Quickies: Presenter-to-Go, Astrowing Gamepad, Fictionwise

Posted By: As Listed Friday, November 30, 2001 7:05:38 AM

MARGI Systems, maker of the Presenter-to-Go Springboard Module, is offering it for just $200 until January 9, a $100 savings. This turns a Visor into professional quality presentation device. -Kathryn Quigley

Astronest will release the Astrowing Sound FX Gamepad for the Palm IIIc in the US on December 20. It gives game players a console-style control and features a built in speaker, rumble pak, 2MB of on board memory and Yamaha sound chip. It is availabe for pre-order now for $60. -David Feinberg

Robert Silverberg's highly acclaimed "New Springtime" novels -- "At Winter's End" and "The New Springtime" -- are the Fictionwise eBooks of the Week. They also have new science fiction from Alan Dean Foster, Robert Silverberg, and Lois McMaster Bujold. -Scott Pendergrast

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Gamepad

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 8:11:37 AM #

I wonder if thay will be coming out with one for my Atari 2600 or my ColecoVision.

It figures that someone would make a gamepad for a PDA that nobody buys anymore.

Why would they even think of making one for the Palm m505 or Sony Clie series?

It would make too much sense?

RE: Gamepad

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 8:45:00 AM #

http://www.astronest.com/astrowing/

"Q) Which PDAs will the AstroWing support?

AstroWing will be released in three models: one for the Palm III series, one for the Palm M500 series, and one for the Handspring Visors. "

RE: Gamepad

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 8:46:30 AM #

And we all know that 6 months after someone buys a handheld, they throw it away and get a new one. Get a grip. When will it hit some of you that most people won't pay $400+ for a Palm? Way more cheap Palms are sold than expensive ones and they are kept for YEARS. There are probably 2x as many IIIcs in peoples hands as m505s and 4x more than CLIEs. More are sold every day.

RE: Gamepad

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 9:22:26 AM #

All I can say is that I can pick a Dreamcast for less than this!

RE: Gamepad

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 9:25:43 AM #

Thats nice, you can pickup a dreamcast for $50. Then a nice black and white portable tv, because you don't want it to be too big and heavy. And a nice portable power supply, which don't run a lot. Go for it genius.

RE: Gamepad

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 9:36:30 AM #

Well, were I dealing with morons, I would instead buy myself this thing the size of a steeringwheel and lug it in my backpack! OR I could buy myself a Gameboy Advance and even save myself the $50 for the dreamcast and leave the stupid B&W tv and the rest for the aformentioned morons...
Grow up...

RE: Gamepad

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/3/2001 5:49:29 AM #

yeah, and pay 40$ 2 have a game and BTW a light 2 b able 2 c the game. I have both gameboyA and palm 3c. And i'll take anyday my 3c. Free games, visable screen (if u have a sony770 or a m505 u even get a better screen). Face it, pdas r begining 2 rule, ur starting 2 get the same games.

Directional Pad on Palm PDA? Someday?

kevdo @ 11/30/2001 10:38:21 AM #

Products like this wouldn't be needed if someone (Palm, Handspring, Sony, et. al.) would produce a handheld with a directional pad ala the Pocket PC.

It wouldn't even take up much space on the device. Place it in the middle where the Up/Down rocker/buttons go. Would be handy to move the text insertation point left and right as well (how many time have you tried to "target" the far left of a text line and instead got the right side of the first letter?)

In other words, this could have non-game advantages as well. Call it the "Cursor Pad for the Enterprise" if you need to market this to business.

Until something like a directional pad comes along for the Palm I'm afraid the ability of this thing to be a really great game machine are limited (while we're there, a sound chip for good sounds would also be nice...)

-Kevin Crossman

RE: Directional Pad on Palm PDA? Someday?

sub_tex @ 11/30/2001 11:29:48 AM #

a D-Pad would be very cool indeed. I didn't really see what was the point of them until i messed with a few of them on the display items at CompUSA.

It's a really cool feature. The example about trying to "target" the far left of a text line and instead got the right side of the first letter is dead on.

RE: Directional Pad on Palm PDA? Someday?

srs112233 @ 11/30/2001 11:37:12 AM #

yes, lets face it. The PPC's have everything we want in a Palm, exept for price and maybe size.

RE: Directional Pad on Palm PDA? Someday?

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 11:58:23 AM #

Palm definitely has it over the PPC in size. And battery life. And applications. So once you factor in price, no surprise they have less than 20% of the market.

RE: Directional Pad on Palm PDA? Someday?

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 2:42:56 PM #

I own a m505. I have an iPaq at work (we develop applications for both platforms). Playing with the iPaq´s button is really a pain in the a**! At least I have the cradle to charge it after an hour... :-)

RE: Directional Pad on Palm PDA? Someday?

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 2:55:11 PM #

Some one please make a game pad thats the size of the little thumb pad keyboards.... I know I would buy one for my Clie' 760. The D pad one PPC is a pain. Even more for games... the control is in the center of the device.... put the d pad on one side and the 4 buttons on the other built in the device and your set.... this will work for the right of text as well because you can hold the palm in your left hand and still use the stylis in the right hand...

RE: Directional Pad on Palm PDA? Someday?

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 3:46:19 PM #

> (how many time have you tried to "target" the far left of a text line and instead got the right side of the first letter?)

Yes! I am not the only one! Every time this happens I either (a) feel stupid (b) curse PalmOS. Of course you can use Graffiti to push the cursor leftwards one more character. But a dpad, or maybe some way to use the existing buttons, would be nice too.

RE: Directional Pad on Palm PDA? Someday?

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/3/2001 1:35:48 PM #

I have an iPaq in addition to my Visor Prism and Samsung i300. The idea of a directional pad built into the device "sounds nice" but it really isn't great. First, Casio did the best job on their older PPC devices by putting it on the left with the buttons on the right. Putting the pad in the middle may work better for left-handed people, but it really doesn't work great overall. Then there's the fact that the iPaq's pad is also a speaker (so by moving the pad you cover the speaker) and it can be depressed to click (messes up game playing) and the iPaq can't have simultaneous key presses. What you end up with is something the "looks" like it would be great for gaming but isn't. Furthermore, putting the pad and buttons on the very bottom doesn't create a system designed well for holding. Even an old B&W GameBoy has empty space on the bottom to allow your hands to hold it comfortably.

These add-ons are really the best way to play games on a handheld, IMO. Yes, it adds to the bulk of having to bring it with you. Having said all that, most of the action games for Palms are disappointing, IMO. The PPCs are better built for this (multimedia-wise) and would benefit the most from these add-on controllers. If I wanted to play a lot of games on the go (which I don't), I'd probably get a GameBoy Advanced.

Scott

Good deal for Presenter-to-Go

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/30/2001 4:07:29 PM #

This price is probably where PTG could really take off. For a little more than $500, you could get a total package for presenting - Visor Prism + PTG module >> even less if you go for one of the monochrome Visors.