Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (
More info?)
RootShell wrote:
> a) Which is the 'best' PDA for playing Interactive Fiction these
> days?
The one you've got with you. That is, buy what fits your lifestyle the
best, with the features that make it absolutely invaluable to you for
everyday living, and it'll be there in your pocket when you've got the
urge to play IF. The handheld you always leave at home because its too
bulky, too hard to use, or you can't read the screen in bright daylight
-- it's not going to do you any good for playing IF either.
For the best in Graphical gaming, I suggest looking for good emulator
support -- the number of good Gameboy Color games beats the number of
good PalmOS games by an order of magnitude. Super Nintendo, SEGA, etc,
can all be emulated on handheld devices -- and a couple of products are
emulating (to various degrees of sucess) Gameboy Advance titles for
PocketPC and PalmOS platforms.
You probably ought to consider the more mundane aspects as well; your
"To Do" list, addressbook, etc, *is* important. 'nuff said.
> b) Which PDA Operating System is best supported by IF
> interpreters?
>From what I understand, there is a TADS interpreter for Windows Mobile
devices. To the best of my knowledge, nobody's ported TADS to PalmOS
(yet -- wink*). Adrift is Desktop/Windows only, not available for
handhelds, and Hugo is available for both handheld platforms. Z-Machine
interpreters abound for handheld platforms, naturally, just as they do
for their larger desktop cousins, and older things like AGT and Quill
just aren't available for PDAs, probably due to lack of interest.
The Inform *compiler* has been ported to Windows CE - how it fares
under recent Windows Mobile handhelds I couldn't say. A port of the
compiler to PalmOS 5.x devices is currently in testing and should be
released soon. The TADS compiler, I believe, is desktop-only, but a
PocketPC version isn't inconceivable, nor is a port for high-end PalmOS
devices. Neither currently exists, though, and I don't know of any
solid plans to start such a project. I don't know of any other handheld
IF development tools at this time. The Hugo compiler is feasible for
both WinMobile and PalmOS 5, but nobody's working on porting it that I
know of.
Finally, I understand that Windows handhelds (might?) offer some sort
of DOS compaibility mode -- which might allow you to use DOS versions
of your favourite interpreters and compilers and whatnot. Someone with
some experience in that area might want to provide us more information
about it.
> c) Which PDA processor should i look for?
Most things these days (AFAIK) run on ARM-based processors of some
sort, though MIPS and friends are still out there. The CPU that comes
in the PDA that otherwise meets your needs is probably the right one
for you. I wouldn't advise *anybody* to buy a $400 PDA for playing free
IF games. That's just silly, don't you think?
> d) Which display size should i look for?
The largest one you can find that still works for you. You might be
enamored by the Treo 650 cell phone (PalmOS) and the small 320x320
mini-screen is all you want. Or you could prefer to carry around a
plastic brick that runs Windows Mobile 2003 but sports a full VGA
640x480 display. PDAs aren't like computers, where memory, hard drive
space, and available options dictate what you buy. PDAs are supposed to
be carried with you, almost like clothing, and you should shop around
for something that fits your personality and lifestyle like a
professionaly tailored jacket fits you body.
> e) Which should be the minimum amount of RAM the PDA should
> have, to play most games (even if only one at a time) and
> still have room for other stuff?
RAM's not usually a big concern. Either the interpreter works for a
given handheld or it doesn't. TADS on PalmOS 2.0 just wouldn't happen
-- it needs more memory than those devices provided. Get as much usable
RAM as you can. The PalmOne Tungsten T5, for example, has 256MB of RAM,
but most of it is used to emulate a $30 USB flash drive -- which I
consider to be kind of dumb when you can swap 1GB SD cards in and out
of the thing all day long. The older T3 has more usable RAM than any
other PalmOS device on the market, 64Mb. Get as much as you can and
keep in mind that two-weeks after you buy one, something better will
probably come out.
> f) If you use any already, which model do you have? and
> more or less how much did it cost (to make some sort of
> paralel to the Cost of them in Portugal in Euros)
I'm using a PalmOne Tungsten T3, and you'd have to pry it out of my
cold, dead hands to get it away from me. The PalmOne Zire 72 has a
built in camera, in lieu of the larger screen, but I've got a $50
digital camera that does just as good of a job. My T3 has 11Mb of heap
RAM available (which is the RAM programs use while they're running,
rather than the RAM used to store programs like a hard-drive), a
320x480 high-res screen, decent sound capabilities. Its the best on the
market, as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't trade it for a T5 or a Treo
650, or any of the things that've come out since. I play SNES games,
Gameboy/GBC
games, etc, using a free emulator. MP3 playback, voice recording.
Bluetooth. WiFi is available from PalmOne via a $120 add-on SDIO card.
And, of course, there are thousands of 3rd-party apps that run on
PalmOS. I'm particularly fond of my video player -- watching full
length movies from my SD card is awfully fun.
Last I saw, CompUSA had Tungsten T3's for $299.
My next choice would be the Tapwave Zodiac 2, as it's only a bit
slower, is a bit larger to carry around, has some really awesome games
and emulators, and still handles the normal PDA stuff. Still, it looks
like a handheld game console, and that's rather awkward to explain in
meetings. Lifestyle thing, y'know?
I've never liked the feel of Windows handhelds -- what works great on
the desktop just doesn't work for me in my pocket. Some people swear by
them, and that's good, but I can't really offer any information about
them to you. Hopefully someone who's used Windows handhelds for a while
will respond as well, giving you feedback from that angle.
> Any feedback on this will be great, since it would help
> me make a final decision.
In the end, nothing's really "better" -- its up to you to determine
what fits you best. Some newsgroups might degenerate into a handheld
platform Holy War at this point; I'm glad we're discussing this in rgif
instead.
If you've got Palm-related questions, I'll be happy to answer them for
you, or to try to direct you to someone who can. I really hope someone
can give you a detailed look at things from the Windows side as well,
as the more you know before you decide, the happier you're likely to be
with your choice.
Best of luck!
Brandon
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