The Award-winning Zodiac Handheld Goes Tomb-Raiding
Lara Croft appears in a 3D Zodiac Adventure
London, England (November 22, 2004): Tapwave, the US manufacturer of the world's first Palm Powered multimedia handheld, has confirmed details of its agreement with Eidos, one of the world's leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, to bring the most famous video game icon Lara Croft to the Zodiac platform.
Tomb Raider Zodiac (working title), due to be published by Tapwave in spring of 2005 sees Lara embarking on an exciting adventure. Using an all new custom 3D game engine, this adventure will take full advantage of the Zodiac's graphics accelerator. Gamers can look forward to the latest character model, lavish locations, heart-stopping action sequences and brain-taxing puzzles - which all combine to produce one of Lara's greatest adventures yet.
"We have been very impressed by the Zodiac and Tapwave's understanding of what makes a good Tomb Raider game," says Simon Protheroe, Eidos' director of new media and online technologies. "Tomb Raider for the Zodiac will be a valuable new addition to the franchise."
"Like the Zodiac, Tomb Raider is truly multimedia," adds Byron Connell, founder and SVP Marketing, Tapwave. "Tomb Raider began life as a game, and evolved into two movies, a couple of original soundtracks and several books - four formats, among many, the Zodiac handles with style. We're delighted to be working with Eidos on a Zodiac version of Tomb Raider, and we're confident it will be one of the best handheld incarnations to date."
The Zodiac offers a high-resolution (480x320) 3.8-inch color display, Yamaha audio with stereo speakers and vibration effects. With integrated Bluetooth and infrared wireless technologies, the Zodiac can also be used in conjunction with a compatible mobile phone with data services to browse the Internet and manage email. The Zodiac can be operated in landscape or portrait mode, allowing Word documents, email or family pictures to be viewed in the orientation that best suits them. The Zodiac also features high-capacity rechargeable lithium batteries for extended use, a touch-screen for direct interaction and text input, and the first ever analog controller with 360 degree of motion in a handheld product.
While the powerful Freescale ARM9 processor and integrated ATI graphics accelerator are the same in both models, the Zodiac 1 and Zodiac 2 come with 32MB and 128MB of memory respectively. Each can be expanded by slotting in SD cards in the handhelds two expansion ports, offering up to 2GB of additional storage - enough for a significant number of songs, photos, e-books, games, videos, and business documents.
A few of the over 40 Tapwave Certified titles available at www.tapwave.com include: id Software's DOOM II®, 3D Realms/MachineWorks Northwest's Duke Nukem MobileTM, Activision's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater® 4 and Midway's SpyHunter®, Tiger Team: Apache vs Hind and GTS Racing Challenge. Along with premiere titles, Tapwave is also offering two game packs - Z:Pak: Adventure, which will include Galactic Realms and Legacy; and the Z:Pak: Fun featuring Paintball, MegaBowling and Kickoo's Breakout. Zodiac accessories available at retail will include the Zodiac Sport Case, Zodiac Cradle, a Zodiac Stylus 3-pack and the Zodiac Deluxe Leather Case.
Other announced games for the Zodiac platform include Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts), Neverwinter Nights (Atari), Street Hoops (Activision), Motrax MTX (Activision), Tomb Raider (Eidos) and Hockey Rage 2005 (Fathammer). For the latest titles, ebooks and other software, visit www.tapwave.com.
About Tapwave, Inc.
Tapwave is changing the way people manage their lives, play and interact on the go. Founded in May 2001, Tapwave is a privately funded company in Mountain view, CA, USA. Through a wealth of consumer electronic experience and strong partnerships, Tapwave is developing a portfolio of innovative, media-centric products that combine the power and function of advanced handheld computing with the fun of a console-quality entertainment experience.
Since officially launching the company a year ago, Tapwave has garnered numerous accolades and industry awards for its first product - the Zodiac, including: 1st place in PC Magazines "Last Gadget standing" competition at CES 2004, Handheld Computing's "Most Innovative PDA for 2003". Mobiletrax's Mobility Award, Computer Shopper "The Top 100 Products in 2004", Laptop Hot Pick, CNET's Editor's Choice Award, PC World's 2004 Next Gear Innovations Award and Popular Science BOWN (Best of What's New) Award. More information about the company can be found at www.tapwave.com.
About Eidos
Eidos plc is one of the world's leading publishers and developers of entertainment software with a diverse mix of titles for the PC, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Nintendo GameCubeTM and the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft. For more information on Eidos and its products visit www.eidos.com
® Copyright. All rights reserved. Tapwave, the Tapwave logo, Zodiac and the Zodiac logo are registered trademarks of Tapwave, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.