Age of Empires Coming Soon to the Pocket PC

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ziosoft.com/product.html?n=28' target='_blank'>http://www.ziosoft.com/product.html?n=28</a><br /><br /></div>Age of Empires 2 is one of my all-time favourites games on the PC, so I'm quite pumped about ZIOSoft releasing this game. Hopefully I'll get to play this one - I was excited about Ultima Underworld coming out as well, then I never got around to reviewing it or even trying it out.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.ziosoft.com/upload/screen/im18_b.gif" /><br /><br />"Age of Empires is an epic real-time strategy game spanning 10,000 years, in which players are the guiding spirit in the evolution of small stone age tribes. Starting with minimal resources, players are challenged to build their tribes into great civilizations. Gamers can choose from one of several ways to win the game, including: world domination by conquering enemy civilizations, exploration of the known world and economic victory through the accumulation of wealth."

[Foo Fighter]

Now your talkin! I'd also like to see LucasArts port its Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango over to PPC. PDAs would make a great platform for adventure gaming. Probably more fun than the desktop version. :)

[vincentsiaw]

welll obviously this game will make my day, but still waiting for everquest to come....

[ThomasC22]

Good thing the current crop of PocketPCs are coming with replacable batteries!

[cpoole]

Now your talkin! I'd also like to see LucasArts port its Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango over to PPC. PDAs would make a great platform for adventure gaming. Probably more fun than the desktop version. :)

I agree... I also think that some of the old DOS platform games would make great candidates for porting. Jill of the Jungle and Hocus Pocus would be a lot of fun.

[Kati Compton]

Now your talkin! I'd also like to see LucasArts port its Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango over to PPC. PDAs would make a great platform for adventure gaming. Probably more fun than the desktop version. :)

I believe there's a SCUMM emulator for the Pocket PC, which may or may not work depending on which Monkey Island game you want to run. Doesn't help with Grim Fandango, of course, which I have but haven't played yet. :(

[David McNamee]

Doesn't help with Grim Fandango, of course, which I have but haven't played yet. :(

You're missing out - Grim Fandango is terrific. If you enjoy the Monkey Island series, Day of the Tentacle, or Sam & Max Hit the Road, you really need to play Grim Fandango. Just my opinion, of course :)

[Jeff Rutledge]

Can someone give me a quick description of what this game is? I've heard a lot about it, but never actually seen it. I'm not a big gamer, but do play on occasion.

Thanks.

[Bob Anderson]

You know... my initial wave of excitement over AOE for PocketPC was "cut-off" by a little dose of sadness!!! :cry:

No, not fear that I'll wear my batteries out, no, not fear that I'll ruin my screen as I poke around starting wars, gathering resources or the like... My sadness is that all of the work that is going into making a game that had it's heyday 3-4 years ago in the PC arena run well on my new state of the art iPaq 5450, is kinda bad. Why?

1) Who wants to pay $29.95 for, really, "yesterday's technology?" (OK, OK, so I kinda can overlook this myself... at least I admit it... :lol: )

2) How many developers are scratching their heads trying to port everything over to PPC 2002 and not lose functionality or game play that could use that time to develop new and exciting games made just for the Pocket PC... :?

and last but not least,

3) Getting all these cool games to run on PPC2002 when you know we're just on the cusp of a new O/S for the Pocket PC... so we'll spend $29.95 to get the game running, only to have it be incompatible with the new OS (sheer speculation here) that will come out sometime next year. :roll:

OK... now that I've said that... when can I buy AOE for PocketPC???

[Jason Dunn]

Yeah, I know what you mean Bob - it can get tiring to see old games being ported instead of cool new ones being created. That's why I'm a huge fan of Argentum and Snails - two excellent, top-tier games designed just for us Pocket PC users. Which reminds me, I really should do a post on those...

[sponge]

Jason: Have you played my 9 map unofficial add-on pack yet on Ionside's website? :P

[Duncan]

Argentum is nice - but Age of Empires is still an excellent game even now - I keep playing it even though I have AoE II. I just hope that some of the AoE bugs aren't ported to the PPC along with the game. A good AoE port is (IMHO) likely to be a much better play than Argentum - sorry!

Mind you - Age of Mythology (which I guess is AoE III in all but name) is absolutely stunning in gameplay and visuals (can't get through the day without smiting a few people!!) - pity THAT can't be ported to the PPC!

[helloboys]

I'd love to see a Civilisation port to the Pocket PC. Not Civ2 or Civ3, as I think they would be too complex and unwieldy to play easily on the PPC.

[mookie123]

Can someone give me a quick description of what this game is? I've heard a lot about it, but never actually seen it.

It's one of the first truely sucessfull Real Time Strategy Games along with WarcraftII. It's rich in graphic and can handle 20-40 units on the screen at the same time. The game has good balance and strategical depth.

Basically, you collect resources, research technology, build buildings and villagers, than in turn from these buildings will churn out military units. anywhere from puny Axeman in the stone age to a highpower Cathaprac in advance greek age. There are some cute units like Persians Elephants etc.

Going against another player online duking out latest most wicked strategy is what this game all about. Most game last about 1hrs. The computer AI is just smart enough not to be pathetic against new player, but beyond that it's pretty boring.

AoE successor is WarCraftIII and Age of Mythology. They are pretty much the same except more elaborate and with different unit types hence might give different game feel. But 2Dimensional RTS has been succeeded with 3dimensional RTS game like Homeworld.

[mookie123]

I'd love to see a Civilisation port to the Pocket PC. Not Civ2 or Civ3, as I think they would be too complex and unwieldy to play easily on the PPC.

There is a Freeciv port for PPC.

http://www.pocketgamer.org/archives/00000957.shtml

[helloboys]

I'd love to see a Civilisation port to the Pocket PC. Not Civ2 or Civ3, as I think they would be too complex and unwieldy to play easily on the PPC.

There is a Freeciv port for PPC.

http://www.pocketgamer.org/archives/00000957.shtml

Thanks for the link, it looks pretty interesting.

[Jeff Rutledge]

Can someone give me a quick description of what this game is? I've heard a lot about it, but never actually seen it.

It's one of the first truely sucessfull Real Time Strategy Games along with WarcraftII. It's rich in graphic and can handle 20-40 units on the screen at the same time. The game has good balance and strategical depth.

Basically, you collect resources, research technology, build buildings and villagers, than in turn from these buildings will churn out military units. anywhere from puny Axeman in the stone age to a highpower Cathaprac in advance greek age. There are some cute units like Persians Elephants etc.

Going against another player online duking out latest most wicked strategy is what this game all about. Most game last about 1hrs. The computer AI is just smart enough not to be pathetic against new player, but beyond that it's pretty boring.

AoE successor is WarCraftIII and Age of Mythology. They are pretty much the same except more elaborate and with different unit types hence might give different game feel. But 2Dimensional RTS has been succeeded with 3dimensional RTS game like Homeworld.

Interesting. Thanks for the scoop. I think I'll see if somebody at work has a copy for the desktop I can try out first to see if I like it. Sounds like a pretty cool concept though.

Thanks again.

[sponge]

So far every FreeCiv port to PPC has been a hoax, fake, or just never finished.

[rjbarley]

Personally I'd love to see AOE ported to the PPC. It's just one of those ageless (scuse the pun) games that you can keep going back to when you have a spare half an hour...especially at work in your lunch break!..although my spare half hours tend to expand into whole afternoons once i get playing it! :D