A review of the rather unknown Gameking handheld. This Korean handheld has a very low resolution screen but surprisingly good sound. The games are actually rather playable and it is amazing to see what sort of gameplay can be squeezed out of the limited hardware. Read more below...

Add another platform, Pandora, to the growing list of open source portable gaming platforms. Personally, as part of my handheld arsenal, I'm an owner of a GP2X F-200 and have mixed feelings about what is presently the most popular open source multimedia handheld (along with its sibling, the F-100). On the one hand it's very versatile and does well with a wide variety of emulators, while on the other hand it's a battery hog and the end user is left to his own devices to pretty much do anything (like install programs). "Pandora", while presently tracking to be double the price (around $320 US versus the F-200's $170), looks to have a tremendous all-in-one design with helpful features like an onboard keyboard and multiple controls, superficially making it seem like a superior option for running emulators overall. Still, it all comes down to developer support, which the GP2X handhelds have in spades. If Pandora works as advertised, no doubt support will ramp up quickly and we may very well have a new "alternative handheld" leader. I know I'd eventually be onboard if it was a little easier on the end user side to install and run software, not to mention if it featured intelligent battery life management. We'll be keeping an eye on this one...

DEFINING PAST AND PRESENT GAME GENRES

Why past and present?  Certain game types, while still alive through the efforts of thousands of active hobby programmers, are no longer available in mainstream retail outlets and thus don’t knowingly exist to large portions of the game playing public.  Therefore, described in alphabetical order is what has been and what is still available.  Keep in mind, however, that one of the beauties of gaming is that many games don’t fit neatly into one specific category.  When example software titles are listed, only the publisher or developer is noted in parentheses, along with one of the systems or platforms the game appeared on.

DEFINING HOME VIDEOGAME, COMPUTER AND HANDHELD ERAS

What is often lacking in casual discussion of eras or time periods when certain systems or types of technology dominated is an agreed upon definition of what these really encompassed.  Below is one attempt at defining the significance of eras in the key classifications of home videogames, computers and handhelds.  As with any type of grouping, it's important to remember that there can be significant overlap, as some systems lasted a year or less, while others have been going strong for a decade or more. 

Could this be the product Coleco has been talking about for a while? I hope not, but until a unit is issued that includes real Coleco games it will have to do.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-3/qid=1161671380/ref=sr_1_3/60...

Ocean Depths game packaging: for Atari Jaguar CDAmong other updates, prior Armchair Arcade interview subject Carl Forhan and his Songbird Productions is making, among other things, the "Ocean Depths CD" and "Bomb Squad CD" homebrews more widely available for the Atari Jaguar and its CD attachment. Both games are from Starcat Developments in Germany and require a modified Jaguar that can play encrypted CD's or the use of a bypass cartridge (which is the solution that I implement).

The full update with more information is here: