Tapwave Zodiac

Tapwave
Company type	Private
Industry	Consumer electronics, Video games
Founded	May 2001; 25 years ago
Fate	Sold assets to an undisclosed Asian firm in July 2005
Headquarters	Mountain View, California, United States
Products	Tapwave Zodiac handheld entertainment device and PDA

The Tapwave Zodiac is a handheld entertainment device and personal digital assistant introduced in late 2003. Designed primarily for gamers and technology aficionados aged 18 to 34, it merged advanced gaming capabilities with multimedia features such as music playback, photo viewing, and video support. Operating on a customized iteration of the Palm Operating System (version 5.2T), it also accommodated Palm's suite of personal information management tools along with third-party applications. Tapwave was based in Mountain View, California.

The product line included two variants: the Zodiac 1, featuring 32MB of storage priced at US$299, and the Zodiac 2, offering 128MB at US$399. Prominent game titles available were Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (Activision), Mototrax (Activision), SpyHunter (Midway), Madden NFL 2005 (EA/MDM), Doom II (id Software), Golden Axe III and Altered Beast (Sega), Warfare Incorporated (Handmark), and Duke Nukem Mobile (3D Realms/MachineWorks).

Confronted with financial difficulties and fierce rivalry from Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo’s Nintendo DS, Tapwave sold its assets to an undisclosed multibillion-dollar Asian firm in July 2005.

Although its time on the market was brief, the Zodiac earned critical acclaim and multiple industry honors including awards from Popular Science (Best of What's New), inclusion in Stuff magazine’s Top 10 Gadgets of the Year, the Wired magazine Fetish Award, CNET Editor’s Choice, PC World's Next Gear Innovations Award, PC Magazines Last Gadget Standing at CES, Handheld Computings Most Innovative PDA of 2003, recognition as Best Gear of 2003 by Time magazine, and a Best Products award from Business Week in 2003.

History of Tapwave

May 2001: Company founded by former executives from Palm
May 2002: Completed initial Series-A funding round
May 2002: Entered into Palm OS licensing agreement with PalmSource
May 2003: Officially unveiled at Palm Developers Conference and E3
September 2003: Zodiac console showcased at DEMO conference
October 2003: Began direct shipping via livescribe.com
November 2003: Developer program attracted over 1200 game creators
February 2004: Partnered with PalmGear to establish an online marketplace for Palm OS applications, games, and ebooks
April 2004: Enabled synchronization between Zodiac devices and Mac OS X through MarkSpace software
June 2004: Entered United States retail market through CompUSA stores
October 2004: Expanded retail presence into the United Kingdom via PC World, Dixons, and Currys outlets
October 2004: Launched in Singapore with distributor ECS
November 2004: Entered South Korean market through OEM partnership with Sonokong
December 2004: Audible audiobook functionality added for Zodiac users
December 2004: Released Wi-Fi enabled SD card enhancing email and web browsing capabilities
January 2005: Formed strategic partnership with Virgin Digital to offer audio downloads and subscription services
July 2005: Ceased Zodiac sales; sold major assets to an undisclosed Asian corporation; commenced shutdown of operations

Primary features

Multimedia capabilities

The device incorporates an MP3 player that supports customizable playlists through drag-and-drop functionality. MP3 files may be played either from internal storage or SD cards and can be assigned as alarm sounds alongside existing Palm OS alarms.

Image files in JPEG or PNG formats are transferable via Palm Desktop software or directly onto SD cards for sharing or slideshow presentations accompanied by background music.

The included Kinoma video player requires videos to be converted into a proprietary format using Kinoma Producer software compatible with MPEG1, MPEG4, QuickTime, AVI, and DivX formats. The conversion process had limitations that often led users to purchase the full version. This complexity in video file preparation negatively affected the device’s commercial success. Several third-party media players like TCPMP were developed by the community, and Tapwave was working on an update to enable hardware decoding of MPEG-4 before operations ceased.

Hardware design

Constructed with a metal casing, the Zodiac offered a sturdier feel compared to many other PDAs. Nonetheless, some units experienced issues with adhesive failure on shoulder buttons, and the screen was susceptible to scratches if debris became trapped beneath the protective cover. The stylus was secured by a clip that lacked firmness, making it prone to being misplaced; however, certain third-party cases provided improved stylus retention solutions.

Software compatibility

As a device compatible with Palm OS version 5, most software designed for this platform operated seamlessly on the Zodiac, including numerous games. Tapwave supplied unique APIs allowing developers to exploit the console’s enhanced graphics processing and sound hardware. This facilitated a broad spectrum of freeware and shareware games alongside emulators such as Doom, Quake, Hexen, as well as emulators like UAE and ScummVM. Efforts to emulate PlayStation titles using PPSX exist but remain unfinished and largely unplayable.

Battery life

The Zodiac’s battery lasted approximately three hours under intensive usage scenarios involving video playback, backlight use, and CPU-heavy tasks; when functioning solely as an audio player, battery life extended up to six hours. It originally came equipped with a 1500mAh Li-Ion battery; aftermarket replacements offering higher capacity at 2000mAh are available.

Software suite

Operating on a customized Palm OS 5.2T platform, the Zodiac featured an eight-option radial menu accessible via touchscreen or thumbstick controls. It included standard Palm OS productivity applications such as calendar and task lists, alongside an eBook reader, Wordsmith word processor, and powerOne graphing calculator. Pre-installed games encompassed AcidSolitare by Red Mercury and Stunt Car Extreme developed by Vasara Games.

Product variants

At launch, two models were made available: Zodiac 1 equipped with 32MB memory and Zodiac 2 offering four times that capacity at 128MB; the latter carried a $100 premium over the former.

Games

Titles designed specifically to utilize the Zodiac’s custom hardware/software architecture are incompatible with standard Palm OS devices. This restriction excludes versions designed for other platforms such as PC releases of Doom II. Many standard Palm OS games adapted for Zodiac incorporated enhancements like vibration feedback and shoulder button support marketed as "Zodiac tuned." Some games intended for release were cancelled following the discontinuation in July 2005; however, leaked development builds of certain unreleased titles remain accessible.

Exclusive Zodiac titles

Acedior
Altered Beast
Animated Dudes
Anotherball
Atari Retro
Avalanche
Bike or Die
Billiards
Bubble Shooter 2
Colony
Crossword Puzzles
Daedalus 3D – The Labyrinth
Dreamway
Firefly (a Pacman-inspired game)
FireHammer
Fish Tycoon
Frutakia
Galactic Realms
Gloop Zero by AeonFlame: puzzle game directing liquid slime flow; transitioned from shareware to freeware
Golden Axe
Interstellar Flames
Jet Ducks
Kickoo's Breakout
Legacy
MegaBowling
MicroQuad
Orbz (initially shareware; freeware since September 2006)
Paintball
Pocket Mini Golf and its expansion ‘’Pocket Mini Golf eXtra’’
RifleSLUGS-W: Wild Web Wars
‘’Stunt Car Extreme’’: included on Zodiac CD as a 3D racing title
‘’Table Tennis 3D’’
‘’The Green Myste’’
‘’Tots ‘n’ Togs’’
‘’Xploids’’
‘’ZapEm’’

Exclusive titles also distributed on SD card

‘’Doom II’’
‘’Duke Nukem Mobile’’
‘’GTS Racing Challenge’’
‘’SpyHunter’’
‘’Tiger Team: Apache vs Hind’’
‘’Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4’’
‘’Z Pak: Adventure’’ and ‘’Z Pak: Fun’’

'"Zodiac tuned" releases include:

‘’Madden NFL 2005’’ (distributed via CD-ROM; transferred from PC)
‘’Warfare Incorporated’’

Leaked but unreleased games Tech demos such as ‘’Street Hoops’’ and ‘’Neverwinter Nights’’, along with nearly finished versions of titles like ‘’MTX: Mototrax’’, original first two entries of Tomb Raider, plus close-to-complete editions of ‘’Terminator 3’’ (missing some audio elements) and ‘’Hockey Rage 2004’’ (which crashes upon exit).

Homebrew ports

A variety of freeware ports were developed for the Zodiac platform:

Classic game ports including ZDoomZ (based on ‘’ZDoom’’), ZHeretic (for ‘’Heretic’’), ZHexen (for ‘’Hexen’’), ZHexen2 (for ‘’Hexen II’’)
Emulators such as Little John Palm (LJP) supporting multiple systems; pPSX for PlayStation titles (limited performance without sound); LJZ emulator now discontinued
Additional ports include ZodMAME (MAME) arcade emulator; ZodNEO (NeoGeo) emulator; ZodSCUMM (ScummVM) adventure engine; ZSpectrum (ZX Spectrum) emulator; REminiscence port of Flashback
Freeware games like ReverZi (an Othello/Reversi clone), Thruster (a cave flying game), Orbital Sniper (a city grid shooter), Zodtris (a Zodiac-specific version of Tetris), Zap 'Em (conversion of Zoop), ZoT, Zyrian, and Another World
Additional utilities include ZodTTD (OpenTTD) transport simulator port and TCPMP media player supporting codecs not natively available on Zodiac

Hardware specifications

The two Zodiac models are distinguished solely by their memory capacity and exterior color:

Processor: Motorola i.MX1 ARM9 running at 200 MHz
Memory: Zodiac 1 equipped with 32 MB; Zodiac 2 featuring 128 MB (with 10 MB allocated for system Dynamic RAM)
Graphics: ATI Imageon W4200 2D graphics accelerator with 8 MB of dedicated SDRAM
Controls: Analog joystick offering full 360-degree movement, complemented by triggers and action buttons
Display: 3.8-inch transflective screen, resolution of 480×320 pixels (half of VGA), supporting 16-bit color depth (65,536 colors), backlit
Audio: Yamaha stereo speakers along with a 3.5 mm headphone jack
Connectivity options include two expansion slots (one MMC/SD and one SDIO-compatible), Zodiac Connector, infrared interface, and Bluetooth support (compatible with certain WiFi SDIO cards)
Battery: Two rechargeable Lithium cells combining for a total of 1540 mA·h capacity
Physical specifications: ,
Color schemes: Zodiac 1 available in Slate Gray; Zodiac 2 offered in Charcoal Gray
Construction materials: Composed of synthetic rubber, anodized aluminum, and plastic

Peripherals and accessories

Battery charger delivering regulated 5V DC power with a proprietary plug
USB synchronization cable for PC that also supports charging during use
Car charger and cradle accessory, though noted for unreliable contact points
Folding keyboards including some third-party models utilizing Bluetooth and infrared connections
SDIO-compatible cameras such as the Veo Camera

External links