The Gamer's Quarter

dhex · Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 9:19 pm Post subject: palm os games?

any ideas?

it seems like a miasma of spyware and suck.
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sawtooth · . Joined: 02 Nov 2005 Posts: 419

does scummvm have a palm os flavor? If so that's all I'll recommend. Otherwise you're probably right.
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GSL · Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:38 pm Post subject:

There's a Palm OS 5 version of ScummVM, I believe.

Assuming you like your Palm simple and functional (i.e. have a pre-OS 5 device) there's a slew of decent games available. PopCap's Bejeweled is a lot of fun. If roguelikes are your thing, iRogue is quality entertainment. Also, I find Noiz (by the developer behind Tumiki Fighters!) to be quite entertaining. As far as RPGs go, I really like Dragon Bane.

OtakupunkX · . Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 730

Bookworm by PopCap. It's like crack, but less ilegal and it has a worm in it. So I guess that would make it Tequila or something.

I think they have MAME on Palm OS too, but I'm sure it's got a lot of limitations.

While we're kind of on the subject, a friend of mine has a Game Boy emulator on his iPod Video. It's really limited but runs games at full speed. The iPod doesn't have enough buttons for that kind of thing.

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

My recurring Palm addiction is this little game called Rally 1000, a friendly little port of Mille Bornes that might now be illegal because of action by the copyright holder. Google or lemme know if you come up short...

dhex · Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 8:56 pm Post subject:

i got a nes emu to run. it's basically pointless, but it was cool to see.

the size of the palm software market is kinda freaky. 20 bucks for games?
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GSL · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:09 am Post subject:

I'm normally pretty dead-set against piracy, but in the case of Palm games, I can almost excuse it; I have not played one game on the Palm platform that is worth more than $10. That's not at all a commentary on their quality, it's just that paying any more for games on such a limited device is just ridiculous.
I wouldn't invest too much into PDA games if I were you, though. Like a cellphone, it's nifty to load your Palm up with some fun, momentary distractions, but it's definitely nothing close to even the old black-and-white GameBoy.

dhex · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:18 am Post subject:

noiz is totally crackworthy though. really.
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kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

Yeah, NOIZ is great...intersting how the sparse B+W Palm version probably plays better than the eye-candy web one.

Variations of SFCave are good too for a very quick game hit.

Sigh, at one point I think there was a filed-polygon port of Elite that got blown up 'cause of legal tie-ups. I hate stuff like that.

ApM · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:56 pm Post subject:

Noiz has a poorly-done DS port!

This guy makes some outstanding stuff. I recommend Igzo the Dolphin and Ball2 especially. I think maybe someone in the past was releasing them as freeware without his consent, 'cause I can't find a standalone download for either of them anymore.

I really dig LispMe, but that's not really a game.

And of course there's JoustPong!

dessgeega · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:18 pm Post subject:

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

dessgeega · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:42 pm Post subject:

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

ApM · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 9:57 am Post subject:

That actually sounds an awful lot like Kenta Cho's HenyaG for Palm!

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

ApM · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:10 pm Post subject:

Distinguishing between circles and squares would probably be the hardest bit.

(btw: DS Homebrewing requires one of these + GBA Flashcart. The whole setup will probably run you about $75. Here is a WiFi lib for your enjoyment.)

Anyway, the way HenyaG works, is that you draw "objects" onto the screen, with the idea being that you only get one screenful of objects to play with (like the LCD games of yore). You then fill in rules much in the same way as rince, only more tedious because each object is its own distinct entity. So, for example, you would say that, if the player presses "left", and the middle spaceship object is being displayed, clear the middle spaceship object and turn on the left spaceship object. You'd fill in another, similar rule to move from the far right to the middle. There was a way to work in randomness and timing, as part of the triggering requirements for a rule, but I never quite figured out how those worked.

Unfortunately, the implementation left something to be desired -- the main problem I had was that it didn't actually store the drawing for each object. There was simply one big drawing, that each object would erase or redraw a rectangle out of as needed. So if your objects overlapped, there'd be big, random, ugly holes whenever one of them got turned off. Not to mention that the drawing code made it basically impossible to make anything that looked like more than a big, jittery mess.

Still, it was rather amusing to play around with!