[General Topics] Menneisyys:
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.