Games from the past

    In our high-tech era, you will not surprise anyone with games with realistic graphics, cool special effects, real sound, etc. After all, not so long ago, many with a gleam in their eyes “chopped” into Quake, Doom, DukeNukem, Ufo, ... The younger generation probably don’t know at all that such games were once masterpieces of the game building.
    Now many have, and if we take separately “developers”, then almost everyone has a PDA or communicator. It should be noted that the capacities there are quite considerable. I myself was once fond of such experiments, and now I want to talk a little about the good old games of the last century on mobile devices. All this is again provoked by some idleness on the weekend and an attempt to diversify the use of old ebarahl. Yes, we’ll talk about usable and free ports of old games that are specially “sharpened” for handhelds.


    Here are the devices on which I launched this whole thing:
    1. Asus MyPal A620. (Windows Mobile 2003, Intel PXA 255, 400 MHz)
    2. Qtek 9100 - Htc Wizard (Windows Mobile 6, Texas Instruments OMAP 850 - 195 MHz)


    3D shooters. Oh, they are the gods of their time! We close our eyes and remember how they rattled: Quake, Doom2, DukeNukem. We will stop on these masterpieces, because besides them I could not find anything more or less working and playable.

    1. Quake
    The first game (or rather the port) that I came across is Quake. The first version. In order to play, you need to get the original game files, and specifically - pak, resource files. They (pak0.pak, pak1.pak) can be downloaded from sites with old games, or from the distribution of the game. I took the files from the directory where I put Original Quake. Further, no less important, we rewrite the files on the device to the root, that is, the path - / Quake /, or to the memory card, also to the root - / Storage Card / Quake /. I did not read readme.tht, so I worked around for a long time until I realized what the problem was when the game did not start, but crashed with a strange error. After I threw the files to the root - it all worked right away. With the installation of everything. Now about playability.
    Basically, these game ports make it possible to play with fingers and buttons, because the models are different and everyone has their own peculiarities. On the communicator, I could not set the landscape mode, because after the setup I could not exit the menu :) I took a screenshot from the PDA. It took about 10 minutes to master the control, while I got used to walking and shooting using the touchscreen and buttons at the same time. Graphics, sound, control settings are available, so if something bothers you can fix it. Actually everything - meat went on!

    Summary:
    + good old quake, with meat sounds and monsters
    + good control, but far from an airplane
    - it works slowly on a communicator since 195 MHz, but at times, from a busy scene.
    ~ the graphics look pale on the screen, but this is not a problem

    Immediately interested in the possibility of a network game, which is provided there (!). It’s a pity, ActiveSync did not allow to connect 2 devices at the same time, in short, it danced anyway - nothing. I tried to make a server on a PC, but I couldn’t connect from the PDA, and vice versa, too. Very broken off, and in the end just moved on to the next game.

    I was satisfied, then a few screenshots :
    Console works
    The console works :)
    Normal mode, uncomfortable, but functional
    Normal mode, inconvenient, but functional
    Landscape mode, already better, control completely from the buttons.
    Landscape mode, it’s better, the control is completely from the buttons.

    2. DukeNukem
    I found out about this game quite by accident, when I came to visit a friend (it was 90x), he already had a “powerful” computer, speakers, and other pribludy. He showed me DukeNukem3D. I immediately liked it, beautiful graphics, interesting in general. Settled, shot, dispersed. Xs how much time passed, I came across it again, but already in the form of a port. So installation: it’s easier, because you only need one resource file (DUKE3D.GRP) from the original kit. We copy it to the game folder and run it, nothing depends on the path, unlike Quake. The process has begun ...
    The game is immediately tuned to landscape orientation, the control is again incomprehensible, you need to click on all the buttons until you catch what's what. 5 minutes for everything, and into battle.
    I must say that Duke is faster than Kwaki, but not by much. So, the rest of the iron will fly. Graphics, sound, control settings are present.

    Summary:
    + landscape mode
    + good speed on weak devices
    ~ a little confusion with the controls

    Screenshots:
    Logo
    Beautiful logo
    Menu
    Convenient menu
    The game
    Game itself

    3. DoomII
    And finally - doom. no - Doooooom. My favorite game since childhood. I must say that the choice here is great - there are a lot of ports on the network to different platforms, including mobile phones. For windows mobile I dig 4 pieces. However, the most convenient / fast / buggy turned out to be only one "qfDoom". Here you will need the original doom2.wad file. It is put in the folder with the game, everything is simple, without unnecessary gestures. A distinctive feature of this port is the presence of a configurator, i.e., first we launch the configurator, select the desired card (you can start from the first one), type HUD (keyboard, several options), options (FPS, No monsters, Respawn) and start the game itself. Everything works exceptionally fast, even on my communicator (195 MHz). No brakes were noticed, except for scenes with crowds of monsters. The graphics look beautiful, I remember immediately IDDQD / IDKFA and the battle. The control is convenient, you can use your fingers (stylus), and you can use the buttons. The menu also has all the features: video, sound, control. 2 minutes was enough to already start crushing monsters. Now sometimes I play in transport :)

    Summary:
    + many settings
    + speed, even on weak pieces of iron it does not slow down
    + landscape mode
    ~ small shoals when controlling the movement with your finger.

    Screenshots:
    Logo
    Logo Landscape
    Landscape mode with keyboard
    mode with keyboard
    Landscape mode
    Landscape mode

    4. Links and materials
    (c) id Software, 3D Realms

    Quake - quake.pocketmatrix.com
    DukeNukem3D - spv3d.tk
    Doom - I didn’t find the link, but there is an archive

    Game archives, without resource files:
    Quake - 224 kb
    DukeNukem3D - 421 kb
    qfDoom - 298 kb

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