iPAQ as Gaming Platform?

Geremy F. asks: "What prevents the iPAQ from being an awesome handheld gaming platform? Since it's selling so well, a market (with volunteers) seems feasable..whether the choice is develop iPAQ games for Windows, Linux or custom micro OS it seems like this would be a good opportunity for someone to break into the gaming market. Think Xgalaga on the iPAQ. I'd be interested to help out if anyone wants to actually do this." Geremy also has a few more points to add to give strength to his line of reasoning.

"I'd like to make a point out a few things, if I may:

1. The iPAQ, with it's 206Mhz processor and 32M of ram is to a gameboy what a cray is to 486[DX] (well, not really, but almost)
2. The iPAQ has a nice big color screen, 4 buttons, and directional pad type control as well as a speaker.
3. The iPAQ, with enhancement packs has support for compact flash and or PC cards
4. The iPAQ has flash memory with enables it to run OSes/platforms other than Windows."

Do you think the iPAQ has a chance at becoming a new game platform? Let us know what you think!

button problem

[nigel]

The iPaq has a serious flaw in regards to the buttons. While most games will require simultaneous use of the directional pad and buttons, the iPaq's hardware can only process the input of one at a time. More information and hardware documentation can be found at http://www.jimmysoftware.com/ipaqbutto n.html [jimmysoftware.com]

sorry no, maybe the cassiopeia line

[dondiego]

This is a bogus idea (well more like compaq cheapskate engineers ruined it for us). The hardware buttons only allow one button to be pressed at a time. Thus, on galaga its -- move move move stop (let go of joypad) fire move move move stop (let go of joypad) fire.

only things like pacman, frogger where you only activate one button at a time will work...

see http://www.jimmysoftware.com/ipaqbutto n.html [jimmysoftware.com]

The Casio Cassiopeia line lets you hold down multiple buttons and has a more ergonomic layout like the gameboy...

no main feature

[ranxxeroxburn]

there isn't a partial of this story on the /. frontpage. but I think that the idea of the iPaq as a gaming console might be well and all but i think the Toshiba stylistic 3400 [fujitsupc.com] would be a much more viable mobile gaming platform.

Forget arcade games

[Betcour]

For one, arcade games are short lived (you get bored quickly). For two, they need real-time capabilities.

What we need is STRATEGY games on PDA : sim city, civilisation, etc... they are easier to adapt (hell, you even have Visual Basic on Windows CE, and now it is given away for free by MS). They give a lot more game life (imagine Civilisation : now you can play a long looooonnng time on this thingy). Anyone feels like porting FreeCiv to WindowsCE ? (www.freeciv.org :)

Freeciv

[zlite]

freeciv is unix-oriented, which would probably make it an easier port under iPaq Linux. But switching to Linux is a lot to ask the typical iPaq user, especially just for a game. Has anyone had any experience with trying an freeciv port on Windows of any flavor? Any sense of how much overhead is involved in setting up the necessary internal civ servers within a Windows (PocketPC) environment?

iPaq gaming sleeve

[zlite]

Among the prototype iPaq sleeve that Compaq has shown is a gaming sleeve (sorry I can't find the link at the mo, but it was on one of the PDA news sites). It was quite large, abd basically flared out on either side of the iPaq with a joypad on one side and fire buttons on the other. Presumably Compaq will enable simultaneous button punches on that ;-)

Re:Freeciv

[Betcour]

Well, there's already a native port of FreeCIV to WIN32. Since Windows CE is WIN32 with a few adaptation, it ought to be possible to make a port from this... while keeping all the feature (esp. Network code : with a modem card one could make multiplayer CIV games on the road - droool 8).

As for the screen, the original CIV was running at 320x200 256 colors, so the 320x240 4096 colors of the modern PocketPC should be more than enough.

Here's the link

[zlite]

It's about half way down this page, [pocketnow.com]

Problem solved

[zlite]

Compaq is releasing a gaming sleeve. See this [pocketnow.com] (about half way down)

IPAQ gaming

[Phil_cl]

With the upcoming release of other personal internet devices from Compaq, we should start to see more features planed for the device and some of its unannounced cousins. The IPAQ line of products (personal internet devices) has currently been well received but if it dosent equal out to sales, Compaq will put the lights out for sure. Future releases will include some improvements in the controls and screen. But thats atleast six to eight months off. http://www.compaq.com/iPAQ/demo/ I think the best thing to do is to start the development now and ride the wave.