4Pockets, a developer company pretty famous for their high-quality Pocket PC games, have recently released a desktop (Windows) PC version of 4Connect and Great Gold Rush, two of their earlier, excellent multiplayer-enabled games.
They can be found here and here, respectively.
The games are an exact replica of the Pocket PC version and work just great in multiplayer (I've tested them against Pocket PC opponents over a Bluetooth PAN). The only problem with them is that they use a window sized 240*320; this means you will need to lower the resolution of your desktop to either 640*480 or 800*600 if you want to play these games.
Their third multiplayer-enabled title, Air Hockey Challenge, still has not been ported to the desktop Windows.
Note that the developer has also ported a lot of their other titles to the desktop Windows. They, however, aren't multiplayer-enabled and, therefore, I haven't tested them on the desktop.
Recommended articles: Pocket PC Multiplayer Bible; Pocket PC Gaming Bible Part I .
Related
Ever wanted to have a light racer / flight / bowling / golf game on your Pocket PC? Read on!
My readers surely remember the Multiplayer Bible, My Top Five Golf Games in the Apr/May 2006 issue of the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine and my OpenGLES / Intel 2700G-related games / tech demo reviews. In these reviews, I’ve already reviewed some titles from Pocket PC and MS Smartphone games developer company OmniGSoft: Chopper Flight (currently, the only OmniGSoft title to have OpenGLES / 2700G support), Nine Hole Golf, 3D Mini-Jetfight and 3D Mini Dogfight.
Now that the company has just released a fully WM5- and square screen compliant upgrade of six of their titles, I’ve spent some time checking them all.
First of all, all non-Mini games have been updated. (“Mini” games, which were last updated in January, have always been WM5-compliant.) That is, if you have an OmniGSoft title whose name doesn’t start with Mini, visit the homepage of the developer to get the new version. All the new, just-released versions have the ‘u’ trailer; based on this, they’re pretty easy to be recognized.
Availability, compatibility
The titles are all available on the homepage of the developer. Their regular price is $17.95. Of particular interest is the Owen's Monster Truck and 3D Chopper Fight combo on Handango, where you get a $10 rebate ($26.96 / $29.95) if you purchase both games.
I had no problems (except for speed problems with some of them) running these titles on any of my (numerous) test devices.
The good
First, kudos for the developer for not forgetting pre-WM2003 users. This means ALL of their games run on Pocket PC 2002 devices too – albeit they can be a bit slow. For example, Owen's Monster Truck and Speed City are close to unplayable on my otherwise pretty snappy Pocket PC 2002 Compaq iPAQ 3660. Note that the homepage of the developer lists both Chopper Flight and Speed City as WM2003+ only; this is not the case, they do run on older devices too. Note that these games are ARM only; don’t even think of looking for MIPS or, even worse, SH3 versions for old Pocket PC 2000 devices (also see the Bible of All Pocket PC Games Part I for more information.)
Second, seamless WM5 and square screen support are also welcome.
The bad
I’m pretty disappointed by still not having either OpenGLES / 2700G support in any of the titles (except for Choper Flight) or multiplayer support in these titles except for 3D Mini-Jetfight 1.2f and 3D Mini Dogfight 1.5f. These games all cry for both these features: all these titles are 3D-heavy, where graphics processing units like the 2700G can prove VERY useful; furthermore, most racing / sports games cry for multiplayer options.
The lack of stylus-based (touch screen) control is a big problem with the racing titles of the developer. On Pocket PC’s, most racing titles have touch screen-based controls. Very few titles refuse to be controlled with the stylus / by the screen (for example, the great racing game port Raging Thunder).
In addition, all these titles have VERY repetitive in-game music. This should be addressed by the developer.
Finally, a problem with the graphics engine: there’s no way to decrease the graphics detail in these games. While the games run very well on today’s non-low-end devices (including my VGA devices too - I've tested the titles on my VGA Dell Axim x51v and VGA Pocket Loox 720 and had no speed problems), there are some notable exceptions: for example, current Pocket PC’s with 180…195 MHz TI CPU’s; for example, the HTC Wizard.
Other remarks
As far as the “fantasy racer” Owen's Monster Truck is concerned, anyone having read my big roundup of Mario Kart clones knows what kart / trucks game implementations there are on the Pocket PC. Owen's Monster Truck, when compared to these titles, certainly excels at square screen support and support for pre-WM2003 OS’es. It, however, has no multiplayer, unlike MicroSquad and has no REAL auto-acceleration (the, by default, enabled “Auto-accelerate Assist” only keeps the truck at the given speed; it doesn’t try to increase the speed all the time, which can be pretty annoying after, for example, running into other cars), unlike most other titles. This is a definite minus, as with the complete lack of stylus-based control (most Mario Kart clones have, in cases, freely definable on-screen controls).
A lot of us have been eagerly waiting for the Pocket PC port of one of the best First Person Shooter games, Call of Duty 2. So have I (albeit I’ve also been playing a press alpha release and, together with some PocketGamer.org and Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine blog folks, my review will soon be published at PocketGamer.org).
Albeit the Pocket PC version (not even the 2700G-enabled one), due to shortage of RAM and processing power, in no way delivers so great and rich gaming experience than the desktop Windows version (that is, you, unfortunately, won’t get an exact replica of the desktop version), I still highly recommend it if you’re into playing FPS games, want to demonstrate the 3D capabilities of your 3D accelerated Pocket PC and don’t want to stick to Doom / Quake / Wolf3D clones / ports / implementations (click the links for more info). That is, make sure you read the review, which is here in German. The Babelfish “translation” is here if you don’t speak the language.
Anyone having read my Pocket PC-based golf game reviews and comparisons (for example, the one in the Apr/May 2006 issue of Pocket PC and Smartphone Mag) have heard about OmniGSoft’s Nine Hole Golf available on the Microsoft Do More with Your Windows Mobile Powered Phone homepage.
Note that you need to have an active (but, again, FREE) Hotmail account to be able to access the game.
Again, check out my review to see how it compares to other titles. While the game isn’t so stellar as, say, Links (traditional golf simulations) and isn’t so innovative as 4Pocket’s Harry Putter's Crazy Golf and isn’t so friendly as Pocket Mini Golf 2 (minigolf games), for free, it’s definitely worth downloading.
Other recommended, OmniGSoft-related review links
OmniGSoft releases six new, WM5- and square screen compliant versions of their existing games
Multiplayer Bible
OpenGLES / Intel 2700G-related games / tech demo reviews
(News source: Dan Hanttula)
1. Yesterday, I reported on the new FPSEce 0.010 videos. The Pocketplayers.info folks have just uploaded two, brand new FPSEce 0.010 videos well worth checking out:
Rayman
Wipeout XL
It seems FPSEce 0.010 will indeed be a BIG hit, particularly for 3D game fans with a Dell Axim x50v / x51v: it’ll really be able to run the well-known PlayStation classics without any problems. Make sure you donate to the developer (I’ve already done so)
2. A quick overview of Prowler Studios' games
Prowler Studios is a newcomer to the Windows Mobile gaming scene but has already released several titles. Of these, I review the three most expensive ($12.95 each) one (assuming most expensive means the best). Note that they're all Pocket PC only (not compatible with MS Smartphones - I've tested) and support all operating systems starting with WM2003.
a. Toe 2 Toe Boxing Championship is (or, at least, tries to be) a 3D boxing game. I don’t recommend this title. While it tries to be 3D, it in no way utilizes existing 3D acceleration hardware (tested this on the Dell Axim x51v). The in-game sprite animation is also VERY bad: it only has TWO phases. Taken the high price of the title into account, I in no way can recommend this game even for a quick try. I know there aren’t any boxing games for Windows Mobile (quickly checked this at Clickgamer in addition to the Sports category of the PPCMag encyclopedia). Therefore, I recommend going for emulation. The home computers / home consoles had WAY better boxing games; for example, Boxing Legends of the Ring for Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES; George Foreman's KO Boxing for the same two consoles; Riddick Bowe Boxing (which is very similar to Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing for Genesis and GG) for SNES, Gameboy and GG. Make sure you check out my emulation-related articles / Bibles in the Emulators category of my blog. Or, if you don’t necessarily want boxing, just a very similar arcade game, give a try to, for example, Garou (Fatal Fury): Mark of the Wolves under the excellent NeoGeo emulator FinalBurn Alpha. (Note that I haven’t tested the title under FinalBurn. It may NOT work. If it doesn’t, you can still look for another action game to run.)
b. Shuffleboard Unlimited: Unfortunately, this title is in no way as entertaining as for example 4Pockets’ Air Hockey Challenge reviewed HERE. If you’re absolutely sure you want a simple shuffleboard simulator, you might want to check it out. However, if you want a REAL air hockey title, go for the 4Pockets game instead - it’s way better.
c. Pocket Bass Angler 2007 1.1. Probably this fishing simulator is the only game you might want to give a try – if you’re into the genre, that is. (I am not at least.)
All in all, I couldn’t find anything of real interest among Prowler Studios’ current games. Hope their future games become much better.
3. Yeah, I know it’s self-promotion like linking to frontpages of my articles, but still… in the last (Feb/Mar 2008) issue of Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine, my Orions: The Second Age Strategy Guide was quickly summarized. Also, in his farewell message, Allen Gall recommended the articles of you-surely-won’t-guess-who
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.