HAND-HELD DEVICE Tapwave Zodiac offers first-rate gaming and organization

The internal processor is set up for multimedia and wireless multiplayer functions.
By BILL HUTCHENS
TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE
Say hello to the best hand-held gaming device you've probably never heard of.
While Nintendo and Sony furiously work to produce, respectively, the Nintendo DS (Dual Screen) and the Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable), the Tapwave Zodiac (www.tapwave.com) is quietly coming into its own.
Zodiac has all of the touch-screen trappings of a personal digital assistant and all of the form and function of a top-notch hand-held game machine.
It's the perfect solution for the on-the-go gamer, offering the best in PC, home-console and arcade-style games along with business and personal organization applications.
I love this thing.
Zodiac's internal processor is made by Motorola and is set up for multimedia and wireless multiplayer functions. Its operating system is a modified version of the Palm OS. And if that's not enough for game fans, consider the fact that the graphics processor is made by ATI, the company whose 3-D accelerator cards for PC are touted as the cards of choice for forthcoming A-list titles such as Half-Life 2.
The Bluetooth hardware/software package lets as many as eight players get together for a mini wireless LAN party, and players can have their Zodiacs detect other nearby Zodiacs or Bluetooth-enabled cell phones.
Rave review
I've been testing the Zodiac 2 (it has more RAM than the original Zodiac) for about two weeks and have tried about two dozen games. The 3.2-inch high-resolution screen is a dream and gives a crisp new look to even older 3-D shooters such as Doom II and Duke Nukem. And 3-D driving/racing games such as SpyHunter and MicroQuad absolutely scream.
There are sports games, puzzle games, action games, retro games, parlor games -- pick any genre -- available for Zodiac. The best hand-held version of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 is made for this tough little system. Best of all, games cost between $15 and $30 and are readily downloadable from the tapwave.com store or other online outlets.
The sweetest gaming surprise so far is WarFare Incorporated, a real-time strategy game that puts PC hits such as StarCraft and Command & amp; Conquer to shame. Touch-screen resource management is a breeze with the Zodiac stylus -- just tap on a soldier or vehicle you want to control and then tap on the enemy you want them to attack.
Zodiac has an analog joystick, five action buttons and two shoulder "trigger" buttons. A "home" button can quickly take you out of any application and back to the system's main screen. You'll use the stylus only for menu selection in some games, but in others it becomes a crucial gaming tool.
Connecting to Internet
Although Zodiac's built-in browser seems a little sluggish at times, connection to the Internet via a Bluetoothenabled cell phone is a snap. The console has management and playback programs for the MP3s, movie trailers and e-books you'll be downloading, and it can store and display photos and videos from cell phones and other sources. At least one company is working on a wireless high-speed Internet solution so that Zodiac users can take advantage of their home or office (or coffee-shop) broadband connections.
For word processing, e-mail and making simple calendar notes, you can hunt-and-peck on an on-screen keyboard -- or write letters directly on the screen with the stylus. Writing on the screen takes a little practice but becomes natural after awhile.
Yeah, there is a catch. The price, $299 for the original Zodiac with 32 MB of RAM and $399 for the Zodiac 2 with 128 MB of RAM, probably scares away many gamers. But if you're in the market for a PDA anyway, go ahead and get the best PDA/game system available.