[General Topics] Menneisyys:
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.