Microsoft Entertainment PocketPak for the Pocket PC

When I was four years old my dad taught me crazy eights and I've been hooked on games ever since. Games are fun, but I've always believed quality games provide the mind an opportunity to "exercise" the skills of success. Achievement both in board games and in life games requires clarity, memory and logic. Games on a Pocket PC provide all this, and a welcome diversion whether you have a few minutes at home or on the road.

Games have always been popular with Handheld, Palm-size and now Pocket PC users. And one of the most popular game packages for the original Handheld PC was the Microsoft Entertainment Pack. Microsoft recently re-tooled it and released a version for Pocket PC users. Each of the ten games qualifies as a fun, challenging exercise for the mind. Included are four card/tile games, four board games, a word game, and an action game.

Many of the games share common characteristics. You can play any of the games against the computer, or you can play Hearts, Reversi, Cinco or Sink the Ships against a friend with a Pocket PC using the infrared port. In many of the games, you can choose how strong a game the computer will play. Most games have additional options such as count cards in Blackjack, autoplay both sides in Chess, no-limit undo in FreeCell, and turn off sound. Instructions can be found when running a game by tapping Start and Help.

The programs take up little Pocket PC space. They range in size from 25K to 62K per game plus some common overhead files for all the games. Minimal installation is 180K. 614K lets you install all 10 games. Despite the small size, I found each of the games challenging ­ I usually found a level of play that let me win about 40% of the time, and I could have increased the challenge. Computer response time was never a problem. I would have liked more features in some of the games, such as saving chess matches and including the Jack of Diamonds in Hearts. However, all in all, Microsoft programmers made reasonable compromises on features to keep the size down.

The games are well-known. The instructions in the help screen are simple and straight-forward. The interface in most games is obvious, so little time is spent learning. Naturally, I liked some games better than others, but each game has its own appeal and was reasonably well implemented.

So let's look at the specifics.

Blackjack. The strength of this implementation is the number of options offered. These options range from how many decks, to "Las Vegas vs. Reno vs. Atlantic City" location, to when you can double down. My favorite options provide card counting and strategy recommendations. For example, I stood with an ace and two deuces and got the message: "You should hit any soft total of 17 or less. Are you sure you want to stand?"

Blackjack gives a little friendly advice. Loads of options with this game.

Chess. This version of chess has eight skill levels. I am a casual user and with practice, a half-way decent player. However, I was challenged at levels two and three (especially, if I didn't let myself cheat and take back moves). At level five it took about 25-30 seconds for my Jornada 540 to figure out its next move. At level two, it was just a few seconds. You can play against the computer, against a friend by trading the Pocket PC back and forth, or have the computer play against itself at any point in a game. To move you just tap on a piece and then tap on the destination square.

Chess- White ready to capture black knight.

Cinco. Cinco was one of my favorite word games as a child. Then it was commercially released as "Jotto." The computer (or an infrared partner) chooses a five-letter master word. You guess a five-letter word and your opponent tells you how many letters of your guess is in the master word and how many of those letters are in the correct position ­ sort of like the game "Mastermind." Typically, it takes me between seven and nine guesses to determine the word.