Iwod G10 PMP with NES emulator

Watch out, iRiver, because your G10 portable gaming console has some stiff competition from a product with the very same name- and you haven't even released yours yet! The curiously-named Iwod G10 is a smallish Game Boy-looking PMP that performs all of the usual multimedia functions, but whose real draw is a bulit-in NES emulator. That's right, along with supporting your MP3, WMA, FLAC, MPEG-4, and AVI files, the Iwod also lets you load up NES ROMs on an SD card and get your Mario-on portable-style. Gameplay occurs on a 320 x 240 2.5-inch LCD or on a regular TV thanks to the video out jack, and battery life is said to be around 10 hours. $147 is all it takes to snatch one of these up- if you're in China, that is.

[Via The MP3 Players, thanks Chi]

[jeff @ Jan 22nd 2006 3:58PM]

Can't Nintendo sue 'em for that? i would imagine that to be illegal...

neat though, i suppose.

[Xbox'er @ Jan 22nd 2006 4:06PM]

I especially like that is's operating under Windows Mobile 5.0. It also supports WiBro wireless standard(WiMax analog). Cool stuff!

[Gil @ Jan 22nd 2006 5:41PM]

Guile rules.

[Cliff @ Jan 22nd 2006 5:45PM]

Might need to licence the technology from Nintendo if they plan on selling it outside of China. Could always offer the feature as an unsupported upgrade.

[Rami @ Jan 22nd 2006 6:19PM]

1. Guile Rules. Sonic Boom forever, man. The only thing that would make me cooler is to have spelled that in ascii.
2. This is almost worth a trip to China. Almost.
3. I hope this one day comes stateside, but I doubt it.
4. If it does come to America, Hyrule Castle is gonna sue the crap out of these people.

[Ghost_MH @ Jan 22nd 2006 7:31PM]

There's nothing wrong with emulators...I thought the whole Bleem! fiasco taught all of us that they're legal. That doesn't matter though...The NES hardware is open for anyone to use nowadays, so there's no need to seek approval from Nintendo. That's how Messiah was able to make their Generation NEX: http://www.playmessiah.com/onlinestore/

[evo @ Jan 22nd 2006 7:56PM]

I'm headed to China next week--anyone want one?

[Lauren @ Jan 22nd 2006 9:14PM]

For those of us who don't have the extra cash to buy (or patience to wait for) one of these, you can always play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games through iBoy in iPodLinux. Many NES games were later rereleased for the handheld systems, and can be downloaded in rom format.

[Kibiyama @ Jan 22nd 2006 11:35PM]

*sigh* They are going to get sued if they come stateside. It's called an Iwod G10-- Iwod could be considered to draw significantly from Apple's market, and G10 was the name of a product with similar capabilities that I'm assuming was in development first, although they'd have to prove it.

Also, Nintendo has a patent that should've never gotten through. They have a patent on portable emulation of their hardware. See US Patent No 6,672,963.

[Charlie @ Jan 23rd 2006 12:22AM]

I live in China, anyone want one?

[Fantaz @ Jan 23rd 2006 2:06AM]

Put it up on eBay for me plz!! :)

[Gizmo Forum @ Jan 23rd 2006 2:12AM]

Holy smokes, now that would be neat. NES roms to go and audio... Hey Charlie, you could probably make some good cash selling these on eBay!

I am gonna have to post about this on my gadget forum!!

[Derrick @ Jan 23rd 2006 3:11AM]

Wouldn't obtaining NES roms be illegal itself already? Anyways the buttons look uncomfortable.

[Octavus @ Jan 23rd 2006 3:34AM]

I do believe that it is legal to own a rom of a game that you legally own, as long as the game has no copy protection which would be doubtful with the NES.

[Nick @ Jan 23rd 2006 8:17AM]

In many cases, yes, nintendo could indeed sue over marketed emulators. However, nintendos copyright liscense expired last year for their 8 bit NES system. So 3rd party developers are free to make systems for them...pretty sweet.

[Dale @ Jan 23rd 2006 9:05AM]

Guile appeared in the game Street Fighter II which was not made available for Nintendo Entertainment System. There was, however, a side-scrolling platformer called Street Fighter 2010 that featured Ken from Street Fighter II. :)

[Wolfspirit @ Jan 23rd 2006 10:50AM]

This thing sucks. Check out the gp2x. I have one and it's amazing. http://www.gp32x.com

[Charlie @ Jan 23rd 2006 12:41PM]

tTe gp2x is a media player - this is an MP3 player. There's a big difference when you want to carry something around in your pocket with you.

[kenny @ Jan 23rd 2006 2:48PM]

#6 nice link....interesting

#15 that game was like uber weird, from what i remembered it dealt with aliens and things...and was hard....i remember last level i got to was some desert/cavern thingy...great now i want to find the rom and play it...

[Charlie @ Jan 24th 2006 6:47AM]

Photos I took of the G10 today. It looks and feels much nicer in person than in photos.

http://www.djcharlie.us/g10/

[Raymond @ Jan 24th 2006 5:41PM]

what about start and select buttons?

[SickBoy @ Jan 25th 2006 8:56PM]

Any news on getting one of these to the states?

[nds-flash @ Aug 13th 2006 4:09AM]

I just think that it is better to go for the GBA + flash card that can emulate NES or get the DS and you can play nes, snes and many more emulated consoles not to mention the huge GBA and DS original game library and yes - support for MP3 and Video viewing.

[divx-mp4 @ Aug 29th 2006 2:50PM]

So does this iwod support Divx -> Avi files or do they have to be transformed into MTV or another less popular format? Transcode to MP4?