An independent gaming handbookFor gamers on the go — since 2001
An independent gaming handbookFor gamers on the go — since 2001
What's New...
Releases & Updates:
Spb Pong,
Clara's Puppy,
Tetris,
Strip 4 You, Fpse for iPAQ
Articles & Reviews:
Resco WordGame,
Ultima
Underworld,
Ultima
Underworld,
Ultima Underworld
Giveaway Prize:
Applewood Slots ::
Previous winners (Strategic Assault +
Mission Pack): MooseMaster, rbayron, sevenoften7, dvdweb, Solari
Apologies for the recent delay in posting news items and replying to
emails. This is due to connection problems with my ISP, which I hope will be
resolved shortly.
In range
Many thanks to Michael Merx, Mr. Wizzz, JCDenton and of course Jimmy himself for writing in with the news that the official X-Ranger site is now up, giving you access to the game's storyline, character stats, screenshots, requirements and downloads.
According to the requirements page, the game will be compatible with the iPAQ H36xx/H37xx/H38xx, Jornada 56x, E-200 and the @migo. There's no word on pricing yet, and at the moment, the only download is a Pocket PC theme/desktop PC wallpaper, although a demo is "coming soon"...
What a Pong!
As spotted on PocketGear, Spb Software House has released Spb Pong. According to the blurb, despite "keeping the original 70's Pong look and feel, Spb Pong is much more advanced. Spb Pong takes advantage of powerful CPUs of modern pocket PCs, featuring a smart artificial intelligence opponent who is very interesting to play against."
• Original Pong look and feel
• Smart AI opponent
• Adjustable opponent 'smartness'
• Variable game speed
Compatible with all major Pocket PC's, the game is available to buy from PocketGear for $4.95.
Totall Recall
Stellarmetrics has released Clara's Puppy, a game in which you have to "match the pairs of puppy picture cards to get points!"
Available for ARM-powered Pocket PC's, the game is priced at $1.50, although there wasn't a demo at the time of writing.
Blocking tactics
As spotted on Handango, Don Laverdure has released Tetris, a title that you'll doubtless be absolutely amazed to hear is none other than a Tetris clone.
The product description notes that "this version includes 3 skill levels, Beam high scores to another Pocket PC for your freinds to try and beat, High colour and programmable keys. Complete with origional source code, this modified version is sold for only $5.00, the cost of distribution and support. For the free source code only, email [email protected]." Available for all major Pocket PC's, there was no demo to try out at the time of writing, unfortunately.
Aim reveals all
Aim Productions has released Strip 4 You. As this is an adult title, the full news item can be found by following the comments link.
iGolf 2: Cecraft putting back the release date
Sarah Yoon Cecraft wrote in to announce that, following "a few unexpected problems with other languages and bugs ... iGolf2 will be released on June 11th. And we are taking advance orders for 20% discount till June 10th. We are trying to have a better golf game with customers' feedback."
Sarah apologised for the delay in the game's release and mentioned that if anyone did have any questions, she would be happy to answer them.
Desktop Delivery
Monkeystone Games got in touch to say that the company's action/puzzle adventure title, Hyperspace Delivery Boy!, is now also available for the desktop PC. The price remains the same at $19.99.
Playstation Emulator Released
We all had our suspicions. I personally thought it was nothing more that just another hoax... it seems I was wrong. Thanks to Boris Hinzer for letting me know that a preliminary version of FPSE, the Playstation Emulator, has been made available for those with iPAQ 38XX series devices.
According to the instructions on the page, you'll need a Playstation BIOS file (don't ask us!) and a Playstaion ISO, which is an image of the game itself. The emulator also supports memory cards as well, and can be downloaded here, although I strongly advise you read the instructions first.
Schtruck states that in the next release there will hopefully by other PPC ARM support, and a key configuration menu. He also says that he is "waiting for a recompiler from LDChen to make the emulator from 4 to 10 times faster...."
I don't have an iPAQ 38XX, so if people want to post their experiences with this emulator in the comments thread, please feel free to do so.
Developers: Add your games to the new PocketGamer games database!
The current Games Listings section is looking rather long in the tooth now and is to be replaced in a few weeks with a brand new games database that will offer a wide variety of benefits. For starters, the new database will offer far more information on titles, such as which devices games work on, their multiplayer capabilities and language support, and even sample screenshots. Not only that, however, but the browsing and searching options will be far more sophisticated - for a preview of just how much detail you can go into, check out the Advanced Search Options page.
If you're a games developer, this is your chance to add your game to the list and ensure that as much information as possible is listed for your titles. All that's necessary is for you to fill in a Game Entry Form and, following its approval (which shouldn't take long at all), it will be entered into the database. Needless to say, if you do have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them either in the discussion thread for this news item or to send them via email.
My huge thanks, incidentally, to PocketGamer's official Don of Databases, David Horn, who was the inspiration and chief architect of the new database. Any problems are most likely caused by my tinkering... :-)
Hehe... thanks, Mike! Thanks on my part to the long suffering Chris Edwards, who was nice enough to fix my code for me when things went (regularly) wrong.
On another note, if you would like your game to appear as a Featured Game, now's your chance! The featured game option allows you to have your game listed at the top of it's category, with a bold headline and a general "better-than-all-the-rest" attitude all round. Have a look here to see what a featured game looks like, and for more information on it. At the moment, there are spaces left in the following categories: Adult, Adventure, Board, Cards and Casino, Collections and Compilations, Emulators, Miscellaneous, Pinball, Platform, Puzzle, Simulation, Sports, Tetris, Trivia and Word.
If you would like to see your game listed in this manner, please contact us for pricing and more information. Please would the people who already have a featured games listing with us submit their games in the normal way, and then email us with the game information so we can make the necessary changes. [-David]
PocketFrog update
As spotted in this PocketMatrix post, version 0.5.1 of the game development library, PocketFrog is out. New features, fixes and updates are as follows:
• Added missing method CreateRasterizer() in class DisplayDevice.
• STL not needed anymore to use the library, only to compile it.
• Removed need for GX.LIB (GX.DLL is now linked dynamically).
• Optimized Blit()/Clear() primitives for normal rasterizer.
• Faster GAPI emulation on the desktop PC.
• Emulation now runs zoomed (x2)
• Emulation now works on Windows 9x OS
Putting it together
BallShooter has released Bolts & Nuts, described as a "clone of popular games, such as Diamond Mine and BeJewelled."
The game supports "normal" and "time trial" playing modes and, just in case you've been on a trip to Mars recently, "the aim of the game is to get as many points as you can by swapping two adjacent items. In order to get points you should create horizontal or vertical sets of 3 identical items."
Bolts & Nuts is compatible with all Pocket PC's, Palm-sized PC's, Handheld PC's and the BE-300, and is available to buy from PocketGear for $14.95.
PDA gaming on the way out?
As spotted by Sam Nova who posted a link to it in the Handheld Pro Mailing List, GameSpy has posted an article billed as "a look at why PDA gaming may soon be a thing of the past". The article's author, James Hills, admits that "the smart gamer who already has a Pocket PC device (such as an iPAQ) will have a great year ahead of them with developers like Sega Mobile developing for PDA devices and bunches of new titles such as Spawn and Age of Empires from ZIOSoft." He goes on to conclude, however, that "the writing is on the wall for PDA gamers though. The PDA will eventually fade away as it is assaulted from all sides. As a result, smart gamers should save their pennies, get a paper route, or mow some lawns so that they will have a couple hundred dollars later this summer to buy a killer new phone..."
What do you think? Will "killer phones" kill off the PDA games industry? Possibly even PDA's themselves? Will phone-enabled PDA's kill off phones? Or will convergence blur the line between PDA's and phones so much that it won't matter either way...?
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