I’ve been closely watching (see my early compatibility reports for example here, here, here, here and here) the evolution of Styletap, the Palm OS emulator for the Pocket PC, for almost two years now.
Palm OS has some really cool and unmatched applications (for example, MathLib, powerOne Graph and MedCalc) and games (for example, Edge and Acedior) that hava never been ported to the Pocket PC.
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(the above screenshot has been taken on the VGA x51v and shows how HiRes (320*320) games are scaled to 480*480 to – horizontally – completely fill in the available screen estate of VGA Pocket PC’s. The same screenshot taken on the QVGA HTC Wizard can be seen here; it shows how the LoRes (160*160) rendering looks on a QVGA device. As you can see, it’s much less spectacular and pretty hard to read)
StyleTap (rightfully!) is also the winner of the Utilities: Miscellaneous Utilities category of the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Best Software Awards 2006.
Availability
The application is available here for all ARM-based platforms (that is, even on Pocket PC 2000 / 2002 ARM-based Pocket PC's). The commercial version costs a whopping $49.99 but there is a 14-day and, otherwise, unrestricted trial.
Edge compatibility
Of course, the first program I’ve tested was Edge, the greatest role playing game for the Palm OS - and probably all non-gaming handheld device platforms (see this, this and, again, this for more info on how it compares to other (Pocket PC) RPG games). I was really delighted to see that, it was clearly more enjoyable than the beta versions of the emulator.
On my 624 MHz WM5 VGA Dell Axim x51v, there aren’t really annoying sound problems (hiccups in the background stereo music) with the game any more unless you have a conversation with someone. Then, the music has very short, but quite annoying pauses every 2 or 3 second.
On my 624 MHz WM5 HP iPAQ hx4700 and 520 MHz WM2003SE VGA Pocket Loox 720, the situation wasn’t this good; there were constant pauses in the background music.
I’ve also tested the game on the HTC Wizard and it turned out to be pretty good, taking the speed of the CPU of this model into account. Of course, there were pauses in the ambient music, but the game itself was pretty playable.
Acedior compatibility
The second game I tested was Acedior, the other Palm OS-only “big hit” – the second adventure of the folks that have created Fade, which has won the “Best adventure game for the Pocket PC” prize several times. Acedior isn’t at all worse than Fade, quality-wise – I certainly recommend purchasing it if you own a (preferably HiRes(+)) Palm model.
Unfortunately, as with the 0.x betas, the new StyleTap version isn’t compatible with this title either – it still can’t load the bitmaps as can be seem in here. This is a BIG problem - Acedior is a REALLY good game!
Other tidbits
Pros
Definitely faster and more compatible than beta versions!
Cons
There is still(?) no HiRes+ (that is, 480*320, as opposed to the “plain” 320*320 HiRes) support in the emulator
The price ($49.99, which is considerably higher than in the beta stage) is pretty steep – you can get a second-hand, say, Palm Tungsten 3 for not much more money, and it offers both seamless HiRes+ (not just HiRes) compatibility with all the applications / games out there (not to mention its other uses; for example, as an A2DP-enabled multimedia player). And, yes, it runs both Edge and Acedior flawlessly - and in HiRes+
Verdict
If you have Palm applications or games you’d like to run on your Pocket PC, give StyleTap a try. Also, make sure you check out Edge under it if you have a sufficiently fast, preferably VGA Pocket PC (for example, the x51v) and you don’t dislike games – you’ll definitely like it!
Other discussions of the new version
AximSite
Related
Ever played the free RedBall by Heliad (also see the comments here) on your Pocket PC? Wanted something very similar, but with some decent in-game music and much better graphics / enjoyability? Get JumpyBall!
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Availability
The game is available here free of charge for both the Pocket PC (all Pocket PC operating systems are supported except for the oldest Pocket PC 2000) and the Microsoft Smartphone platforms.
Gameplay
It’s pretty simple, but entertaining: in the pseudo-3D world, you need to make sure you don’t let the ball sink into water.
Compatibility
No problems here either: the game ran on all my test Pocket PC’s: the PPC 2002 iPAQ 3660 (with slightly decreased speed and slight background problems – the background image just vanishes when you move the ball left or right), the WM2003 iPAQ h2210, the WM2003SE VGA Pocket Loox 720, the WM5 VGA hx4700 (2.01 ROM), the WM5 VGA Dell Axim x51v (A12 ROM), the WM5 VGA HTC Universal and the WM5 QVGA HTC Wizard (2.26 ROM) running at 195 MHz (had no speed problems even at such a low clock speed). I, in addition to the PPC2k2 / iPAQ 3660 problems outlined above, only encountered problems on my hx4700 because of the D-pad, which is pretty useless for gaming. Whenever I tried to redefine the left/right scroll buttons (which is possible in the game) so that I reassign them to “real”, more gaming-friendly buttons, this turned out to be impossible because of the two-state buttons. That is, it’s the best to forget the hx4700 entirely unless you have an external Bluetooth gaming pad.
Graphics
Pretty good for a freeware game and much better than that of RedBall. Doesn't use high resolution on VGA devices.
Music
The game uses quality scener tracks; for example, delicate 0ooz! by emax / trsi (also see the main page here). Hopefully all this with permission of the original authors – see the story here. The tracks are swappable in the \Program Files\PocketNew\JumpyBall\Musics\ directory.
Compared to Heliad's RedBall...
(as of (current) version 1.2 of the latter)
Pros
Has great in-game music
Has much better visuals; looks far less computer-generated
Much more stable on my WM5 VGA devices (x51v A12, hx4700 2.01). RedBall often (on the hx4700, always, upon trying to return to the main menu) crashes on these devices
Allows for redefining buttons
Has auto-jumping upon encountering water (this can be disabled)
Cons
No PPC2k support. RedBall works great even on my Casio E-125
No minimap at the top of the screen
Verdict
This title is definitely worth getting - you can't beat the price. If you've been an avid RedBall player, make sure you download it: RedBall was a definitely worse title (except for the minimap). There are very few free titles and most of them are of much worse quality. Give it a try.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to AximSite forum member pmcizhere for pointing my direction to RedBall.
Recommended links
Don’t forget to check out my other game reviews here. I also recommend the game reviews in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Expert Blog by Ben Stanley, Al Harrington and Eric Pankoke.
(Original heads-up news source: PocketGamer.org)
Much as this racing title isn’t particularly new on the Pocket PC (not even the latest, 1.2 version), now that PocketGamer reported on it, I’ve realized I still haven’t dedicated a review to this SuperCars clone (without, unfortunately, any kind of multiplayer capabilities, which made SuperCars II just great on 16-bit home platforms back in 1990), which may be of interest to all Pocket PC gaming freaks before Infinite Dreams’ K-Rally is released.
It’s a classic example of top-down 2D racing games like Gangsta Race (also reported on in the Roundup of All Pocket PC Games Part I).
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(VGA screenshot; on QVGA devices, a similar one is here)
Availability
The game is available here for $14.95. The trial is one-level only.
Compatibility
It’s compatible with all my test Pocket PC’s. Note that while the homepage doesn’t list the game as PPC 2002 compliant, in reality, it is – it’s running just great on my PPC2k2 Compaq iPAQ 3660.
The other PDA’s I’ve tested it on are the following:
HTC Wizard (runs great even at 195 MHz)
HP iPAQ hx4700 (on it, you MUST use the stylus to control the car as not even button redefining works)
Dell Axim x51v
Pocket Loox 720
HP iPAQ h2210
It's also compatible with the MS Smartphone and the Palm OS platform.
Compared to Gangsta Race (GR) 1.1…
(Note that Garga Games’s official homepage is not accessible – this may also mean they’re out of business)
Pros
It shows much more of the playfield on VGA devices and is, of course, hi-res (GR screenshot here on VGA - note that it doesn't support hi-res on VGA)
Has better in-game music
Cons
It doesn’t show the relative position of the other cars, which is a real pain in the back particularly on QVGA devices, where it shows less of the playfield than GR
It has no stereo (!) sound effects, unlike GR – the sound effects in Dreamway are much poorer
It can’t switch to any non-Portrait mode, unlike GR
Doesn’t have a Pocket PC 2000 (MIPS) port (on my Casio E-125, the MIPS version of GR runs just great)
Compared to the Palm OS version…
There are no differences. The Palm version runs a bit slower on my T3 (even in HiRes-only (that is, 320*320, as opposed to the 320*480 HiRes+ mode) than on my Pocket PC’s. The Palm version, however, uses a clearer in-game music track with much better highs (it’s sampled at a higher sampling frequency)
Verdict
Give it a try if you liked Gangsta Race. It is in no way as spectacular than the forthcoming K-Rally, but is certainly worth giving a try, particularly on VGA devices.
Unfortunately, except for Sean O'Connor's PocketGeneral and Blitsoft’s Battle of the Generals (BoTG for short), there has been no Stratego clones for the Pocket PC. Fortunately, now, Inscenic, developers of well-known title Warring Nations and Creatonia has released a pretty cool implementation, Napoleonix.
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Availability, compatibility
The official homepage is here; the ClickGamer download here. The game costs $9.95 and there is an, unfortunately, pretty restricted trial version.
The title is compatible with all WM2003+ devices and I had no problems in running it on my various test Pocket PC’s.
Visuals
Very good – it supports high-resolution VGA.
Music, sounds
Yes, this is an area where Inscenic's games have traditionally been weak. It has no music / sound effects at all. Hope the developer will fix this problem. (Note that the two alternatives don't have in-game music either - except for a short menu tune in Connor's game. BoTG only has in-game beeps and a drum menu tune.)
Some remarks on the alternatives
(Also see the Bible of All Pocket PC Games Part I for more info!)
Sean O'Connor's PocketGeneral is an old, but very good implementation of the game.
Blitsoft’s Battle of the Generals has recently beeen removed from the Net – from both the official homepage and that of all Pocket PC download sources (I’ve checked Handango, PocketGear and ClickGamer). I think this was done because the most recent version, 1.1 (released back in 2003; incidentally, it's the version that I've compared NapoleoniX to), doesn’t support WM5. I don’t know more about when it will be upgraded because the developer’s contact form and forum doesn’t work either. Also see this and this for reviews. Please also see the former on the rules of Stratego.
Note that according to sponge the developer of BoTG is out of business.
Multiplayer
The title also supports real multiplayer (not only plain hotseat - it's also supported here -, as was the case with Warring Nations!) capabilities, which is painfully missing from both BoTG and Connor's Pocket PC game (unlike his desktop Windows version).
The multiplayer uses the best approach, that is, full TCP/IP (see this screenshot) and not, say, LAN multicasting or native Bluetooth connections; that is, to be able to run it without an Internet connection you'll need either a Bluetooth PAN or a Wi-Fi P2P network to be run. Of course, it'll run over traditional Internet connections - as far as the server host isn't behind a firewall or a NAT'ed connection. That is, you'll be able to play even people on the other half of the planet.
Unfortunately, it has no in-game chatting, unlike many other multiplayer-enabled titles.
Note that the only problem in multiplayer mode is exiting on the other PPC when one party surrenders. Restarting the game, however, works in this case too.
Compared to the other two titles,
Pros
REAL TCP/IP MULTIPLAYER!!!!
Much more spectacular, particularly in (the otherwise pretty useless) 3D mode
Hi-Res on VGA devices
Costs the half of that of Connor’s game (Connor's games, while being pretty good, are rather overpriced.)
Shows possible move directions
Excellent built-in help, which can always be invoked. The game rules are explained very well.
Supports WM5, unlike BoTG 1.1
Has no speed problems on the Dell Axim x51v, unlike Sean O'Connor's game (the latter very slow on the A12 x51v; it seems it has no speed problems with other WM5 models)
As opposed to Sean O'Connor's PocketGeneral, automatically rotates the screen to Portrait when you start the game in Landscape mode (and it has built-in portrait/landscape switching, which works even on WM2003 devices). Connor’s game, then, is unplayable and must be exit.
It’s available for purchase / download, unlike BoTG
Cons
“Only” supports WM2003+ (BOTG supports all ARM CPU’s and Sean O'Connor's PocketGeneral also supports very old MIPS / SH3 Pocket PC 2000 devices)
Verdict
Highly recommended for both Stratego fans and people that have never played the game but would like to have a decent, flexible multiplayer game. Give it a try - you'll like it.
Updated version posted.
Nicky Boom was a nice platformer game released for the Commodore Amiga and MS DOS back in 1992 (Wiki page HERE). While, now, fortunately, there are several platformer titles for Windows Mobile (see for example THIS, THIS for a list of newer and THIS of somewhat older titles), few of them are compatible with the MS Smartphone platform (Nicky Boom is; note that I don't know whether it's compatible with low-end / old 176*220 MS Smartphone screens in addition to the now-standard QVGA ones). In addition, the game also has a Palm OS 5 version (only compatible with comparatively new models; that is, most models starting with the T3) and a Symbian S60 and UIQ 3 version is being worked on. It even has an in-browser ActiveX version on the homepage of the developer (click the Play button), DotEmu. A pretty decent demo is available; the full version costs $14.90 for all mobile platforms.
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Note that the game’s homepage doesn’t have a trial version for Palm OS. It IS available at ClickGamer.
While, theoretically, it may be possible to run the original game under Amiga or MS-DOS emulators, I wouldn’t think it’s a good idea. The only Amiga emulator existing for all the mobile platforms, PocketUAE, is very slow and, as it’s long been discontinued, it’s highly unlikely it will ever be fixed. Emulating MS-DOS is far better on Windows Mobile (see the dedicated Bible HERE), but I seriously doubt it’s able to run this title without major at least sound problems and/or without quickly chewing through your battery. The original game having no console versions, you can't rely on much more CPU-efficient and established, commercial console emulators like the almighty SmartGear either.
On Windows Mobile (I haven't tested the game on Palm and the Symbian version hasn't been released as yet), the just-released native version behaves far better: it uses little CPU time, which means it’s quite battery-friendly and runs on even the slowest configurations like the ones based on the old TI OMAP 850, the “heart” of many popular models like the HTC Touch, Wizard and so on.
As it’s just a traditional side-scrolling platform game, there isn’t much to talk about, game story- or usage-wise.
I had no problems running / playing it. Make sure you give it a try! I think I'll also nominate it for this year's Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Best Software Awards contest.
Cons
* Mono music only
* Some stuttering now and then if autofire is enabled. The latter isn’t a CPU usage issue as it stays pretty low even with autofire enabled
Pros
* Much better and, what is even more important, battery-friendly than running the original game under a MS-DOS or an Amiga emulator
* Very good CPU usage: ~28% on 624 MHz PXA-310-based, VGA HP iPAQ 210 and ~60% on the 195 MHz TI OMAP 850-based QVGA HTC Wizard, even with autofire on
BTW, speaking of other platformers, a bad piece of news: the long-awaited Prehistoric: Road to Hollywood (see THIS) will be never completed / released: Bonanza Interactive has gone out of business in the meantime.
U Mobile Game have just released a brand new vertical scroller shooter Dragon Bird for both Windows Mobile (both Pocket PC and Smartphone) and Symbian (both S60v3 and UIQ3).
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Availability
The game is available for download HERE. The trial version has the first two stages unlocked; the full, commercial one all the eight. The latter costs $19.95 for all platforms, which is quite a bit more than the price of SkyForce Reloaded, the, currently, undoubtedly best vertical shooter on both Windows Mobile and Symbian.
Compatibility
I've tested the game (as of the current, 1.0 version) on my VGA HP iPAQ 210 WM6 Windows Mobile classic PDA, WM2003 QVGA HP iPAQ 2210 and the Symbian S60v3 Nokia N95. On the latter two, it ran flawlessly (I've disabled the sound on the iPAQ 2210); on the iPAQ 210, it frequently crashed, necessiating a soft reset (and also losing the credits I've collected in the last one or two games). I don't know whether it's an iPAQ 210-specific issue – while I've run into similar crashes now and then, in other games, on the 210, in no way so frequently as in this case.
Note that, while it's compatible with (touchscreen-less) Windows Mobile Smartphones, it won't run on lower-res 176*220 phones like the HTC s310 (Oxygen), only the higher-res QVGA ones like the HTC s710 / Vox: it just chops off the right / bottom part of the game, it being strictly wired to QVGA devices. (I don't know whether it's also compatible with QVGA landscape models like the Moto Q; I bet it isn't.)
Controllability
On touchscreen-enabled devices like Windows Mobile Pocket PC's, you can entirely rely on the touchscreen. This is pretty good news for future for example HTC Touch Pro HD users, which entirely lacks a D-pad. Note that I haven't tested the game on 2.8" QVGA titles with the infamous touchscreen CPU usage bug, plaguing every single non-XScale-based model HTC has ever released. I bet you'll encounter quite a bit of slowdown / choppyness on these models.
Differences between Dragon Bird and most other games of the genre
Most importantly, Dragon Bird has a different approach to weapon / ship / shield upgrades than other, pickup-based games like SkyForce Reloaded. (Games like Xenon 2 use a hybrid approach: you can both purchase upgrades and pick up some while advancing.) You get no upgrades for free as a pick-up; this means you need to earn money by
1. shooting down as many opponents as possible
2. not exiting the game and not being killed easily (then you get a penalty and lose half of the main boss' credit)
This also means you'll need to play through some levels at least several times to be able to purchase a weapon (or another upgrade) to be able to pass the next. For example, I've found it's impossible to get past the second stage without purhcasing the $25000 triple cannon. In order to be able to purchase this weapon, I had to play through the first level at least three times. The repetitive need to play through the same level can become pretty boring and annoying when compared to, say, SkyForce Reloaded's linear approach not forcing you to do the same.
Enjoyment factor
The game itself, while is technically far inferior to SkyForce Reloaded (far less spectacular or plain non-existing visuals like explosions, much more spectacular 3D effects etc., duller music), has turned out to be pretty entertaining. I, however, don't know whether it's really worth the (quite high) price tag.
Verdict
While the game is definitely inferior to the multiplatform SkyForce Reloaded (and, to a lesser degree, to other, excellent titles like FireHawk and Burning Armor Code-E on Windows Mobile) and is much more expensive, you, if you have already played through the latter and wouldn't want to touch it any more, might still want to give the trial version a try.
The price has just been reduced to $9.95.