Terrible Gaming PDAs (...official thread?)

[Tanooki]

Tiger stuff oddly (one off handhelds aside) have been going up in value.  I've become more aware of it recently as I have been digging into the whole R-Zone stuff so it all kind of pops up.

[EdgeOfPortal]

2 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Tiger stuff oddly (one off handhelds aside) have been going up in value.  I've become more aware of it recently as I have been digging into the whole R-Zone stuff so it all kind of pops up.

Yeah, as a matter a fact I’ve been throwing around the idea of a full sealed r-zone set. Sounds like it wouldn’t be too bad, and it would be nice to do along side Game Gear US CIB (some of those boxed Game Gear games are really hard to find!)

[Austin]

Yeah, a lot of this stuff is shooting up in value. Collectors + things that didn't sell all that well (N-Gage, Zodiac, etc) aren't usually a good combination when it comes to price. At least it took a while for the N-Gage though. Most games could be acquired cheap for the longest time.

[EdgeOfPortal]

Looking back on the N-Gage. I really regret not collecting this system more. The games have gotten so much more expensive. Years ago it would’ve been fairly easy to obtain a complete set… now they’ll have you paying $550 for Civilization or $300 for Elder Scrolls. I think I’ll have to place slightly more focus on this system before things get even more ridiculous.

[Austin]

Yeah, if you're actually collecting, now's not a great time to do it. I did what is probably my last big N-Gage purchase for quite some time, which was a new-open-box original N-Gage. I regretted selling my original back in the day (I had a QD, so I didn't feel the need to keep my original launch day model around), and had been wanting an original boxed unit again for the collection. Despite being expensive, the friend I got it from gave me a bunch of cool promo merch too to ease the pain.

 

That aside, I've pretty much given up on physical games with the N-Gage. Thankfully I do have a couple dozen or so already that I enjoy, so I am happy that I have what I do at this point. I guess one of the good things about the system is that if you just want to play, it's possible to load backups to a MMC card. I haven't gotten that to work personally, but I've seen so many that have (I need to go back and try it again).

 

Reflecting back on the Tapwave Zodiac (after looking at my old posts, heh), I really wish that thing stuck around longer or at least had more support during the short period it was available. The hardware was significantly better than the N-Gage and the available games were a lot more impressive. It had such a huge screen, too. I think the N-Gage made more sense if you needed a phone at the time (like I did), but in terms of how games ran, the Zodiac had a lot more in common with the DS and PSP than it did the N-Gage.

 

I still haven't had the opportunity to play a Gizmondo, but people I talk to that own one really praise its library.

Edited December 23, 2021 by Austin

[EdgeOfPortal]

5 hours ago, Austin said:

Yeah, if you're actually collecting, now's not a great time to do it. I did what is probably my last big N-Gage purchase for quite some time, which was a new-open-box original N-Gage. I regretted selling my original back in the day (I had a QD, so I didn't feel the need to keep my original launch day model around), and had been wanting an original boxed unit again for the collection. Despite being expensive, the friend I got it from gave me a bunch of cool promo merch too to ease the pain.

 

That aside, I've pretty much given up on physical games with the N-Gage. Thankfully I do have a couple dozen or so already that I enjoy, so I am happy that I have what I do at this point. I guess one of the good things about the system is that if you just want to play, it's possible to load backups to a MMC card. I haven't gotten that to work personally, but I've seen so many that have (I need to go back and try it again).

 

Reflecting back on the Tapwave Zodiac (after looking at my old posts, heh), I really wish that thing stuck around longer or at least had more support during the short period it was available. The hardware was significantly better than the N-Gage and the available games were a lot more impressive. It had such a huge screen, too. I think the N-Gage made more sense if you needed a phone at the time (like I did), but in terms of how games ran, the Zodiac had a lot more in common with the DS and PSP than it did the N-Gage.

 

I still haven't had the opportunity to play a Gizmondo, but people I talk to that own one really praise its library.

The Tapwave Zodiac certainly is a neat little system. I've only got Doom II for it, but I wouldn't mind getting some more games for it. It's library is quite small. Apart from 1 or 2 of it's games, it's not all that hard a task to acquire a full set for. Unfortunately though, my unit's battery is dead and the triggers aren't all that great. Eventually I've got to get around to replacing the battery. I'm also looking for an N-Gage QD, as I wouldn't mind checking out some software for the platform but it is such a pain in the ass to remove the battery every single time i want to switch games.

[Austin]

13 hours ago, EdgeOfPortal said:

The Tapwave Zodiac certainly is a neat little system. I've only got Doom II for it, but I wouldn't mind getting some more games for it. It's library is quite small. Apart from 1 or 2 of it's games, it's not all that hard a task to acquire a full set for. Unfortunately though, my unit's battery is dead and the triggers aren't all that great. Eventually I've got to get around to replacing the battery. I'm also looking for an N-Gage QD, as I wouldn't mind checking out some software for the platform but it is such a pain in the ass to remove the battery every single time i want to switch games.

The QD has a card slot on the bottom of the unit. You're thinking the original N-Gage model. That required you to take the battery out to swap games. That's not the case with the QD.

[EdgeOfPortal]

5 hours ago, Austin said:

The QD has a card slot on the bottom of the unit. You're thinking the original N-Gage model. That required you to take the battery out to swap games. That's not the case with the QD.

That’s why I’m looking for a QD. I currently own an original n-gage. Misspoke, my bad.

 

Ideally I would like one boxed as well, but that seems easier said than done.