There are several vertical scroller space shooter games but very few of them are free. Distant Galaxies, available for both Windows Mobile platforms (touchscreen- and touchscreen-less) is one of them. It’s available HERE for download and is recommended, albeit it has some problems.
There isn’t much to elaborate on: you download the CAB or the installer EXE file, install it, start it and play. You go forwards, kill your enemies, try to pick up the bonuses as in most vertical scrollers. Note that you can reconfigure the buttons.
As of current, tested version: 1.6,
Pros
Free!
Excellent on high-resolution (VGA) devices because of the high resolution and seeing all the bonuses
Compatible with WM2003 onward (but, of course, not previous OS’es)
Compatible with all screen configurations and both Windows Mobile platforms
Moderate CPU usage on most platforms (40% on a VGA 624 MHz PXA310 iPAQ 210, 55% on a 176*220 196 MHz TI OMAP 850-based HTC s310 / Oxygen MS Smartphone) – not on all though (88% CPU usage on the WM2003 QVGA iPAQ h2210 using a 400 MHz PXA255)
Cons
No autofire
Can’t be controlled via stylus on touchscreen devices
Stuttering (to a different degree) on all test devices
No music (albeit anything can be played in the background without major performance penalties on the fastest models)
Major performance degradation (stuttering) with background music playback, particularly on slower models like TI OMAP-based phones
While it’s compatible even with 176*220 MS Smartphones, the game area will be so small that you won’t even notice most of the pick-up bonuses – unless you know beforehand where to go.
Verdict
It may be worth getting the game. While, as of (current) version 1.6, it has some problems (like stuttering), on the whole, you get a lot – for free.
Tip: play back a music track in the background!
Vertical scroller space shooters? Then, Xenon 2, probably the best game of the genre ever produced. Do you want to make Distant Galaxies sound like Xenon 2? Then, play back the Xenon 2 sound track in the background.
If you want to stick to the original Commodore Amiga module file, it’s available HERE, in Pack 3. Should you want to go for a MP3 remix (unless you’re a die-hard retro fan, you’ll want to prefer this to the original Amiga MOD) directly playable in the built-in Media Player, you’ll most probably want to go for THIS file instead. Note that for example THIS page has the music in a Midi file; its MP3 version is pretty low-quality and in no way recommended.
Related
I’ve reviewed the hardware-optimized (Intel 2700G) version of the Pocket PC port of the famous desktop game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 some weeks ago. I had mixed feelings with the game – probably because I’ve never skated myself (cross-country skiing, swimming and Nordic walking are my favourite kinds of sport. I used to play basketball too, but haven’t played it in the last 15 or so years and I also used my bicycle a lot to go to school/work, even in the deepest snow.)
In the meantime, the developer of the game, Aspyr Media, has released a version for Pocket PC’s that don’t sport an Intel 2700G chip (that is, Pocket PC’s except for the Dell Axim x50v/x51v).
I, frankly, didn’t have high expectations before testing version 1.1 of the software-rendered version because I’ve found the hardware-accelerated version quite annoyingly slow.
Fortunately, I turned out to be wrong. While the game is in no way as spectacular as, say, Anthelion II by PDAMill (the latter uses almost full-screen animation in high, VGA resolution on VGA devices - also with software-only rendering), it’s not worse than most, other, software-rendered 3D titles. This may be adequate (or even great) for THPS2 fans.
Also, the software-only version has much better map loading times than the hardware-only one (some seconds vs. about a minute or even more). This, however, may be a version number-reated problem (of the hardware-accelerated version, I’ve tested version 1.0, while I’ve tested version 1.1 of the software-rendered version) already fixed in the 1.1 2700G version. (Or, with a problem with the built-in storage/file handling speed of the Dell Axim x51v.)
Important!
The homepage of the game states the game is compatible with “Windows Mobile 2003 or Windows Mobile 5.0”. This is only half-true – the game is not compatible with WM2003 devices, only with WM2003SE ones. The reason for this is that the game relies on the built-in orientation change support of the operating system. This means the game will display in Portrait on WM2003 devices, meaning the rightmost third of the screen won’t be visible. An example screenshot of this is as follows (taken on my iPAQ 2210):
Click for screenshot
Also, the homepage lists the following supported devices: Dell Axim X50, Dell Axim X30 above 500 MHz, HP iPAQ hx2410/2415, HP iPAQ hx2700/2750, HP iPAQ hx4700/4705. In addition to them, I’ve successfully played the game on a VGA Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720 as can be seen in here:
Click for screenshot
RAM shortage – beware!
The game only runs with 28 Mbytes of free RAM (dynamic program memory – don’t mistake it for storage ROM on WM5 devices!). If you have less RAM, the game will not run and you can’t “hack” it to run either. Unfortunately, this makes it impossible to start the game on, for example, the HTC Wizard – with any HTC Wizard ROM (see the article here). Unfortunately, this also means you'll have problems with a lot of other WM5 devices that "only" have 64M RAM built-in RAM because, in general, 64M WM5 devices have around 30M of free RAM, of which Today plug-ins (for example, Spb Pocket Plus 3.1 takes some 1.6 Mbytes of precious RAM memory on WM5 devices) and extensive Contacts/Appointments lists can take Megabytes - just to start with.
My biggest grief with the game...
...is still the lack of a trial version. A $30 game, especially a 3D title, should have a trial version. The lack of the trial version is especially annoying because of the non-full device compatibility list (the game runs on a lot of other PC’s but you can't be absolutely sure your particular one) and, more importantly, it claiming WM2003 compliance (which the game completely lacks).
Verdict
If you’re a fan of the genre, check it out – you will most probably like it. Don’t expect too much, however – software-only rendering won’t deliver you miracles, particularly not with this title. Finally, if you do not want to spend $30 on a game you can’t test before buying, mail Aspyr Media to release a trial version.
Wow, 28MB of free RAM required. My Treo 700w doesn't even have that at a hard reset state... perhaps not even before the WM5 OS is loaded. LOL
In case anyone doesn't know, the "128MB/60MB Storage Capacity" that they mention on their website omitted the fact that the device only has 32MB of RAM, and that 128/60 is the Flash ROM area...
It’s pretty much unnecessary to introduce SmartGear for any Windows Mobile game / emulator freak. It’s a MUST for ALL MS Smartphone (both 176*220 and QVGA) AND QVGA Pocket PC users – it’s WAY faster than any other emulator on low-speed devices and has few bugs (most importantly, speed issues on (W)VGA Pocket PC’s and lack of Genesis / Sega Megadrive sound emulation), as is also pointed out in several of my previous articles.
Thanks to the courtesy of the developer, Larry Bank, I had the chance to “test drive” the new version, which will be released VERY soon. Now that he has modified the code so that audio emulation takes precedence over video emulation (even at the expense of, on VGA devices, excess dropped frames), you’ll very rarely (if ever) hear sound problems any more if you use the default frame dropping configuration. That is, you make sure both the “Throttle farmerate” and the “Skip every other frame” checkboxes are both checked in. Note that I had slight problems with the sound in GBC emulation (with 1062 - Wendy - Every Witch Way (USA)(Menace)) – I don’t know if other GBC titles exhibit the same behavior.
Now that sound emulation gets absolute preference, you’ll see MASSIVE frame drops on (W)VGA Pocket PC’s if you enable sound (and, even without sound, the frame rate is definitely inferior to that of the top emulators of the given gaming platform). My recommendation is, therefore, that you do NOT use this emulator if and only if you have a (W)VGA Pocket PC. If you, on the other hand, have either any MS Smartphone (no touch screen devices) OR a QVGA Pocket PC, you MUST check out SmartGear – you’ll simply love it, it’s, thanks to having partially been programmed in assembly, WAY faster and battery-friendlier than any other emulator currently available.
Don’t forget, however, that this emulator still doesn’t have support for Genesis / Sega Megadrive sound emulation and on-screen tap / button areas, which are important for many Pocket PC users. However, as you’re entitled to lifetime upgrades if you purchase a license, I still recommend purchasing this emulator, even if these are a problem for you and/or even if you have a (W)VGA Pocket PC. After all, it’s pretty cheap and BitBank Software is well-known for their constantly upgrading their products – I’m pretty sure these bugs / problems will soon be fixed and, hopefully, on-screen tap zones will also be added.
look forward to this
1. PDAmill has released Wild Gears, a Micro Machines clone
Famous game developer company PDAmill has just released Wild Gears, a pretty decent top-down racing game certainly worth a try. The features include:
• Gorgeous Cartoon Art
• Four different cars
• Intuitive controls that make full use of Windows Mobile touch screen
• 15 awesome tracks to race on
• Rockin' Soundtrack with over 20 minutes of music
• Four different Cups to compete in!
• Records Menu keeps track of all your best track and lap times
• Auto-save
Your first question will surely be (if you’re into gaming, that is): How does it compare to K-Rally, the King of all top-down racing games on all mobile platforms, including Windows Mobile (see review HERE)? Well, it has both cons and pros.
Compared to K-Rally...
It’s worth pointing out that the PDAMill folks pay special attention to their titles’ flawless running on low-end Pocket PC’s plagued with the infamous touchscreen bug I’ve elaborated on, for example, HERE. I’ve thoroughly tested the game on my non-overclocked HTC Wizard and found it extremely well done and the graphics not stuttering at all even with the stylus resting on the screen. This certainly wasn’t the case with K-Rally. On the other hand, I’ve found the game slightly slower on my VGA Dell Axim x51v than on my (even low-end!) QVGA devices. In this regard, K-Rally might (still) be a better choice.
Pros:
- runs definitely better on low-end Pocket PC’s with touchscreen CPU usage issues
- the control scheme may turn out be better for many (see below)
Equal:
- in-game music (both games have very cool music; PDAMill’s musician is Jaybot, after all, which guarantees high-quality, non-repeating music. And we all know how nice the “scener”, “retro” music in K-Rally really is.)
- no multiplayer in either titles. iDreams still haven’t implemented this in their title (too bad) and PDAMill surely won’t. Let me cite Jaybot from PDAMill: “You know my opinion on multiplayer support on windows mobile devices already: nobody uses it It's a nice extra feature to have, but we've never been able to justify it since Snails.”
Cons:
- (no MS Smartphone version: bad news for touchscreen-less Smartphone users)
- slightly slower on some? all? VGA devices - in this regard, K-Rally is better optimized
- no weapons, which really restricts the strategies you can use. In the initial design documents, the PDAMill folks did have lots of different things planned, of course (including battle mode, stunt mode, etc). They, however, simply didn't have time to fit it all into this release. So definitely in an update, sequel, whatever. Let's hope for the best
- Landscape mode only – bad news for users with devices with landscape polarization issues like the Dell Axim x50v / x51v. In K-Rally, you could switch between the two modes (that is, you could just stay with Portrait if your eyes are sensitive to the polarization issues)
There isn’t much point in comparing it to Gangsta Race and Dreamway (old Micro Machines clones) - this title is FAR better, particularly music-wise (just like K-Rally).
Controls
The car (as opposed to most other racing games, where the D-pad can also be used) can ONLY be controlled via the touchscreen. There is a compass on the bottom of the screen, which lets you set both the speed and the direction of the car. That is, the touchscreen controls are WAY different from all the Pocket PC alternatives. In K-Rally, for example, the stylus’ distance from your car sets the speed of the car and the car always accelerates in the direction of it. This is entirely different in Wild Gears. If you’ve been a K-Rally player, the new control scheme takes a few minutes to get used to, but after awhile it grows on you and you may actually prefer it to the full screen controls (especially on tight turns, and... when intentionally ramming another car out of the way). In addition, the PDAMill folks want to get everyone used to the on-screen analog stick idea, as it's something they foresee being very, very useful in future titles (for example in a 3D platformer, along the lines of Mario64).
Of course, this approach has (other) major advantages too; most importantly, no cars will ever be hidden under the stylus (some people have complained about this with K-Rally).
Verdict
All in all, go give the trial version a go – it’s certainly worth a try. It’s available HERE.
2. Resco Table Soccer, which is a very nice game particularly on high-resolution VGA devices, is free (!!!) until 03/12. Get it HERE - it’s REALLY worth it!
3. DoomGLES, the only 3D hardware accelerated and, what is more, free (!!!) Doom port for Pocket PC, has been updated to support the GoForce 5500 hardware chip in some models like the O2 XDA Flame and the new i-mate Ultimate 6150 / 8150 (see review of the latter HERE).
So far, very few (only two: Call of Duty 2 and GeoRallyEX), otherwise, Intel 2700G-enabled 3D titles have had support for GoForce 5500 (see THIS compatibility list). Now, you, at last, have an excellent Doom clone as well. Hope Kokak also manages to make his recently-released HereticGLES. Also see THIS PG thread if interested. Finally, please don’t forget to donate some money to Kokak if you would like to see future development – I’ve just done so.
UPDATE (03/09/2008): I've forgotten to directly compare the graphics of Wild Gears and K-Rally. In this regard, K-Rally is way better with its excellent light and particle effects, pseudo-3D environment (for example, trees) and scrolling. (Thanks to my blog reader Natestera for pointing this out!)
Thanks for the info and links.
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.
We emulator freaks have been waiting for version FpseCE 0.10 for at least two and a half years. Back in May-June 2007 when I published my (almost) all-in-one article series on emulating other computing platforms (see THIS) on Windows Mobile, everyone was already waiting for FpseCE 0.10. This is why, back in 2007, I chose not to publish a PS Emulation Bible back in 2007, by the way – I didn’t want to end up having to (completely) rewrite it after the imminent release of the brand new version.
The waiting turned out to take more than two years; during this, frankly, I’ve given up all my hope to ever see the emulator out. (I, however, actively helped the developers to continue working on the project – I’ve donated them about $20.)
Nevertheless, last Christmas (a few days ago), it was, finally, released to the public and I need to say it’s indeed as good as expected.
It's available for download HERE. It doesn't necessarily need a ROM BIOS file, unlike psx4iphone on the iPhone.
I’ve run several compatibility and comparative speed tests. For example, I compared to the also pretty new (version 1.1.0 was released in late November 2009) psx4iphone running the emulator on the iPhone 3G S. (Note that, despite what some people state, psx4iphone is plain useless on previous-generation devices, as is also explained in my article on the previous (1.0.0) psx4iphone version – and a quick note on the initial (0.8.0) one). The results show FpseCE is way more powerful and efficient than psx4iphone: it’s only the latest and greatest, current hardware (the iPhone 3G S or the third-generation iPod touch) that the latest psx4iphone version offers approximately the same emulation speed than FpseCE on very old (for example, the five (four)-year-old Dell Axim x50v / x51v) hardware. This also means FpseCE is, in most cases, waaay faster than psx4iphone on current high-end (read: 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU) Windows Mobile devices – for example, the Toshiba TG01 and (probably) the HTC HD2. (Of course, the lack of D-pad / external controls is a big issue with these devices.)
Kudos to the developers of FpseCE – it indeed rocks! Please consider donating to the developers – they do deserve it!
Note that it’s not only with emulating the Playstation that Windows Mobile is (currently) certainly better at. The same states for all(!) other emulated platforms – the emulators are just far better, faster, featureful and more powerful for Windows Mobile than for the iPhone (even including the superfast iPhone 3G S). I, for example, haven’t reported (in a separate article) on the currently released version 1.2 / 1.3 of the Commodore 64 emulator. (Please see my remarks on the playability of Uridium and Paradroid, both coming as an in-app purchasable title, HERE). The only platform that Windows Mobile is completely unable to emulate (unlike the iPhone 3G S / iPod Touch G3) is Nintendo 64 (see ZodTTD‘s thread and info HERE); in all the other respects, Windows Mobile is way ahead of Apple’s mobile platforms.
As has already been mentioned, the emulation speed is roughly the same on the four-year-old Dell Axim x51v (which, CPU/GPU-wise, is exactly the same as the one-year-older Dell Axim x50v) than on the iPhone 3G S (the latest and greatest iPhone with a really powerful CPU and GPU) running the latest (and, to time, greatest and fastest) psx4iphone version. For example, Gran Turismo runs with 18…20 fps with sound on the 3G S (both full screen landscape and portrait modes tested; interestingly, full emulation mode didn’t visibly reduce the frame rate); on the Dell Axim x51v, it’s noticeably faster (25 fps), less sluggish and WAY better playable. (Note that, on the video, I deliberately switch to manual mode in psx4iphone on the iPhone 3G S. Otherwise, I just coulnd’t ride forward, only backwards with the “back” button – the emulator would constantly switch me back to “reverse” mode after approaching more than 3-4 mph speed. I couldn’t find a fix for this. No such problem exists under FpseCE – it runs just great in automatic – the default – mode.)
Medal of Honor, on the other hand, is the exact opposite: the 3G S runs it decidedly better (around 28 fps), while it’s much more sluggish and less pleasing on the x51v (around 22 fps). Interestingly, in the latter, in-game videos are played back flawlessly on the x51v; not so on the iPhone. This seems to be a consistently existing problem with the iPhone: while the game itself is (almost) perfectly playable, demo videos all have stuttering sound.
In the demo video, I’ve also made a quick demo (at the end of the video) of showing Assault Rigs (with the, in this game, flawless in-game sound under psx4iphone). The demo certainly shows while it’s pretty well playable (again, with sound) on the 3G S, under FpseCE 0.10, it just doesn’t get past of the intro screen.
Note that all this has been measured without any tweaking of the x51v – I haven’t tried modding the ini file to speed up emulation.
By the way, does anyone know how to make Metal Slug X work (that is, entering ‘1’ or ‘2’ players?) Based on the in-game demo, it seems to be even faster than under masterall’s FinalBurn, the – so far – only way to play the great game Metal Slug on Windows Mobile (please see THIS for more info). Or, at least, up until version 0.12 of the latter – if I remember correctly, that was the last version I’ve played the Metal Slug series with. 0.14 (the current version) is stated to have some speed optimizations. I don’t know whether this makes Metal Slug audio stuttering-free (which certainly wasn’t the case with 0.12 running on exactly the same x51v.) Incidentally, there’s a native Metal Slug port for the iPhone, Metal Slug Touch, but it pretty much s*cks (see THIS).
The demo video (please see THIS) shows the following games, in this order:
Gran Turismo (shown in both orientations on the iPhone)
Medal of Honor
Assault Rigs (again: it’s incompatible with FpseCE 0.10)
Again: check out the head-to-head iPhone 3G S vs. Dell Axim x51v video – click HERE!
Please see the following threads for more info / compatibility lists:
FpseCE 0.10
psx4iphone 1.1.0 (note that this seem to be a bit outdated; for example, it lists Gran Turismo to be incompatible, which is (no longer?) the case. Keep this in mind while reading the list!)