On 12 Mar 98, concerning _Sony Develops Mini-PDA For Playstation_, Steve 
Igrejas said to Troy H. Cheek in VID_GAME:
 SI>   I'm not going to quote.  You said something about a mini-PDA.  Is that
 SI> some sort of add-on to the PSX?  Where will it go?  What's it for?  I 
as
 SI> very confused.
I've heard very little about it, most of it rumors, but here goes:
The Personal Data Assistant was originally designed as an extra 
display/keypad for the Playstation.  The PDA could act as a kind of fancy 
weapon select device, or an independent scanner, intelligent controller, or 
whatever else the programmer wanted it to be.  One scenario was to allow the 
PDA to "learn" your playing style in a particular game.  Then you'd loan the 
PDA out to a friend who could then play against what was basically an AI 
version of you.  However, these early rumors were apparently either wrong or 
the design underwent some major changes along the way.
As described more recently, the PDA acts as an independent gaming unit, 
something roughly akin to a low-rez GameBoy.  Instead of buying carts for it, 
you buy Playstation CDs which can transfer PDA games into a standard(?) 
Playstation memory card.  You plug the memory card into the PDA and play the 
games.  When you want new games, you transfer new ones from the CDs.
Looks to me like Sony is trying to sneak into the handheld gaming market by 
the back door, so to speak. 
... "To heck with mine, I bow before YOUR spiffiness..." -Tom
--- JetMail 0.99beta22
---------------