Tapwave Zodiac heading to Europe

Tapwave says that since launching the Tapwave Zodiac mobile entertainment console with CompUSA in June, the demand from European markets has been substantial. The game development community is growing, with over 40% of Tapwave's 3000 developers being from Europe. Starting this holiday selling season, consumers in the UK will be able buy the Tapwave Zodiac handheld. To accelerate expansion, Tapwave is now establishing a legal entity and local presence in the UK and recently hired Andrzej Kasprzyk as the company's Director of European Sales and Roy Parker as Director of International Operations.

The Zodiac console offers high-resolution (480x320) display, ATI graphics acceleration, and stereo sound. It also supports vibration effects and wireless multiplayer gaming. The handheld runs a Tapwave-enhanced version of the Palm OS (5.2T) and runs thousands of existing applications, tools and games.

With integrated Bluetooth and infrared wireless technologies, the Zodiac is also a phone companion to browse the internet, send SMS messages and manage email. The console is offered in two models: the Zodiac1 with 32MB RAM and the Zodiac2 with 128MB of RAM. The new retail model for the UK market will also come with the international charging kit and the latest Zodiac 1.1 software suite, which includes many new enhancements like background music playback (e.g., listen to music while you play games, view a photo slideshow or read an e-book) and the ability to sync PIM data with Microsoft Outlook using Chapura PocketMirror.

Tapwave will also distribute Zodiac accessories and Zodiac game cards, such as id Software's DOOM II, 3D Realms/MachineWorks Northwest's Duke Nukem Mobile, Activision's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 and Midway's SpyHunter. Some of the other Zodiac titles for this year will also include Activision's MTX: Mototrax and Street Hoops, Eidos' Tomb Raider and Atari's Neverwinter Nights.