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Games Entertainment

"Tight" PDA/Handheld Console 86

Posted by CmdrTaco from the games-people-play dept.
david-currie writes: "Looks like a company called Technopop is developing a Gameboy-styled handheld console based on the Pentium I called Tight. This will allow you to download and play games like Quake and Tomb Raider and provide PDA features They also announce a titanium case and $100 price-point, which could be very nice ... " Total vapor of course, but it's a nifty goal.
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"Tight" PDA/Handheld Console More

"Tight" PDA/Handheld Console

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  • Maybe it's just me, but a PI with enough RAM is still usually more computer than most consumers know what to do with. Sheesh, my mom has a perfectly fine iMac and is already making noises like it isn't enough computer for her. Reason? Marketing.

    You ask the average PDA or whatever user a few questions about how they use/would like to use their computers and you quickly(and I mean quickly) find that most all of them are usually happily within their range of usefulness(games not withstanding). The only complaints I hear about consistently are small screens and/or games run 'slow'(whatever that really means). A lot of this is pure psychology at work.

    I want to get a Palm V when the prices bottom out. A PDA only has to do a few things for me and I'm not sure playing games is really all that high on the list, though I know that being able to play games on a PDA will means more powerful PDAs for the kind of work that I really want them to do :).

    I certainly don't want or even expect the kind of performance that I get out of my desktop machine, but then again, I started piddling with a Commodore PET in 1980-81. You know, back when computers were still new enough to still be thought of as tools, not merely game engines ;)

  • Technopop [technopop.com] appears to be a Gaming Company, don't be suprised if this is going to try and be something similar in the vien of the Tiger Electronics handheld "computer" which was suppose to be a gaming machine with some limited web surfing/email slapped on to make it "connected" ( it did look like a cool idea though ). Judging by the company's web site though...it looks rather...unprofessional, and a search though some of the major engines didn't really bring up much. I'd say this is a classic example of vapor ware..yet, like most vapor ware, some intresting things exist. If you notice they claim to have long relations with Sega...could this somehow be related to the Dreamcast? Hmm...a supersized VMU?

    Keep in mind though, this is the only place i have seen/or can find this news...including the PDA only news places ( and they would have SNAPPED this up in a heartbeat ), anyone got any firmer links?

    another rambling post brought to you by:
    SgtPepper
  • Cute, but a little pricey at $899 (+/- various options)... cheaper than a Vaio 8^)
  • Nope - their plan was originally to use BeIA, and the guys are a bunch of Be coders. They just don't want BeIA on the thing, and I have to agree. Anyway, I wouldn't use Be at anything less than 640x480 - it's not optomised for super-small displays.

    "The romance of Silicon Valley was about money - excuse me, about changing the world, one million dollars at a time."
  • Well, if you'd take a moment to read my post, you'd see that I couldn't get through and indeed even requested someone to mirror it for me!

    Any other tidbits you'd like to share?
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].

  • Nintendo of America Inc., for instance, doesn't take kindly [nintendo.com] to amateur third-party development [parodius.com] on its consoles:

    Does Nintendo Think Emulation Companies Promote Piracy? Why?

    Yes. The only purpose of video game emulators are to play illegal copied games from the Internet.

    Nintendo's argument assumes that there are no legal copied games on the Internet, that no Nintendo-console-compatible games are free software or freebeerware. Nintendo also is indirectly slamming Sun's Java technology, an emulated platform commonly integrated into Web browsers.

    ObTopic: Will Technopop be the same? Probably not. I assume that the standard GNU tools shipped with Free "BeerOS" 5 will be enough to make software for the Tight system. Is that right?

  • Many other factors come into play. Are design tools available? How about proper software tools like compilers, debuggers, and emulators? Reference designs? EDA components for circuit design and simulation? What is the cost per part per assembled unit? Power consumption and heat? Type of package? Is there a ready, preferably multiple sourced, supply of parts? Are there any engineers around that have some clue about how to make it work?

    For mass market production levels, cost is (almost) everything.

    Coolness does tend to draw attention, but early on, that's about all any new part will get.
  • Yep, but the screens are too small and there are no keyboards.
  • Lets all remember that you can't even buy a titanium watch for less than $85. Besides what type of graphic capability are they going for? Gameboy? It would be "TIGHT" if they made it into a game console as opposed to a handheld edition.
  • Why not put this thing to good use and make it a cheap portable mp3 player, It would be expecially nice if you could add a 2.5" laptop drive to it, for added capasity. Now this is something that I would buy.

    Duck`

  • Only that the X-Box has the backing of the company with the highest valuation in the US stock market, and with billions of cash at the bank; and "Tight" is coming from a company which nobody has heard of.

    Wake up. I'm not a fan of Microsoft either, but the cash they have is very real. I'm pretty sure they have mobilized a lot of people for X-Box, and they should be able to pull it off rather easily. The problem is whether the consumers will like the thing or not.
    --

    BluetoothCentral.com [bluetoothcentral.com]
    A site for everything Bluetooth. Coming soon.
  • technopop has just announced the re-allocation of funds (resulting in postponement of their development of Tight) to purchase more powerful webserving capabilities after the quick and unfortunate demise of their website from the infamous "/." attack.

  • Almost as bad as chewing on your cheek/tongue as a nervous twitch.

    Egads! I was doing that as I read your message. Spooky.

    Frankly, most people can't stand to watch certain kinds of movies with me because I tend to jump when the hero gets in a scrape. Oh, I have to go now. They're coming to refit my dinner jacket. The sleeves are always too long.

    Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
  • Actually, you are wrong about the scarcity of Titanium. Titanium is the fourth most abundant metallic element in the earth's crust. It occurs chiefly as an oxide ore. The commercially important forms are rutile (titanium dioxide) and ilmeite (titanium-iron oxide), the former being richest in titanium content.

    Ti has about the strength of steel, and is slightly heavier (IIRC) than aluminum, but not by much. The reason for the expense of Ti is that it is difficult to work. It has to be machined at low speeds, because it heats up quickly, and can actually weld itself to cutting tools. It is tough to polish, cut, and can wear out stamps and other tools quickly. All this adds to the expense of a final product.

  • If the case is titanium, shouldn't they use that new Itanium chip?

  • Re:Marketroids won't allow cheap Titanium (Score:4)

    by schporto ( 20516 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2000 @07:33AM (#1126091) Homepage
    Gee I wonder why?
    From McMaster-Carr:
    12"x12"x1/8" Acetal Copolymer = $10.74 (in black)
    12"x12"x1/8" Titanium = $364.90
    Funny how that basic material cost factors in.
    -cpd
  • Fabulous disappearing article trick, guys!

    Seriously, though, was there an article about Khronos and OpenML here a moment ago, or did I eat the bad cheese again? =P

    [obligatory appendix so as to not be ENTIRELY off-topic.]

    Anyways, this little thing sounds cool... and it runs BeOS? very nice...

  • i don't know if www.beia.org exist because i have a DNS not found... anyway here's a link to BeIA [be.com]
    --
    BeDevId 15453 - Download BeOS R5 Lite [be.com] free!
  • How long will it take before someone hacks a boot loader onto this thing? If I can't dual-boot into Linux on this thing, it's really not worth my money.
  • Although I'd like to see what becomes of this product (I can't even connect to the site!), I'd just like to inform everyone that Quake on a PDA is not only possible, but has been done. :)

    There's a port to the Apple Newton at the NewtonQuake homepage. [emeraldnet.net]

    The Newton has a pretty large display though, and the screen shots look very nice. Haven't got a chance to play it, but it almost makes me want to get a Newton 2100 to replace my lost Newton 100!

  • Why not just go with a color palm pilot? Or for that matter, why not just get a color GameBoy?

    Part of the point is to be able to run the old x86 games, hence the need for an x86 processor.

    As for the power consumption, you are only considering Pentiums the way they were, using a 0.5 micron process, 3.3 volts, and a high Mhz. Today, they could be manufactured in the now obsolete 0.25 micron fabs. This would make for a lower voltage and lower power consumption. Besides, Intel would love to get some more life out of these fabs before overhauling them into something else.

    They also won't need to run these full out. 100Mhz or even 60Mhz would be fast for the games they are talking about. Remember that they ahve a small screen, fewer dots to push around. Throw in some power saving technics and you lower the requirements even farther.

    Finally, just because they are talking Pentium I now, doesn't mean that they will stick with it. The point they are trying to make is "x86 compatible processor." Maybe they will go with the Crusoe or an AMD chip, but for now, they want the Intel name, which doesn't scare off venture capitalists.

    I still won't say that these won't be battery hogs, but they may not be as bad as you think.

  • I am waiting for this to be released so we can hear how people hacked Tight and loaded Linux on it...
  • {laughter} I have a field jacket with a few such pockets. I had the bad habit of needing the laptop, accesories, cellphone, spare batteries, various diag/install media, etc ALL of the time. (Job requirement).

    Unfortunatly, I forget stuff. Like to grab the bag containing everything.

    I started stuffing it into the pockets of my military field jacket. After cleaning out the four pockets on the jacket and noting I had everything but the laptop in them, making them useless as actual pockets, decided sewing a couple of velcro pouches under the liner wouldn't hurt. I had a sub-notebook NEC on the front left, the phone and media on the right, and the cables and batteries between the hem and the waist drawstring under my arms.

    Used to freak people out when I'd rummage inside the bulge under my left arm and emerge with a laptop.

  • boot loaders, then....

    :obligatory drumroll:

    Beowulf clusters!

    And don't look at me that way. SOMEONE had to say it :)

  • Thanks buddy....some of us are browsing from work, and can get fired for downloading pics like that one.

    Go ahead and troll....just don't lay traps like that one that could (if my boss had been looking over my shoulder when I clicked the link) put me out on the street, alright?

    -- WhiskeyJack

  • So beia and technopop are slashdotted - the usual fate of small companies with cool products that get mentioned here. Guess I'll just have to sit around imagining a Beowulf cluster of the things until their site recovers :-)


    How can we prevent this in the future? Now that Slashdot has been Borgified by the Andover folks, they've got enough funding and computer resources to cache the front couple of web pages and pictures for the articles they post, so that most of the load can be absorbed there and only the small percentage of people who read the deeper links will have to hit the real site.


    Technical comment:Yes, I know this only helps people who have real html pages, and doesn't do as much for javascriptified dancing animated Shockwave voice-recognition GUIs making it hard to find the actual content. I don't feel bad about this :-) And even then it takes the initial load for the first page, even if it doesn't make it easy to get everything from the cache.


    Shameless commercial plug: Caching is your friend. In addition to the server capacity at Slashdot and the caches at your ISP, there are caching service vendors such as AT&T (that was the plug) and of course Akamai. Caching also does a better job of speeding up pages that use real HTML (and also imagemaps), and again I don't feel at all bad about making well-behaved user interfaces get better treatment.

  • titanium dioxide may be abundant, but commercial grade (pure) Ti is scarce due to the amount of energy required to produce Ti from TiO2. Cheap source material + expensive process = expensive product. Same can be said for getting diamonds out of carbon!
  • But what if, say, this thing comes with a visor output, or something like that (like projects onto a pair of glasses or something).

    anyway... that would make it useful. you're right, as it stands, trying to play quake on a tiny screen with probably poor contrast would not be that much fun.

    but, as it's a pentium, of course it'll run linux :)
  • There never was Quake for the Newton. It was just an Aprils Fools Joke.

    Just open up the NewtonQuake.pkg with a text editor and go right to the last line, where you will find "April Fools!" The package dosn't even install.

    Just like this "Tight" thing, but it made it onto Slashdot 18 days late :-)
  • From the Slashdot FAQ:

    Slashdot should Cache linked sites in case of the Slashdot Effect

    Sure, its a great idea, but it has a lot of legal implications. For example, commercial sites rely on their banner ads to generate revenue. If I cache one of their pages, this will mess with their statistics, and mess with their banner ads. In other words, this will piss them off.

    Of course, most of the time, the commercial sites that actually have income from banner ads are able to defend themselves from the Slashdot effect. So perhaps we could draw the line at only sites that don't have ads. They are, after all, much more likely to buckle under the pressure of all those unexpected hits. But what happens if I cache the site, and they update themselves? Once again, I'm transmitting data that I shouldn't be.

    So the quick answer is: Sure, Caching would be neat. It would make things a lot easier when servers go down. But I'm just not interested in dealing with the legal aspects, or the overhead required to ask permission (and do you really want Slashdot stories to wait 10 hours while I wait for a reply from someone in charge of a website to ask if its ok if I cache their server?). I wouldn't want people to cache Slashdot without asking my permission, so it seems only fair that I don't cache others either.
    --

  • vapor is right.. i'd like to see this happen.. do they even make pentium I's anymore?

  • Based on Pentium ? (Score:3)

    by edmz ( 118519 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2000 @07:05AM (#1126107) Homepage
    When are we going to start seeing devices based on Transmeta chips ? Thats not vapor anymore.
  • Is it me, or is this link not working? They couldn't of gotten slashdotted THAT fast, could they? (yes, this is really irrelevant). Sounds pretty cool anyways, a lot better than most handheld gaming units out.

  • Pentium Jokes (Score:4)

    by Smitty825 ( 114634 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2000 @07:10AM (#1126109) Homepage Journal
    Does this mean that the Pentium Floating Point Bug jokes are going to become cool again? If so, I'll be cool again! =-)
  • Sheesh... if you're going to do it, why not do it right?

    Who knows where I can find a list of links to new PDAs/Laptops that are going to be using Crusoe? (forgive the slightly off-topicness please moderators)
  • Ever notice how nothing comes in a titanium or magnesium case unless it's priced about 40% higher than the equivalent product made with plastic?
    • Palm V
    • Nikon retro-style rangefinder camera
    • Panasonic "Toughbook" ruggedized laptop
    • Sony Walkman & Discman
    • Nokia chrome phone (7000 series, I think)
  • Playing outdated first person shooters on a tiny litle screen with no mouse? No thanks.
  • How exactly can you play Quake or Tomb Raider on a screen the size of your thumb?
    How to write successful vapor specifications that will appear on slashdot:
    Take an already existing technology (like GameBoy)
    Mix in hype words like "Download" "Quake" "PDA"

  • looks like the site was /.ed already and before the 10th post... i hope their products are more reliable than their ISP erster deutscher Pfosten
  • you're talking about something other than the shielded PIs they make for NASA, right? Regardless, it's easy enough to pay any given chip manufacturer to press up a lot. After all, they make digital watch chips now.

    I'm even starting to believe the X-Box will hit before this.
  • Play Quake or Tomb Raider on a PDA? I'm trying to picture myself playing Tomb Raider as I do now but on a PDA device while riding the bus and what I see is me really annoying people because I tend to flinch and jerk and duck as I play the game. That's the fun part about role-playing video games - getting so immersed that your body reacts to the game in addition to your thoughts and reflexes. I just can't see having the same experience on a handheld so what's the point?

    - tokengeekgrrl
    "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions

  • Well, Crusoe would be the closest a Pentium you'll get into a handheld considering powerdrain. And they did demonstrate Quake on it...

    Seriously, I doubt any such project would even get close to put their hands on color TFT's competing with business pda's. If you can't afford a PDA that can play quake, you'd better go for a console with dedicated hardware though not PC games.

    But if it existed you could run linux on it - and building beowulf clusters using the wavelan

  • Hmm (Score:3)

    by Signal 11 ( 7608 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2000 @07:16AM (#1126118)
    You could also use it as a convenient space-heater/hand-warmer given the CPU they're using. Should sell well in Minnesota this winter.

  • speed (Score:1)

    by crovax ( 98121 )
    Would they ever offer a unit with the PI overclocked?
    I mean a PI today is the same as a PII.
    The faster the better.

    -----
    DemonStreet.com [demonstreet.com]
  • My guess would be that using a Transmeta chip will be a bit more than the $100 price point they are going after.

  • Well, firstly titanium would be totally redundant. Sure, if you were running over the thing with a 100 ton earth mover on a regular basis it'd be handy, but given the daily life of even the most abusive geek I don't think it'd be all the neccessary. There's got to be some better polymers that are scratch resistant, strong and adjust to temperature + humitidy well.

    As for cheap handheld PCs, well soon enough, diamond keeps boasting about an up comming product along these lines. Until then, go to university equipement sales and electronic surplus stores and try to build something yourself. Given the rate of technological turnover lately it's prime time to go scavenger hunting!

  • Good reasons for the higher price (Score:5)

    by G-Man ( 79561 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2000 @09:36AM (#1126122)
    FYI, the Palm V case is blasted aluminum, *not* titanium.

    Titanium is stronger than steel and (I think) lighter than aluminum. It doesn't corrode. It obviously can stand a lot more heat than plastic, provides *much* more protection, and probably doesn't weigh much more. Now if it was common and cheap why would we even bother with the other materials?

    Because it *isn't* common or cheap, and it is very hard to work with. It's a metal reserved for high-stress and temperature environments -- the SR-71 is skinned in titanium. Before composites every aircraft designer would have loved to build a whole plane out of titanium, but only a few could afford it.

    Titanium is just one of those raw materials (unlike steel, silicon, or aluminum) that is relatively rare and expensive. Like I said, if it was common we'd make everything from it and we wouldn't think of using steel and aluminum in cars, airplanes, and cases any more than we'd think of using tin.

    Personally, I have doubts about making a titanium case by itself for $100, much less a whole computer. Maybe Magnesium, but the thing is named "Tight", not "Might".
  • Speaking as someone who uses a Pentium 200 with 64 MB and a TNT, I can assure you that it's not marketing that's making me look forward to the next upgrade:

    More processing power means faster multitasking.

    I like to run multiple applications at once. A random example would be me running Winamp, encoding my latest Smashing Pumpkins CD on Bladeenc, browsing Slashdot, NYT, and Anand for news while taking a break from working on a presentation that's running in the background. My friend's P3 wouldn't even blink. My Pentium eventually starts lagging behind my user interactions by up to a few seconds. While that doesn't sound like much, when you expect near-instantaneous feedback, waiting five seconds for a window to redraw seems like an eternity.

    Faster games are more fun; slower games detract from the entertainment.

    You don't sound like a Quake or Unreal player, so I'll get down to the basics:
    30 fps = no noticeable jerking

    60 fps = silky smooth walking around

    120 fps = large multiplayer battles without the computer choking

    I run Quake 2 at 640x480 at about 30-40 fps. I can't run Quake 3 at a decent framerate without turning everything down, and I still have more than my share of framerate-induced deaths.

    If you don't think shooters really matter, than try running FF8 on my setup...the full-motion video stutters, and everything runs about twice as slow as on a Playstation. It sure is pretty, though...

    Code compiles, MP3 encoding, and other background tasks are directly affected by CPU power.

    If time is money, CPU power saves a gold mine. Source code that would take a day to compile on my setup would take a few hours or less on my friend's P3. What happens when your computer chugs while you're burning a CD? You get a free coaster (depending on your buffer size).


    I'm sick of every clueless user who's sick of upgrading complaining about "bloat" and "marketing" responsible for causing their cash drain. Do you like GUIs as opposed to command line? You need more CPU power. Do you like Starcraft as opposed to Zork? You need more CPU power.

    Marketing for computers is like marketing for pop...Pepsi spends hundreds of millions on advertising annually, but no amount of nifty commercials would make me buy my cases of Mountain Dew if I didn't need the caffeine to stay/wake up.


    telnet://bbs.ufies.org
    Trade Wars Lives

  • Because GameBoy color isn't very good, and because when you look at GameBoy color, the system may not be expensive but the cartridges are, comparitively.

    Actually, the GameBoy is an interesting "What if?" What if Nintendo had never upgraded from the Snes? Would they have held their own against Sony better or worse? While the obvious answer would seem to be worse, the GameBoy shows that out of date technology can thrive as long as programmers will push it. There are some good games for it, so my brother tells me, but I've never been able to enjoy playing on that tiny, relatively colorless screen.

    Of course, I'm a bitter Lynx owner. I keep thinking I'll bring that to work one of these days and when people ask me what it is I'll say, "Oh, it's my new PDA! It's called a Lynx," and see how many people I can fool.

    Of course, Lynxes kill batteries PDQ, too. I would never try to use one without a "Lynx Battery Pack" (massive, almost the same size as the Lynx, uses D batteries) or a power adaptor. Of course, I have the old Lynx, I think on the newer version of the Lynx [atari-history.com] you can turn off the back light.

    I don't know why some clever company never bought the rights to Lynx technology and tried to make it smaller and more energy efficient (as well as continuing to develop games for it). It blows away both the GameBoy Color and NeoGeo Pocket [oeonline.com] (which I own, and don't play that much... seems to be almost the same quality as Color GameBoy) in terms of processing power, and considering its age it should have been possible (by Moore's law) to improve it greatly as far as size and efficiency.

    Oh well, I look forward to the day when they finally come out with a handheld system that is more advanced than the Lynx or the TurboExpress.

    Yeah, I know, I'll get moderated down by some youngster who hates to hear us old guys grumbling about things, "back in the day." But here's the Atari Lynx FAQ [atari-history.com] for those browsing at -1 ^_-

  • Re:Good reasons for the higher price (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Pound for Pound Ti is going to be amongst the strongest metals you can get. So while it is more dense then Aluminum it is considerably stronger.

    The Mountain Bike industry takes particular advantage of this fact. Titanium provides the ideal metal for making a bike. Once the frame is made it won't fatigue under stress like Aluminum, is lighter and stronger then a similar steel frame, and unlike composites it won't shatter or crack if you crash

    That is why all the semi-pros out there who buy their own bikes ride on Ti. They know that baring a severe accident they aren't going to have to replace their bike with any frequency.

    Yes it is a pain to work with, but for anything that is going to take any degree of abuse, this is the way to go.

    Is this pertinant to a portable game system? I doubt it, but it needed to be said anyway.

    Quincy
    "Oomp omp went the little green frog one day..."
  • From the BeIA FAQ at http://www.be.com/products/beiafaq.html

    "Why shouldn't I use open source software for my appliance project?
    If time to market is a critical consideration for an Internet appliance project, BeIA makes far more sense than using open source software. Also note that open source licensing conditions often require the release of improvements to the community as a whole-in other words, to one's competitors."

    These people are -still- just trying to make money off of their efforts--capital, profit, that's all they care about, it's disgusting! They try to make end-users like us appriciate them by releasing BeOS for free, but in fact BeOS never would have had a chance at it's current price and they know it. I'm not saying it's a bad OS at all, but their corporate execs need to get their heads out of their asses.
    EMYL,
  • Well, half the problem is that after about three
    years you can't run commercial programs on an
    outdated computer anymore. Sure, the average user
    only needs a basic word processor with a spell checker and now-a-days a WWW browser. When I'm at home for a break and need my Slashdot fix I can use the decade-old Hyundai 8088 with 640k memory to log into a shell account and read Slashdot via Lynx. But can my mom use it to boot up this year's copy of Turbotax? Why not? All the calculations in taxes are simple addition and subtractions, ya don't need a Pentium II for that. The problem is that programmers have gotten lazy, don't think about optimization anymore and God Forbid that a company writes a program that doesn't run in some bloated GUI.
  • Don't tell me, let me guess... St. Francis's Folly, right?

    I love Tomb Raider, but that level is like falling into Hell.

    At least it isn't "a maze of twisty little passages, all a like" or maybe it is, just updated for a 3-D engine.

  • I was just thinking of the same game. It worked fine in black & white mode with a regular (non-overclocked) TI-85. Running in sweet, sweet greyscale was a bit of a stretch, however.

    Cheers,

    x1r0k3wl

  • Only that the X-Box has the backing of the company with the highest valuation in the US stock market, and with billions of cash at the bank

    Actually if you had been paying any attention to the stockmarket you would have noticed that Microsoft lost that position to Cisco Systems a week or two ago. It no longer is the King. Not sure what the story looks like after this last weekend, but I'm pretty sure Cisco took less of a beating then M$ did.

    Quincy
    "Oomp omp went the little green frog one day"
  • How many times have you seen a Game Boy Color or Neo Geo Pocket Color crash
    I've have Worms Armageddon for the GBC crash on me once, and I've had the computer AI get caught in a loop when I'd setup infinite turn time. FWIW.
  • >If you notice they claim to have long relations with Sega...could this
    >somehow be related to the Dreamcast? Hmm...a supersized VMU?

    I'd be surprised. They already have a relation with SNK (makers of the excellent Neo Geo Pocket Color (it's only downfall is the reflective lcd (which I appreciate, I get damn close to the advertised 40 hours on one set of batteries(if only nyko would make an ngpc version of their wormlight(WONDERFUL product)))) (oops) and there is already a DC-Link available for the NGPC, so I'd expect Sega to take that route if that's what they're looking for...

    -jay (it's late (for me) and I'm probably not making much sense)
  • I think titanium is actually very abundant; it just is hard to work with - which makes it more expensive. I don't think it offers any significant advantages for computer cases over plastic or aluminum - and should probably be reserved for mountain bikes.
  • lol
    I remember being a sophomore or junior and playing Tomb1 on the family PC, coming across the raptors for the first time, getting bit, hearing my mom scream, hear myself start screaming along with her, hearing my dad yell at both of us.....
    ah...tomb raider. don't spread this around...but sometimes I get this innate desire to lock my door, shut the blinds...and use windows 98.
    it kinda sux owning descent 1-3 and tomb 1-3 and not being able to use them.
    Agenda for someone smarter than I:
    • Make the descent ports work
    • Port tomb raider
    • Single-handedly write drivers for my ultra tnt2 for X, which provide all features of windoze drivers plus make coffee for me late at night
    any takers?
  • It seems to me, first of all, that this would just be too big to be a useful PDA. My Palm works for me because it does fit in my pocket. Really. Anything that doesn't, I'm just not going to carry around. Period. Second, the page indicates that this is really a gaming machine. Any PDA features will likely be an afterthought and not be too great.
  • I've seen versions of 3D games for TI calculators, which are most definitely not intended to run them. If someone actually put the work into it, it wouldn't be difficult to come up with a pretty cool handheld game unit.
  • It's called the Scannor Scanz [scanz.com] and it receives AND RECORDS MPEG2 video which are shown on its 4" color screen.

    I think it uses some sort of wireless LAN protocal as the video has be broadcast locally, such as at a sports stadium.

  • ARS had a link on this device yesterday..a celeron box the size of a zip drive. It's supposed to be used with a desktop monitor. The biggest pro with this is that you can easily lug it around.. video is limited though

    http://www.ibuypower.com/product -pc/pocket-epc.htm [ibuypower.com]
  • Here's an article on the gaming platform:

    http://beos.about.com/compute/beos/library/weekl y/aa031600.htm?rnk=r&terms=tight+gaming+pl atform

    I'm getting no DNS entry for both the beia and technopop.com websites. Maybe it is so vaporwarish that it disappeared as soon as someone wrote about it?

  • Why the dig at BeIA? (Score:3)

    by sugarman ( 33437 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2000 @07:20AM (#1126140)
    It seems that this thing is little more than a dig at BeIA. From the product specs, they claim that BeIA is of no use, because it requires 32MB of space, yet the machine is going to have 64MB on-board? So what? With that size display, it's not like you need that much Video Ram, and 4 year old PC games can run just fine on what's left.

    Also, they state that some of the things that BeIA includes is not required? Bullshit. Protected memory, and a reliance on a GUI interface? Well, how do they think people are going to choose things with a D-pad? With a CLI? And wouldn't protected memory be a bonus, to keep your little toy from crashing while in the hands of young-uns?

    Nice try kids, but trolling BeOS users is pretty weak. This thing will never see the light of day.

  • Technopop (Score:1)

    by pb ( 1020 )
    Technopop is here [technopop.com] (big surprise).

    It looks like they do BeOS stuff. Anyone know if this is going to be BeOS-based?

    Oh. And they "make industrial strength games!!!"

    I'm guessing from the host names involved that this is the Real-Time Strategy, Real-Time OS project. If anyone gets to the server, mirror it for us!

    host www.beia.org
    www.beia.org is a nickname for quantum3d.beia.org
    quantum3d.beia.org has address 209.220.46.173

    host quantum3d.technopop.com
    quantum3d.technopop.com has address 209.220.46.173
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].
  • Can't site an exact web site, but for the longest time, the technopop site had a disclaimer at the bottom saying Tight WAS NOT going to run BE or BeIA. It's gone now, but I'm pretty sure they are not going to use it.
  • I dunno, i think that the coolest feature of this thing is going to be that it has other pda/pc functions. Its kinda like that wearable that ibm was making lotsa noise about a while ago. i wonder whatever happened to that. But it would be seriously nice to get a pda/computer/gameboy for 100 dollars. and hell, titanium cases rock!
  • How so?

    Do you *have* one?

    (Don't get me wrong: I'd *love* to have one. But if it doesn't come out in the next few months, I won't...)
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].
  • Transmeta would be great, but Pentiums are not as bad as some people believe here. To give an example: a 166Mhz mobile MMX [intel.com] runs at about 2.3 Watt.

    I know that's not the 1 Watt Transmeta talks about, but they are talking about 5 Watts for their newer CPU's. However, the Mobile Pentium you can buy right now, at least less vapor as Transmeta.

    Breace.
  • Vapor means stuff that never sees the light of day. I pentium is not vapor because it came out, and lots and lots of people had them (I did). You can debate its usefulness all you want, but you need a different word.
  • >I mean a PI today is the same as a PII.
    They are both made by Intel, and have the same instruction set, but what do *you* mean by 'the same as'? Especially if you are talking about P/PMMX o/c'd vs P-II, I'd love to hear your explanation.
  • Hehe - yeah, if you wany a *real* hand warmer that you need to plug into an outlet or cig lighter 8^D

    Ouch!

  • Re:AHEM (Score:1)

    by Hemos ( 2 )
    It was a duplicate story.
  • It looks like they do BeOS stuff. Anyone know if this is going to be BeOS-based?

    Well, if you'd take a moment to actually read the page, you'll see that at the bottom there's a section where they say they're not going to be using Be.

  • Actually condoms do have an expiration date. Also, keeping them in your wallet is a bad idea. Just trying to keep you informed. Unplanned pregnancies are usually not all that "cool".
  • Look at the specs: - 100~240V 50/60Mhz Auto Swiching AC Adapter Well, I don't get 50 or 60 MegHz out of my wall socket. Maybe the wanted to save the crystal for the processor clock? Handtuch.
  • http://www.mot-sps.com/virtuovue/index.html
  • They actually squeeze a lot on a screen, and as for the keyboard issue, there are actually several options. I personally have the Landware one which is a bit on the small side for really fast typing, but quite useable.

    &nbsp - Mike

  • If you had any sense you wouldn't be taking the E Train [nyc.ny.us], you would be taking the F Train [nyc.ny.us]. Oh I forgot, you crossed the river to mutant land and prefer to be irradiated on the path train [panynj.gov]
  • http://beos.about.com/compute/beos/library/weekly/ aa031600.htm?rnk=r&terms=tight+gaming+pl atform
  • You too? I've fallen out of chairs while playing more times than I'd like to admit. I've been known to flinch watching other people play. One of the most embarassing things in the world (i'm a jittery person to begin with). Almost as bad as chewing on your cheek/tongue as a nervous twitch.
  • Trolling BeOS users IS pretty weak, but... How many times have you seen a Game Boy Color or Neo Geo Pocket Color crash in the hands of young-uns? (them dropping it doesn't count!) The protected memory would, as you state, a bonus, but definitely not necessary in the hands of good game programmers... But since this thing's supposed purpose includes PDA functionality, application programmers will DEFINITELY need protected memory...

    My point? I dunno...
    --
    Peace,
    Lord Omlette
    AOL IM: jeanlucpikachu

  • Drain the Batteries (Score:3)

    by bjb ( 3050 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2000 @07:24AM (#1126159) Homepage Journal
    Great. Stuff a Pentium 55C in there and watch your AA batteries get sucked down in 3 minutes. Lithium doesn't make a difference. The Pentiums are hogs anyway. Why not just go with a color palm pilot? Or for that matter, why not just get a color GameBoy? The merging of the two doesn't make much sense beyond bragging rights.

    --

  • old and stale (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    this article on "the tight" was posted back about march 20 or 21st at a number of gaming sites, such as bluesnews.com. the site's down because they have since put the tight on some kind of indefinate hold and aren't using beia anymore (which explains why the beia.org link may be down also).

    time for slashdot to review articles and submission a little sooner and maybe follow the links to see if they even still exist?

  • It's Possible!` (Score:3)

    by zpengo ( 99887 ) on Tuesday April 18, 2000 @07:26AM (#1126161) Homepage
    Here are some screenshots done from a TI-92 calculator...a much smaller scale, admittedly, but it's definitely possible.

    http://www.ticalc.org/arch ives/files/fileinfo/40/4042.html [ticalc.org]

    http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/36/3 634.html [ticalc.org]

    http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/34/3 439.html [ticalc.org]

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