No matter who you are or what you do, there are times when you need to kick back, relax, and get rid of all your stress. One of the best ways to escape your troubles is by playing a computer game. The only problem is that games have been traditionally tied to a television set, or a desktop PC -- either directly off a hard drive or online games created using Shockwave and Java.

But what about portable gaming? It's a popular and flexible option. Devices like the GameBoy and PlayStation Portable pretty much rule the handheld gaming market. And with good reason. They're small and light. So small that a they can fit into your back pocket. And they're incredibly fast.

PDAs: For More Than Just Work

But you don't have to lay out a few hundred dollars to get your hands on a decent portable gaming device. If you use a personal digital assistant (PDA) -- yes, one of those handheld gadgets that help many of us organize our personal and professional lives -- you already own a powerful gaming platform.

There are a number of reasons why using a PDA for gaming. The first one, mentioned earlier, is economic. On top of that, many of today's PDAs pack powerful processors and great graphics (including excellent color on many high-end models). And, most important of all, there are hundreds if not thousands of games available for PDAs.

Gaming with the Palm

The Palm organizer is arguably the most popular PDA on the market. There are also a growing number of Palm variants, like the Visor and the various offerings from Sony, which mimic the Palm in every way. They, too, are great business tools, but all work and no play makes for a dull computer user.

You might be surprised to discover that there are dozens of games for the Palm organizer. The games range from standards like Tetris and Othello to golf and Battleship. More than any other platform, the quality of Palm games varies. There are some really good ones and a lot of pedestrian efforts. I tried a few titles with substandard graphics and which really couldn't hold my attention for more than a couple of minutes. It's a mixed bag, so gamer beware.

Depending on the Palm that you own, you might find your PDA to be a less-than-ideal gaming platform. The screen on most older or lower-end Palm PDAs isn't all that great. You get a resolution of 240x320, maybe slightly higher. While the quality of the graphics can depend on the game, if you have a Palm with a monochrome screen you'll miss certain subtleties. But, if you happen to have a color Palm, the graphics may not blow you away but they will be enough to keep your attention. At their best, the graphics comparable to games on a portable gaming console.

Because the Palm is designed for organization and productivity tasks, the buttons on the Palm really aren't meant for game play. They're set too far down on the device, and that sometimes makes holding the device while playing a game quite difficult. You often feel like it will slip out of your hands at any moment.

Faking It

If you own a Palm and want to play titles for the GameBoy, but don't want to shell out for a new device, you should check out Liberty from Gambit Studios. Liberty is an emulator, software that duplicates the GameBoy environment on the Palm. What does this mean to the serious gamer? You get to tap into the GameBoy's catalog of hundreds of titles without buying a new piece of hardware.

Liberty re-creates the GameBoy experience on the Palm by allowing you to run GameBoy ROM images (duplicates of the actual game software). You can download GameBoy ROMs from various sites on the Web and, once loaded, Liberty seamlessly imitates a GameBoy. Well, more or less. There is limited sound (Gambit Studios describes it as "Partial 'awful' sound support"), and it doesn't support color. Running Liberty alone will cause you no end of frustration. The games run slowly, and are very choppy. To avoid this, you need an overclocker. An overclocker boosts the processor's speed past its limits to squeeze more performance out of the Palm. As you might expect, Gambit Studios sells its own overclocker, called Afterburner 3.

Windows Mobile: A Near-Perfect Gaming Environment?

Handhelds running Windows Mobile (or its predecessors, WindowsCE and PocketPC) are the other major player in the PDA market. Windows Mobile is the version of the Windows operating system designed specifically for PDAs and cell phones. But, like Windows on a desktop PC, Windows Mobile is bloated with useless features and can hog a lot of memory and hard drive space. Despite these problems, handhelds running Windows Mobile provide an excellent handheld gaming environment. In fact, with the right games Windows Mobile devices are almost on par with the dedicated gaming consoles.

And those games are as neat as they are varied. You can download Windows Mobile versions of classic shoot 'em up games, poker applications, versions of solitaire, and simulators for board games like chess and backgammon. As well, you can find knock-offs of arcade classics like Breakout, Centipede, and Missile Command.

PDAs running Windows Mobile have a couple of features that make them ideal for mobile gaming. Of all handhelds, Windows Mobile machines have the highest screen resolution -- ranging from 240x320 to a whopping 1024x768. The visuals are crisp and clear, more so than any other handheld. Color seems to be the norm with Windows Mobile devices, which is a bonus. On top of that, Windows Mobile devices pack quite a bit of memory and really fast processors -- 64 MB of memory or more, and processors that run as fast as 600 MHz or more. This means that Windows Mobile devices can handle games that are more complex than those running under most other PDAs.

Conclusion

When it comes to computer games, you can take it with you. Literally. The only problems you'll run into are choosing a portable gaming system to use, and finding time to play all those games.

External Links:

• Gambit Studios - Makers of the Liberty GameBoy emulator, that allows you to play GameBoy titles on a Palm.
• TUCOWS PDA site - Home of downloads for all the popular PDAs, and includes games for various PDAs.
• Palm Gear HQ software page - A great source for Palm games, and other software too.
• Jimmy Software - Some very nice games for Windows handhelds.
• Zio Interactive - The place to look for realistic PDAs games.
• IsComplete - Simple, but fun games for PDAs.