zii = gaming machine..?

[captincaveman]

im just wondering with this zii chip thing in there will this zii player run old games for the psx,snes,nes,saturn and others running 32bit and lower.....

if so.. because im thinking.. stuff playing games on a tiny screen use the tv out and use bluetooth game pads for the player.... making it a game console really..... is that possible..?

[CrowdAds]

[dfkt]

Since even most ancient Rockbox targets are powerful enough for a Gameboy emulator and Doom, it's probably just a matter of someone porting various emus over to the Zii's Android and/or Plaszma (given that those OSes won't have any other hurdles, like being crippled and locked down). That goes for NES/SNES and such... a PSX emulator is in a whole other league and probably not fast enough.

[captincaveman]

ok cheers just a thought....

[Nephersir7]

given the lack of hardware buttons on the zii and multitouch support in Android, i don't think there will be playable emulators...

[RioT]

Maybe some sort of BT controller dock...

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by Nephersir7

lack of hardware buttons on the zii

You're absolutely right, I forgot about that.

[Hirudin]

It shouldn't be long before Android gets multitouch. The problem apparently is that multitouch isn't supported by the OS even though most of the hardware (G1, My Touch 3G) is capable of it. I don't have an Android device so I haven't seen it personally, but there are Android programs that have multitouch.

Here's a video...

You Tube

You Tube

[captincaveman]

Originally Posted by Nephersir7

given the lack of hardware buttons on the zii and multitouch support in Android, i don't think there will be playable emulators...

whats that the zii or the zii egg?
im not intrested in waving a screen around like the wii remote(thats not fun)...or cool... i'd just look and feel like a fool..

i would rather they made a real portable gaming machine with the bluetooth game pads.... that make gaming actually fun.. like other gaming machines that have actual buttons....otherwise i dont see the point..really

lately we see apple trying to punt the itouch as a gaming machine this year... i find this really funny...lol

[Curiouss]

Can't they make the buttons to be on the touchscreen too? I mean..teh Zii does have multitouch..

[belas2]

We dont need a bunch of buttons to play a gameboy emulator, playing some games on the Ipod Touch a friend of mine has they analog stick and 'buttons' are just put on the screen for you to drag/tap and works fine. All we need is an emulator that will read video input for button mashing and it will work no worries men!

[xpander]

Originally Posted by belas2

We dont need a bunch of buttons to play a gameboy emulator, playing some games on the Ipod Touch a friend of mine has they analog stick and 'buttons' are just put on the screen for you to drag/tap and works fine. All we need is an emulator that will read video input for button mashing and it will work no worries men!

i think what mr caveman is trying to say is forget touching the screen or waving it around like a fool..

but rather using the bluetooth gamepad technology already in use.
if these smartphones or pmp's have enough power to run these emus
then why not..!

these games where made to be played with gamepads... i also think using a pico projector for on the go gaming.. sounds like it would work..

[xpander]

Originally Posted by captincaveman

im just wondering with this zii chip thing in there will this zii player run old games for the psx,snes,nes,saturn and others running 32bit and lower.....

if so.. because im thinking.. stuff playing games on a tiny screen use the tv out and use bluetooth game pads for the player.... making it a game console really..... is that possible..?

here it is http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/n...-gaming-video/

so it can be done!

[IanFromAfrica]

Originally Posted by dfkt

it's probably just a matter of someone porting various emus over to the Zii's Android and/or Plaszma (given that those OSes won't have any other hurdles, like being crippled and locked down). That goes for NES/SNES and such... a PSX emulator is in a whole other league and probably not fast enough.

I've just done a port of SDL to the Zii Egg. I've built Doom for it and scummVM. Most SDL things build with nothing more than a ./configure, and the performance (considering I've done nothing to optimise it) is more than adequate.

The bluetooth thing is a bit of a sore issue on the Zii Egg. It appears that ZiiLabs hasn't certified the bluetooth protocols that we'd need for gaming controllers...

Might hack around a bit and see what I can find (I need HID profile for mouse for another project I'm doing on the Egg).

Anyway, I've put the hooks in the SDL driver for the accelerometer, so it's just a case of someone sitting down for a while and working out some good mappings.

The HDMI cable I have isn't something you'd want to put much stress onto, so waving it around when you're hooked up to a TV is not such a good idea (and why the wireless controller would be). It does work for scummVM games though, where all you want to do is move a mouse cursor around at a leisurely pace. The SDL driver I've done allows this, letting you use the Zii Egg as a trackpad (like on a laptop) while the display goes to the TV (the Zii Egg can show controller graphics on the LCD while it shows the game on the TV).