pocketSand v0.8.3
Well, i finally managed to have some time to work on pocketSand and i’m releasing a couple of fixes.
- Under some circumstances pocketSand won’t startup.
- Added pixel-doubling feature in order to gain more speed, primarily on VGA devices where the higher resolution involve too much calculations: the switch is also available for QVGA devices as well. That feature is *enabled by default* on VGA devices!
- A screen-clearing icon (trashcan) has been added.
- The main application icon has been added.
- Credits moved.
Also, all versions are available for win32-desktop too (GDI only), but i never released them, i just thought you already had one ;)
So, i really hope Shane H. and Crayfish will be able to play with this new version, let me know!
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Yep, fixed on my 2490 now. Thanks!
Well! Thank you for trying it out Crayfish!
The pixel doubling really does its trick about increasing speed – good work!
I play ist on my Laptop under XP and on my Mia a701. It’s the best game i ever played.
from Germany, Woems
Happy you like it!
Works great on My dell AXIM X3i. Good work. Keep it up. :)
I’m having trouble with pocketSand on my iPaq 3850. It runs landscape (don’t know if this is normal), but a portion of the screen is chopped off at the left, so I can’t see the water or most of the buttons. What I do see is some of my today screen. Wierd. I figured out that the hidden buttons are still pressable and I can still draw walls and stuff in the hidden space, so I can still play with the water.
Otherwise, this is an awesome program. Keep up the good work!
Also, I think fire should be more potent. Hehehe…
Thank you for reporting this: i do know there are some issues on some PPC such as you described but i’m pretty busy at the moment so i don’t know if i’ll be able to track the problem down.
Happy xmas!
Thanks anyway. I could send you the aqua log file if you like.
Happy Christmas to you too!
Hey thank you for the log file, i got some but another one can be useful!
Okay, the log file is sent.
Totally awesome waste of time, spent many, many hours with it already.
Only thing I can recommend is to code it so if you’re dragging a line and cross over onto the buttons, don’t activate the buttons. I’ve accidently toggled between normal and double pixel many times while drawing a wall on the right side of the screen to the bottom.
You are right: hopefully i’ll be able to get some time to work on pocketSand next week because i’m pretty busy with another game project.
Thank you John!
works awesometasticleh on my utstarcom ppc6700with wm5. now im not gonna be able to sleep again! anyways thanks man.
Ahah! Thank you Jack, happy it works well for you!
Please continue making awesome games like this! PocketSand slowly wraps it’s fingers around your mind and before you know it, you’ve spent hours watching those little pixles fill up your screen… I love it!!
One thing that would really be great is if you made a save/open feature where you could save your creations and reopen them later…
Keep it up!
Ahah! Thank you drumstin, really happy you like it!
It will be great having some more free time to be able to tweak pocketSand, and i hope to have the time for it, really.
I’m currently working on a game project so i’m pretty busy, but i’ve still plans to update it and the save/restore thing could a good start, only i don’t know when ;(
Nice….
top of my wishlist would be a way to save state (savegame) or a pause while I check an SMS or take a call :)
just used this to benchmark (QVGA) two new phones, dopod C800 and benq P51. The former has 44MB of RAM and on OMAP and it slowed at half a pot of sand, while the p51, on 64MB and PXA270 just went on and on.
Wondering if it’s the RAM or CPU/framebuffer. :)
oh, not sure if it’s a bug with who, but on the c800 I can switch out of sands but on the p51 the canvas stays on top of everything else, but I can click on bits of the app that’s supposed to be active.
addictive~
offhand I’m wondering where’s the original desktop version, but I’ll hunt for it when I have time.
:)
Hi serwei, not sure about the Dopod c800, i guess the code isn’t properly optimized for such a processor.
Sorry for this short answer but i’m in a hurry!
this is an AWESOME app. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!When are you gonna update it tho??
Hey thank you Dieter, really happy you like it!
I’m having problems installing this on my HP iPAQ h1910. When I install it I get an error saying it doesn’t support the device type. I’ve tried both the installer and the cab file, both give me errors. Please look into this, this port looks great and I’d love to play it.
Hi kalsey, unfortunetely PPC2002 is not supported at this time, way too many bugs in the OS internals prevent the game to run smoothly as it should.
This game is extremely addictive.
Thank You!
szopin
Works perfectly on my HP iPAQ rx5900 and I just love it!
There’s one thing I’m missing though, and thats a pen-size control.
Happy it works for you too!
Manuel:
Great program, really enjoy it. It’s saved my sanity in Microeconomics!
Just curious if you’re still working on it, any new features that you’re adding, etc. I know there’s slowdowns if I really sock it up with the spouts, but that’s to be expected.
Great program, and look forward to any further versions!
–Databoy2k
works on my 8525 baby!
This is great josh, i was exactly looking at this particular model, thank you man!
Works perfectly on Samsung i730 with WM5. Wish you had a simple help page (online or in-game) for the icons and what they do.
Great application though! Exactly what is needed in a long meeting at work.
Ehi thank you for reporting this CW, really happy!
Awesome “game”. It all feels like quality software! Your an awesome programmer! Indeed very addictive. Personally, in a future release, I’d like the possibility to pause the game, so I can draw something, and then resume action ;)
Compability report: Works awesomely great on my iPaq hx2795.
Note: I tried posting this to Pocket Sand but it didn’t work. No error messages, looks like the thread is closed, but no mention of it. Glad I copied my post to the clipboard before clicking ‘submit’ :)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Greetings from Houston, Texas! Pocket Sand is EXCELLENT. I have wasted many hours on a weekend with it. It is fun trying to make a layout that does not require constant burning fire to keep it going.
I like it so much I planned on taking a Pocket PC that I have framed in a shadow box (shadow box is like a thick frame). This Pocket PC was never released. It was in development at HP-Singapore at the time that HP bought the Compaq company. They shut down the facility in Singapore and relocated a few people to Houston where the iPAQ continued to be developed. (I worked on the team until a massive layoff).
Anyway, all of this is to say: this is a great app for those older Pocket PCs that don’t have any purpose anymore because they are too old and slow. Make a desk ornament out of it with Pocket Sand!
Unfortunately, it only supports Pocket PC 2003. Is there any way to get you to try compiling it under eMbedded Tools v3 so it could be used on Pocket PC 2000 and up? I don’t know what libraries you use and if such a thing is possible, but I was sadly disappointed when I realized it wouldn’t run on the older machines (some of coredll.dll is missing a few exports).
Pocket Sand works great on my iPAQ 2750 and on my iPAQ 4700 (VGA). You have to be careful on the VGA machine though because if you make too much sand it will slow down too much and look like it is not responding. Just don’t make a bunch of blue (water?) lines all at once and it’s okay then.
Thanks for the nifty program, and please consider the port.
Best regards,
Mike Welch
Formerly on the iPAQ Core Team
Houston Texas
Hi Mike, glad you liked pocketSand!
The game itself its pretty portable and its the sdl source code i found at the original forums at http://fallingsandgame.com with some minor optimizations in order for it to run on an int-friendly cpu.
The main problem in compiling the underlying framework with eMbedded Tools v3/4 consists in that the respective compilers’ template metaprogramming support is THAT partial; beside this, the OS itself is a bug ;) Incapable of decent multithreading, unreliable for intensive tasks such as enjoyable games: it’s technically possible but it would require more time than the one i can put in it now ;(
Really hope to be able to dedicate big time on that in the near future!
It’s fantastic! I cannot stop playing it!!
It works perfectly on my axim x51v
Thanks a lot!!!!!!
Hi all!
Very interesting information! Thanks!
Bye
In v0.9.0 could you include maybe an axle lever tool to draw an steel shape that can pivot on a single axel point. Ex: You could draw a scale or a water wheel. PocketSand is great as it is. Just giving ideas!
Would a feature to add custom elements like in wxSand be possible?
Would be really cool to make this moddable like Burning Sand or WxSand.
Because after playing a couple of hour with this, you quickly get bored. But this is a really good little “games”. Would like if you upgrade it a lot.
Would you pleeeease make it support wm6?
It’s such an addictive game
but I can’t play it on my touch…
Thanks for this amazing game!
Thanks for nice applications :-)
It is.. so relaxing… nice.. thank you very much!
I just downloaded the Win 32 bit version and ran it. It works great but
all of a sudden it will just close down. My son has the portable version and it does not do that.. Am I doing something wrong? Or is just a draw back..
I find it fun to play with .. it relaxes you.
Thank you
help i tir and download it but it says the the is not a valid pocket pc application
help pleese
spv m2000
wm2003SE
hey this is an awesome app!!!
thanks for developing this.
and by the way Kyle,
download win32 setup an try again and if that wont have effect,
try installing the cab file by tapping it on your mobile device.
PocketSand is a -great- time killer, i wish there were more games like this out..
One thing though, theres no help file on what exactly all the buttons are supposed to be..
For example, ive been trying to figure out what the green droplet icon is.. It eats away at everything but water and steel.. What could it be, acid? Why is acid that light green colour? lol..
Im also unsure about the white sand.. is it snow?
And the oil can.. dosnt seem to burn as well as the tree icon does.. if it was oil/gas i would think it would burn better..
and the brown sand i assume is just.. dirt..
A help file or simple explanation would be great!
Version 0,83 does not work on my device. Started, but does not work. And previous versions also. :(
ASUS A626
WM5
well, not sure if you still read this or not, it’s been awhile since the last post. I really like the sand game, and pocket sand seemed perfect, but when i installed it to my at&t tilt (kaiser) it starts up but then slows completely when the sand comes down the screen…then i have to do a soft shutdown just to get out of it…any ideas as to what is slowing it down so much?
Very nice software, nice GUI, intuitive, so simple, so small, so fast. Seems to run just fine of my HTC Touch HD and on an older HTC P3600.
I hope you are making a good living out of writing software for the Windows Mobile platform. It would be really a waste otherwise.
Again, bravo!
Hi Zaid, thank you for trying it out and taking the time to report it back here: unfortunately for me, i’m currently not making *any* living out of it, i can say everything on this blog is just free time experiments, here is why there aren’t so much ;)
pocketSand was meant as a project for research in the mobile field: at the time Philipp and i were developing a game for various platforms (not just Windows Mobile) and we are still wondering when we’ll be able to start development again; too bad we don’t think we’ll be able to do game development anytime soon and surely Rollbot, which we expected to sell at least the bare minimum to cover development expenses, just sold a grand total of 15/20 copies (!), didn’t really help us.
We love making games and we would love to make a living out of it, we’ll see how the current year is going to be for us.