Gizmondo

Gizmondo
Manufacturer Tiger Telematics
Type Handheld game console
Generation Seventh generation era
First available 19 March 2005
Media SD, MMC
Controller input  
Online service GPRS
Units sold  
Top-selling game  

The Gizmondo is a 128 bit handheld gaming console with GPRS and GPS technology, produced by Tiger Telematics. The Gizmondo includes a GPS module for in-car navigation (coming Autumn 2005) also used for multiplayer real time games used to track movements of your opponents. The Gizmondo also holds within its small interior a VGA camera mounted on the rear. It can send SMS/MMS messages, voice calls and email (coming Autumn 2005), play MP3/WAV/MIDI music, play WMV/MPEG4 video, and a variety of 3D games.

Releases

Gizmondo was released in the United Kingdom on 19 March 2005, initially priced at ?229. However, the price of the unit has since fallen to ?129 if the user agrees to be sent a maximum of three 10 to 30 second advertisements per day through the Gizmondo Smart Ads service. These adverts will often include offers at the end of them, for example coupons, or free music downloads and will only appear when the user returns back to the main menu and not interupt any game or media playing. The device is due for release in several mainland Europe countries in Q1 2006, while it has now been launched on October 22, 2005 in North America. A catalog of over 90 games are in production for the Gizmondo with more added monthly, and it is predicted that at least 30 new games will have been released by early 2006. The games line up includes; The Great Escape, Age of Empires, Tron 2.0, Conflict Vietnam, Colors (Worlds first GPS game) as well as many others. The games portfolio is being increased through Tiger's recent purchase of Warthog and publishing deals made with SCi, Electronic Arts, UbiSoft and other major publishers.

The Gizmondo is currently available from the Gizmondo flagship store on London's Regent Street, also via Gizmondo's online shop, and other highstreet and online retailers (such as Argos, Dixons, Currys, John Lewis among others.).

Functionality and specifications

Jenson Button helps promote the Gizmondo in 2004 Jenson Button helps promote the Gizmondo in 2004

The Gizmondo can play games, music tracks and movies, take and store digital photos and be used like a mobile phone to send text, multimedia and e-mail messages, voice calls will be coming via a bluetooth headset due out in the fall. Tiger have recently begun demonstrating augmented reality-based games using the Gizmondo's digital camera.

In the UK, the phone service to enable people to send messages is being provided by pre-pay Vodafone accounts bundled in with the device. It can also access the Global Positioning System for use as a navigation aid. There are also plans to support a variety of location-based services, for example. GPRS and Bluetooth wireless connections are intended to provide multiplayer gaming.

The Gizmondo's Camera also includes an added Gyroscopic Function. It will be used in FPS, action-adventure, and puzzle games. In FPS games The Gizmondo is turned instead of using a thumbstick or joystick.

Gizmondo is powered by a 400 MHz ARM9 processor and has a 2.8 inch 320x240 pixels TFT screen and an NVIDIA 128 bit GoForce 3D 4500 GPU featuring a programmable pixel shader, hardware transform engine and 1280KB of embedded memory. The GPU was added relatively late in the system's design, causing some delays for launch titles and the system, as they were redesigned.

The system's appearance and ergonomics were created by industrial designer Rick Dickinson, who worked in a similar role on various Sinclair products such as the ZX Spectrum.

Tiger Telematics plans to release a widescreen Gizmondo. It will have upgrades like wi-fi and TV-OUT support. Critics say that people will wait for the widescreen Gizmondo when it comes out instead of getting the regular one.

Competition

The Gizmondo competes for marketshare with handheld consoles by Nintendo (the DS and Game Boy Advance) and Sony (the PlayStation Portable).

Controversy

Shortly after Gizmondo was released in America, a newspaper printed a story linking Gizmondo Europe Executive Officer, Stefan Eriksson, with the Uppsala Mafia. In light of these findings Eriksson resigned and at least two other resignations were reported in connection with this case. One of those resignations came from Carl Freer, the Chairman of the board and a director, who co-owned along with Eriksson Northern Lights Software Limited. Northern Lights was paid a large sum of money to create Chicane and Colors, two Gizmondo games that were actually developed by Gizmondo Europe itself. Freer paid the money back to Gizmondo in order to stop an investigation into the matter. The Gizmondo company itself denied knowing anything about Eriksson mafia ties.

See also

External links

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