Curtis Cameron's Games for the HP LX

Reviewed by Rob Tillotson

Every computer needs a few good games, and palmtops are no exception. While the LX will never be the equivalent of a Gameboy, it's nice to have a diversion for those boring meetings and long train rides. Programmer Curtis Cameron has provided a collection of excellent "diversions" for the LX, and the best part is... they're free!

There are currently eight games in the "Cameron collection": five card games, two domino games, and one dice game.

Klondike: If you're the type of person who can spend hours playing Windows Solitaire, this adaptation for the palmtop won't disappoint. It has all the features you would expect, such as drawing of one card or three, auto-play, and undo. It doesn't keep score, but then winning is all that really matters, right? The user interface is simple: just tap the function keys to move cards around, and press backspace to undo your last move.

Blackjack: It's a casino in your palm. You start the game with $200 lent to you by your friendly palmtop, and play one-on-one against the dealer using standard casino rules. The computer will give you occasional strategy hints, and help you with card-counting (even though it probably won't help you win in the real world). Step away from the table, and the palmtop will helpfully remind you of how much you've won (or, as is more likely, lost) since you first installed the game.

Golf: In this variant of solitaire, the object is to remove as many cards as possible from the layout. About half the deck is dealt out into piles, face up. You can remove the cards in sequence, up or down (e.g. after removing a 2, you can then remove an ace or 3), starting with a card you draw from the pack. When the pack runs out, the cards remaining on the table are your score -- and like its namesake, a lower Golf score is better.

Freecell: Where Freecell came from is something of a mystery -- the name apparently comes from Microsoft, but a version of the game appeared earlier on the Macintosh as "Seahaven Towers". The object is the same as most other solitaire games: pile up the cards from ace to king in each suit. Since all the cards are initially dealt out face-up, you might think it will be easy to rearrange them, especially since you have four "temporary" slots in which to store cards. Actually, Freecell is one of the toughest solitaire games ever invented, even though every game is theoretically winnable. If you want a challenge, make sure this one is part of your palmtop game collection.

Calculation Solitaire: This departure from the traditional solitaire is a classic, but an ideal one for computer play. The object is to pile the cards up, but in different orders: one stack counts by one (e.g. ace-2-3-etc.), another by two (e.g. 2-4-6-etc.), yet another by threes (e.g. 3-6-9-etc.), and still another by fours (e.g. 4-8-Q-etc.). You draw cards off the pile one at a time, and there are several spots in which to pile up ones you don't need yet. It's fairly easy to win the game, so the focus shifts to how fast you can win, as measured by a timer which rather conspicuously ticks away in one corner of the screen. If Freecell rewards thinking hard, Calculation rewards thinking fast.

Dominoes: Unlike most of the other games in this collection, Dominoes actually pits you against a computer opponent. Play follows the classic rules: you and the computer take turns laying dominoes end to end (matching ends, of course), and whenever the total of the ends (of the whole layout) is a multiple of five, you score. It's not easy to beat the computer, but if you're having trouble you can get a hint or switch the computer opponent into "beginner" mode.

42: I had never heard of this game before I tried the LX version, but it is apparently, like the rest of the games in this collection, also a classic. The best way to describe it might be "euchre played with dominoes" -- it is played like a bidding card game, but with dominoes instead of cards. Each domino has two values, sort of... one of the numbers is the "suit", and the other the value within that "suit". Figuring out which domino wins each trick takes some getting used to, but once you understand the rules, 42 is an unusual and interesting game.

Yahtzee: After cards and dominoes, what's left? Dice, of course. You'll recognize this adaptation of a classic parlor game, which is in itself an adaptation of a game dating back into antiquity. In case you're not familiar with Yahtzee, the object is to roll the dice and make combinations -- three or more of a kind, sequences, etc. -- to score points. This LX version of Yahtzee doesn't have computer opponents, so it's strictly you against your own high scores.

All of the games in this collection make simple but effective use of the palmtop's graphics mode, and are playable using the function keys. All are small (under 30K of storage) and simple enough to use that the (sparse) documentation isn't necessary.

Curtis Cameron's games easily qualify as "HP palmtop software essentials", and if HP ever releases a new version of the LX, I hope they'll consider buying the rights to a couple of them for inclusion in the ROM.

For Further Information

Curtis Cameron's Home Page (direct download of all games)