POCKET PC gaming thread! PSP is for WUSSIES

S

Sho Nuff

Banned
"Mimimimimi, my PSP or DS lets me play games on the go and watch UMD movies and listen to ATRACs and connect to the intarweb"

WHAT-EVER!
pocketsarien.jpg


Okay, PSP is nice and all, but who else games on their Pocket PC? I just got an iPaq 2100 for about 34,000 yen and it's teh awesome. I've loaded up a 1GB compact flash card with:

-All the classic Lucasarts SCUMM (full talkies!) / Infocom Zcode / Sierra SCI and AGI games
-A huge backlog of PBS documentaries encoded in WMV9 to watch on the train to work
-Emulators cough cough cough
-Oldskool .S3M and .MOD files to JAM OUT TO while reading the AvantGo news
-Halo 2 desktop themes!

Anyhoo, it's great for retrogaming and stuff (Manhunter: New York in the palm of your hand, holy shit I'm getting wood). I have yet to play any PocketPC-native games as they're all probably lame like Bejeweled or whatever, but I want your suggestions as to what else is portable entertainment gold. Note that I am big into Rogue-style dungeon crawlers but haven't found any yet.

I fully expect this thread to vanish amongst the bulk of I WANT TO SMOKE REGGIE'S POLE threads, but hey, you can't blame me for trying.
 
I haven't been on the PPC scene for some years now, but back when I was heavy in the game, I came to the realization that they needed more horsepower (CPU), and memory to be any fun in regards to gaming. Emulation especially.
 
Okay, PSP is nice and all, but who else games on their Pocket PC?
Click to expand...
I do. PPC is the best gaming handheld gaming machine for me, until the PSP comes into my hands.

Stuff that you should try (as I've see you already have some emulators, lucasarts stuff covered - just make sure to use talkie version of their adventure games, you won't regret)

- Tomb Raider - a native PPC port, and looks about the same as PS1/Saturn version. Plays nice
- Sky Force (www.clickgamer.com) very nice little shmup game with really nice 2D/3D graphics.
- Speedball 2 - a native port of the Amiga version of the game.
- Cast CE (Atari ST emulator - frickin' awesomely done, 100% emulation speed, crazy good compatibility)
- Pocket UAE - not as fast emulation as Cast CE but really good compatibility, try it.
- FPSE CE (PS1 emulator, plays MEtal Slug X perfectly fine, worth for that game alone)
- There are some strategy games like Sim City 2000 or Age of Empires, if you're into that.
 
Thanks, Marconelly. I am on my way to get CastCE now.

BTW, in regards to processing power, the average low-end PPC chugs along at a sweet 400mhz (StrongARM I believe is the new PPC standard).
 
Drinky Crow said:
At 400 Mhz with an ATi Imageon, a PPC rapes the DS for horsepower.
Click to expand...
But there not out yet and when they do come out they'll be $400+.

PPC gaming is great thou. I have a Asus A620.

Check out Morphgear it is 8 emulators in one.
FPSE CE is the reason I bought a PPC. I can get almost all of my PS1 games playable
on it when I overclock to 520mhz.

If you check out www.pocketmatrix.com You can find links to ports of Duke Nukem 3D, Quake 1,2, Doom 1,2,3.
 
Yeah, Asus 620 runs FPSE CE like crazy. Many games are playable. I'm happy with MSX, though, but I wish the R-Type Delta wasn't just a bit too slow on my Ipaq.

Soon, I think Intel will make their 620Mz CPUs available to PPC makers, and their 2700G graphics processor as well.

Also, check out 'BetaPlayer'. It's the best there is for DIVX and MPEG video playback.

Oh, and *definitely* check the marble madness port! It's a schoolbook example of a game that works great with the stylus.
 
Slightly off topic... One of my retarded friends deleted all the stuff on my PPC. Not just my crap, but all the programs (Pocket Office and all the other applications).

Does anyone know if that stuff can be reloaded? I've tried reflashing it, but the 16mb rom file on HP's website doesn't actually contain the applications. I've dabbled with the underground (newsgroups, bittorrent sites) but I haven't found any solutions.

Right now it's a nice looking paper weight =)
 
I don't get it. You cannot delete operating system files and applications like Word or Excel from PPC, as they are in the ROM. You should be able to just do a hard reset and you'll get basic functionality back.
 
Is there a Neo-Geo emulator for Pocket PC? If so, it might be time to sell off my Tapwave Zodiac 2 and get one of those instead.

Edit: Never mind, I see there's only a Neo-Geo Pocket emu. Looks like Pocket PC and Palm emulators are about the same, save for the PSX emulator.
 
I have a 400Mhz Dell Axim x3i. Works pretty well for all of the above, but the most played game currently is Warfare Inc. Great RTS game, which me and 2 other guys in my office play on their PPCs via wifi with me. Works well. More PPC games need wifi multiplayer.
 
Marconelly said:
I don't get it. You cannot delete operating system files and applications like Word or Excel from PPC, as they are in the ROM. You should be able to just do a hard reset and you'll get basic functionality back.
Click to expand...

Wow...

I just fiddled around and Pocket Office is still there! I can only access it through the 'New' menu. Now I have another problem. All my shortcuts have been deleted. The hardware buttons don't work (invalid shortcut errors), my start menu items are pretty much gone ('Today', 'Settings', 'Find', 'Help' are the only things left). I can't even access the file browser!

I'm kind of relieved that it's not totally beyond repair, but setting all this stuff back up is going to suck.

Thanks for your help!
 
With Sony's ambition to expand their position in the semiconductor market (they originally tried to gauge interest in licensing EE and GS), it's a wonder they're not trying hard to get the PSP processor into the handheld computer market. There is more optimal technology in that space, so I don't think they'd succeed anyway.
 
I'm kind of relieved that it's not totally beyond repair, but setting all this stuff back up is going to suck.
Click to expand...
Just do a hard reset. Backup what can be backed up first, of course.

With Sony's ambition to expand their position in the semiconductor market (they originally tried to gauge interest in licensing EE and GS), it's a wonder they're not trying hard to get the PSP processor into the handheld computer market. There is more optimal technology in that space, so I don't think they'd succeed anyway
Click to expand...
Well, how convenient, you answered your own question.

Just FYI, Sony has been making some of the best Palm OS PDAs on the market, but they decided to exit that market, as there's no real money to be made there. For all their virtues, PDAs are not really hot selling items.
 
I have Everquest I & II for mine (these are stand alone adventure games), I also have Ultima Underworld, Sim City, Tiger Woods Golf, and more! There's quite a bit of software for this thing. Hyperspace Delivery boy is also a cool adventure game.
 
Marconelly:
Well, how convenient, you answered your own question.
Click to expand...
That only says why they'd have a hard time getting accepted, not why Sony isn't trying... especially considering they've been talking it up again about licensing their architectures to other computing platforms with CELL.
 
I'm waiting for the Dell x50. VGA and an Intel 2700G accelerator. Fuck yeah.

Intel demoed Quake 3 on the 2700G I believe. N64 emulation? Methinks yes.
 
SKluck:
Intel demoed Quake 3 on the 2700G I believe.
Click to expand...
That's MBX based, so it should be pretty powerful. They also showed another nice demo of a Virgin Mary statue for DOT3 blending.
 
I must admit I never paid attention to the PPC gaming scene for one simply reason:

User interface. Is it easy to play with them?
 
Sho Nuff said:
"Mimimimimi, my PSP or DS lets me play games on the go and watch UMD movies and listen to ATRACs and connect to the intarweb"


Okay, PSP is nice and all, but who else games on their Pocket PC? I just got an iPaq 2100 for about 34,000 yen and it's teh awesome. I've loaded up a 1GB compact flash card with:

... Sierra SCI and AGI games
Click to expand...

How do you play the Sierra games?
 
I've played some SNES stuff on my Dell Axim X3i, but controlling the game with the provided d-pad and buttons is teh suck. I played a first-person dungeon crawler called Legacy, which was decent. The best part was it was controlled with the stylus.
 
Marconelly said:
Just do a hard reset. Backup what can be backed up first, of course.
Click to expand...

How do you do a hard reset? I've reflashed it, and even that didn't fix it...

EDIT:

I just went and looked it up. On my H3970 you hold down the 'Calender' and 'iTask' buttons and push reset for 10 seconds. Got all my shortcuts and everything back. Thanks a lot!
 
DaCoca said:
I haven't been on the PPC scene for some years now, but back when I was heavy in the game, I came to the realization that they needed more horsepower (CPU), and memory to be any fun in regards to gaming. Emulation especially.
Click to expand...
They've got both now - there is already at least one model with a 620Mhz cpu. Unfortunately, with all the improvements, the battery life has gone down the crapper too. We're talking about the levels of what is currently speculated for PSP or worse here.

Lazy8 said:
There is more optimal technology in that space, so I don't think they'd succeed anyway
Click to expand...
That's pretty funny - considering that your argument mostly centers on "inefficient" clock speed use for PSP.
PPCs are 400-600Mhz right now, and Intel was talking about 1Ghz XScales before Mid2005 (though I suspect that has been scaled down somewhat now).
You're right about one thing though - their battery usage generally sucks, though I don't know if it's because of high mhz ratings or not.

Frankly I'd bet on the 300mhz PSPs CPU (just the one core) to kick 600mhz XScale in performance anytime, so I guess it's not all that inefficient.
 
I just went and looked it up. On my H3970 you hold down the 'Calender' and 'iTask' buttons and push reset for 10 seconds. Got all my shortcuts and everything back. Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
No problem! I knew that'd fix it. You can't really screw PPC too much as everything they need for normal operation is in ROM - so the only way to get them screwed up is to flash a broken ROM file or if hardware breaks, or something like that.

Frankly I'd bet on the 300mhz PSPs CPU (just the one core) to kick 600mhz XScale in performance anytime, so I guess it's not all that inefficient.
Click to expand...
If you count that VFPU in PSP, there's almost no doubt. ARM/XScales are much more inefficient with FP math compared to traditional processors (pentiums and such) at the same clock frequency.
 
Marc said:
If you count that VFPU in PSP, there's almost no doubt. ARM/XScales are much more inefficient with FP math compared to traditional processors (pentiums and such) at the same clock frequency.
Click to expand...
Actually it's enough if you just count the regular FPU - XScale doesn't have one, hence the slowness with FP math :P
Then there's the much faster memory and wider bus of PSPs cpus (compared to your typical PPC), and well yeah, the VFPU helps too... :P
 
Fafalada:
That's pretty funny - considering that your argument mostly centers on "inefficient" clock speed use for PSP.
Click to expand...
There'd be nothing to justify the licensing of PSP tech over an MBX, G34/G40, or GoForce based core considering how much of a battery drainer Sony's solution seems to be.
 
This new, still unannounced media phone from Nokia looks quite interesting. It has touch screen, and looks like also a d-pad. Could be a nice device for mobile gaming. I wish N-Gage had that kind of high quality and large display (640 * 300).

02.jpg
 
There'd be nothing to justify the licensing of PSP tech over an MBX, G34/G40, or GoForce based core considering how much of a battery drainer Sony's solution seems to be.
Click to expand...
Yeah, because current handheld solutions are just so efficient on battery. Even without extra processors like MBX, current pocket PCs that use XScale CPU alone, run out of battery in about 2-4 hours if you put them to maximum use.
 
XScales aren't representative of what can be done in terms of efficiency, so comparability to that standard wouldn't make the PSP a very competitve solution for battery-sensitive markets (such as a mass market handheld). With the current design of the PSP, it could be more acceptable if it ran at a slower clock for a trade-off, but the design of course needs some streamlining in the first place, as its clockspeed isn't outrageous on an absolute scale, if the processor is really consuming upwards of 400 mW to competitors' ~200 mW levels. From the estimates quoted for GoForce and MBX, some SoC from Renesas, ARM, or Texas Instruments or what's used in Gizmondo might be more optimal for embedded portables.
 
Some great games are beeing ignored by the PPC crowd like


Fade (www.fade-team.com) ==> Awesome adventure game with a really good plot and nice gfx

gilbert Goodmate ==> Good adventure game with nice gfx and tons of puzzle (port of the PC version)

legacy => good RPG (one of the only RPG on ppc)


I expect more game like those on PPC, I think there are far too much crappy games flooding the PPC market so far
 
I've played Fade, but I think that's one of the worse adventure games I've played. You're much better off with SCUMVM and playing something made by Lucastarts, even if you've played it before...
 
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