Mr. Pac-Man: More to come!

[ Wednesday, May 16 ]

Larry Bank, the man behind the arcade-perfect Pocket PC Pac-Man port that featured in the free Fun Pack given away by Microsoft in the US (now no longer available) and general all-round Emulation Expert, has stated in this Brighthand thread that he has "done 2 new emulators for Microsoft (finished, waiting for release)". Could they form part of an upcoming follow-up to the Entertainment PocketPak?

That's not all, however. Larry is also "working on a boatload of new game emulators for a certain Japanese game company which shall remain nameless". Not content with that, it appears that he will also be helping Domenico Dato improve the performance of his recently-released Genesis emulator, PocketGenesis.

Racing Days MIPS demo released

[ Tuesday, May 15 ]

The MIPS version of Kitt Peak's demo of their visually outstanding arcade racer, Racing Days, is now available to download. Thanks to Emmanuel Fotakis for letting me know.

PDA gaming site flying high

[ Tuesday, May 15 ]

Whilst reading this Brighthand thread discussing good Pocket PC software download sites, I came across a link to a PDA gaming site I hadn't known about before. AirGamer.com seems to be similar to pdagamer.net in certain respects in that it covers Palm devices as well as Pocket PC's. If you own an older Windows CE device, however, be sure to take a look at their Windows CE downloads section which is impressively extensive.

Pocket Genesis: A new emulator is born!

[ Monday, May 14 ]

Domenico Dato's latest emulation masterpiece is now out of the door. A beta version of PocketGenesis which, as its name none too subtly suggests, emulates the Sega Genesis, is available to download. The only caveat is that the current release is for the iPAQ only.

Many thanks to Quan, Jürgen Oswald, Mogg and Domenico himself for letting me know!

G-Pod launched!

[ Monday, May 14 ]

AIM Productions have let me know that they have released G-Pod, "an action-arcade game about gravity, where you have to fly through tunnels, keeping your ship balanced, and avoiding or blasting enemies. It has more than 50 levels. The goal is to find and pick up the magic G-Pod - hidden somewhere in the tunnels. Then you have to find the exit again, maybe using a different escape route. This time the G-Pod is linked to your ship, making things just a bit harder for you."

Currently, the game is only available for ARM and MIPS devices, although an SH3 version is "coming real soon", according to the mail that AIM sent me. A demo is available to download, and the full version is available to buy from PocketGear, priced at $19.95.

Free Flash Triva!

[ Monday, May 14 ]

Tari Akpodiete, webmaster at PocketRocketFX.com, wrote in to announce that he "is making some Macromedia Flash Pocket PC Trivia games. These games will be free, and each will feature hundreds of questions in a combination True/False and Multiple Choice formats. Once PocketRocketFX.com's first game, Babylon 5, is out the gate, we're going to open up the field for others to freely use the game engine we've developed."

The games will be on Babylon 5, Dune, Star Trek: Voyager and Xena: Warrior Princess.

RPG: Ideas needed, beta testers should re-apply

[ Monday, May 14 ]

Cameron, the man behind the upcoming RPG-with-no-name, wrote in to say that he and his team "would like to hear what people want in this new game. We would also like to hear peoples ideas about thing like plots for the game, monsters, characters, etc". Also, owing to a technical fault, any people who used the Submit Info form are requested to re-submit their details including the letters "RE" next to their name (e.g. "RE Mike").

Gem Hunter finds new lease of life

[ Monday, May 14 ]

AhnDaGo Software wrote in to notify me that they have released version 2.0 of their colourful puzzler, Gem Hunter:

"We have had several good suggestions from customers and reviews and have incorporated those into our new version.

These include:

• Game board graphics have been improved to make finding the gems easier.

• Teach mode option reveals gems and allows you to see how the beams react to them.

• Timer mode allows you to play against the clock.

• The best times are saved for each game in the statistics screen.

• Gem randomizer mode varies the number of hidden gems from game to game.

• On board help has been improved.

We have worked hard to make the game easier to play as well as add more variety."

Gem Hunter received a score of 8/10 when it was originally reviewed by Jason Surguine, and is available to buy from PocketGear at an unchanged price of $8.99.

PocketGB 1.25 Final released

[ Sunday, May 13 ]

The retail (a.k.a. "final") version 1.25 of PocketGB is now available. This latest release includes all the updates offered in all the previous 1.25 beta versions, including various sound and video improvements and a NES plug-in. For full details, see the News page.

Henry's latest: Aero gaming, Emulator overview

[ Sunday, May 13 ]

Prolific writer and Pocket PC gaming guru, Henry Kong, has very kindly sent me not one article but two for use on the site! The first is Gaming on the Aero, in which Henry reveals all the best games to get hold of should you own one of Compaq's rather nifty (and much underrated) Aero Pocket PC's.

The second is entitled Everything you ever wanted to know about Emulators but were afraid to ask! In this particular article, Henry introduces just about every emulator there is. If you're new to the Pocket PC emulation scene or, horror of horrors, new to the Pocket PC gaming scene generally, this is a must-read. Screenshots and links abound so that you can easily decide if you like the look of an emulator or not.

On the Mark

[ Saturday, May 12 ]

German site, Pocket PC-Spiele.de, have put together a short preview article on Flux's much-delayed The Mark, which includes plenty of screenshots to admire. The Pocket PC-Spiele.de team were kind enough to send me an English translation of their preview:

"The graphics of Flux's new action game, The Mark, are outstanding. You have to move a person through a 3D city. A demo of the game will be available on May 15th. The full version is going to be released at the end of this month."

SimCity 2000, Need For Speed, Ultima Underworld details!

[ Friday, May 11 ]

ZIO Interactive have released a small amount of information on their three upcoming titles, SimCity 2000, Need For Speed and Ultima Underworld. Ultima Underworld will be released in August, followed by SimCity 2000 in October and, last but not least, Need For Speed in November. There's no screenshots as yet, and no real solid information either apart from a short blurb for each title, but hopefully these will follow in the future!

Many thanks to Pocket PC Thoughts' newest newshound, Marlof Bregonje, for pointing out the links. You can discuss this news on this Pocket PC Thoughts page.

Get lost!

[ Friday, May 11 ]

Stephen Heald has released his second Pocket PC game (after NeoTiles) in the shape of Maze. As the name of the game suggests, Maze "is a simple, small (120k) maze generator for the Pocket PC. Generates mazes that are 10x10 to 25x25 cells in size. Timer options include stopwatch and countdown. Game also comes with digital sound effects."

Maze is freeware and, as there's no product homepage, the link is to the relevant PocketGear product page.

3D RPG project seeks graphics programmer

[ Friday, May 11 ]

Cameron wrote in with a slight alteration to his previous request for an RPG programmer. Following feedback, the plan is now to create a 3D RPG. He says:

"I am in need of a programmer that feels up to the challenge of making a 3D RPG game. They need to be experienced enough to take on this large task. They are dealing with a game that will have some of the best graphics and sound (not kidding, my graphics man has worked on PS2, and PC games, about 12 of them, and I have Jason [Surguine] doing my sound, so it will be a great game)."

Anyone interested in helping out should e-mail Cameron. Also, check out the website for more information.

RocketElite author interview

[ Thursday, May 10 ]

RocketElite author, Douglas Beck, has done an interesting interview over at Ludipocket UK. There are, of course, plenty of references to his much anticipated game, so RocketElite fans shouldn't miss this one! He also confirms that once the iPAQ version is finished, he will "begin immediate development on a general version that will run on other PPC devices."

As for the game itself, Douglas told me that "testing is going very nicely. I'm expecting it to be available in a few weeks". In the meantime, you can content yourself with some rather tasty screenshots from the game that demonstrate one of the game's levels, and are intended to "help spark some ideas for new levels ;o)".

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