Spb Puzzle: new jigsaw puzzle game for touchscreen smartphones

Just received this news last night from Victoria Krasilshikova at Spb Software; a top mobile games and applications developer, today announces the release of Spb Puzzle 1.0 - a classic jigsaw puzzle game, designed specifically with the touchscreen in mind: Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 touchscreen phones.

Spb Puzzle is explicitly finger-friendly, offers animation, haptic response, and real-looking puzzle pieces that are thoroughly crafted, down to the effects of light and anti-aliasing. Spb Puzzle offers 10 puzzles preinstalled, more free puzzle for download, and can make custom puzzles out of any image.

"With this brand new release, we aimed to create an authentic puzzle game with excellent graphics, clearest possible controls and navigation, and an unlimited number of puzzles to solve," - comments Nikita Glushkov, Spb Puzzle Product Manager. "Spb Puzzle gives users the freedom to work on even the most complicated puzzles in the comfort of their own phone, any time, any place. Spb Puzzle also keeps players assured that not a single puzzle piece will ever get lost, or that a nearly completed puzzle will ever get ruined by mishap," he concludes.

Key Features of Spb Puzzle 1.0:

• Versions for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60
• High-quality graphics and finger-friendly interface
• Custom puzzles from any image or photo
• Free additional jigsaw puzzle packs
• Flexible puzzle difficulty - fit for any age
• 10 preinstalled puzzles in "Classic" pack
• Pause and resume, autosave on exit, never lose a puzzle until it's complete

Spb Puzzle 1.0 is compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0 or higher, and Symbian S60 touchscreen devices, qVGA and VGA screen resolutions are supported. Spb Puzzle 1.0 shareware version is limited in the number of puzzles available: 2 base and 1 custom image puzzles. Full version of Spb Puzzle is available for 9.95 USD at www.SpbSoftwareHouse.com.

Today's off topic quickie: Fallout 3 finally out

Ready to get out from your nuclear bunker, grab a shotgun and blast off those nasty mutant creatures on the post-apocalyptic waste land? Or perhaps you rather spend the rest of your day in the bunker leisurely laying down and getting nuke-radiation burn, while sipping down a glass full of rad-pack...? ;-)

One of my favorite games of all time; Fallout. Has just been launched at midnight on October 27 in most of U.S. big cities, and the gamers who have been waiting forever for the third installment are now paid off.

This Fallout 3 is nothing like the second, which I've played so many times when I was at college, this one has stunning 3D graphics. It's no wonder because the developer behind Fallout 3, is Bethesda; maker of the famous Oblivion game.

I can't have enough words to praise the game, and you can witness youself by visiting the gallery page. But for you who wanted for a quick pace game and jump straight ahead into lots of actions, you might get dissapointed, cuz Fallout 3 is more like plot-driven RPG which usually become more enjoyable when you play longer in time.

But in the game, you can expect plenty of blood-gore scenes from blowing the enemies with large guns. Although you shouldn't hope to see green fields with trees & flowers around the game's environment, what you'll get is the opposite; a post-nuclear land filled with destroyed rusty buildings which is pretty depressing for some happy-time gamers.

In the end, if you managed to push those inside your stomach and waste hours with the game; you'll soon find yourself playing one of the most awaited games of the year. In fact, Fallout 3 has been rumored to be resurrected long since the second installment. That's why it's now gaining so much attention from every hardcore playing gamers around the globe...

For me, I'm just gonna wait till I can afford a computer with a fast quad-core processor, a powerful graphic card, an eye-popping 17" monitor and a month off from work before I'll able to play it. ~LOL~ Maybe I'll get a better chance, if I pray for a stripped down mobile version of the Fallout 3 game meant for mobile phone? If that ever happen, then I can see my favorite character again from the Fallout game; the PipBoy! I'm already using him as my Treo's wallpaper. ;-D

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

ScummVM supports iPhone, ...and others too

Just a little bit of reminder, especially for you who love to play old & classic games from Lucas Art. Such as Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, Maniac Mansion, Day of Tentacle, etc. You can always replay those games with your mobile phones.

The ScummVM latest release v0.11.1 is already supported iPhone, grab the package at this link and use it with the official games you've purchased legally. Remember, play safe & stay legal.

I'm sure iPhone's wide screen will make it so fun to play the games, unlike with my Treo's squarish screen where I must squint my eyes to see the details... Oooh, I'm so envy you iPhone owners. When, oh when will iPhone arrive here?? ~LOL~

For you who have upgraded your iPhone into firmware v2.0, or for iPhone 3G owners, there's a premilinary version available. And if you have a brave heart & soul to try it out, then grab it at this link. Or you may want to follow on the progress at this ScummVM's forum, and watch closely untill a stable version comes out.

And for other mobile OS platforms like Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian, etc. you're not left alone. ScummVM has sucessfully supported them too, the only thing left for you to find is the games you wanted to play again. Oh, almost forgot to remind you who haven't know of ScummVM, you can read the FAQ first, and don't forget it's free! ;-)

Yeah, I'm being melancholy right now. ;-p But rather than waiting for Fallout 3 to come out (which I'll definetely play it even if I have to "steal" a gamer computer ;-p), I'd rather waste my time with good quality classic games like I've mentioned above.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Palm Heroes

One of the most addictive game I've ever played back then when I was still a snobby little boy in junior high school, is Heroes of Might & Magic. And now, mobile users can enjoy the classic game in the Windows Mobile galore with Palm Heroes.

Palm Heroes is a fantasy turn-based strategy (TBS) with elements of a role-playing game (RPG), which for you who have already played it before must've appreciate the similarity from the original version; both in game play and the user interface. Like you can see on the thumbnail picture on the left, click to enlarge it. But for you who haven't, well I guess it's best for you to read the abundant reviews on the net.

Among the reviews, I would recommend the one made by Brian Campo from MyTodayScreen. His review has a thorough perspective, accompanied with screenshots taken from the game. A good one to read.

I really love to grab Palm Heroes immediately & installed it into my Treo, specially on the day like today: Monday. It would be a nice reminiscence to play the game again during busy work hours, ...uuuh I mean during break or lunch time. <;-p ~LOL~ But too bad Palm Heroes doesn't support Treo 750's squarish screen, here are the minimum specs needed to play it:

Windows Mobile 2003 or later

5 MB free space

6MB free memory

240x320 touchscreen

Have a great start of the week then, and be careful whenever playing games while working in the office! ~chuckles~

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Indiana Jones mania

O my goodness, time sure flies by so quickly. Just one month more, before the release of the most awaited movie of the years: Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of Crystal Skull! Wait, do I hear someone shouted “Why would I care for just another Hollywood movie?” Well, maybe some below reasons might change your mind there:

• It’s been almost 19 years since the third movie, so to think why would George Lucas & Steven Spielberg wanted to resurrect Dr. Indiana Henry Jones Jr. back to silver screen again for the fourth one; would be enough to spark your curiosity isn’t it?


• It’s a Steven Spielberg movie for cryin’ out loud!


• No one except the actors, actresses & everyone who are involved directly with the movie; have know of the movie’s storyline. Spielberg & Lucas have made it very strict on the secrecy of the story; they even made people who work in it to sign a contract that stated them not to leak the story to anyone.



• the movie is set to be released world wide on May 22th, only such a major movie will get such treatment from Hollywood power house.



• the cast of stars like Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf, John Hurt and many more; surely has stated enough this is a huge movie.



• maybe the very-last movie of Indiana Jones to be made.



• Google it up, and you’ll get too many of hits that your monitor’s vertical resolution can handle. Including some funny behind the stories before the movie was made, read them here.

Pheew, I think I should stop there. Otherwise I’ll sounds more like a PR for Indiana Jones movie ;-p
But what that’s all about got to do with PA & your mobile phone? If you’re a huge fan of Indiana Jones, or love playing games with your mobile gadgets; then you can replay the old RPG game: Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis (pictured left). Just to rekindle the spirit of the past memories, where sometimes those old 2D games are still my favorites to play even for now. If you recall I’ve posted long ago here at PA about it, too bad LucasArts is no longer make such adventure games like Indiana Jones there & Monkey Island 2 anymore.

But you may be wondering on how to make those old games run on your current modern gadgets right? Well, this is where ScummVM will barge in. ScummVM will become the engine to bridge the old platform with the nowadays OS of your devices, the current version (v0.11.1) has already supported many OS platforms. Including Windows Mobile 6, Palm OS 5, iPhone, etc., just download it from their website here.

I’ve noticed Sammy & my fellow Associate Writer, Ronald Abadi have also posted about it there at PA. Check it out; it’s a nice getaway if you’re bored with modern games. Although you’ll still need the games you wanted to play aside from ScummVM, you probably could get them from eBay or others places which sell official old games. Remember, stay safe and stay straight! ;-D

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Play Lucas Arts' classic games with your Treo 750

Classic games are the best in storyline, because back then the graphic card was not yet available so game developers relied mostly on the storyline to attract gamers, and with little help on better sound card. Yes, for those who's not experienced the beginning of PC games back in the '80s, where we need to add an additional sound card just to get musics & sounds out, instead of "beep-beep" sound from PC speaker. One of the emulators I recommend is ScummVM, at Jan 13th 2008, they released a new version for WindowsCE (also for Windows desktop, run fine on Vista too).

I tested it on my Treo 750v, and it works great! Although Treo's small squarish screen make my eyes squint to see the details, everything works fine until I finished the game: Monkey Island 2. Great-great game, specially it's musics which uses iMuse technic (nope, it doesn't have anything to do with Apple). Really brings back all the good memory of wit challenge games that can take you in for hours, even days. I really have to give two thumbs up for the people who dedicated their times & efforts to make such amazing engine, and it's free! But you still need the games, because they don't provide those games and recommend you to purchase them legally.

For you who never heard of old games like Day of the Tentacles, Full Throttle, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, etc.; you should give them a try sometime. Specially the last one I mentioned, Indiana Jones 4th movie is about to be released soon; you can warm up a little bit with the old game. O' how I wish Lucas Arts make these kind of games again... I can hear the Indiana's theme song calling, I'm off to play it again, have a nice Monday y'all.