Tapland, a Zodiac fan site, for more information on the death of this device--but it looks like it hasn't been updated since last month. It's still a good resource for Zodiac info, and there's some chatter going on in its message boards.

Comments

According to Scott, Tapland's webmaster, he will write an article when he has more insightful information than what has already been reported.

http://tapland.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5986

Most, if not all Zodiac owners who frequent Tapland are well aware of the Zodiac's demise and have been actively discussing it in the forums. Posting a news story that everyone already knows about without offering any new information shouldn't really be criticized in my opinion.

While Tapland posts fewer news stories, Scott's high quality of articles and editorial insight is what differentiates Tapland from other Zodiac related "news" sites that simply copy and paste news articles and press releases.

Based on the number of people who are active in Tapland's forums (myself included), they don't mind a news story that is a bit longer in the making and offers more information and insight about Tapwave and the Zodiac's demise.

If Mr. McCracken had taken the time to browse Tapland's forums about the Zodiac's demise while researching this in-depth and insightful article, he would have known this and not insulted one of the Zodiac community's most respected leaders.

A Zodiac Owner

July 31, 2005

5:36 AM PT

No insult to Tapland meant--I said that it looked like it hadn't been updated since last month (true, as far as I can tell) but that there was discussion going on in the forums (also true). Then I said that Tapland was a good source of information.

Harry McCracken

July 31, 2005

11:00 AM PT

I dont think he made any insult. The webmaster said himself that he needs to update his site more often.

From the webmaster on the other reason why he didnt post about Zodiac ending.

"Of course, that would be the *other* reason. Wink I've simply been doing a bad job of posting frequent news. FWIW, that's something I still plan to correct soon."

Fellow Taplander

July 31, 2005

2:21 PM PT

another death in the electronic communities :(

tienman

August 01, 2005

8:22 AM PT

No problem, Harry. And thanks for linking to Tapland. FWIW, I finally did post a story about it this morning.

Scott R

August 02, 2005

4:23 PM PT