http://www.vtechkids.com/images/btn_all_VFlash_over.jpg
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Good ole james found this curious new product, the Vflash. There's a bit more info here, and a product demo here. Unlike other edutainment efforts, this one actually has a 3D processor. I wonder what kind?
It has a (8 meg) memory card slot, and uses discs for media. You can apparently 'make animation' with it, and save those to the card, as well as three game saves. Two controller ports...the controller looks a bit low rent, but the whole thing costs $99, so what can you ask for really? I do like how self-explanatory the buttons are - 'enter,' 'exit,' 'menu,' etc. Four face buttons, two shoulder buttons. If you check here, you can find the full product suite, including games. Spider-Man, Scooby Doo, Cars, etc. And the graphics don't look too shabby, considering. You get the best sense of that by watching the videos on the main page. This is building off their Vsmile handheld product too (which uses custom carts)... I just can't get enough of weird game technology. Thank goodness people keep making it!
Vtech itself is based in hong kong, and sells this stuff in the chinese market as well. I don't know - somehow I wonder if they didn't get ahold of a bunch of old Dreamcast chips... (actually it's apparently an ARM9 processor...like the GP2X, though there are different speeds of course)