Ever wanted to play pool on your handheld device, let it be either a Palm, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian or just a Java-enabled phone? While there already are some pool games for most of these platforms, new titles are always welcome.
(Examples of already-existing games:
for Windows Mobile and Palm OS, the excellent Virtual Pool Mobile reviewed HERE; note that the review also contains some links to other, multiplayer-enabled pool games and is, therefore, highly recommended. Note that Vegas Pool Sharks (as with Virtual Pool Mobile) doesn’t support multiplayer. Both support high resolution on VGA devices; in addition, Virtual Pool Mobile also supports the 2700G in the Dell Axim x50v/x51v devices.
for Java-enabled phones, there’re several pool MIDlet games; for example, Gameloft’s 3D Midnight Pool or, even better and more recommended, I-Play’s 3D World Championship Pool, just to name probably the two most widely known titles). See the MIDlet Bible for more info on what MIDlets are, how you can run them on Windows Mobile / Symbian etc.
RESETgame’s new title is, however, pretty much welcome, mostly because of its price tag (at least half of that of Virtual Pool Mobile, particularly when compared to the $24.95 of the Dell Axim x50v/x51v-specific one) and support for all kinds of screen resolutions. It has native support for even the highest-resolution ((W)VGA) screens – while still also supporting the lowest-end Smartphones. Two screenshots showing this:
On a VGA PPC:
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and on a low-end 176*220 Smartphone:
Unfortunately, it doesn’t support any 3D hardware acceleration, but it isn’t a problem either as, as opposed to Virtual Pool Mobile, it has no 3D animation (you can’t arbitrarily change the camera’s viewpoint) and has no other, 3D-related goodies either.
Availability
The games are available HERE for a trial (ClickGamer’s page doesn’t have downloadable trials) and, as far as Windows Mobile is concerned, are compatible with both Pocket PC’s and Smartphones starting with WM2003 (SP2003).
Palm OS
It ran flawlessly on my Palm Tungsten T3, utilizing its HiRes (320*320) screen but, unfortunately, not HiRes+ (320*480), not even in Landscape mode. (Note that Virtual Pool Mobile 1.48 runs great on the T|3 too).
Symbian / Java
Interestingly, the ClickGamer page of the game lists the game having a Symbian S60v3 / UIQ 3 version. I couldn’t find a track of this on their homepage. The Java version (the trial JAR file is accessible HERE), on the other hand, worked flawlessly and fast on my Nokia N95 and had exactly the same goodies (sound, shortcuts etc) as the native Windows Mobile / Palm versions. It even (flawlessly) supports the Landscape orientation.
Problems on touchscreen-enabled platforms
Unfortunately, it doesn’t support aiming using the touchscreen, as opposed to all the other native Pocket PC (or Palm) pool games. In this regard, for example Virtual Pool Mobile is WAY better (and it offers a lot of other goodies; for example in-game music, free camera movement and career mode). However, if yours is a no-touchscreen platform (MS Smartphone, Symbian S60, dumbphones), this won’t be a problem.
Verdict
If you have a non-touchscreen device (MS Smartphone, Blackberry, Symbian S60 or any Java MIDlet-capable, compatible phone) and you don’t like the above-linked Java-based (or native, if any) games, give it a try – you might like it and/or find it substantially better than the alternatives.
On Pocket PC’s and Palm OS devices (that is, ones with touch screens), however, don’t expect it to be better than Virtual Pool Mobile – give the trial version of the latter a try first to see whether its merits are indeed worth the double (or, if you have a Dell Axim x50v/x51v, double-and-a-half times) price and, then, compare Vegas Pool Sharks to it – after all, you get what you pay for.
UPDATE (11/14/2007): the game has turned out to have touchscreen support on the Pocket PC and Palm platforms. It works entirely differently from other pool games because, as opposed to them, it doesn't let for dragging by the stylus: if you leave the stylus on the screen, it'll immediately shoot. The other usage is (make sure you touch the screen VERY quickly in order to avoid shooting!) quick aiming. This is certainly good news (albeit, again, you might find the touchscreen-based control strange if you've got used to alternative pool games - this is why I haven't found out how the touchscreen control works, in the first place).
Also, I've remembered the price of the game wrong. It's $14.95 as opposed to what I've stated ("at least half of that of Virtual Pool Mobile"; that is, below $10).
(end of update)
Related
Remember the Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge series on the home computers of the late 80's / early 90’s? Ever wanted a game similar to them on the Pocket PC? Now, you can!
Apart from Kart games (please see this roundup of them), there have been very few “light”, "arcade" racing games on the Pocket PC. The new, reviewed title, therefore, really welcome – despite its problems on VGA devices and lack of 2700G support.
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Availability
The game is available here for all popular handheld platforms (MS Pocket PC and Smartphone; Palm; S60 and UIQ).
Note that the official homepage of the developer (still) doesn’t have a trial version online; ClickGamer (see link above) does. That is, visit the latter for the trial version.
Compatibility
It’s compatible with all my WM2003+ (no PPC2k2 support, sorry) devices. I’ve tested it on the following devices without problems: WM5 VGA Dell Axim x51v (A12), WM2003SE VGA Pocket Loox 720, WM5 VGA iPAQ hx4700 (2.01; bad controls - D-Pad is not gaming-friendly!), WM5 QVGA HTC Wizard (clocked at the default 195 MHz), WM2003 QVGA iPAQ h2210.
Differences between Palm and Pocket PC versions
I’ve also tested the game on my Palm Tungsten T3 to find out the differences between the different mobile platform implementations (in this case, Pocket PC and Palm). It runs great on it too, even in HiRes+ (320*480 mode) (with, of course, high car / track rendering resolution). To get the best speed, you’ll want to run it in plain HiRes (320*320) mode though. Unfortunately, on Palm OS HiRes+ devices, it doesn’t support Landscape mode mode at all, unlike on Pocket PC's.
The most important difference between Palm and Pocket PC is the lower sound / music sampling frequency on the latter. On Palms, the in-game music / sounds sound considerably better than on the Pocket PC. This should also be fixed in a subsequent PPC version.
Controls
D-Pad only; there is no way to (fine) control the car with the stylus, as opposed to, say, GeoRally EX (review here, in the second part of ALL 2700G-enabled games and demos) and like Stuntcar Extreme (review of the 2700G version here and the multiplayer capabilities of the title in the Pocket PC Multiplayer Bible). This, on one hand, understandable (after all, stylus control can greatly decrease the speed of the game on some devices – for example, see the example of Skyforce Reloaded on the iPAQ h2210 and the HTC Wizard. This, unfortunately, also means it’s pretty unplayable on devices with non-gaming-friendly controls (most importantly, the HP iPAQ hx4700).
The landscape mode is available only via OS-level and not in-game switching. This is bad news for WM2003 users – in WM2003, there are no OS-level landscape switching capabilities.
Note that you must use left-handed (NOT the default right-handed one!) landscape mode in order to be able to have the D-pad in a non-inversed mode!
Visuals
Pretty good, particularly considering it doesn’t use any kind of hardware acceleration.
On VGA devices, it’s a bit slow (but still tolerable) and you can’t switch back to QVGA resolution. The latter is a big problem. Note that it runs with approximately the same speed on all the three VGA devices I’ve tested it on (hx4700, x51v and PL720).
Sounds
The sounds aren’t bad, albeit they are all in mono, as opposed to, say, Michael Schumacher Racing World Kart (see Mario Kart games on the Pocket PC). The in-game and the menu music repetitive but pretty good – just like what a “light” racing game should have.
Summary
Pros
Very fast on QVGA devices, even on older (for example the iPAQ h2210) and “slow” (see for example the non-overclocked HTC Wizard) devices and even in landscape mode
Hi-Res track / car (but NOT ambient buildings / trees!) resolution on VGA (and on Palm OS) devices
Cons
Considerably slower on VGA devices than on QVGA ones
No 2700G support (bad news for Dell Axim x50v/x51v users)
Lack of Landscape support for WM2003 devices
Inconsistent menu exit/enter button over different PPC models if you don’t have dedicated (or assigned) WM5 softkey buttons. For example, on some devices (for example, the PL720), it’s Today / Action ; on other devices different (for example, on the iPAQ 2210, iTask / Calendar)
No stereo in-game sound / music
Lower sound / music sampling frequency on Pocket PC than on the Palm
No multiplayer capabilities (unlike MicroQuad – see Mario Kart games on the Pocket PC), Stuntcar Extreme and the “original” Lotus series
Verdict
Recommended. Go get it if you’re a fan of “light” racer games, you’d like to have a Lotus-like game on your Pocket PC and you happen to have any QVGA device. If you have a VGA device, you can also give it a try to see whether you can live with the considerably lower frame rate.
Recommended links
Mario Kart games on the Pocket PC
The Games category in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Expert blogs
RealDice has specialized in producing Pocket PC and MS Smartphone multiplayer table / card games. In addition to PDAMill and some other developers (like pocketadventures.com), they should be the first game developer to check out when looking for multiplayer-enabled Backgammon, Chess, Domino, Mahjong, Texas Hold’em Poker and Sudoku games.
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I’ve long been planning a generic update of my last RealDice review published last May. Now that the developer has (for the most part) fixed the CPU usage bug I’ve discovered in the early versions and has also come out with some brand new titles (for example, the last one, Dominoes has just been released; it’s so new it doesn’t even have an official section on RealDice’s homepage as yet and is only accessible on third-party distributors like ClickGamer), I knew I can no longer wait.
Availability
Currently, five of the six RealDice titles are available on the official homepage of RealDice. Note that there aren’t direct links to (three-day) trial downloads in there; you must select the download type (there are, for Pocket PC’s, only two types of files to download: a QVGA and a VGA version; this also means you can safely use, for example, the Acer N30 (QVGA) version for all QVGA and the Acer N311 (VGA) version for all VGA devices, even for non-listed ones. For MS Smartphones, you’ll need to look up the closest relative of your model if you can’t find it in the list) by using the drop-down lists on the left.
Their latest title, Dominoes, still doesn’t have a page on its own and, therefore, must be downloaded from ClickGamer.
What's new?
First of all, the major problems have been fixed and, now, unlike with the earlier versions, I can already recommend these games particularly for VGA users and / or multiplayer fans.
As of the current versions (Backgammon: 1.39; Chess: 1.43; Dominoes: 1.12; Mahjong: 1.30; Texas Hold’em Poker: 4.24; Sudoku II: 1.13),
The good
The CPU usage of all the six titles was between 40 and 80% on all my test devices (in no case lower than 40%; ~70% when waiting for SIP input from the user (for example, entering a name)). This also means ALL the games are perfectly playable on all current Pocket PC’s, as opposed to earlier versions.
I haven’t had compatibility or, as far as the CPU usage is concerned, major playability problems on any of my WM2003+ devices (I’ve tested them all: iPAAQ 2210, WM5-upgraded hx4700 (2.01), Pocket Loox 720, HTC Universal, Wizard (AKU3), x51v (A12)) with any of the current versions.
The bad
While the CPU usage (of ALL current versions!) is definitely better than that of the initial versions, it’s still a bit high, particularly when you take into account the much lower CPU usage of some other games (and the lack of music). The RealDice folks may really want to look into further reducing the CPU usage of the title (by, for example, relying on operating system-level touchscreen / keyboard event listeners)
The game still uses its own on-screen keyboard for input. This solution is not only sub-par because of the high CPU usage and the lack of visible keypress feedback, but also because you can’t quick-edit the contents of the text input fields (for example, quickly position the cursor). Fortunately, you can enter information using a remote controller application (see the roundup here) if you are completely fed up with the shortcomings of the keyboard.
All these titles consist of one big executable file (and a small DLL file). This, unfortunately, also means a slightly longer loading time, particularly when installed onto a storage card / flash ROM (including the built-in storage on WM5 devices).
On VGA devices, the landscape mode (only right-hand landscape mode is possible, which is bad news for slide-out keyboard users) is buggy: the screen events are registered at wrong coordinates.
There is still no in-game music in any of the titles.
Both good and bad
The games are all central server-based. This has, as has also been explained in the Multiplayer Bible both advantages and disadvantages. Now that RealDice has also set up a (as with many similar services – for example, EverQuest on the desktop PC or Sphere on the 2700G-enabled Pocket PC, non-free; it costs $8 a month) online gaming community, you gain access to a lot of additional goodies such a community / central server offers; for example, advanced chat and messaging features, buddy lists and global rankings / ladder. See THIS for more info. (Note that you don’t need to subscribe to RealDice world to play standard multiplayer games! You'll only need it for advanced functionality.) Unfortunately, the lack of direct, internet / server-less multiplayer connection models is still a nuisance. Nevertheless, some games offer hotseat multiplayer capabilities (which is still much inferior to real local inter-PDA multiplayer gaming).
Verdict
I didn’t recommend the earlier versions of RealDice’s games. Now that the CPU usage has been fixed, this is no longer the case: make sure you check them out if you’re into the genre (table / poker games).
Other reviews to check out
The review of Texas Hold'em by great German language Pocket PC side PocketGaming.
Fortunately, the Windows Mobile gaming scene is thriving. It was just a few days ago that I’ve published the last gaming news article (available HERE; it was also mentioned in THIS PPCT frontpaged story); in the meantime, there have been two major, new releases. (BTW, as far as the games reported on in the last part are concerned, in the meantime, the bugs of Plasma Duel have been fixed. I also recommend THIS PG.org thread on Corsair, which I have also nominated for this year’s Best Software Awards contest.)
Sindbad: Return of Legend – a GREAT Prince of Persia clone – finally out!
I’ve already reported on the early alpha of this title. It was pretty much useless and unplayable. Fortunately, the final version is (almost) flawless and offers a REALLY nice and rich graphics enviromnent – definitely better than the home computers or 8-bit consoles of that age (early nineties) – it’s only the SNES version that is similarly rich. (See them HERE if you’re interested.)
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Unfortunately, there’s absolutely no in-game music, only (not really great) sounds.
It, as with the alpha version, is available HERE for WM2003+ -based Pocket PC’s (no MS Smartphones are supported, sorry, mostly because of the two on-screen tap areas).
Verdict: I heartily recommend the title if you’re a die-hard Prince of Persia fan and want to play through all the games based on the original game, but with brand new maps and excellent (albeit QVGA only, which is bad news for owners of VGA devices) graphics.
If, however, you “only” want to play the original Prince of Persia and find the (pretty hefty, if you ask me) price tag ($19.95) of Sindbad too big, you may want to go for emulating the original title (I particularly recommend the NES (for example, with SmartGear) and the MS-DOS emulation (with both n0p’s DOSBox port and PocketDOS); both are excellent). It’s not only free, but, as far as emulating with SmartGear is concerned, is much easier on the battery. (Sindbad continuously uses 100% CPU time even without you moving; this means heavily reduced battery life when compared to, say, the newer version(s) of SmartGear).
ConcreteSoft releases 3D Lawn Darts
This title is the second game of ConcreteSoft, the first being Constructo Combat reviewed HERE.
(main menu VGA screenshot HERE)
It’s a 3D darts game, with two special features: native Bluetooth multiplayer and camera-based motion controllability, the latter being the major (intended) selling point of the title.
I was unable to test the former (BT multiplayer support) because the trial version doesn’t support multiplayimg features at all (and I hate requesting review copies of titles I know I won’t write a 100% positive review of – you know, I hate biting the feeding hand). Therefore, I can’t even comment on the BT compatibility – whether the developer has implemented support for the Microsoft BT stack in the meantime (Constructo Combat didn’t support the Microsoft BT stack). Please, developers, DO provide ALL the functionality in your trial versions so that they can be tested before purchasing – or, for that matter, when writing a definitely unbiased review of.
As far as the camera-based, Wii-like control scheme is concerned, I don’t think it’s as groundbreaking as the developer claims. Even after a two times three-stage calibration (example screenshot), I’ve had problems with unreliable shots (screenshot). What is more, it’s only at throwing the dart that you have any effect on the direction of the dart, not later. This means, if the camera-based control works at all, it will inherently be more unreliable than the standard, D-pad-based control. That is, the camera mode, in my opinion, is pretty much useless.
It also has some bugs; for example, if you have a pair of stereo (wired or wireless A2DP) headphones, you won’t like the in-game music / sound effects to be played back in one channel (in the right piece of the headphones) only.
Finally, bad news for users of pre-WM5 devices: as with Constructo Combat, this game is completely incompatible with older operating systems. That is, it's not even compatible with the three-year-old WM2003SE operating system.
It also has strengths. For example, it’s one of the very few games to natively (!) support the MS Smartphone (WM6 Standard) platform (in addition to all flavors of the Pocket PC platform, including native, hi-res (!) graphics on VGA devices, just like in Constructo Combat). It even runs on 176*220, low-resolution Smartphones models – with some minor glitches. With menus (screenshot) and in-game screens, it’s OK as can be seen in the following screenshot:
With tutorial screens, however, it isn’t, as can also be seen in HERE and HERE.
The title is available for download HERE; the price of the full version is $19.95.
Verdict: I think you will want to check out the other darts alternatives first. There are many; most const half (or even the quarter) the price. Examples include, most importantly, Devil Darts, Patriotic Darts, JasonGoldman.com’s Dartz and Webfoot Technologies’ Darts.
Clickgamer 48-hour sale & other rebates
There are some interesting rebates at Clickgamer; make sure you check them out. You can get the following titles for half the price: the brand new Secrets of da Vinci, The Quest and Ballrush Aqua. Astraware Solitaire (links to reviews in the previous two Games News) is also offered with a 50% rebate. Finally, if you have a Dell Axim x50v/x51v and you still don’t have Quake Mobile Ultimate Bundle (review HERE), you may be interested in THIS 20% rebate.
Emulator news
This time, there are no new releases. I’ve, on the other hand, finished adding the missing emulators to the Emulators category in the Encyclopedia of Software & Accessories. While some emulators are still missing (for example, the latest native MS Smartphone ZX Spectrum and C64 emulators and some calculator emulators – their authors have still not registered them, which means I will need to do it myself. Please check back tomorrow or the day after for the final list), you can already have a good picture of what emulators (along with the Best Software Awards 2007 contest, of course) these categories will contain.
Emulation article-wise, I also recommend these kind words from Allen Gall, the Games Editor of PPCMag
I was told about the brand new, multiplatform (desktop PC, PPC & ALL Smartphone platforms, including even Landscape QVGA models like the Q) in THIS MoDaCo thread. The Smartphone (not counting in Skyforce (Reloaded) and, of course, arcade emulation with FinalBurn Alpha) heavily lacking GOOD vertical scrollers, I hurried up to test the game on my handhelds.
It’s, as can also be seen in the above-linked MoDaCo thread, is constantly updated; the current version (1.21) was released just a few days ago (06/25).
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The game supports all current screen resolutions. This, however, doesn’t mean it makes use of high resolution on (W)VGA Pocket PC’s – just that it supports the common Smartphone resolutions and orientations (in addition to the standard QVGA and 240*240 square resolution on Pocket PC). Note that, on 176*220 Smartphones, some of the titles are not readable or hard to read (see for example THIS and THIS screenshots); fortunately, in-game graphics is pretty good (example screenshot HERE). On QVGA models, everything is OK.
Speed-wise, I haven’t encountered any speed problems on any of my handhelds, not even on my comparatively slow Vox (s710) with A2DP activated (A2DP takes a lot of CPU cycles).
Getting the game
Get it HERE or on c2matrix’ official homepage.
The trial version is one-map only (fortunately, it contains several submaps and a lot of graphics); the commercial version costs $14.95.
Note that the c2matrix server, unfortunately, returns the CAB files as text. This means you will have problems with some Windows Mobile Web browsers downloading the CAB files for direct install – even the latest Opera Mini 4 Beta. See the Download Bible and the “Saving, downloading group:” section in the Web Browsing Bible for more info & help, should you REALLY want to get the OTA (Over-The-Air) installer without having access to any desktop PC.
Compared to…
Let's compare the game to the two best alternatives, Skyforce Reloaded and FinalBurn Alpha:
Skyforce Reloaded, this title is definitely weaker:
The in-game music is WAY worse, low-quality, mono and repetitive. Sound effects are mono only.
In general, there is less happening on the screen: fewer sprites, slightly less spectacular vision effects etc.
While there are 3D (mostly hills and towers) models in the game, those of Skyforce Reloaded are clearly better and much more please the eye
emulated CAVE, CPS and NeoGeo games (with FinalBurn Alpha reviewed HERE),
it isn’t THAT good either. These commercial arcade games have really good music, sound / visual effects. Make sure you give them a try – read THIS tutorial, get some games and play – you’ll LOVE them!
Note that neither Skyforce Reloaded nor Finalburn Alpha support vibration, while this game does. Not that it’d be THAT important – it’s only when you die or when your main enemies are destroyed that the vibration is used.
Also, this is the only vertical scroller I know of to support replay functionality. It’s definitely a nice addition, should you want to see recorded playing sessions. (And, of course, it supports map codes so that you can quickly return to a given one, without having to play through the ones you already know. Of course, Skyforce Reloaded also unlocks already played maps and, with non-Neo-Geo titles, Finalburn Alpha support state saving / loading.)
Compatibility
I had absolutely no problems on any of my WM2003+ Pocket PC’s I’ve tested it on (HP iPAQ 2210, WM5 2.01 VGA HP iPAQ hx4700, WM2003SE VGA PL720, A12 Dell Axim x51v). The same stands for my MS Smartphones: the 176*220 WM5 HTC s310 (Oxygen) and the QVGA Portrait s710 (Vox).
The game, by default, isn’t compatible with the old Pocket PC 2002 operating system. Rewriting the DLL’s with Executability Check (also see the page HERE) helps, but the graphics will still be messed up and unplayable.
Verdict
While this game is clearly better than the VAST majority of vertical scrollers on the Pocket PC (and, particularly, on the MS Smartphone), there are still better alternatives. Both Skyforce Reloaded and arcade (CAVE / CPS / NeoGeo) emulation delivers definitely better, more enjoyable results – at a reduced price (Skyforce Reloaded is cheaper) or for free.
This, however, doesn’t mean this game is bad, not in the least (except for the in-game music, which is REALLY bad). Even if you’re a fan of the above-listed games, you will want to give it a try to find out whether it’s your taste or not. Also, if you only know lower-quality titles (the old Burning Armor, Star Invader II by IBE Group, Super Invade, AngelFish or Resco Guardians), you’ll certainly like this title (but, as has already been pointed out, go for Skyforce Reloaded and Finalburn Alpha first).
Also see…
Allen Gall’s review
This is the latest part of my Games News series; you can find the previous part HERE. The news in this part applies to both the Pocket PC (Windows Mobile 6 Pro / Classic) and MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile 6 Standard) devices - that is, no matter what Windows Mobile device you have, you WILL want to read on.
Arcade Park 1.3 out – now, with redefinable fire button!
Arcade Park is, in my opinion, a really good collection of reimplementation of old arcade games reviewed HERE (you may also want to check out the two other reviews linked at the end) containing several old subgames. It’s available for example HERE for all mobile platforms, including both the MS Smartphone (both 176*220 and QVGA) and Pocket PC (it’s even compatible with 240*240 square-screen devices; unfortunately, it doesn’t make use of high resolution on VGA ones).
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(main menu on a 176*220 Smartphone; the same on a QVGA/VGA PPC / QVGA Smartphone)
In-game screenshot on a 176*220 Smartphone; the same on a QVGA/VGA PPC / QVGA Smartphone)
The biggest problem with the game, so far, have been the inability to redefine keys; most importantly, the Action button. Now, oin the new version, you can do it in the new Controls menu. Example 176*220 SP screenshots: 1 2 (on a QVGA PPC / SP)
(Incidentally, as can also be seen in the in-game screenshots, you no longer need to defend the Soviet flag, which may be good news for several players, particularly in post-Soviet countries. Another plus for the developers.)
(Guys, I’m really sorry you’ve just missed the deadline date for the Awards 2007 with this upgraded version. Should you have published the new version some days earlier, I would definitely have nominated it for this year’s awards. No problem – I’ll do it next year.)
Verdict
Now that the button redefinition problem is fixed, highly recommended, particularly if you have a Smartphone (given the lack of good MS Smartphone games).
SmartGear 0.28 out!
SmartGear is one of the best gaming console emulatrors I’ve featured in my past emulator news / roundups.
So far, one of the biggest problems with the emulator was the sound problems (in addition to its incompatibility with some games – for example, enhanced NES titles; the PC Engine version of Turrican – unfortunately, this hasn’t been enhanced. The only change is that for example Turrican no longer starts (with all 0.2x versions, as opposed to 0.12)). Now, according to the developer, this is supposed to be fixed.
Note that there are still some problems with the sound: for example, the PC Engine (TG-16) version of Bonk's Adventure still plays the same FM-like sounds during the game as earier versions. Also, very few Genesis (Mega Drive) games have music (for example, Xenon 2 (Xenon 2 Megablast (E) [c][!]) and Risky Woods (Risky Woods (UE) [!]) don’t have, the former not even sounds; one of the very few games that do have music is Alien 3 (JUE) [!]. Also, the FitWin* mode still crashes on my VGA devices and FitWin is unberabaly slow – you will still need to use either the 100% or the 150% mode, which means stamp-sized screens on VGA devices. On the other hand, on 176*220 Smartphones (for example, on my HTC Oxygen / s310), where it’s REALLY needed with most desktop games (otherwise, they’d be too big even in 75% mode) FitWin works just great and doesn’t result in any really bad speed decrease (tested this with the GG version of Sonic and the PC Engine version of Bonk's Adventure; they both worked just great with the default sound / frame skipping / throttling settings on my Oxygen).
The desktop Windows version of the emulator, after closing it once (because I couldn’t continue a paused game), kept crashing after restarts.
All in all, while this title is REALLY good (particularly on slower devices – for example, non-overclocked TI OMAP ones, including, screen size-wise, both types of Smartphones), the FitWin performance may need to be addressed on VGA Pocket PC’s as soon as possible, along with the Genesis (Mega Drive) music issues.