Games / emulator news (02/01/2008): some GREAT, new FPSEce 0.010 videos; Dark Street etc.

1. Some GREAT, new FPSEce 0.010 videos released!

I’ve long been waiting for the long-announced, 0.010 version of FPSEce, the one and only PlayStation emulator for Windows Mobile, which will deliver MASSIVE optimizations and GREAT speed enhancements, especially with PDA’s with the Intel 2700G 3D graphics accelerator. This, unfortunately, means only the Dell Axim x50v and x51v are supported (if you need SPEED, that is).

For long, the project seemed to be completely abandoned, until, in early December, the developer announced there would be an imminent release of the brand new and heavily enhanced version. Unfortunately, he still hasn’t managed to get it released; however, in addition to the old demos already available HERE, he’s (more precisely, Damien of PocketPlayers Reloaded) posted five brand new videos showing the capabilities of the new engine:

Ridge Racer
Pandemonium
Tekken
Motortoon

Check them out if interested. Again, note that the videos have been shot on the hardware-accelerated Dell Axim x51v. A non-hardware-accelerated device will behave far worse (see for example THIS non-accelerated Tekken video to see the difference).

2. A cheap Final Fight / Streets of Rage clone, Dark Street, released

The just-released Dark Street is a cheap, very simple but, if you’re a fan of the genre, quite entertaining bash’m up game, pretty much similar (but still inferior to) the console beat 'em up classics like Capcom’s Final Fight and Sega’s Streets of Rage.

It is compatible with both Pocket PC’s and Smartphones. With the latter, even the lower-resolution 176*220 models are supported.

Currently, it’s only available from mobile2day.de. Click the Download link there. Note that it loads VERY slow.

Unfortunately, it, as of the current, 1.0.1 version, has MAJOR problems on both Pocket PC’s and Smartphones.

a. On Pocket PC’s, if you touch the touch screen to either fire or activate one of the super skills (the small icons in the upper left corner), the game will start stuttering. For example, on my HTC Wizard, it has just stopped and I had to entirely reset the phone. On my old, WM2003 HP iPAQ h2210, it behaved better; so did on my WM5 AKU2.3 Dell Axim x51v. Still, this bug made the game almost unplayable on the latter two devices too.

Unfortunately, as you can’t reassign the action key (kicking etc.), controlling the game becomes REALLY hard because you can only do any action by pressing the Action button in the D-pad. This alone renders this game useless.

b.On MS Smartphones (tested on both the QVGA WM6 Vox and the 176*220 WM5 Oxygen), the situation is decidedly better because, there, you can also use the “5” dialpad key to kick / shoot (as opposed to, say, how Amiga Inc.’s Invasion, where, on a Smartphone, you can’t use any of the dialpad buttons.) However, as there aren’t any dialpad shortcuts to activate the super weapons, there is little point in playing the game on the Smartphone platform either.

The (mono) music is pretty OK at first; later, however, becomes really repetitive.

All in all, before these problems are fixed, I cannot recommend this game at all. If you’re REALLY into the genre, go the SNES / NeoGeo / etc. emulation route instead. The better emulators (please see my related Bibles HERE) all have redefinable buttons; the original games are far better too (much better music, animation, sprites, backgrounds etc.)

(Source & another, German language thread on the game: PocketPlayers Reloaded)

3. SmartGear news

The folks at BitBank Software, developers of the award-winning SmartGear emulator, have, two days ago, announced they would add SNES and/or GBA support for SmartGear. Also, they have asked whether anyone needs a pre-WM2003 build of SmartGear. You can “vote” for these in the dedicated MoDaCo thread.

4. An excellent Java platform game released & reviewed

There is a brand new and pretty nice MIDlet game, Sola Rola. It received a stellar review over at All About N-Gage. While I haven’t tested it, you might still want to give it a try to see whether it’s compatible with Windows Mobile MIDlet managers and/or it’s a good game by Windows Mobile standards as well.