Back in the late seventies or early eighties, you may have had a Light-emitting diode (LED)-based handheld game console. They were manufactured by Mattel and a complete list of them is available HERE. They were pretty simplistic but still great fun and are, today, very hard to find (they’re typically a collector’s item offered accordingly at high prices).
Should you want to play some of these games under Windows Mobile (or, for that matter, Palm OS or the desktop Windows (even Vista)), you will want to turn to Peter Hirschberg’s LEDhead, the faithful reimplementation of some of these games. While only part of the original LED games have been re-implemented (compare the list of the originally available games HERE and the implemented games HERE), you may still find the currently available games fun or, at least, nice to bring up memories of those ages.
Fortunately, the games run flawlessly on all Windows Mobile devices – even WM5 / WM6 ones. Some example screenshots of them running on VGA devices:
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(Auto Race)
(Space Alert)
As in the desktop version, the main menu allows for selecting the game you’d like to play. You can also redefine the hardware buttons (unfortunately, the app doesn’t read all the buttons dynamically – that is, if your handheld has more than 4 buttons, it’ll still list only four)
Getting, using
Get the emulator HERE (alternate download HERE) . Unzip the file and transfer LEDhead.exe and LEDhead.dll to your handheld. Start the former; select the game to run in the left list and click Start Game in the upper right corner. You can also disable sounds (using the Mute checkbox) and assign controls to hardware buttons.
Note that it also has an SH3 and a MIPS version, should you have an old PPC2k handheld.
Recommended reading
Allen Gall’s LEDhead and RocketElite: Best of the Old and New!
Handheld Games Museum’s related page
Related
We all know Bejeweled, one of the best action/puzzle games on the Pocket PC. There are several Bejeweled clones for the Pocket PC (some of them having been reviewed in the Pocket PC Games Bible Part I); the new title, Snowed In 5 - Flaked Out, is one of them.
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Availability, compatibility
The Pocket PC version is compatible with all WM2003+ devices and had no problems on my test Pocket PC’s. Unfortunately, it’s not compatible with devices running under operating systems prior to WM2003; that is, for example, with Pocket PC 2002.
There are separate versions for VGA, square-screen and landscape devices. Unfortunately, on VGA devices, the landscape-mode version only offers QVGA resolution (example screenshot taken on a VGA device here) and is, consequently, not recommended. That is, get the VGA Portrait version if you have a VGA device and want to enjoy high-resolution graphics.
The main page of the game is here; the Pocket PC-related downloads are here.
Sounds
Unfortunately, there’s no in-game music, which is a big minus compared to the, music-wise, world-class Bejeweled. However, the in-menu music is pretty good.
Visuals
Pretty good; definitely not as spectacular as those of Bejeweled (2) or 4Pockets’ games though. Support for hi-res VGA on capable devices is a big plus though.
Online
The game, along with its homepage (“Submit your score and represent your country”), also promises to collect your high scores on ClickGamer. I, however, couldn’t find out how this needs to be done. Hope it will indeed be added to ClickGamer some time.
Registration
The game needs to be registered for continuous play, but it’s, fortunately, pretty easy. Just navigate to here and register as can be seen in here (the answer is like this) - that’s all. To do this, you need to have a free ClickGamer account – if you still don’t have one, just click the “Sign Up” button at the bottom and fill in the fields.
Verdict
For a free title, I’d say this game is worth checking out, particularly if you have a VGA device.
hehehe... I just got to get this... if not for anything else the graphics alone
I’ve elaborated a lot on Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) games in my Multiplayer Bible and Pocket PC 3D Acceleration Bible. Up to now, unfortunately, there only have been two clients available for the Pocket PC; namely,
the Java-based Wyvern, which did have some Java incompatibility and / or speed problems
the Russian-language, non-free Sphere by Nikita.
Fortunately, this seems to change in the future. SmartCell, of which I’ve reviewed several products of (see for example this AquaForce 1.1 and this TextPlus review / tutorial) is working on a really promising, Pocket PC-compliant (!) MMORPG called Shadow of Legend, which even has its own top-level homepage here, which may be worth checking out. There still isn’t much tangible stuff in there (unfortunately, the first demo game clients will only be released in early January as can also be read in here); however, at least there are three MP3 files and two trailers to download.
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This is indeed a very promising project. I’ll report as soon as a playable demo is released.
By the way, in addition to the above links, I also recommend this PPCT thread on similar subjects.
(By the way, still speaking of SmartCell’s product line, they still (?) haven’t ported RemotePlus to the Pocket PC. Hope they change their minds soon – as will also be explained in my forthcoming, biiiiiiiiig roundup of all Pocket PC -> PC remote controller solutions, Pocket PC-based Terminal Server / Services clients are all pretty bad and a decent alternative would be more than welcome.)
Some weeks ago, I’ve elaborated on the forthcoming, highly anticipated Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) called Shadow of Legend.
Now, there are some news on the title; most importantly, some screenshots and two CES videos (without really showing in-game videos). Unfortunately, nothing tangible – that is, no downloadable client is available as yet.
However, the two new videos (directly accessible on the video download page) may be worth checking out.
Family IT, the previously unknown Pocket PC developer, has just released a full-world map / GPS application covering all countries.
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Another screenshot here showing the main country selector.
Availability, compatibility
The developers don’t seem to have a homepage of their own; currently, the only source you can download their app from is Handango. I encountered no problems running it – except for it being TOTALLY incompatible (there is not even a scrollbar to scroll) with devices working in Landscape mode.
It’s priced at $14.95. The trial can only be started five times.
Review
Interestingly, while the app has checkboxes for displaying towns with even 1000 inhabitants, having such small towns / villages was definitely not the case with the maps I’ve tested. For example, it doesn’t list the Finnish Sonkajärvi (appr. 5000 inhabitants in 2005): the database only seems to starts to display towns with inhabitants starting around 20 000 as is, for example, the case with Iisalmi (22 500 inhabitants). In this case, some of the alternatives (for example, iGo) are MUCH better, as far as country-level maps are concerned.
Also, it only lists towns, nothing else – no roads, nothing. Some example screenshots (still with the Finnish town Iisalmi): with full zoom-in (screen width: 1km), all I got was this. With capital of Finland, Helsinki and its neighborhood, I didn’t have much better luck either.
Pros
It covers all countries
Cons
No Landscape support
Very slow!
eVB required (which MUST be installed into main storage on WM5)
no Hi-Res support in any way (neither in forced nor in native VGA mode) on VGA devices
Verdict
Not recommended – it’s just too slow, too expensive, too bloated, too incompatible (Landscape), too too. Use Google Maps, iGo, TomTom etc. instead – they (or a combination of them) are FAR better choices for most purposes.
Looking for a simple and entertaining action / platform game? Then, you may want to read further.
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Availability: the game is available here with a trial. There also is a desktop Windows version.
Compliance: I encountered no major compatibility problems with running the game on some of my test WM2003+ (the game isn’t compatible with OS’es prior to WM2003; it’s, of course, WM6-compliant) PDA’s: the HTC Wizard with the Bpepe / KTamas AKU3 ROM (overclocked to 240 MHz), the HTC Universal (running Helmi 1.1), the Dell Axim x51v with ROM version A12 and the WM2003 HP iPAQ h2210.
However, keep in mind that
albeit it runs in Landscape orientation, do NOT start the game in it unless you want to have a reversed and, therefore, useless D-pad. (And, yeah, Left-handed Landscape is even worse: then, not only the D-pad will be reversed, but also the touchscreen.)
on VGA devices (this was particularly a problem on the x51v; the Universal was still playable), the game is decidedly slower than on QVGA ones. That is, it’s highly possible you won’t like the game on VGA devices at all because of the slow scrolling / animation, which can’t be fixed at all.
Graphics: QVGA only; nothing to write home about. The same on the desktop Windows – it uses QVGA-resolution graphics there too, displayed in a VGA-sized window. (At least, it doesn’t have speed problems on the desktop – actually, it’s MUCH faster and pleasing on my 3.6 GHz P4 than on any of my above-listed QVGA Pocket PC’s.)
Music: pretty cool tracked music and, what is more, it’s played back in stereo.
Verdict: IMHO, it’s not as good as, say, BoneyBoy and it might be slow on some devices. Still, the trial might be worth giving a try.
You may still remember my roundup of 3D Arkanoid titles (if you haven’t read it, do it now; note that the chart has bad HTML markup, which will soon be fixed). A brand new 3D Arkanoid clone, Arkanoi3D has just been released for both touchscreen-enabled Pocket PC’s and touchscreen-less MS Smartphones (the latter even including 176*220 ones).
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The game has all a decent 3D Arkanoid should have: powerups (for example, to quickly shoot down some of the blocks), a line constantly showing where the ball really is in 3D and, which isn’t at all common with similar titles, a rotatable overview of the play area:
It’s available for download and purchase HERE.
Compatibility
It’s only compliant with WM5 (I’ve checked this on my WM2003 iPAQ 2210). It ran OK on my WM6.1-based HTC Wizard (Pocket PC) and (the original, factory) WM5-based HTC s310 (Oxygen) MS Smartphone. The touchscreen CPU usage bug considerably slowed down the game; fortunately, you don’t need to touch the screen all the time. Also note that, without increasing the ball speed (in Options), the game can be really-really slow-paced at the default speed. That is, make sure you increase the speed if you find the game just too slow. Still speaking of the options menu, you may also want to change the skin (the default is just too dark). Two examples showing this (the first is the default, the second is taken with the yellow skin):
Note that it shut down the backlight on my HP iPAQ 210 right away. Nothing could fix this. That is, the game (as of the current, 1.0 version) is fully incompatible with this model.
Verdict
If you’re into the genre, do check it out. I certainly recommend it over both Pocket 3DNoid and Crazy Ball 3D. Of course, it’s quite a bit more expensive than the directly comparable Pocket 3DNoid. That is, if you don’t want to spend $10 without comparing it to the alternatives first, also make sure you give Pocket 3DNoid a try first.
I only wish it had in-game music.