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Articles Adventure Gaming on the Go by David Dolan INTRODUCTION Are you a seasoned adventure gamer who is getting tired of being tied to your desktop PC? Do you have a lot of time to kill on airplanes, in the doctor's office or waiting for your car to be fixed? Or would you simply like to play a good adventure game (AG) curled up in your favorite easychair or even lying on your bed? Well, here for the first time in one place is the answer in the form of a brief guide to portable/handheld adventure (and it's close cousin, interactive fiction) gaming on the PocketPC. It is surprising how many otherwise experienced adventure gamers still don't know about this tremendous and often free resource! We will rectify that now! First, of course, you'll need a PocketPC (PPC). Almost any model will do in a pinch, but among the most highly thought of and most reasonably priced 'gaming' PPCs at the moment are: the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Ipaq P1915, HP1945, Dell Axim, and the ASUS A620. Each can be had for under $300. Next in cost is my current favorite PPC, the HP2215, available for $350-400; it is an exceptionally well-designed compact PDA with a beautiful screen and sports both compact flash and secure digital memory card slots. If you have more expensive tastes, you can also go with the HP4155, HP5555 or the Toshiba E750 which go for $500 and up. Or if you're on a strict budget, a good choice is to look for used PPCs such as the (no longer manufactured) Casio Cassiopeias on places like eBay. The Casio EM500 can be had for as little as $80-$100 and its big brother, the E125, for $100-$130. The Casio EM500 and E125 have gorgeous, bright screens (indoors) and gameboy-like d-pad and button placements that gamers appreciate, but be warned: These models use the MIPS cpu (as opposed to the current standard ARM cpu) and won't be able to play recently released ARM-only games. However, they will still play over 95% of the adventure games mentioned below and, for what it's worth, they are among my favorite gaming PPCs, second only to the HP2215 which wins out because it is compatible with all recently-released programs.
Next, of course, are the programs, the games and the means to play them: A: THE POCKETSCUMM GAMES (THE SCUMMVM PROJECT GAMES PORTED TO THE POCKETPC) Don't be confused by the funny name. Simply put, PocketSCUMM is a free utility that allows you to play all of the most popular of the LucasArts games (plus a view additional games) from the early to mid 1990s, using game files that you already own. The term SCUMM (Scripting Utility For Maniac Mansion) refers to the gaming engine used to write the LucasArts games of that era. The SCUMMVM project refers to the development of a program to allow these games to be played on all current PCs; PocketSCUMM is simply a port of that program to the PocketPC. These are the main games that are currently completable using PocketSCUMM: Maniac Mansion, Loom, Zak McCracken, Day Of The Tentacle, Monkey Island 1 & 2, Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 3), Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atantis, Sam & Max, and The Dig.
But the excitement doesn't end there: In a relatively recent change in direction of the SCUMMVM project, some popular non-SCUMM games can now also be played with PocketSCUMM: Simon The Sorcerer 1 & 2 and Beneath A Steel Sky. Moreover, the games, Broken Sword 1 & 2 and Flight Of The Amazon Queen, should be completable using PocketSCUMM in the not too distant future.
PocketSCUMM is very easy to set up. First you download it (available
for all 3
PPC processors: SH3, MIPS, and ARM) here: Then you can refer to SirDave's PocketSCUMM Mini-Manual for setup instructions. In addition to SirDave's
Mini-Manual, the following site will tell you which files are required
from your games: And here is the site that
keeps you up-to-date as to the current status of the SCUMMVM project/PocketSCUMM
games: As mentioned above, PocketSCUMM setup is not a big deal. Generally, all that is necessary is to place the PocketSCUMM executable (EXE) program in a directory on a memory card on the PPC. Then you place the required game files (from your own LucasArts games) as described in the manual in separate directories on the memory card. Note that some of the games allow for some flexibility as to how much space they take up. With these games, if you remove cutscenes, music files or even the voice files you can markedly reduce memory card space use if space is at a premium. For instance, The Dig can occupy over 600mb if you wish to run everything; however, the game can be run in voice-only mode in 208mb or as little as 85mb without music or voice. The good news is that many of the games require relatively little space without leaving out music or voice files. Some examples: Monkey Island 2 9mb, Indiana Jones FOA 10mb (non-talkie) or 55mb (talkie), Sam & Max 52mb, Day Of The Tentacle 53mb. (All of this is explained in SirDave's Mini-Manual.) You should be able to fit 3 or 4 games on a 128mb memory card (eg. compact flash or secure digital card). However, if you really want to do it right- go for a 256mb or even a 512mb card and pile on 5-6 games! By the way, a particularly nice feature of PocketSCUMM is that you can play the game in both portrait and landscape mode. Okay, you're saying, 'My friend, I have the PocketPC and a 128mb memory card and I want to play a game right away, but I don't own any SCUMM games and, at the moment, I'm flat broke!' No problem, go to this site and download the legitimately-free Revolution Software game (yes, Revolution of the Broken Sword games!), Beneath A Steel Sky, currently selling in boxed form for $15-$30 or more on eBay (scroll down to the bottom of the webpage): Beneath A Steel Sky free download site.
B: POCKETSARIEN FOR SIERRA AGI GAMES Similiar in concept to PocketSCUMM is PocketSarien which is the PocketPC port of Sarien, an open-source, portable implementation of the Sierra On-Line Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI). Pocket Sarien will play games using the AGI format; they include: Leisure Suit Larry #1, King's Quest #1-#4, Space Quest #1, and Police Quest #1. Unfortunately, PocketSarien plays only in portrait mode, but is still very playable and enjoyable, nonetheless. It can be found (available for SH3, MIPS and ARM processors) at: PocketSarien downloads (Note: Don't be confused by the presence of Pocket Atari at the top of the webpage- look at the bottom of the webpage for Pocket Sarien.)
C: ADVENTURE GAMES WRITTEN FOR OR PORTED TO THE POCKETPC While PocketSCUMM and PocketSarien are free programs that you use with game files from your own games, the following games are stand-alone commercial releases and sell from $15-$30. 1. FADE The most popular Myst-like adventure game for the PPC is Fade available for all 3 PPC processors at Handango and here: Fade purchase site Overall, Fade is a very polished, fun PPC adventure game and is the closest thing to a first-person, point & click Myst clone on the PPC. It is occasionally a little quirky and betrays its French roots in spots (eg. The main character talks about his 'magic pills' which are supposed to be for headaches and sleep-walking. However the pills are listed in the game inventory as Zantoic while the name on the pill bottle is correctly given as Zantac. The problem is that Zantac is a drug for dyspepsia/heartburn!), but is well worth getting and playing. Reviews of Fade are at: A walkthrough for Fade is available at:
2. DEJA VU 1&2 and THE UNINVITED The excellent first person
adventure games, Deja Vu 1&2 (ICOM
release for the
PC: 1986) and The Uninvited (ICOM release for the PC: 1989), ported
in
true-to-the-original form from the PC versions, are available for
all 3
processors at: These are challenging,
addictive games with excellent graphics; a review of The Uninvited
is here: A review of Deja Vu 1&2
is here:
3. GILBERT GOODMATE Gilbert Goodmate was only recently released (January 2004) and is an absolute gem! It is a true port of the PC game (Prelusion Games of Sweden english version originally released June 2001) and will give you hours of enjoyment. The original PC game was vastly underrated perhaps because it was reminiscent of the Monkey Island games and therefore judged to be outdated. What a mistake! This is a game that translates particularly well to the small screen. The beautiful graphics are sharp with excellent detail and the interface and inventory system intuitive and easy to use. The writing is humourous and clever and guaranteed to entertain. Here's an example of the humour in Gilbert Goodmate: At one point, Gilbert sees some biscuits on a table. Since you can interact with many items in the game by looking at them, talking to them or picking them up, you can have Gilbert 'talk' to the biscuits. He says 'Hi biscuits!' and then, on his own says, 'Hey, isn't that some kind of plant?'. Well, it gave me a good laugh! Gilbert Goodmate runs automatically in landscape mode on the PPC. You can check out
information about Gilbert Goodmate at its home website at: And you can purchase it
(ARM processor only) at Handango or at PocketGear: An in-depth review of
Gilbert Goodmate is at:
4. CLASSIC ADVENTURE A little known, but great little game is Classic Adventure, a combination point & click graphic/text-based game somewhat in the tradition of the older Sierra games eg. King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry. The graphics are a little on the primitive side, but it's still well worth purchasing and playing. Classic Adventure is available for all 3 processors at Handango or at PocketGear: Classic Adventure
is available for all 3 processors at Handango or at PocketGear:
D: INTERACTIVE FICTION FOR THE POCKETPC Finally for the PPC is a tremendous, relatively untapped source of Interactive Fiction (IF) games. There are 3 main IF PocketPC formats supported: Z-code, TADS and Rogue. Z-code games are essentially
the early Zork games (Zork 1 to 3) and the many Zork-like games
that are available with the file extension such as Z5 or Z8. There
are 2 PPC Z-Code interpreters that will play the Z-code games:
FrotzCE and ZipCE, both available free at: ZipCE is the one to get. It will play the regular Z-code games, but also the more advanced Z-code games including Return to Zork (which FrotzCE can't play). TADS is similiar in concept
to a Z-Code interpreter but plays TADS IF games which have the
extension GAM. It can be found at: A tremendous site (Baf's
Guide to the IF Archive) for a countless number of free, excellent
Z-Code and TADS IF games is at: On the main webpage of the above website, look to the left for 'Game Listings' and select under it, 'by Rating' and you will find many 5-star games that will run under Pocket ZipCE or Pocket TADs. Another source of TADS games is at: free TADS games Finally, in the PPC IF
category are the Rogue-like games. Rogue is a game originally played
on the PC and is in the tradition of the great Colossal Cave game.
You can find Pocket Rogue (now called NanRogue) at: So, now you have several
reasons to look into adventure gaming on the PocketPC and if you've
been complaining that you don't have as much time as you'd like
to play adventure games, it just may be that you actually have
the time if you don't have to wait to play them on your desktop
PC! Finally, here's a good site to keep you abreast of the latest
PPC adventure (and other) game releases:
E: ADVENTURE GAMING ON THE GAMEBOY ADVANCE There isn't anywhere near the selection of adventure games available for the gameboy system that there is for the PocketPC, but if you're an adventure gamer and already have a Gameboy Advance, you may be missing out on yet another portable adventure game resource. At present, there are 3 'pure' adventure games available for the Gameboy Advance system: Broken Sword (The Shadow of the Templars), Nancy Drew (Message in a Haunted Mansion) and The Fish Files. The first two mentioned can still be found fairly easily at stores with a large gameboy game selection or at several gameboy game websites, however The Fish Files is a little harder to find. One source is: Playing Games Interactive or occasionally you'll find it on eBay. All three games are worth getting and if you're interested in them, I wouldn't wait too long since they will likely be harder to find in the not too distant future. Broken Sword is true to the original desktop PC version and the developers have made every attempt to make the controls effective and easy-to-use within the limitations of the gameboy system. The Nancy Drew game is surprisingly good and will be enjoyed by both Nancy Drew fans and those who've never played the Nancy Drew PC games (and that from someone who formerly wasn't a big Nancy Drew adventure game fan!). The Fish Files is a neat little game in the humorous tradition of Monkey Island and Sam & Max (it is only available as a Gameboy Color cartridge but works just fine on the Gameboy Advance system.).
The Radica Games Gamester
GameChanger: The Gameboy Advance
Adventure Game Interpreter Project (GBAGI):
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