GamePlasma demos 'AGAJU' for the Gizmondo at E3 2005 (GamePlasma.com Archive)
1GamePlasma's Scott Parrino is one of very few people who actually got the chance to play a game on the Gizmondo, an Augmented Reality handheld console that combined the device's built-in GPS locator with game mechanics.
'Agaju: The Sacred Path of Treasure', which was cancelled before its release, would have combined the device's camera and gyroscope technology to present a truly Augmented Reality game, far ahead of its time.
While over 30 games were planned for the Gizmondo, only 8 titles were available at the Gizmondo's launch in North America by October 22, 2005; 14 titles had been released in the European Union between March and October of the same year. The Gizmondo was discontinued on February 6, 2006 after selling only 25,000 units worldwide with a $300 million debt.
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GIZMONDO SET TO MAKE ITS MARK IN PORTABLE GAMING
by Scott Parrino, GamePlasma.com Editor-in-Chief, Thursday May 19th, 2005
During the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, GamePlasma met with Tiger Telematics to check out their new handheld. Sure enough, we left with smiles on our faces and our fingers itching for more.
The Gizmondo, a hybrid of handheld console and multimedia entertainment, is set to release August 11th of this year. While some can tout it as just another handheld that can possibly be lost amongst the PSP’s, Nintendo DS’s, or GBA’s the idea that the Gizmondo offers more than just handheld gaming is enough to put it on the market and become quite the competition for Nintendo and Sony.
Gizmondo this week at E3 was kind enough to fill us in on a quick walkthrough of two of its upcoming games; the gang-influenced Colors, and the unusually fun GPS-style game Agaju: The Sacred Path. In fact, both of these titles use the GPS function of the Gizmondo, ensuring that not only the replayability and fun of the game are high, but to get players outside of their house and explore the world around them. While this doesn’t mean you have to go outside every time to connect to someone, it is just that for some games and programs it requires you to get off your lazy rear.
The featured games we tried at E3 were still under development but they showed great promise. Agaju has you maneuver from a first-person perspective through labyrinths and other locations as you turn and move about. Depending on the situation, it requires you to position your camera to a certain object in your world to activate the clue or objective. This particular demo had me turning in space and reach a point to aim my camera at a certain design, which prompted a fairy to come alive and dance on the paper design! All together, this is a really neat feature.
Colors is something that can possibly start a real gang war. As you start your own online gang (don’t worry, there is single player), you control certain areas of your actual location. Each location is mapped correctly in a scaled down version of the map. To get other sectors of your city or location, it requires you to get up and go to that zone and either buy it or fight for it. You heard me right, fight for it. Your character is bound to face up against another for control of sectors of the town you’re in, and be sure to bring along your posse as well. You don’t always have to fight for that area to be in there, you can go to an area, tag it with a custom made spray tag (you can either draw it yourself or take pictures of it and edit it) or leave a message for the leader of that zone. I’m sure later this year we’ll see more and more people around America traveling to control more and more of their turf.
The Gizmondo itself is pretty well armed compared to its opponents. Featuring a 400 Mhz processor, an NVIDIA GoForce 3D 4500 graphics 128-bit accelerator, Windows Media Player, 64mb onboard memory with SD flash card reader, a 2.8 crystal clear TFT screen at 320 x 240 pixels, GPS, digital camera, MP3 player, MPEG-4 playback, text and picture messaging, POP3/IMAP email upgrade, Bluetooth class 2 connectivity, removable SIM card, and mono speaker with stereo headset socket. Whew! Combine this with controls such as an 8-Way D-Pad and 4 face buttons and two shoulder buttons, you can pretty much have the ease of control in your hands for whichever program or game you are running.
Gizmondo seems to be pretty much like a cell phone minus the actual talking. What makes it much more handy however is its GPS system, which can help you if you are lost or if you are looking for a place to eat. There are also plans to incorporate the Gizmondo into automobiles for this GPS feature, giving the ability for those with not so green pockets have the comfort of something you’d find in premier cars on the showroom floor.