Quickies: Handmark, PrintBoy, Leonardo, Date Book, San Francisco

Handmark has agreed to buy out Pocket Express, including its games like Tetris Classic and the Midway Arcade Classics. CEO August Grasis III said, "With this acquisition Handmark becomes a dominant publisher of PDA games with four of the top ten titles on Handango.” -PR

Bachmann Software's PrintBoy now supports printing from a Palm OS handheld to Clarinet Systems’ EthIR LAN infrared LAN access system. After a document is transmitted to an EthIR Beam station, it is then routed to a designated network printer. -PR

Leonardo is a vector-based drawing application with text support that is currently in open beta. -PR

Palmloyal.com's latest PalmOS Minute is on the Date Book. - Carl Brooks

The next meeting of the San Francisco Palm User Group is June 20. Webvisia will be there demoing the latest version of WordWizard, which speeds up text entry. They'll also have a demo of Handspring's new Treo 90 along with prizes from Softava and RiteMail. -Tony Ching

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leader in games?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 9:24:26 AM #
What am I missing? Having games listed well on Handango means Handmark is the game leader? Who is calling Handango a standard setter? Sure, Handmark is gathering up a lot of software titles, let's see which ones are around in the future and if there are many upgrades to the titles that don't sell well on the store shelves.

A bunch of software titles under one roof is not always the best thing... Hmmm... M$. Time will tell, we the users may be the winners or losers.

RE: leader in games?
crustyedgeofinnovation @ 6/19/2002 9:41:37 AM #
how much do you guys think they paid for Pocket Express?

RE: leader in games?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 9:52:12 AM #
$4.57. You?

so, Astraware not the best anymore? yay!

RE: leader in games?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 9:53:07 AM #
Astraware is still the best on this site. And Handmark is the best on Handango. <g>
RE: leader in games?
ardiri @ 6/19/2002 10:01:07 AM #
Astraware is still the best on this site. And Handmark is the best on Handango.

can you quit your moaning about junk like this? everyone has their own opinion on what is the "best" - if you like puzzle games; astraware might be for you.. if not, there are plenty of other game developers out there.. we all have our own set of "groupies" (people who blindly support us) it just seems that a lot of them that hang out on PIC just cannot shut their mouths sometimes. who cares who is the best or not? as long as you get your software - why do you care?

// az
aaron@ardiri.com
http://www.ardiri.com/
http://www.mobilewizardry.com/

RE: leader in games?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 11:17:44 AM #
Aaron your missing the point. It has nothing to do with which is better to one person or another. It has everything to do with those reporting the news and placing a spin their favs over real reporting. Or bending the facts a bit to show they are the best.

Everyone here agrees with you that one game I like is much better than a game you like is only based on our personal game play. But if they are going to print those likes/dislikes they should expect others to disagree. And this being a board welcoming discussions then here we all are... giving our two cents. Thanks for yours, I hope you like mine.

RE: leader in games?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 1:56:11 PM #
"It has everything to do with those reporting the news and placing a spin their favs over real reporting. Or bending the facts a bit to show they are the best."

It's not really "placing a spin" when you quote the CEO in a Press Release.

Maybe you could say the CEO spun it...

Handmark + Pocket Express

ardiri @ 6/19/2002 9:54:39 AM #
as a developer who has one title involved in this deal (LodeRunner: The Legend Returns) i personally believe it is a move in the right direction for the community. Handmark is has made very strong roots into the retail market place in the USA - to the point of having their own "PDA software stands". while Handmark may not be developing the software, they are the ones pushing it out to consumers; and making sure it meets exceptional standards - this is a good thing.

the term "game leader"; hmm - from a sales point of view, yes :) from a development point of view? no - most of their titles have been outsourced. Handmark is primarially responsible for the marketing and distribution of products - people will end up buying from them.

the only negative thing from such a deal is that there may soon be a monopoly for licensing titles on the Palm platform - Pocket Express and Handmark competed in the retail market; but, now, there is less to choose from when selling a license to a product for distribution on the Palm. unless of course more pop up :)

// az
aaron@ardiri.com
http://www.ardiri.com/
http://www.mobilewizardry.com/

RE: Handmark + Pocket Express
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 10:21:15 AM #
Aaron,
With all of the talk lately about OS5, a D-pad being on the upcoming Palm, and then today's announcement, it looks like Palm-gaming is about to take a few steps forward. What's your personal take on the situation? I know that I'd enjoy your Lode Runner port far more if a better control method was available.

Are you permitted to say whether or not you have ever been approached by Palm themselves for some sort of bundling/Palm Games Card 2.0 type of thing? How seriously do you imagine Palm/Palmsource take portable entertainment?

Most non-PIC Palm users I know only have, if anything, the breakout and minesweeper and sub hunt games that Palm gave away for free 5 years ago <shudder>

RE: Handmark + Pocket Express
ardiri @ 6/19/2002 11:35:34 AM #
With all of the talk lately about OS5, a D-pad being on the upcoming Palm, and then today's announcement, it looks like Palm-gaming is about to take a few steps forward. What's your personal take on the situation? I know that I'd enjoy your Lode Runner port far more if a better control method was available.

gamepad or gameface? :) i know - it would be much better if a device actually had a D-pad on the hardware :) sony just seems to be missing the point by making their controls worse for gaming.. great screen, bad controls.. if they had both.. :)

Are you permitted to say whether or not you have ever been approached by Palm themselves for some sort of bundling/Palm Games Card 2.0 type of thing? How seriously do you imagine Palm/Palmsource take portable entertainment?

Palm/PalmSource is, to the best of my knowledge - not interested in a Palm Games Card 2.0 (i asked; but, maybe asked the wrong person). they are however, interested in pushing the SD card technology out to developers like us. while they are not so interested in the investment of building the cards themselves, they are very interested in helping the developers using the technology; SD cards obviously increase sales of Palm units.

our Deity3D (www.ardiri.com/palm/deity) engine has been licensed - and, an SD card version is definately something we are interested in. we will have a press release up (and brand new screen shots) as soon as our partners PR department finalizes the press release.

we have discussions with a licensee (wont mention who) underway :) they'll probably take my ARM and a leg :P heh - or blow my head into a higher resolution :) if i mention who they are. nothing is final yet.

// az
aaron@ardiri.com
http://www.ardiri.com/
http://www.mobilewizardry.com/

RE: Handmark + Pocket Express
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 2:51:17 PM #
It's glad to see that someone out there other than us faithful PIC readers has a clue about the gaming market *wink wink*. Here's hoping that they (or anyone else) goes ahead and licenses Deity3d as a showpiece game for an ARM unit this fall. I have to admit that Doom on GBA was something of a letdown so I am looking forward to Deity ;-)

This reminds me of the situation back in mid/late '98, shortly before Half-Life came out. Several hardware manufacturers (Diamond, Elsa, etc) bundled the OEM version of Half-Life with their cards before the final retail version was available in the stores (IIRC). I know that I purchased a Diamond MX300 sound primarily for the bundled games. It'd be nice to see a return to the golden years of game bundles, but this time around in the handheld market.

OT: Apple

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 10:12:37 AM #
Last month Palm warned that it wasn't selling as many PDAs this quarter as expected and said demand for all kinds of computers was down. Alot of people wrote in to say that this wasn't true, it was just Palm screwing up again.

Yesterday, Apple warned that it wasn't selling as many computers this quarter as expected and said demand for all kinds of computers was down.

Expect more announcements of this kind.

RE: OT: Apple
Foo Fighter @ 6/19/2002 11:45:13 AM #
What's your point?

This isn't going to be another "Palm will suffer the same fate as Apple" arguments, is it? They are getting a little old.

RE: OT: Apple
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 11:53:42 AM #
No, I'm saying that there really is a slow down in all computer sales, it isn't just Palm. No-one believed Palm when it said no computers were selling good this quarter. Here's more proof Palm was right.
RE: OT: Apple
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 1:54:07 PM #
Computer sales are down
Software sals are down
Web and server sales are down.
But all will come back, cycles are what they are. This gives us a chance to see some new technology jump in to get people excited and buying. The sad part is that many developers out there are not making their bills and we may loose some great new ideas as they take paying jobs doing 'other' stuff.
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