neverland
03-06-2004, 19:12
Not sure how far out of the North West their shops reach, But T J Hughes are currently selling the dismally unsuccesful "wireless inter-tainment computer", Cybiko for £4.99. Given that the official site where games for it can be downloaded bit the dust long ago, they're not overly useful, but if you're the kind of geek that likes collecting old consoles and gaming gadgets, the price isn't too bad.
For the curious - the Cybiko was a handheld console / very limited PDA / wireless texting device initially aimed at kids. Which presumably failed miserably because most kids had mobile phones that would do pretty much the same job. They then launched Cybiko Xtreme, which was a bit less garishly coloured and tried to look a bit more like a PDA.
Gameswise the classic comes with 6 pre-loaded, and the Xtreme has a PC disc included that allegedly has twenty games on it. None of the games I've played on the classic are likely to hold anyone's attention for long, but what do you want for a fiver?
It's worth noting that although the Classic has a serial cable to transfer files from the PC, it tells you to download the transfer software from the now-defunct site, which is a bit useless. The Xtreme version has the transfer software on a disc though, plus a fancy new-fangled USB connector.
Should also point out that the Birkenhead branch had loads of classics but only 2 Xtremes, and me and the Mrs picked both of them up.
As I say, I think it's really only a bargain for geeky game collector types but I think there may be a couple of them around these parts.
[EDIT]It seems I went jumping to a conclusions when their site was down this morning. Just went to www.cybiko.com and it's back up. So, for a fiver we're talking about a handheld with around 400 free downloadable games. Prolly not fantastic games, but still... [EDIT]
For the curious - the Cybiko was a handheld console / very limited PDA / wireless texting device initially aimed at kids. Which presumably failed miserably because most kids had mobile phones that would do pretty much the same job. They then launched Cybiko Xtreme, which was a bit less garishly coloured and tried to look a bit more like a PDA.
Gameswise the classic comes with 6 pre-loaded, and the Xtreme has a PC disc included that allegedly has twenty games on it. None of the games I've played on the classic are likely to hold anyone's attention for long, but what do you want for a fiver?
It's worth noting that although the Classic has a serial cable to transfer files from the PC, it tells you to download the transfer software from the now-defunct site, which is a bit useless. The Xtreme version has the transfer software on a disc though, plus a fancy new-fangled USB connector.
Should also point out that the Birkenhead branch had loads of classics but only 2 Xtremes, and me and the Mrs picked both of them up.
As I say, I think it's really only a bargain for geeky game collector types but I think there may be a couple of them around these parts.
[EDIT]It seems I went jumping to a conclusions when their site was down this morning. Just went to www.cybiko.com and it's back up. So, for a fiver we're talking about a handheld with around 400 free downloadable games. Prolly not fantastic games, but still... [EDIT]