The Zeebo is a
3G-enabled entertainment and education system from
Zeebo Inc. It enabled users to play
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s, and also connect to the Internet, communicate online and run educational applications. The Zeebo was targeted at developing markets such as
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
Zeebo Inc. described the Zeebo as bringing "the fun and excitement of interactive entertainment and education to those who—until now—have had little or no access to such technology."
Zeebo was founded by Reinaldo Normand in 2008, based on a working prototype developed by Dave Durnil and business plan by Mike Yuen at Qualcomm. The company's stated intention was to create an affordable console with inexpensive games and educational content delivered via wireless
digital distribution
Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content (media), content such as Sound recording and reproductio ...
to circumvent piracy. The Zeebo doesn't use DVDs or cartridges; games and other content are downloaded wirelessly over broadband cellular networks.
In addition to games, the Zeebo system also provides Internet connectivity, enabling users to access educational and information content, communicate via e-mail and do social networking (this capability was supported in Brazil and Mexico).
Before its discontinuation, Zeebo had attracted content from companies such as
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
,
Capcom
is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
,
Digital Chocolate
Digital Chocolate, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher headquartered in San Mateo, California. It was founded in 2003 by Trip Hawkins, the founder of video game companies Electronic Arts and The 3DO Company. The company focused on deve ...
,
Disney Interactive Studios
Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform video games and interactiv ...
,
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
,
Fishlabs
Fishlabs GmbH (formerly Fishlabs Entertainment GmbH and Deep Silver Fishlabs) is a German video game developer based in Hamburg. Founded in 2004 by Michael Schade and Christian Lohr, the studio is best known for its ''Galaxy on Fire'' series. F ...
,
Flying Tiger
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
,
Gamevil
Com2uS Holdings (formerly as ''Gamevil Inc.'') ((주)게임빌) is a public company based in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and Torrance, California, Torrance, California, which Video game developer, develops and Video game publisher, publishes video g ...
,
G-Mode
is a Japanese company that specializes in games for Java-compatible mobile phones. The company also licenses content for mobile telecommunications operators, as well as being involved in the original equipment manufacturing of mobile phone games. ...
,
Glu,
id Software
id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and ar ...
, Limbic Software,
Namco
was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...
, Polarbit,
Popcap
A drink can (or beverage can) is a metal container designed to hold a fixed portion of liquid such as carbonated soft drinks, alcoholic drinks, fruit juices, teas, herbal teas, energy drinks, etc. Drink cans are made of aluminum (75% of ...
, Twelve Interactive and Vega Mobile.
History
The Zeebo was first announced in November 2008 in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
, Brazil and went on sale there in limited quantities on June 1, 2009 with a suggested retail price of 499,00
Brazilian reais.
In September of the same year, the price was cut to R$399,00, and the price was reduced again in November to R$299,00 (≈170USD). The console was distributed nationwide in Brazil in December 2009. By August 2010, there were approximately 40 games launched for Zeebo in Brazil. On September 1, 2010, Zeebo announced that it was adding new capabilities and accessories to the Zeebo in Brazil, including Internet connectivity, a keyboard and new more ergonomic gamepad. The new Brazilian system configuration was priced identical to the previous one: R$299 (≈170USD). The company announced that Brazilian owners of previous system configurations can upgrade to the new one for free.
The Zeebo was launched in Mexico in November 2009. It shipped to national retailers across the country on November 4, 2009, with a suggested price of 2,499
Mexican peso
The Mexican peso (Currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, code: MXN) is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 16th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use dollar sign, its sign, "$".
...
s (approximately $205 US). The Mexican system configuration was similar to that introduced in September 2010 and includes Internet connectivity, a keyboard and ergonomic gamepad.
The price was cut to 2249 pesos (approx. $184 US) in April 2010.
The Zeebo was available in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. Reports indicated that the Zeebo was planned to become available in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
by 2011.
A release in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
had also been planned.
Zeebo Inc. announced an agreement with
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
in March 2010. The company stated that, "The agreement gives us access to AT&T's international roaming network, allowing us to carry out rapid trials of the Zeebo platform in new geographic areas as we establish longer-term agreements with local carriers for deployment of the system. It will also give us a chance to explore opportunities in the US market in the future." However it appears that Tectoy has decided against the Zeebo and on its homepage now states that they are gearing towards a more educational market.
On May 27, 2011, Zeebo announced its end of operations in Brazil and Mexico. According to the company, all games would undergo a price reduction and Zeebonet 3G would remain active until September 30, and all warranty services would be honored. On the same day, on ZeeboNet 3G, a message was added to the details of the game ''Turma da Mônica em Vamos Brincar'' ("''Monica's Gang in Let's Play''"), stating that the game would be unavailable for purchase by the end of the day.
Zeebo's home page still stated that the company was "currently working on a next generation
Android-based platform for launch in 2012" but the product had not been released.
Wireless capabilities
The Zeebo system was developed by
Zeebo Inc. with the participation of 12 companies, mainly
Qualcomm
Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...
and
Tectoy
Tec Toy S.A., trading as Tectoy since late 2007, is a Brazilian toy and electronics company headquartered in São Paulo. It is best known for producing, publishing, and distributing Sega consoles and video games in Brazil. The company was found ...
. It was manufactured and distributed by local partners in target countries (e.g., Tectoy in Brazil). The console uses a
Qualcomm
Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...
BREW mobile gaming chipset similar to that in mobile phones. Players are able to buy and download games and other content wirelessly through
3G or
EDGE
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
.
The user was always connected to the wireless network without any subscription fee. Purchases are made through an online store using a virtual currency, Z-Credits. Zeebo's gaming delivery system reduces costs (with no discs or cartridges needed) and overcomes piracy barriers – two elements that have hindered sales of game consoles in developing markets. Z-Credits are purchased by bank transfer, credit card, bank debit or prepaid cards. Games cost from about 500 to 2500 credits.
The console's wireless connectivity also allows users to browse web sites, send and receive e-mail and take part social networking activities via the wireless network. The Zeebo can also perform "over-the-air" (OTA) updates to the console's firmware—delivering new content, features and bug fixes.
Accessories
Z-Pad
The standard Zeebo "Z-Pad" controller includes a total of 7 buttons, a D-Pad and two analog sticks. On the right side, there are four buttons (numbered 1–4); two shoulder buttons rest on the top, called ZL and ZR; at the center, there is a "Home" button, which takes the user back the start screen of the Zeebo interface, while functioning as a typical "Pause" button during games. Directly below this button are the two analog sticks, whereas the D-Pad is located at the leftmost side.
Boomerang
The Boomerang, sold by Tectoy in Brazil, is a wireless controller with a built-in
accelerometer
An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is accele ...
, using motion-sensing technology to play games with actual physical gestures. It has a D-Pad, two buttons (labeled 1–2) on the top-left side, a "Home" button, a sliding on-off switch and a wrist strap. It requires two AA batteries as a power supply.
Keyboard
The Zeebo also includes an external keyboard, used with the system's web-browsing, email and social networking functions.
Games
The Zeebo features remade versions of games from mobile phones and other consoles, such as ''
FIFA 09'', ''
Resident Evil 4
''Resident Evil 4'' is a 2005 survival horror third-person shooter game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by Capcom. It was originally released for the GameCube on January 11, 2005. Players control U.S. government special ...
'', ''
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
''Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D'' is a 2008 racing video game developed by Polarbit and published by Vivendi Games Mobile for iOS, N-Gage service, and Zeebo. The game is the fifteenth installment in the ''Crash Bandicoot'' video game series, and ...
'', ''Galaxy on Fire'' and ''Rally Master Pro''.
There are also a number of original game titles developed specifically for the Zeebo, including “
Zeebo Extreme” racing games, "
Boomerang Sports" games, Zeebo "Football Club" games and ''
Un Juego de Huevos'' (known as ''Um Jogo de Ovos'' in Brazil), an action-adventure game based on the hit Mexican animated film ''
Una película de huevos
''Una película de huevos'' (A Spanish title meaning either ''A Movie about Eggs'' or "a movie about balls" ourage is a 2006 Mexican animated adventure comedy film produced by Huevocartoon Producciones and distributed by Videocine, and is the f ...
'' from Huevocartoon.
In March 2010, Zeebo began releasing a series of classic arcade games. These games were originally created in the 1980s and 1990s by
Data East
, also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The Am ...
Corp. in Japan and have been modified to run on the Zeebo system. The titles include ''Caveman Ninja'' (originally known as
Joe & Mac
''Joe & Mac'', also known as ''Caveman Ninja'' and ''Caveman Ninja: Joe & Mac'',
. AtGames. Retrieved on April 19 ...
),
Spin Master (arcade game), ''Spinmaster'',
''Super Burger Time'' and ''
Dark Seal'' (also known as ''Gate of Doom'').
In June 2010, in advance of the World Cup, Zeebo released the first of its ''Football Club'' ("F.C") titles, ''
Zeebo F.C. Foot Camp'', developed by Zeebo Interactive Studios in Brazil. It includes four mini-games, each emphasizing a particular soccer skill, such as dribbling, juggling and goal-kicking. Along with ''Zeebo F.C. Foot Camp'', the company released ''
Zeeboids'', an application that enables users to create personal characters (
"avatars") to be used with the ''Football Club'' games. Also in June, Zeebo announced a variety of forthcoming games from independent developers such as Digital Chocolate, Fishlabs, Limbic Software, Twelve Interactive and Vega Mobile.
In Brazil, the Zeebo was sold with three free games embedded – ''
FIFA 09'', ''
Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City'' and ''
Brain Challenge
''Brain Challenge'' is a mental exercise video game, featuring "brain exercise puzzles". The game was developed by Gameloft Beijing for mobile phones and iPods and released on September 5, 2007. In 2008 was followed by a Nintendo DS version on ...
'' (known in Portuguese as "Treino Cerebral").
Three other games, all in Portuguese, are available for free download with new systems: ''
Prey Evil'', ''Zeebo Extreme Rolimã'' and ''Zeebo Extreme Jetboard''. More 30 other titles are available for purchase (via Z-Credits) and download.
On September 1, 2010, Zeebo announced a number of new games and educational applications to be launched in 2010 and 2011. They included a new ''Zeebo Football Club'' game, called ''Zeebo F.C. Super League''; a series of titles from Disney Interactive Studios, including ''Disney All Star Cards'', ''Alice in Wonderland'' and ''Jelly Car 2''; and a series of titles based on the popular ''
Monica's Gang
''Monica's Gang'' or ''Monica and Friends'' (Portuguese: ''Turma da Mônica''; British English: ''Monica & Friends'') is a Brazilian comic book series and media franchise created by Mauricio de Sousa.
The series originated in a newspaper comic ...
'' ("''Turma da Monica''") comic books in Brazil from cartoonist
Mauricio de Sousa
Mauricio Araújo de Sousa (; born October 27, 1935) is a Brazilian cartoonist and businessman who has created over 200 characters for his popular series of children's comic books named "Turma da Mônica" or "Monica's Gang (Currently known as: M ...
.
In Mexico, the console includes five free embedded game titles (''Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D'', ''Pac Mania'', ''Tekken 2'', ''Zenonia'' and ''Zeebo Family Pack''). More than a dozen games were available for wireless purchase at the time of the Mexican launch in November 2009. More than a dozen more have since been introduced, all in Spanish. Zeebo has also announced that the English language teaching company Interlingua will be developing entertainment and education applications for the console.
In addition to games and educational content, the console provides access to more than 50 web sites, grouped in subject categories, called "Z-Channels."
Technical specifications
*
ARM11
ARM11 is a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by ARM Holdings. The ARM11 core family consists of ARM1136J(F)-S, ARM1156T2(F)-S, ARM1176JZ(F)-S, and ARM11MPCore. Since ARM11 cores were released from 2002 to 2005, they are no lon ...
/
QDSP-5 in Qualcomm MSM7201 SoC running at 528
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
*
ATI Imageon
Adreno is a series of graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property cores developed by Qualcomm and used in many of their SoCs.
History
Adreno (an anagram of AMD's graphic card brand '' Radeon''), was originally developed ...
, later renamed to
Adreno
Adreno is a series of graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property cores developed by Qualcomm and used in many of their SoCs.
History
Adreno (an anagram of AMD's graphic card brand '' Radeon''), was originally developed ...
* 1
GB eNAND Flash
* 128 MB
NAND Flash
Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...
in
MCP
* 160 MB
RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
, 128 MB
DDR SDRAM
Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR SDRAM) is a double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) class of memory integrated circuits used in computers. DDR SDRAM, also retroactively called DDR1 ...
in
MCP + 32 MB stacked DDR SDRAM in MSM7201A
*Resolution:
VGA
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...
(640×480) – 4:3 aspect ratio
*
3G (scaling back to
2.5G or
2G where necessary)
* 3
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...
ports 2.0 Standard A (for accessories)
*
SD Card
Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices.
The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...
Slot / Interface
*Interface:
USB HID
In computing, the USB human interface device class (USB HID class) is a part of the USB specification for computer peripherals: it specifies a device class (a type of computer hardware) for human interface devices such as keyboard (computing), key ...
*Power: AC adapter 5V 3A
*Consumption: 15 Watt max. 1 watt standard.
*Graphics: 4 million triangles / second
*Audio: 8 channels simultaneous
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
,
ADPCM
Adaptive differential pulse-code modulation (ADPCM) is a variant of differential pulse-code modulation (DPCM) that varies the size of the quantization step, to allow further reduction of the required data bandwidth for a given signal-to-noise ratio ...
,
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
*Size: W × D × H – 157 × 215.4 × 44 mm
*Weight: Less than
*Operating System: Qualcomm BREW
Development
Content for the Zeebo is based on the
BREW platform and is created using the Zeebo
SDK, downloadable from the Zeebo Inc. website. Gamepad peripherals are made possible by a BREW extension. The Zeebo system supports OpenGL ES 1.0/1.1. Applications are downloaded wirelessly over-the-air and commonly range in size from 5–25MB,
though games content can be as large as 50MB on device.
References
External links
Corporate Website (Archive)
{{Home video game consoles
ARM-based video game consoles
Home video game consoles
Seventh-generation video game consoles
Products introduced in 2009
2000s toys
2010s toys