Tapwave Zodiac: From: Palm OS
Price: $299 (32 MB) or $399 (128 MB)

By Billy O'Keefe

If Nintendo’s DS (due out this fall) is the Red Sox and Sony’s PSP (early 2005) is the Yankees, then Tapwave’s unheralded Zodiac surely must be the Devil Rays. The battle for the next great portable system has been largely viewed as a two-horse race between a pair of established rivals, but while it’s too much to expect the Zodiac to trounce either, it would be equally shortsighted to ignore it outright, since it’s a powerful device that’s available right now.

What makes the Zodiac interesting is the fact that it’s basically a mutated but fully functional PalmPilot. The Palm OS is preinstalled on the device, and thus a library of games – and a horde of other applications – are immediately available all over the Web for download. Since this is shareware country, you can expect some duds, but many of the better games reinforce what Palm gamers already knew: You don’t need to wait for the DS to play some good games with a stylus.

The Zodiac plays proprietary software as well – it’s not just a PalmPilot with an analog stick. But having such a huge library of software ready to go truly makes this the all-in-one, work-and-play device that the PSP can’t quite be. Besides Palm functionality, the Zodiac also features wireless connectivity (via Bluetooth) and a built-in media player for viewing photos and playing video and mp3s. The screen (3.8-inches, 480 x 320 resolution) is a beauty, and as such, photos and videos look outstanding. The Zodiac’s sound quality isn’t on quite up to the level of, say, an iPod, but unless you’re a serious audiophile (and if you are, you probably have an iPod), the difference is negligible.

Ironically, the games are where the Zodiac must prove itself. Most of the marquee titles – "Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4," "Spy Hunter" and "Duke Nukem Mobile," for instance – are ports, and some, like "Doom II" seem awfully underpowered given how strong the hardware is. That’s hard to swallow, given the $30 price tag some of these command (though smaller-ticket titles cost less). The Bluetooth capabilities allow for eight-player gaming, but a killer app has yet to really make this enticing.

Tapwave is touting the Zodiac as a breakthrough gaming device capable of delivering advanced 3D gaming, but they’ll have to do more than spotlight games that have already appeared on the Game Boy Advance. (The company would be wise, for instance, to get behind the just-released "Warfare Incorporated," an outstanding real-time strategy game that plays a lot like the PC classic "Starcraft.")

Taken purely as a gaming device, the Zodiac still has some work to do to become a good buy. The GBA offers a larger, more original library at a fraction of the cost, and the DS and PSP are promising games that blow that collection away. However, if you’re in the market for a PDA and want something special, this should make you very happy. It’s a full-featured device, and then some. A few more games like "Warfare Incorporated" could take the device to another level. And even if the Zodiac’s library peters out, the parade of Palm applications shows no sign of slowing down.

Billy O’Keefe writes video game reviews for Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.

© 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.