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View Full Version : Gaming news as of 03/13/2007


Menneisyys
03-12-2007, 01:57 PM
There is a lot of Windows Mobile gaming news to report on:

After Ben Stanley’s excellent review (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=27&p=1706&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), Just Another Mobile Monday has also published a review of probably the best and, what is more, TCP/IP multiplayer-enabled, turn-based strategy game even released for the Pocket PC, Orions: Legend of Wizards. It's available here (http://justanothermobilemonday.com/Wordpress/2007/03/11/review-orions-legend-of-wizards/) and is highly recommended. Note that I'll also publish a Strategy Guide to the game (I'm also an author of several Starcraft Strategy Guides so the genre, the ideas of micromanagement etc. are pretty well-known to me) later, as soon as I have some free time (not in the next two weeks, I'm afraid). (News source: PPCT (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=432407)).

BTW, note that a new, 1.01 version of the game was released some days ago; it, among other things, fixed the multiplayer functionality, which was entirely useless in the initial version. Now, multiplayer is working just great and, as it's IP address entering-based, really flexible and even allows for playing people in another continent (that is, it's not local-only). (News source: I worked very closely with the excellent Moregames Entertainment folks to quickly iron out the bug.)

Pocket Fallout, the highly recommended, free (!) Fallout clone (review here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&title=fallout_clone_back_to_ussr_002beta_out_n&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)) has just received a dedicated website (http://www.pocketfallout.net/). (New source: private e-mail from the developer.)

Byte@Hand is working on a real (!) Pirates! clone Caribbean Adventures 1600AD (http://www.bytehand.com/products/ca1600ad/). Unlike the other two piracy-related games on the Pocket PC, High Seas and Tradewinds (please read the full story here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1521&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)), this is promised to bear much more similarities with the classic Pirates! (News source: have run into the announcement while checking out the following title.)

The same developer, Byte@Hand, has just released a space shooter Space Prospector (http://www.bytehand.com/products/spaceprospector/). I haven't tested it as yet; based on the screenshots, it doesn't seem to be as good as SkyForce Reloaded, the best vertical scroller game available for the Pocket PC. I may be mistaken, though. (News source: PocketGamer.org (http://www.pocketgamer.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6603))


The excellent Doom port (which, as can also be seen based on its name, supports the 3D hardware built into Intel 2700G and GoForce-based Windows Mobile devices) DoomGLES (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&s=DoomGLES&sentence=AND) has been updated to version 0.5. There are two main things of interest in here (among other things):
- music support (at last! Previous versions only offered sound effects)
- can be played in Portrait mode, which is certainly very good news for Dell Axim x50v/x51v users sensitive to the polarization problems (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=578&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) of the cheapo Dell screen in Landscape mode.

All in all, checking out the new version is a MUST for all 3D hardware accelerated Windows Mobile device users. (News source: forum announcement over PocketGamer.)

Interactive E Books Ltd has released Jurassic Adventure (http://www.inebooks.com/NewDetailJurassic.htm). It's an interactive e-book where you play the role of a research physicist sent back in time one hundred and fifty million years into the past. Don't, however, expect anything like a "real" adventure game. In my opinion, Interactive E Books's games are far inferior to that of, say, Legend Entertainment on the PC or, on the Pocket PC / Palm, Fade Team (Fade on the PPC / Acedior on the Palm - do they ring a bell?). However, it's pretty cheap and, if you're into the genre, you may want to give it a try. (News source: PocketGamer (http://www.pocketgamer.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6591))

The free, highly recommended Transport Tycoon Deluxe has also been updated; the new features are as follows:

- Now works on VGA devices
- Loads the PC version of OpenTTD's save game files!
- Right-click emulation via hard buttons.
- Fast landscape graphics via custom raw frame buffer drawing routines.
- Full threaded sound effects and music.
- Palm TTD provides full 480x320 Tapwave API accelerated graphics

(News source & related discussion: PocketGamer (http://www.pocketgamer.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6596))

Tetraedge (http://www.tetraedge.com/) has released the long-anticipated multimedia (which is bad news for fans of the "traditional" textual or Lucasfilm/Sierra-like genre) adventure game Syberia 2 in both English and German (French, Spanish and Italian versions will follow later). Note that I can only provide you a ClickGamer link (http://www.clickgamer.com/moreinfo.htm?pid=8296) (and this one (http://www.mobile2day.de/platform_wince/produkt.html?id=139576) for the German version) because the official homepage of the developer still doesn't have any information on the new game. Note that, while originally there wasn't, now, a trial version is also available. (News source & related discussion: PocketGamer (http://www.pocketgamer.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6598))

PocketGear offers a 20% rebate for all their products in March with the coupon code MARCH20 (News source: PocketGamer (http://www.pocketgamer.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6613))

Menneisyys
03-12-2007, 09:17 PM
UPDATE (later the same day): as is announced at AximSite (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showpost.php?p=1319011&postcount=10), DoomGLES V0.54 has just been released. Make sure you upgrade!