Review

Global Star's 100 Great Games for the Palm Computing Platform

By Andy Walker, Cyberwalker Media Syndicate

The beauty of hand-held devices is that they are justifiable business tools. If you pull one out, you usually mean business. Of course, they are multi-functional and also do games quite well.

We're not suggesting you place games on your all-business device. But in those moment between meetings, between flights at airports or between agenda items, there are fun ways to fill the time and still look busy.

One way to do this is to download games from the Internet. Or you could try 100 Great Games for the Palm Computing Platform by Global Star software.

It's a collection of free or shareware games that will install on Palm III, Palm V or Palm VII hand-held devices.

The collection will also install on any device that uses the newer versions of the PalmOS (Palm's operating system), such as the Handspring Visor or the IBM WorkPad.

The 100 games are broken down into many categories, but include card games, adventure games, arcade games and puzzles. Favorites such as Frogger, Space Invaders and even Q-bert have been cloned (and cleverly renamed) by knowledgeable shareware programmers.

The selection of time wasters is many and varied. The games vary from bad to great. But this software package's only convenience is that the games are collected in one place.

What's included is mostly 30-day trial versions of the games. If you want to use them longer, you have to track down the game authors on the Internet or via old fashion post and pay a fee to get a game license.

That would be OK, if Global Star provided other value. But it doesn't. In addition, the installer on the CD is temperamental. When it finally does finish and reboot, there's no evidence that the installer software has put anything on your hard disk.

There is no icon on the desktop or in the Windows 95/98 Start menu. If your look for it and route it out on the CD, you can get the Global Star software to attempt to install games you select, but even that is problematic and non-intuitive. If you know how to add software to your Palm device using the included Palm program installer, you can browse the CD and do it manually, but Global Star's software won't do it for you.

For real value, Global Star needs to provide a mechanism to pay for the full versions of the games through the Web or by using an on-disk credit.

That way, at least, some of the games could be converted to full versions. A more intuitive and less buggy installer would help make this a more robust product.

Otherwise, it is just a CD full of games that you can get from the Internet.

Reviewer's rating: 1 / 5

Comments: Global Star's 100 Great Games for the Palm Computing Platform provides nothing that the Internet doesn't already provide for free.

System requirements: Palm III, Palm V or Palm VII hand-held device with HotSync cradle or compatible device. Pentium 90 processor or better. CD-ROM, SVGA mnitor, 8 MB RAM, (16 MB recommended), Windows 95/98, mouse.

More info: http://www.globalstarsoftware.com

Price: $14.99 US, $21.00 Canadian