yea well it just seems like if there gonna stop supporting there games and zodiacs they can atleast just give the daa to like everybody since it doesnt really matter, so LJZ and all the big names on the zodiac can continue. Also what is gonna happen to Hover Team Alpha

This post has been edited by JLobel: Jul 28 2005, 02:09 AM

LOL HTA will probably dump their project onto PPC or plain Palm. Giving everyone DAAs is unrealistic, it requires grabbing everyones S/N and then generating a DAA. Not everyone would be available at the time they give em away, and what if you deleted it? uh oh. Giving away a DAA generator would be reasonable, but the best thing of all would be an application signer to make it not require DAA.

I think that the folks who own the Tapwave intellectual property will not just release the private keys, since that would allow anyone to re-sign existing applications, generate DAAs, and break the copy protection for existing software. (For what it's worth, the signing tools themselves aren't anything special, in fact the oldest pre-beta SDKs used to include the tools! ...it's the private keys that really matter.)

I personally no longer have access to services or software that generates signatures, but I did make sure that these tools were still working and available, so that someone could continue to sign new software, and also continue to generate DAAs.

For those that understand the signing process, it would be foolish to continue to make software that required hardware signatures, since the store sites that generate the custom signatures for each purchase are also presumably going away. However, you could certainly still get basic app signatures for new applications, and sell or distribute them however you wished. (We always made sure that distribution models that didn't use the Tapwave store were possible -- good thing!) ...of course, now your copy protection will be only as good as on other PalmOS 5 devices.

Now what you should *really* be asking for is the sources for our most recent project, which was getting Linux up and running on the Zodiac. That's another way the hardware could live on -- running an open source OS.

--Bob (no longer a Tapwave employee)

This post has been edited by bob_ebert: Jul 28 2005, 02:16 AM

Best wishes for whatever the future has in store for you! And thanks for your help!

Just thought I'd pass this on... Through the miracle of Google's cache, you can still access the Tapwave store, if you didn't know the url right away. If it would display properly, the cached shot would look something like this:

And here's a snippet of the defunct store:


That would be neat if they still introduced other Tapwave-labeled products.

What about games that were only sold at that Tapwave store? Will new users never be able to buy Animated Dudes?

Can't say this news is a surprise.

Well, farewell Zodiac. You were great fun while it lasted. I've personally already moved onto PSP for emulation and portable games. *sigh*

As this device passes on GP32 will take the thrown in a new dynasty. PSP has too much closed bullcrap so get the GP2!!!

The PSP is better hardware than the new GP system (2 faster CPU's, more controls, bigger higher-res screen etc.), and has far more software support than the GPX2 will ever have. The emus on PSP are already pretty amazing (full speed NeoGeo CD and PC-Engine CD emus!) and the new firmware will be cracked. Plus there are 5 million PSP's out there already - how many GPX2 users do you think there will ever be?

Until you've played a console quality commercial 3D game like Wipeout Pure and then some full speed, full screen Samurai Shodown 2 on the same PSP, you have no idea what you're missing. The GPX2 will never offer that sort of variety.

The PSP is more powerful but it is less than perfect for emulation. The D-pad is not that good, the screen is bigger but the wrong aspect, making everything look all distorted when stretched or small when not. Then there is the annoying ghosting that can get real bad. So one has power one has a better layout. I guess it will be good to have both.

This shows game screen sizes at 1:1.



This post has been edited by DaveC: Jul 28 2005, 03:06 AM

Bob and other Tapwave ex-employees and/or soon-to-be ex's, thanks for all of your work on this platform. Don't think that market-driven decisions at all reflect the enthusiasm of your olde user base, nor the worthiness of a future that should have been! The Zodiac was a tremendous step forward in PDA development, truly visionary. Congrats to all of the Zodiac team, you put the futrure into our hands if only for a short time. I'll be looking forward to whatever you all work on for other companies soon. Thanks!

Does this mean I can't get my screen replaced?

the zodiac may still live on with linux, we need that source! Bob, is there any way we cna get that?

I don't know if the warrantee covered that anyway.

DaveC,

The GPX2 does not have a 4" screen. It's 3.5".

http://www.gpx2.com/product/product_spec.asp

I know what emus look like on my PSP's and they are incredible. The screen is gorgeous, nearly bright as a CRT, incredibly rich colors and it's huge. The NeoCD emu has several stretch aspect ratios, all look great and personally I think the 16:9 fullscreen looks superb on all the emus except for GBC, where the distortion is too noticeable.

Anyway we are really off topic in this thread.

Yeah, considering all of the potential hardware problems, just pray your Z doesn't break. I've invested quite a bit of money in mine. Even if you could find a new one you probably won't be able to transfer the software that's tied to your original without tapwave's help. I don't advocate piracy but you should be allowed to continue to use the software you bought if you have to or choose to switch to a new one. But I guess that's the risk we took when we bought in. We knew this day would come but they could at least try to continue some kind of support if they're really not completely gone. Turning their backs on us like this makes me far less likely to buy a new device from them in the future. I don't think they would do that unless they are really done with the tapwave name.

No repairs free or otherwise?
no parts?
no support at all (will anyone notice?)

I hope I'm wrong, somebody try to convince me I'm wrong.