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Two new from Astraware
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By Larry Garfield, Thursday 2 January 2003  
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Someone forgot to tell Astraware that the holidays are a time to do less work, not more. They've released two new games for the Palm, just in time for 2003. Both are old classics on a new platform, with screen shots of course.
Apparently not one to let a little thing like Christmas or New Years stand in its way, Astraware has released a pair of games for the Palm OS just in time for the new year. Both Dynomite and Ricochet are ports of classic game concepts, bubble and breakout respectively.
Dynomite is a port of "bubble", an oft-remade game concept in which the player must fire colored balls from the bottom of the screen at a board of colored balls that periodically shift downward in order to make sets of three or more to remove the balls; a sort of upside down Tetris or Columns. In Dynomite, the balls are dinosaur eggs, and some eggs may "hatch" to produce power-ups of various kinds. There are multiple play modes and difficulty levels, ranging from a relaxing game through a decent substitute for caffeine. Dynomite runs only on color devices, but includes optimizations for both the Sony HighRes and PalmSource High-Density screens and the Sony and PalmSource advanced audio APIs. It also includes optimization for ARM-based devices for smoother game play on devices with the extra horsepower to spare.
Ricochet is a port of an even older game concept, breakout. In this super-pong classic game dating back over two decades (and still fun to this day), the player must move a paddle back and forth across the bottom of the screen in order to bounce a ball back towards various bricks at the top of the screen to remove them. As with most breakout clones of the past decade, Ricochet includes various power-ups as well that certain blocks will drop. Astraware also pitches Ricochet as a space game by making the paddle a spaceship with shields. Ricochet includes over 150 levels in four difficulty settings (one a "hidden insane" setting), and supports both the Sony and PalmSource multimedia systems. Ricochet joins two other breakout style games for the Palm OS, AtomSmash from Red Mercury and Ababall from iambic.
Both games are available now from the Astraware web site for $14.95 USD each. Demo versions are also available.
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