What other PC games have been ported to Pocket PC?

[999]

IMHO I think Descent would be extremely hard to control.<br><br>You can move and pitch in any direction on Descent, where as in Quake you are limited.<br><br>

[Moose or Chuck]

As I said, I think more elaborately then most. You can turn then easily strafe around a corner, with the momentum you could then continue turning. Circle Strafing would be easier because of that momentum. No need for a mlook area either. It would run slightly faster than PQ, less polys, most items are sprites. Only enemies are polys, and very little detail in maps. Except for those recharge areas it would run reasonably quick.

[Sethsez]

Descent wouldn't be hard to control.  I think it would work fine with the current Quake setup, in fact.

[999]

Moosey<br><br>I had to do a strategy guide on that game (Descent).<br><br>It's Quake in space dude, and a pretty poor attempt at that.<br><br>The console versions had to have an auto horizon added so players wouldn't float around upside down trying to fenagle their way around one of those oddball maps (doors on all axis).<br><br>That's gotta say something for the control issues, as even a home console have far superior an input method compared to a PDA.<br><br>While I'm not saying Descent couldn't be played on a PDA, I am saying Quake would be more intuitive when it comes to controls.<br><br>

[Warren]

There's only a few flight sims, and they're all clones of Microsoft Flight Simulator, and run very slow, because of the huge draw distance. In Descent, there's always a walls infront of you, so the game would run faster, and the graphics are pretty low, so it should run smooth. The only thing I know in games really good is mapping, and Descent 1 maps are quite straight forward, low polygon counts. I don't it'll be hard to steer in Descent, just use the joypad to look, 2 buttons to go forward and back, and the 3rd button to shoot (this is based on the Casio EM-500). And onscreen buttons too. Now the question is, vertical or horizontal. You can make it horizontal, use the joypad to look and onscreen buttons to accelerate, decelerate, and shoot, and misc. Just like Quake. Descent should run smoothly. If you want, you can include the graphics settings option in the game, so you can ajust the graphics to your liking. Thinking about Descent brings back great memories, like that stupid thief craft! That stupid thing makes you drive crazy!! That thief craft is so mean when he takes your weapons, you just want to slap him.  

[Warren]

LOL, look at that, 999's post and mine are 2 seconds apart!

[999]

Jason, those are great games, but unless you're Lucas Arts, porting them to PPC would be nothing short of Piracy <br><br>

[Jaybot]

I'm probably alone on this one, but ANY of the Lucasarts adventure games would kick ass on the ppc.  Monkey Island 1 and 2, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, Indiana Jones Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis, Loom.... All you do in those games is point and click anyway.  And almost all of them ran on 286-486 machines.  Also, many of the Sierra Adventure games would be cool too Kings Quest series, (Moose already mentioned Kings Quest VI, the best one in my opinion) and the Leisure Suit Larry series... okay I'm done now.Last modification: Jaybot - 03/22/01 at 19:04:46

[Jaybot]

Yeah I know, Lucasarts is one of the most private companies too, pity.  I tried to find out where I could direct a question about the source code, and they just ignored me.  However I remember awhile back some of my old friends were able to get the source code for Dark Forces, as long as they didn't distribute it or anything... Oh well.<br>Why doesn't Lucasarts just take a weekend or two and port these games? Since theyre still selling and making money off these titles..hell, I'd be more likely to buy these old games for the ppc than buy than for the desktop.  And I think others would too, just from the lack of good games for the ppc.

[randall]

Yeah, those (LucasArts) games would be very intuitive on a PPC. I still love Day of the Tentacle and Fate of Atlantis, and have replayed both within the last 6 months.<br><br>Those required lots of fullscreen graphics though. I'd like a decent Point and click adventure like those.<br><br>Anyone seen Stupid Invaders? That game is a hoot.

[SonicSilicon]

Hmm, I was thinking about the legalities of porting such games as the LucasArts and Sierra adventure games. It might be very legal to port the games, sort of.<br><br>Here's how it works. Many console emmulators are legal because the person who wrote the code never refered to any of the hardware or software of the actual platform. In essence s/he made her/his own machine (kind of like a car manufacturer making there own engine.) What does this have to do with adventure games?<br><br>Many of the last 2D adventures used "engines" to speed up devlopment. The audio, visual, and other content are stored in a file. This is the actual "new" part of the game. The code that runs it may of had some tweeks, but chiefly it was a straight use of the engine code. So if a person was to write their own engine that would read the data from the game's file to provide the same experience it could be considered an emulator. The content obviously could not be distributed legally, bu t I believe the ported engine could be. If you think about it, it has already happened with the Infocom games and FrotZ.<br><br>So, all a person would have to do is download the engine emulator executable and buy a copy of whatever game they wanted to play it with. From there the copy the data files from the CD to the appropriate directory on their device. Hmm, that last step might not be legal, but I'd have to read a licensing agreement to be sure.

[randall]

If I remember correctly, LucasArts designed and used the SCUMM engine for their adventure games. It may even be used nowadays in Monkey Island.<br><br>Designing a SCUMM emulator would be an interesting alternative. There may be clones of SCUMM floating around on the internet, if so their source code may be available.<br><br>Adventure games tend to take alot of fullscreen graphics, so the size is a concern.<br><br><br>

[Mr Visitor]

I have read about this on Brighthand...<br><br>There are some people who *say* that they have nearly completed a pocket PC version in the scumm engine, so that people can write their own adventure games for Pocket PC.  That said, I would be fairly easy to get the proper lucas arts games to run on it.<br><br>All Monkey Island games use the scumm scripting language (and Full Throttle!) expect the last on, Escape from Monkey Island - That used the 3D Grim fandango game engine.

[randall]

How about the text-based engine like MUD? Anyone seen the text-based DOOM utilizing the MUD engine?

[Moose or Chuck]

I'd definently pay upwards of $30 to get Kings Quest VI on my PocketPC. LucasArts, if you could spend 1 weekend adding the GAPI display routines for my PPC and release KQ VI, even just over the internet, you'd be making enough money to be worth it.