As a side project this year I'm going to be creating another game for Palm OS.
Seeing the positive remarks I got on creating Captain's MiniGolf last summer, I thought why not give it another shot.
Captain's MiniGolfStarGrid is a turn-based strategy game played on a hexagonal grid, designed for Palm OS.
Players command a fleet of spaceships to capture the enemy team's flag and return it to their home base.
My first PDA was a Palm M100, released in 2000 and I was hooked on the platform ever since. The ease of use, the instantanious opening of apps, insane battery life and so much more made me a true believer of Palm OS up to this day.
Palm OS is the platform that, thanks to it's lively community, is still going strong:
- There's new software being written for it.
- New Palm OS capable devices are being released. (rePalm project by Dimitry Grinberg)
- Near-perfect emulation with CloudPilot.
- Development tools are still available and some are even updated for modern systems.
I'm using the same development tools as I did for Captain's MiniGolf, and some of the drawing routines can be reused saving me some time.
Once again, this game will be completely free and open source.
For the final build I'd like to do something special.
When I made my first Palm OS game, over 20 years ago, I was actually using a Slackware Linux 486 machine to compile the code.
Once the new game is ready to ship, I'd like to set up a similar machine and compile the final build on it.
Slackware LinuxI am toying with the idea of making it postcardware though, which used to be a thing in the 90's:
- Play the game as much as you like
- If you want to register it, send a postcard from your home town
On the other hand I'm very much not keen on publishing my home address on the internet, so I'm still thinking about this.
Postcardware on WikipediaYou can get in touch through Mastodon:
@rxpz@social.linux.pizzaStarGrid: A new game I'm making for Palm OS in 2025 was published on 2025-01-04
