Gaming & emulator news (04/20/2008)

[Menneisyys]

1. One of the best Pocket PC games of all time, Orions: Legend of Wizards (along with its expansion pack Orions: The Second Age) is sold with a 40% rebate HERE. Definitely worth purchasing it if you already haven’t done so. See my two Orions Strategy Guides for more info (Pocket PC only).

2. Astraware has released Platypus, a side scroller shooter, for both Pocket PC’s and MS Smartphones (and Palm OS devices).

You might want to check it out. While I don’t consider it a better title than SkyForce Reloaded (the, currently, best top-down scroller on all mobile platforms) or even Fire Hawk by c2matrix (another cool scroller), you might like it more than me. At least the scener music is worth noticing.

Note that, on touchscreen-enabled Pocket PC’s, your ship can only be controlled with the stylus, not the D-pad. Fortunately, it has no performance problems on HTC’s current, 2.8” devices (ALL of them except the very few, CDMA-only Xscale-based ones) exhibiting the infamous touchscreen CPU usage bug; not even on my non-overclocked HTC Wizard (running the AMP WM6.1 ROM based on OS 5.2.19199). It doesn’t have performance problems on VGA devices either (tested on the x51v with makuu’s WM 6.1 A06 privß06p).

As it’s a landscape-only game, you might want to think twice before even installing it if you have a device with screen polarization issues (like the Dell Axim x50v/x51v) and your eyes happen to be sensitive to them.

Note that the Smartphone version is told to be compatible with 176*220 devices. This doesn’t seem to be the case – it simply stated my 176*220 s310 / Oxygen to be incompatible (I’ve tried both the CAB and the EXE installer). It, of course, ran flawlessly on my QVGA (240*320) s710 / Vox.

3. There is another RPG-style game, Through Enemy Eyes by ArabellaGames, a Russian / Swedish newcomer to the Windows Mobile gaming scene. I didn’t find it particularly entertaining or even interesting; however, you might find it cool. (Of maze-type games, I’d prefer AIM Productions’ Tmax or Astraware's Mazera instead – see Gaming Bible - Part I - instead.)

4. SmartGear, the all-in-one Pocket PC & Smartphone gaming console emulator, has been further improved. In addition, the developer, Larry Bank has announced he’d add support for Pocket PC 2000 and 2002.

[Menneisyys]

1. One of the best Pocket PC games of all time, Orions: Legend of Wizards (along with its expansion pack Orions: The Second Age) is sold with a 40% rebate HERE. Definitely worth purchasing it if you already haven’t done so. See my two Orions Strategy Guides for more info (Pocket PC only).

2. Astraware has released Platypus, a side scroller shooter, for both Pocket PC’s and MS Smartphones (and Palm OS devices).

You might want to check it out. While I don’t consider it a better title than SkyForce Reloaded (the, currently, best top-down scroller on all mobile platforms) or even Fire Hawk by c2matrix (another cool scroller), you might like it more than me. At least the scener music is worth noticing.

Note that, on touchscreen-enabled Pocket PC’s, your ship can only be controlled with the stylus, not the D-pad. Fortunately, it has no performance problems on HTC’s current, 2.8” devices (ALL of them except the very few, CDMA-only Xscale-based ones) exhibiting the infamous touchscreen CPU usage bug; not even on my non-overclocked HTC Wizard (running the AMP WM6.1 ROM based on OS 5.2.19199). It doesn’t have performance problems on VGA devices either (tested on the x51v with makuu’s WM 6.1 A06 privß06p).

As it’s a landscape-only game, you might want to think twice before even installing it if you have a device with screen polarization issues (like the Dell Axim x50v/x51v) and your eyes happen to be sensitive to them.

Note that the Smartphone version is told to be compatible with 176*220 devices. This doesn’t seem to be the case – it simply stated my 176*220 s310 / Oxygen to be incompatible (I’ve tried both the CAB and the EXE installer). It, of course, ran flawlessly on my QVGA (240*320) s710 / Vox.

3. There is another RPG-style game, Through Enemy Eyes by ArabellaGames, a Russian / Swedish newcomer to the Windows Mobile gaming scene. I didn’t find it particularly entertaining or even interesting; however, you might find it cool. (Of maze-type games, I’d prefer AIM Productions’ Tmax or Astraware's Mazera instead – see Gaming Bible - Part I - instead.)

4. SmartGear, the all-in-one Pocket PC & Smartphone gaming console emulator, has been further improved. In addition, the developer, Larry Bank has announced he’d add support for Pocket PC 2000 and 2002.