Gizmondo

The Gizmondo handheld video game unit. United States and British coins included for scale.

The Gizmondo was a handheld gaming console with GPRS and GPS technology, which was manufactured by Tiger Telematics. Launched in 2005,^[1] the Gizmondo sold poorly, and by February of 2006 the company discontinued the Gizmondo and was forced into bankruptcy. Gizmondo was overshadowed by Stefan Eriksson's involvement in organized crime.^[2][3] In November 2007 Carl Freer stated he was interested in starting up production of the Gizmondo again.^[4]

Functionality and specifications

The Gizmondo includes a GPS module for in-car navigation which could also be used to track player movement in real-time for multiplayer games. It also contains a 0.3 Megapixel VGA camera mounted on the rear of the device. The Gizmondo can play MP3/WAV/MIDI music, WMV/MPEG4 videos and a variety of 2D/3D games. It can send email and even SMS/MMS messages, although it lacks the ability to send or receive voice calls. The phone service to enable users to send messages was provided by pre-pay Vodafone accounts bundled with the device. It can also access the Global Positioning System for use as a navigation aid. There were plans to support a variety of location-based services, for example. GPRS and Bluetooth wireless connections were intended to provide multiplayer gaming. The Gizmondo also had a feature called "Smart Ads." In exchange for a discount on the Gizmondo (of $170 in the US, £100 in the UK), up to three advertisements per day would be displayed on the handheld’s screen. Although the ads would not interrupt game play or other functions of the unit, the user would be forced to watch them before going on to the next function or shutting down the device. However because of the closure of the company, "Smart Ads" currently do not run on the 'Smart Ads' enabled devices. Gizmondo is powered by a 400 MHz ARM9 processor and has a 2.8 inch 320x240 pixels TFT screen and an NVIDIA 128 bit GeForce 3D 4500 GPU featuring fixed-pipeline shading, hardware transform engine and 1280KB of embedded memory (only 830KB are left when memory is allocated for the double buffers and the z-buffer). The unit measures 128 mm (4.9 inches) in length, 82 mm (3.2 inches) in width, and 32 mm (1.3 inches) in depth, and weighs in at 155 grams (4.2 oz) including the battery.^[5] GE (Gametrac Europe), before changing its name to Gizmondo, said it will offer mobile data communications, such as texting, multimedia messaging, WAP, email, and over-the-air game, music and ringtone downloads, but not voice. The device would feature a tri-band radio. It supports GSM Class 4 and GPRS Class 12 connections. 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.

Gizmondo Widescreen

Tiger Telematics planned to release a widescreen Gizmondo in 2006. It was intended to have a larger screen and upgrades like Wi-Fi and TV-out support. The widescreen Gizmondo was announced just a few weeks before the US launch of the Gizmondo, possibly prompting some potential customers to not buy the Gizmondo, and instead wait for the improved model.^[6]

UK release

Gizmondo was released in the United Kingdom on 19 March, 2005, initially priced at £229. Units enabled with "Smart Ads" (see above) had a reduced RRP of £129. The Gizmondo was available from the Gizmondo flagship store on London's Regent Street, via Gizmondo's online shop, and other highstreet and online retailers (such as Argos, Dixons, Currys, John Lewis among others).

U.S. release

In the United States the Gizmondo launched on October 22, 2005. Retail price was $400 for a unit without Smart Ads, or $229 for a Smart Ads enabled device. It was available only through Gizmondo’s website or at one of several kiosks located in shopping malls. However, only 8 of the planned 14 games were ever released in the U.S., along with no CoPilot GPS software, though the software was sold on the British site for a week or two. There was little to no advertising, and some of their advertising was even put in magazines of Nintendo Power (Nintendo's official magazine). Plans to distribute the handheld through other retailers never materialized.

Games

At the time of the US launch (22nd October 2005), fourteen games were available for the Gizmondo.

• Classic Compendium 1 (Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Four-in-a-line, Reversi, Othello)
• Classic Compendium 2 (Shogi, Chinese Chess, Gomoku, Chinese Checkers and TaiPei)
• Fathammer Classics for Gizmondo: Angelfish, Stuntcar Extreme, Super Drop Mania (3 game bundle)
• FIFA 2005
• Interstellar Flames 2
• Hockey Rage 2005
• Motocross 2005
• Pocket Pingpong
• Point of Destruction
• Rayman
• Richard Burns Rally
• SSX 3
• Sticky Balls
• Toy Golf
• Trailblazer

Hit & Myth was the only game that was released after the US launch on the 13th April 2006. Some games that were going to be released:

• Agaju: The Sacred Path of Treasure
• Carmageddon
• Chicane
• Colors
• Conflict: Vietnam
• Catapult
• Jump
• Momma Can I Mow The Lawn?
• Supernaturals
• Johnny Whatever

Although more games were in development, the company’s bankruptcy prevented release of further titles. A list of Gizmondo games can be found here. There were also rumors of Microsoft trying to port Halo (series) games on the Gizmondo, but the possibility vanished when Tiger Telematics went bankrupt. The most anticipated Gizmondo game, Colors, was never released due to the company’s bankruptcy (and would have been one of the few exclusives).

References

See also

• Comparison of handheld gaming consoles
• List of Gizmondo games
• Game Boy Advance
• Nintendo DS
• PlayStation Portable
• Nokia N-Gage
• GP32
• GP2X
• Tapwave Zodiac
• Sega Game Gear
• XGP

External links

• Wired Magazine - Gizmondo's Spectacular Crack-up
• The Sunday Times - The firm that blew it all in two years
• This Is Money - Crash and Burn!
• GameSetWatch - Gizmondo: Inside the Eye of the Tiger
• - Eriksson's troubled times