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OmniGSoft releases six new, WM5- and square screen compliant versions of their games

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).

Gaming news as of 03/13/2007

There is a lot of Windows Mobile gaming news to report on:
After Ben Stanley’s excellent review, Just Another Mobile Monday has also published a review of probably the best and, what is more, TCP/IP multiplayer-enabled, turn-based strategy game even released for the Pocket PC, Orions: Legend of Wizards. It's available here and is highly recommended. Note that I'll also publish a Strategy Guide to the game (I'm also an author of several Starcraft Strategy Guides so the genre, the ideas of micromanagement etc. are pretty well-known to me) later, as soon as I have some free time (not in the next two weeks, I'm afraid). (News source: PPCT).
BTW, note that a new, 1.01 version of the game was released some days ago; it, among other things, fixed the multiplayer functionality, which was entirely useless in the initial version. Now, multiplayer is working just great and, as it's IP address entering-based, really flexible and even allows for playing people in another continent (that is, it's not local-only). (News source: I worked very closely with the excellent Moregames Entertainment folks to quickly iron out the bug.)
Pocket Fallout, the highly recommended, free (!) Fallout clone (review here) has just received a dedicated website. (New source: private e-mail from the developer.)
[email protected] is working on a real (!) Pirates! clone Caribbean Adventures 1600AD. Unlike the other two piracy-related games on the Pocket PC, High Seas and Tradewinds (please read the full story here), this is promised to bear much more similarities with the classic Pirates! (News source: have run into the announcement while checking out the following title.)
The same developer, [email protected], has just released a space shooter Space Prospector. I haven't tested it as yet; based on the screenshots, it doesn't seem to be as good as SkyForce Reloaded, the best vertical scroller game available for the Pocket PC. I may be mistaken, though. (News source: PocketGamer.org)
The excellent Doom port (which, as can also be seen based on its name, supports the 3D hardware built into Intel 2700G and GoForce-based Windows Mobile devices) DoomGLES has been updated to version 0.5. There are two main things of interest in here (among other things):
- music support (at last! Previous versions only offered sound effects)
- can be played in Portrait mode, which is certainly very good news for Dell Axim x50v/x51v users sensitive to the polarization problems of the cheapo Dell screen in Landscape mode.
All in all, checking out the new version is a MUST for all 3D hardware accelerated Windows Mobile device users. (News source: forum announcement over PocketGamer.)
Interactive E Books Ltd has released Jurassic Adventure. It's an interactive e-book where you play the role of a research physicist sent back in time one hundred and fifty million years into the past. Don't, however, expect anything like a "real" adventure game. In my opinion, Interactive E Books's games are far inferior to that of, say, Legend Entertainment on the PC or, on the Pocket PC / Palm, Fade Team (Fade on the PPC / Acedior on the Palm - do they ring a bell?). However, it's pretty cheap and, if you're into the genre, you may want to give it a try. (News source: PocketGamer)
The free, highly recommended Transport Tycoon Deluxe has also been updated; the new features are as follows:
- Now works on VGA devices
- Loads the PC version of OpenTTD's save game files!
- Right-click emulation via hard buttons.
- Fast landscape graphics via custom raw frame buffer drawing routines.
- Full threaded sound effects and music.
- Palm TTD provides full 480x320 Tapwave API accelerated graphics
(News source & related discussion: PocketGamer)
Tetraedge has released the long-anticipated multimedia (which is bad news for fans of the "traditional" textual or Lucasfilm/Sierra-like genre) adventure game Syberia 2 in both English and German (French, Spanish and Italian versions will follow later). Note that I can only provide you a ClickGamer link (and this one for the German version) because the official homepage of the developer still doesn't have any information on the new game. Note that, while originally there wasn't, now, a trial version is also available. (News source & related discussion: PocketGamer)
PocketGear offers a 20% rebate for all their products in March with the coupon code MARCH20 (News source: PocketGamer)

UPDATE (later the same day): as is announced at AximSite, DoomGLES V0.54 has just been released. Make sure you upgrade!

Whatever happened to Live Anywhere? I would love to unlock achievements while i play zuma on my WM device and be able to chat with my xbox live friends when i'm bored in class... or customize my car on Forza Motorsport as their developers showed in the "capabilities" of live anywhere.

Emulation&gaming news:SmartGear with greatly enhanced NES compatibility;Civ clone etc

Emulation&gaming news:SmartGear with greatly enhanced NES compatibility;Civ clone etc
I think it was worth asking the developer of SmartGear to go commercial; his excellent emulator has been further enhanced after the major upgrades (the touch screen tap zones) in the previous version reviewed HERE. Now, almost all the NES mappers (more on this in the NES Emulation Bible) have been implemented, resulting in tons of previously incompatible games becoming playable. Thumbs up, Larry!
Revival will very soon be released – the first Civilization-like game for all mobile platforms, including both the touchscreen-enabled and -less two Windows Mobile platform. It seems to be REALLY great. Before it’s released, read Ben Stanley’s excellent review, “Revival: Finally a Civilization-Like Game for Windows Mobile!!!” and Masa’s in-depth one HERE (in French; the Babelfish and the Google Translator “translations” are HERE and HERE, respectively). Attila Katona’s (Symbian S60-related, but the game is basically the same on Symbian S60 as on touchscreen-less MS Smartphones) preview is HERE; his full-length review hasn’t been published yet. The related PG thread is HERE.
Lygue Games, who don’t seem to have a homepage of their own, have released a new platformer called “Bananas”. It’s available HERE and is definitely worth a try. (PPC only!)
There’s another platformer, Killer RoboRabbits from Mars; see THIS for more info.
Windows Mobile leading gaming news site PocketGamer.org has reported on some of the games of the free and pretty much high-quality games of XFlib website. See their report HERE, HERE and HERE of TangledBugs, Pipes (a Pipe Dreams clone – see the Windows Mobile Gaming Bible Part I for more info on this genre and the alternatives if interested) and ChristmasXed, in this order.
Still speaking of free games, the excellent Just Another Mobile Monday has published their Arcade Best Five (Plus Two) of 2007, listing the, in the staff’s opinion, best freeware games they’ve reviewed in 2007. Definitely worth a read. Also, don’t forget to check out their monthly freeware reports; their list is HERE.
Two new Sudokus have been released: Impossible Sudoku and Skinz Sudoku.

Misc news: MWC, GREAT rebates, new devices, new games/emulators/CorePlayer version

1. App news / rebates:
a. (still a preview, but still much more advanced than version 1.1.3 released a month ago) CorePlayer 1.2, finally, released for Windows Mobile. See THIS for more info. The Symbian version, as opposed to what was announced a month ago (then, the CoreCodec folks only promised a Windows Mobile release for February), seems to hit the shelves very soon too - see THIS thread. It, among other things, promises hardware acceleration. I'm really looking forward to the dramatic speed / efficiency increase this could mean on current high-end Nokias like the N95 using the latest TI OMAP & PowerVR-based chipsets.
b. ALL of VITO Technology's products are available for $7 (!!) only: go purchase them while the offer lasts! (I'm pretty unlucky, it seems: it was just before MWC that I purchased their AudioNotes for Symbian S60v3 for some $25... should I have known this GREAT rebate beforehand... )
2. Gaming & emulation news:
a. Creatonia made free!
Insenic, who, in the past, have already made two of their previously commercial titles free, decided to do the same to their pretty nice RPG title Creatonia. While the biggest problems (for example, the lack of in-game music, the dull graphics etc.) are still present, it's really worth getting for free. See THIS for a review (frontpaged on several sites).
b. a new version of Commodore 64 emulator for both the MS Smartphone (WM6 Standard) and Pocket PC (WM6 Pro / Classic) platform, PocketHobbit, is released, with a lot of niceties like native QVGA support (remember? It was me who wrote an extended, QVGA-enabled Smartphone version of the original) and frame rate settings. See THIS for a generic overview of emulating the Commodore 64 under Windows Mobile. It's available HERE (NOT on the old links).
c. Astraware has released a fully-fledged, very interesting strategy game Westward, which is certainly worth checking out. There is a great Just Another Mobile Moday review HERE. It runs on both Pocket PC's and Smartphones (and even Palm OS devices).
d. Beijing Huike Technology, the developers of Dark Street reviewed HERE, have released four additional games for both the Pocket PC and MS Smartphone:
- 3D Mad Cars (see THIS): a racing game
- 3D Anti-terrorist action (see THIS): a simple 3D first person shooter
- Treasure Island: a Japanese RPG
- Holy Beasts: a 2D side scroller.
As far as the first two (3D) titles are concerned, unfortunately, I've found both games rather poor for their price tag. Their 3D rendering, on VGA devices (tested this on the HTC Universal and Dell Axim x51v), is slow - even on the fastest Pocket PC's (for example, a 624 MHz x51v). On QVGA devices, they're pretty playable, on the other hand - even on lower-spec'ed devices like the HTC Vox. The 3D hardware acceleration capabilities of the Dell Axim x51v aren't used either. All in all, I recommend going for a better title - there are a lot of them in both the 3D car racing and FPS categories, some with even 3D hardware acceleration support (for example, the free (!) DoomPPC / DoomGLES / HereticGLES)
All in all, don't bother with these two titles - they are simply not worth the $11.99.
The two other titles are a bit cheaper ($8.99), but this doesn't mean they're worth purchasing either. First, Holy Beasts is one of the worse side scrollers (particularly on VGA devices, where it has major speed problems). It's just incomparably worse than "real" top-down scrollers like SkyForce Reloaded (or, for that matter, emulated 1942 clones (1944 / 19XX) run under the great console emulator Finalburn Alpha). Not worth purchasing.
Treasure Island is a Japanese RPG - probably the most remarkable and recommended of the bunch. However, it's not known whether it's a long one. Fellow blogger Eric Pankoke stated "So far I've probably got 1-2 hours in it, but I have no idea where I am compared to the end. If trends adhere to this game, however, I don't expect it to be very long. Look at Angel Sword and Knight Tales: both the same style of game, both very short." (He's referring to being VERY short, playable through in a few hours only.) In addition, it's pretty much unplayable on VGA devices because of the huge, pixel doubled fonts (as of version 1.0.1), which makes it very hard to read the conversations. (The same problem exists in all the other titles of the same developer, but, as the text doesn't convey much anything in them, the bug doesn't cause as big problems as in this title.) On QVGA devices, there aren't problems like this.
The in-game music is VERY short and repetitive in all the four titles (albeit still better than in the, in this regard, worst OmniGSoft titles) - as was the case with Dark Street.
All in all, for the time being, you should stay away from Beijing Huike Technology's titles. There're WAY better alternatives.
e. SNES emulator written in assembly - way faster than even before?
Some weeks ago, I've already reported on the announcement of the developer of SmartGear about adding either GBA or SNES support (or both?) for his really excellent console emulator. Now, he has announced he'd rewrite the most time-critical SNES emulation code in ASM assembly, which means way higher speeds. This means his emulator would become the only one with real, 100% working emulation on even lower-spec'ed Windows Mobile devices (see THIS for my SNES Emulation Bible for more info on the existing emulators). Make sure you post into the original thread asking him to do this feat if you'd like to see a 100% working SNES emulator on your phone.
f. TetraEdge's games for half the price!
Many of you like TetraEdge's adventure games. They're indeed very good (albeit, of course, I still prefer old-school textual games like those of Legend Entertainment - see my MS-DOS Emulation Bible for more info on them.) The links to the individual games can be found in THIS PocketPlayers Reloaded thread; also check out my article HERE on how you can purchase from Mobile2Day if you don't speak German and Google Translator / Babelfish don't help either.

3. MWC: more to come!
I plan to publish a big writeup on the new Windows Mobile PDA's / phones on Sunday but not before that as I'm really busy.
In the meantime, some external threads / videos I recommend:
MoDaCo's E-Ten thread & MWC news& videos
MoDaCo: Toshiba's new models (G710, G810 and G910)
MDA Compact IV specs
MsMobiles' main MS Press conference video
Tuedsay's Q&A Sony-Ericsson & MS conference video (MsMobiles)
Discussion of the HP 210; my remarks; links to other tests (particularly the Axim/MobilitySite and the BrightHand forums are worth checking out if interested in the new model)
A PPCT discussion of the new Samsung SGH-i780 (a pretty promising Pocket PC with a BlackBerry-alike thumbboard, a square 320*320 (yes, you've read it right: NOT those awful, incompatible-with-most-titles 240*240 screens!) screen, the latest-and-(almost the) greatest PXA310 CPU (as opposed to the old, PXA270 series) and an optical touchpad (as opposed to traditional D-pads). I've played a lot with the latter at Barcelona and didn’t quite like it but I’ve already been spoiled by the touchpad of the HP iPAQ hx4700, which I hated.
In THIS PPCT thread, we discuss the VGA vs. QVGA question and the new, just-announced/released VGA devices.
MoDaCo's XPERIA thread
WMExpert's What’s up with Qualcomm? An Insider Q & A!
ZDNet's Readius review (also see mine HERE, should you have missed it)
Qualcomm Strikes Again: New Family of Mobile Chips Offering Rich Multimedia and Wireless Capabilities - here's the new Qualcomm chipset I referred to in my last, chipset / 3D accelerator-related MWC report. Unfortunately, not even the S-E XPERIA X1 will have this chipset - you'll need to wait more.
MoDaCo's revised Athena (Advantage)/ x7510 thread; a similar one from MobilitySite.
A quick note: I've also tested the new model at MWC and found the keyboard less-than-stellar. Don't expect anything similar to, say, the HTC Universal or the Kaiser/Tilt. See the linked threads for more info.
NVIDIA Announces the APX 2500 for Windows Mobile: in my last 3D hardware accelerator chipset roundup, I still haven't discussed NVIDIA (see their GoForce 5500 in, say, the O2 XDA Flame and the two new Xscale-based i-mate models: the 8150 and the 6150).
I can only hope that it's compatible with the GoForce 5500 so that the (unfortunately, currently, still very few - see their list HERE) GF 5500-compatible games / emulators will also work on it without explicitlly adding support.
BTW, speaking of the O2 XDA Flame (XDA-Devs thread HERE, dedicated independent forum HERE) I've asked the O2 folks at MWC about both the successor to the Flame and the possible official (!) WM6 upgrade to the device. Nobody had any information. Interestingly, while O2's homepage some months ago still listed XDA Flame 2 as "coming", now, I can't find this ad any more. They, it seems, don't plan to release an upgraded version of the Flame any more.

wow Menneisyys, you're on top of things! Tons of thanks for all of this highly-condensed, yet incredibly interesting info! I popped through a handful of links and it's all good news to me!
Now I just gotta be patient for the Xperia X1!

Multiplatform Gaming News (08/30/2008)

1. (WinMo, desktop Windows): The creators of Shadow of Legend, a really promising multiplayer (!!) MMORPG I’ve several times reported on, have announced (see http://www.shadowoflegend.com/web/News.aspx?ID=452 ) the forthcoming, vastly enhanced 2.5D version of their game.
Unfortunately, there will be NO Windows Mobile-specific version of the new game, unlike with the previous, 2G (isometric) version. It will only be released later, if at all: the developers state they will only look into releasing the WinMo version when WinMo hardware manufacturers do come up with much more gaming-friendly (mostly importantly, 3D hardware accelerated) devices – that is, not in the foreseeable future.
2. (WinMo, BlackBerry, (Symbian?)): Concrete Software ( http://www.concretesoftware.com/ ) have announced the forthcoming native (non-emulated!) ports of the titles of the great Microprose classics, Civilization (IV?), Pirates! and Railroad Tycoon.
The ports will, at first, be released for BlackBerry. (Which may also mean they’ll also be made available for Symbian and other platforms with strong Java MIDlet support – after all, BlackBerry apps are also Java-based.) The BlackBerry games list (http://www.concretesoftware.com/blackberry/index.shtml ) on the homepage of the developer already shows these four titles; Civilization (here, referred to as Civ IV: War of Two Cities – that is, not the first episode) is slated for Sep. 2., while no release date is provided for the other two titles. The listing of other platforms doesn’t list the new titles as yet.
While, at least on Windows Mobile, you definitely can play these titles under emulators (for example, Civilization does run under n0p’s DOSBox – see The definitive guide to running (MS-)DOS (80x86) programs under Windows Mobile at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blogs/3/the_definitive_guide_to_running_ms_dos_8_12 for more info), doing the same with native (or, at least, Java MIDlet-based) games is much better: much less CPU usage (resulting in much better battery life), advanced (midi / Adlib / Sound blaster) audio, customizable keys etc.
3. Make sure you check out Eric Pankoke’s My World Of Handhelds http://www.myworldofhandhelds.com . Among other things, it has decent a review of Xassar's Quest ( http://myworldofhandhelds.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=33 ) and Igor ( http://myworldofhandhelds.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=1 ) – two titles I couldn’t fully test upon writing a quick news items on them. Of particular interest is Xassar's Quest, an RPG, which definitely is worth paying attention to.
4. (Windows Mobile devices with accelerometer): There is a real abundance of games utilizing the accelerometer of the HTC Diamond and the HTC Touch Pro. See the list of these games at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=411419 . The thread started post is worth checking out now and then for new projects.
Still speaking of 3D hardware acceleration, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=415873 has a decent C#/.NET Compact Framework wrapper for OpenGLES. If you’re a .NET CF games programmer looking into 3D acceleration, check it out.
5. (Symbian): Several new, high-quality titles have been released for Nokia’s Next-Gen N-Gage platform. Some of the better titles include the adventure Dirk Dagger (official website: http://www.dirkdagger.com/ ; AAN post & discussion: http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7858_Dirk_Dagger_now_available_on_N.php ) and, most importantly, Reset Generation (see related AAN story at http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7789_Reset_Generation_The_first_Meg.php and http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7774_Reset_Generation_out_now_on_N-.php ), a truly multiplayer, really nice game well worth trying. Note that it has a free Web version you can test in your desktop browser; it’s available at http://www.allaboutngage.com/games/item/Project_White_Rock.php . Also note that you can even put the game on your own website as is explained at http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7781_How_to_put_the_full_version_of.php
Still speaking of the N-Gage platform, the also-new Dogz has received pretty bad press; see http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7914_AAN_reviews_Dogz_for_N-Gage.php
6. (Symbian, Palm, WinMo): Infinite Dreams, the developer of some killer titles like K-Rally and SkyForce (Reloaded), have a blog on their own at http://idreamsblog.blogspot.com/ (also see http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7742_Infinite_Dreams_Blog.php ). There aren’t many entries there; still, fans of the developer may still want to check the page out.
7. (WinMo): A free (!) Metal Slug-remake, Psycho Team’s Symbian Killer (see http://psygame.org/publ/2-1-0-4 ; direct download: http://psygame.org/download/SymbianKiller.CAB ) is definitely worth checking out if you like Metal Slug, one of the bets 2D platform games ever written. (See my Guide to Emulating NeoGeo and CPS: A must if you’re into quality and FREE arcade games! at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blogs/3/the_guide_to_emulating_neogeo_and_cps_a for more info on emulating the original titles.)
8. (WinMo): another platformer: Firetop Adventure. Allen Gall's review is at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blog/5248/the-week-in-games-firetop-adventure