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.