What games to buy!?!?!?!

[mirkazemisaman]

Hi everyone,

My Axim will be here in a few days and I have about $50 to spend on software (programs and games) immediately after I recieve the unit, although right now games are more important to me. As a first time PPC user I wanted to find out what are the "must haves" of PPC gaming? I would very much prefer to buy multiple games rather than say blowing off $40 on a single game. But again if it's something extraordinary and it's $40, then it's OK.

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but when I read posts from the past, people just talked about different games etc. I only have $50 to spend on games and can't buy a lot. Please give me some suggestions on what to buy?

BTW I don't really like RPGs, but I love strategy games like Age of Empires, and speaking of AOE is it worth buying the PPC version when you only have (... again) $50 to spend on games (since AOE is $30). ?

[Brad Adrian]

You'll find all my favorites on the Handango! site. Just search for:

Yachtzee [sic]
Slurp
Lemonade
Wordgame

[Brad Adrian]

And if you DO come into some money, definitely look into getting Monopoly.

[mirkazemisaman]

And if you DO come into some money, definitely look into getting Monopoly.

Yes I AM planing on spending at least $50 on games right away, maybe more later... but about that Monopoly, which Monopoly should I get or is there just one monopoly game for PPC?

[Brad Adrian]

There's only one Monopoly game, and it was recently released by Handmark. You can read about it here:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4380

The only problem is that it's pretty expensive for a Pocket PC game ($29.99 last I checked). If you really like Monopoly, it's worth it, because its play is VERY good. Still, if you're trying to spread out the money, you might need to wait a while before getting this one.

[mirkazemisaman]

Alright, thanx Brad. I narrowed my list down to 4 (I will buy 2):

Monopoly
Age of Empires
Tennis Addict
Snails (don't really like the graphics on this one, but it got a lot of awards etc)

Any thoughts on which ones to get? I am thinking Monopoly + Age of Empires? What do YOU think?

[Oreocat]

When I got my ppc, I spend a decent amount on games I thought I'd like, due to recommendations and/or reviews, then found out I didn't like them.

So, just a thought, but since all of the games you have listed have a trail version available at Handango, before wasting $30 on a game you might not like, I'd suggest you try it out first.

As for me, I like Slurp, Shanghai, King Sol, Brickslider, and am thinking of getting Lexicon and Spellbound after their trial periods are over.

Good luck,

Oreocat

[TheBacklash]

There's only one Monopoly game, and it was recently released by Handmark.

Nope, the one by handmark is the second...
I have a B&W monopoly game, yes using the licence, that I have had since my old Casio EM500 days... almost two years ago.

for some reason it wont load on my dell though... it worked on my ipaq.


Just opened up the readme on the monopoly for CE.
Dec 1998 by Hasbro interactive.

[Buddha]

'Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge' and 'Day of the tentacle' used in conjunction with PocketSCUMM (http://scummvm.sourceforge.net/downloads.php). You can often find these games and more lucasarts classics bundled together for a couple of bucks at your nearest/favourite software dealer :)

[Tim Allen]

If you like real-time strategy you might also want to consider Argentum.

I would also recommend the KSE 7-game pack which is very good value and contains a range of good games such as Backgammon, Yachtzee, tetris clone, a whack-a-rat type thing (a real laugh but I have doubts on the longevity of your screen if you play this too much :wink: ) and others. I bought it mainly for the Backgammon which is excellent.

I strongly recommend you try before you buy, and - of course - keep an eye on the recently introduced Thoughts reviews. :D

[Rirath]

Look into emulation, especially NES. YAME is certainly a must have, and free. There's a new NES emulator over at pocketgamer.org called PocketNester that's getting rave reviews. Hit freewareppc.com for a lot of free games too.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Well, definitely trial those games first (especially Snails which is a nice game but not something I would buy with my first $50)... don't rely solely on reviews. One of the most impressive games I've seen is Ultimate Rayman which is $29.95, but well worth it (also has a trial).

As someone else mentioned, Argentum is a fantastic strategy game that was specifically developed for the PPC platform. For fast addictive arcade-type of games, DEFINITELY take a look at Bust'Em.

Tennis Addict is a nice game (I've got it registered myself), but I find the replayability to be low b/c it's a relatively easy game to master.

[spursdude]

For your pay-games, I would go with Snails and Age of Empires. Snails is a ton of good fun, and Age of Empires is an awesome classic, and Ziosoft did a great job moving it to the PPC.

[Fzara]

Age of Empires is a waste. Its impossible to play on your PPC b/c its so small, and its expensive and takes a while to get used to.

A list of my favorites:
Diamond Mine
Monopoly
Metalion
Pocket Conquest
PocketNES+Roms (which are all free)

[Weyoun6]

Snails is an incredible game w/ lots of support. If you like a worms type game I recommend it. and its cheap.

Getting games that were developed for the platform give you more for your money, since there are no conversion issues and they dont have the brand baggage. A game translated from a pc doesnt give the same experience, IMO.

Seriously, try before you buy.

[Brad Adrian]

Well, definitely trial those games first...
You bring up a good point. I ABSOLUTELY will not buy any program for my Pocket PC that I cannot try out first for free. There have been a few games show up that don't have a trial version and I refuse to buy them. I don't care if it's time-limited or partially crippled, or what, but I insist on having a trial or demo version.

Or am I just being hard to please...?

[TheBacklash]

Well, definitely trial those games first...
You bring up a good point. I ABSOLUTELY will not buy any program for my Pocket PC that I cannot try out first for free. There have been a few games show up that don't have a trial version and I refuse to buy them. I don't care if it's time-limited or partially crippled, or what, but I insist on having a trial or demo version.

Or am I just being hard to please...?

I am the same way... I hate non-demo games. a screenshot can only do so much.

[Oreocat]

Well, definitely trial those games first...
You bring up a good point. I ABSOLUTELY will not buy any program for my Pocket PC that I cannot try out first for free. There have been a few games show up that don't have a trial version and I refuse to buy them. I don't care if it's time-limited or partially crippled, or what, but I insist on having a trial or demo version.

Or am I just being hard to please...?

I don't think you're being hard to please-no one likes to throw away their hard earned money. PPC's are expensive enough without wasting what little you have on something you don't like and can't return.

I just wish I'd understood about trials before I bought several games that I ended up not liking. Money down the drain!

I learned my lesson the hard way-never, ever buy any program unless it has a trial version....

Oreocat

[Janak Parekh]

Or am I just being hard to please...?
Not really, but at the same time, you're missing out on SimCity 2000. Great game, worth every penny I paid for it. Sometimes a review is enough for me.

--janak

[Raynne]

Well, Age of Empires is definitely fun. And you can use the player-created levels to play on the PPC also. I found a good number of those online to download. Since you don't like RPGs, that basically threw out all of my recommendations. :D

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Or am I just being hard to please...?
Not really, but at the same time, you're missing out on SimCity 2000. Great game, worth every penny I paid for it. Sometimes a review is enough for me.

--janak
Yup. Always exceptions, though *generally* I do follow Brad's principle... I have bought one or two games that didn't have trials, but I did at least wait for feedback from others on the forum before purchasing. I have a hard time trusting the user comments at these sites since it's too easy for vendors to disguise themselves... I at least know the posters here (well kind of).

[PetiteFlower]

Honestly I wouldn't want to give my money to the SimCity 2000 people after dl-ing that lame-ass "demo" that locks your ppc in an endless loop of screen shots. Was more like a virus then a demo, yet the description didn't even say that it wasn't a PLAYABLE demo. What a shady way to do business! So they don't get my money just on principal.

[mirkazemisaman]

WOW, I had totally forgotten about this post of mine, thank you all for following up with my questions.
I did not know there were trial versions of the games I mentioned. I definitely will run the trial first.

[Stilke]

You can also try out "Fade", still on of the best professional looking PPC games around...
Check MSR too it's a really good game

[Mike Wagstaff]

Forgive the plug, but in case anyone is wondering where to find some of these games, there's a quick and easy way to get to any Pocket PC game's homepage right from the comfort of your Internet browser's address bar. All you have to do is type in pocketgamer.org/ followed by the name of the game.

For example, you could type in something like:

pocketgamer.org/spawn (http://www.pocketgamer.org/spawn)

... which would automatically take you to the Spawn homepage. If the game isn't yet listed in the database, it'll search for references to it throughout PocketGamer.org, so you should be able to find it pretty easily in any case.

If you're looking for reviews of a game, just type in the same thing as above, but add reviews afterwards. For example:
pocketgamer.org/age of empires reviews (http://www.pocketgamer.org/age)

... which would automatically take you to a list of just about every Age of Empires review that exists on the web.

[Oregon Trail]

Although you specified strategy games, you might consider a good golf game. I use Ziogolf 2. It has the advantage of being a good two person game. I'm not certain that it is available for your Axim, but there are others. At 24.95, it is 1/2 of your budget, so here is suggestion for a free game, Pocketgammon, a postcardware product from someone in Germany.

[mirkazemisaman]

Finally got Age of Empires and it's sweet. I don't think I could have gotten any better game than AOE! BTW, Are there any good ("smooth running" 3D PPC games? Cost doesn't matter at this point any more.

[Weyoun6]

Darxide EMP

its at frontier.co.uk

[PPCdev]

These games are most excelent!

My fav is Diamond Mine, its extreamly addictive, about the only game I play..

http://astraware.com/ppc/


HTH,
Andrew