[General Topics] Menneisyys:
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.)

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 ;)