Hi all,
I've been putting this post off for some time now. I think it may be time to move on... While the Zodiac was new and interesting back when launched and is still fun now there really is a lack of new Palm OS developments, lowering amounts of high quality game releases and no new inspiring devices on the way. I have also seen the number of downloads from my PFM videos fall drastically over the last few months and I feel that it might not be worth doing them much longer. I will most likely finish off another couple of video reviews that I have on the way. I really enjoy video producing/journalism etc. so I will be wanting to continue them for the forseable future. I will most likely register a new domain and have a much broader selection of content on offer. Sure, I may do some more PFM videos, but there will be more variety, the site would include my personal films, reviews and many other videos. The new site would most likely be in the form of a type of blog since I'd like to write about many things as well. Of course the site would be tecnhologically based with most of the content being about the lastet gadgets and software. I wouldn't be completely stopping producing PDA content, it would appear on the new site, just not as prominent.
The new site wouldn't be up that soon, I am likely to keep this site up for the time being and add more general content.

I've had a really good time creating all this content for PFM and have got to know many new people and developers which is great!
Well, this really is up to you guys. There is a real lack of feedback from my content that I post here. If I get enough people asking me to continue soley on PFM videos, I will but I feel that the new site would be better for both me and all of you guys. If you have any ideas of what I could do here or on my new site please email me with your thoughts (email and other details on 'Contact Us' page).

Update on Astraware -
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We've just updated our Club Astraware offers for January. This month's special Club-only offer is word-game favorite, Bookworm, for just $9.95 - that's a saving of over 50%. The game is available for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) for Pocket PC. This offer runs for the whole of January.

As part of our Annual Hogmanay Party, Club members can get an additional special offer - our No. 1 game, Bejeweled 2, for just $9.95. This offer is for a limited period only and runs until 11th January 2007.

This month's double points offers for Club Members are Mazera, Astraware Sudoku, Glyph and Pixelus, so anyone buying those games will get twice as many Club points which can be used as discounts on future purchases.

Just login or join Club Astraware to access these great offers at http://www.astraware.com/club.

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Press Release from Astraware -
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PRESS RELEASE

Astraware announces its Annual Hogmanay Party promotion.

THE MIDLANDS, UK - December 29th, 2006 - Astraware is celebrating the New Year with its Annual Hogmanay Party and you're all invited!

The Hogmanay Party runs from December 30th 2006 to January 11th 2007 and offers a range of fun games from as little as $2.95. Substantial discounts on different games will be offered each day, so remember to check the Party page often at
http://www.astraware.com/promo/hogmanay07.

As a very special offer, Club Astraware will be offering one top title exclusively to its members from December 30th to January 11th only. So if you're not already a member, join up now. You will not want to miss this offer!

And finally, if you're still wondering what Hogmanay is all about, check out the Astraware company blog at http://www.astraware.com/company/blog.php where Astraware's resident Scottish expert, Iain Moore, gives a little insight. Have a Happy Hogmanay!

About Astraware

Founded in 1994, Astraware Limited develops, publishes and distributes games for mobile devices. Some of the company's best known handheld titles include PopCap Games? Bejeweled®, Zuma®, and Insaniquarium®, Sandlot Games? Tradewinds, and Astraware Sudoku and Zap!2000/2016. Astraware is a Microsoft(R) Certified Gold Partner. Mobile gaming enthusiasts have downloaded more than 50 million copies of Astraware's products, and the company has customers in over 100 countries. For more information, contact Alison Barclay at alison@astraware.com, or visit http://www.astraware.com.

New Footage -
"Hexagon Deluxe" is a game based on the mechanics of the Othello game. Move or clone your hexagons around the area capturing the enemy.
You can find more information about this game here - http://www.deluxeware.com/HexagonDeluxe.htm



You can download some footage of the game here -
WMV - Click Here

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New Footage -
"Nuclear Pipes" is a puzzle game where you "connect each reactor on the field to the central compressor by adjusting and turning the pieces scattered around"
You can find more information about this game here - Click here




You can download some footage of the game here -
WMV - Click Here

Stay tuned for more content. Please send feedback!
James

New Footage -
"Another World" originally appeared on the PC as a DOS game. It has recently been ported to the Tapwave Zodiac platform. This is a great platformer and works great on the portable. (Note - You will need the original DOS files from the game).
You can find more information about this port here - http://capers.free.fr/



You can download some footage of the game here -
High DivX - Click Here - Best quality video.
High WMV - Click Here
Low WMV - Click Here
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New Footage -
"Billiards" is a Pool and Billiards game. It features nice clean graphics and good ball physics. Also features Multiplayer via InfaRed.
You can find more information about this game here - http://www.megasoft2000.com/



You can download some footage of the game here -
High DivX - Click Here - Best quality video.
High WMV - Click Here
Low WMV - Click Here

Stay tuned for more content. Please send feedback!
James

Press release from Astraware!

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Astraware Gift Certificates - the perfect gift this Holiday Season

THE MIDLANDS, UK - November 28th, 2006 - The Holiday Season is upon us and if you're searching for the perfect gift for your favorite Palm OS(R) or Windows Mobile(R) user, why not get them an Astraware Gift Certificate? It's the ideal way to buy games for your friends and relations without having to know device IDs, and also allows you to give Astraware games to people who don't have a credit card.

Buying a Gift Certificate is very simple - you only need the recipient's name and email address. Astraware even offers a choice of gifting options: either buy and print the Gift Certificate so you can hand it to the person directly; or buy the Certificate and send it via email - ideal for those last minute gifts or long distance friends and relations. Astraware Gift Certificates are available in a range of values from $15 up to $100. For more information, visit the Astraware website: http://www.astraware.com/giftcertificate/.

What's more, if you're a Club Astraware member, you can earn points from any Gift Certificates you buy, and those points can be used to treat yourself!

About Astraware

Founded in 1994, Astraware Limited develops, publishes and distributes games for mobile devices. Some of the company's best known handheld titles include PopCap Games? Bejeweled®, Zuma®, and Insaniquarium®, Sandlot Games? Tradewinds, and Astraware Sudoku and Zap!2000/2016. Astraware is a Microsoft(R) Certified Gold Partner. Mobile gaming enthusiasts have downloaded more than 50 million copies of Astraware's products, and the company has customers in over 100 countries. For more information, contact Alison Barclay at alison@astraware.com, or visit http://www.astraware.com.

Sorry about the lack of content recently. I have written reviews up for Cake Mania and Gold miner Joe, but haven't had time to film them recently. I hope to have some time this week.
"The Quest" from Redshift has just been released, and is the sequel to the highly popular RPG Legacy. "The Quest" is a great RPG with a 3D like view, good music and lots to do! Visit the developer site here and download the demo - http://www.redshift.hu/ .

I may attempt to get more content up by doing written reviews, but video reviews for the larger games.

And yes, I'll continue to bug David about the new PFM site! Don't forget to send feedback or talk to me on MSN, or add me on Xbox Live even..

Press release from Astraware -

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It's Thanksgiving at Astraware!

THE MIDLANDS, UK - November 22nd, 2006 - It's Thanksgiving and Astraware would like you invite you to join our table and gobble up some great games this Holiday Season! Whether you're travelling to see family, having a get-together at home, or simply recovering from turkey overload, we have some special offers on games that the whole family can enjoy!

We're offering 3 simple, fun games for under $10 each from Wednesday 22nd to Monday 27th November 2006. To take advantage of these special prices, just join Club Astraware (or login if you're already a member). It's free to join, only takes a couple of minutes, and you'll get 2500 points, worth $2.50, just for joining.

Just visit the Astraware website at http://www.astraware.com from 22nd November to see what's on offer.

About Astraware

Founded in 1994, Astraware Limited develops, publishes and distributes games for mobile devices. Some of the company's best known handheld titles include PopCap Games? Bejeweled®, Zuma®, and Insaniquarium®, Sandlot Games? Tradewinds, and Astraware Sudoku and Zap!2000/2016. Astraware is a Microsoft(R) Certified Gold Partner. Mobile gaming enthusiasts have downloaded more than 50 million copies of Astraware's products, and the company has customers in over 100 countries. For more information, contact Alison Barclay at alison@astraware.com, or visit http://www.astraware.com.

Astraware will soon be releasing a new PPC/Palm title called Glyph. If you pre-order, you'll get a $5 discount. I recommend doing so as Astraware developed/published games are always of high quality. I will try to have footage of the game up as soon as it's launched so you can check it out! Just head over to http://www.astraware.com/preview/glyph/?ref=plank if you would like to pre-order!

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

I now have a Plank Films Mobile RSS feed, so using your favourite RSS reader, or via iTunes, you can keep up to date with the latest videos, audio and maybe a little extra now and again. The videos will be in m4v format so you can put them on your iPod and check out the videos during your day! Be sure to subscribe and never miss out on a video. Also, I might even release some videos on the Feed before I put them on the site!
Please spread this feed to all your Palm gaming friends :)
NOTE - For now I have placed some old content on the Feed, so that new users will see some content.

You can subscribe to the feed via iTunes Music Store by following this link -
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=204368275

The feed file can be found here if you don't use iTunes -
http://www.plankfilms.com/PFMobileFeed.xml

Spot! has just been released on Palm. Originally on the PPC, now eSoft interactive have brought the title to Palm! Spot! is a spot the difference game with 3 game modes. Play the inbuilt packs or download more online for free for great replay value. To play, simply tap on the image where you see a difference, the difficulty varies from pack to pack!



You can download some footage of the game here (by myself) -
High DivX - Click Here
High WMV - Click Here
Low WMV - Click Here

Nicky Boum (an old DOS platformer) has just been ported to the Zodiac. You can find more information about the port here - http://capers.free.fr/en/home.php?g=NikY



You can download some footage of the game here (by myself) -
High DivX - Click Here
High WMV - Click Here
Low WMV - Click Here

November's Club Astraware offers are Chuzzle at the special price of $9.95, and the double points offers are Bejeweled, My Little Tank, and Atomica.
Footage of these four games are available on the footage page/astraware footage library to the left.

Just head to www.astraware.com/club and get signed up!

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Celebrate Halloween with the Astraware Spooktacular!

THE MIDLANDS, UK - October 26th, 2006 - It's almost time for Halloween so we're excited to announce the Astraware Spooktacular - a special sales event offering a cauldron-full of great games at scarily low prices!

Starting on Friday 27th October and running until midnight on 31st October 2006, six weird and wonderful games will be available with up to 50% off their regular price. For Club Astraware members, there's a special Halloween treat as one of them will be available free! Just visit Club Astraware at: http://www.astraware.com/club/login.php. Club Astraware is easy to join and costs nothing, so why not grab a free game this Halloween?

Visit the Astraware website at http://www.astraware.com from Friday 27th October to check out the range of Spooktacular discounts!

About Astraware

Founded in 1994, Astraware Limited develops, publishes and distributes games for mobile devices. Some of the company's best known handheld titles include PopCap Games? Bejeweled®, Zuma®, and Insaniquarium®, Sandlot Games? Tradewinds, and Astraware Sudoku and Zap!2000/2016. Astraware is a Microsoft(R) Certified Gold Partner. Mobile gaming enthusiasts have downloaded more than 30 million copies of Astraware's products, and the company has customers in over 100 countries. For more information, contact Alison Barclay at alison@astraware.com, or visit http://www.astraware.com.

NEW CONTENT - Various Footage...

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Rail Race - In Rail Race you must get the train to the finish before the time runs out. You control the speed of the train, but it isn't that easy. If you go too fast your train will derail on the corners, but if you go too slow you might not make it on time!

WMV - Click Here





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Colony - A game for Tapwave Zodiac, Pocket Pc and NGage. Colony is a stratergy game where you have to populate the game area with as many blobs as possible. You can either clone your blob and move a step foward, or jump two steps. When you move you take control of nearby enemy blobs. Great high res graphics and atmospheric sounds.

WMV - Click Here

Thanks

NEW CONTENT - Various Footage...

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Raging Thunder - A recent release from Polarit (Published by Filao). This is an impressive 3d racing title that plays great. At the current time it can only be run in 320x320 in portrait mode, but for regular palms this isn't an issue. There is no demo, but you can see form the footage that the game is very nice. I will have more on this game soon.

High DivX - Click Here
High WMV - Click Here
Low WMV - Click Here

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Jewel Challenge - A recent release from eSoft Interactive. The game contains three puzzle games, each unique and addicting.
Jewel Swap - Swap Jewels around to create groups of three or more.
Jewelopolous - Tap groups of jewels before they get to the top.
Jewel Pop - Plan your stratergy as you move jewels around into groups of 4.

WMV - Click Here

Thanks

NEW CONTENT - Paintball - Video Overview


The original arcade title from Crazysoft.
Watch the video overview to find out more and how to play!
It can be found on the Video Overviews page at the bottom.

Thanks

NEW CONTENT - Croker - Video Overview


A unique game from Crazysoft. Watch the video overview to find out more and how to play!
It can be found on the Video Overviews page at the bottom.

Thanks

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Astraware celebrates 10th Anniversary of Broken Sword series.

THE MIDLANDS, UK - September 28th, 2006 - Astraware and Revolution Software are excited to announce a special Broken Sword promotion to celebrate 10 years since the release of the original Broken Sword.

When the game was originally released on 30th September 1996, no-one could have forseen that the game would still be receiving rave reviews a full decade later. 'Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars' has been released on several platforms including PC, PlayStation(R), GameBoy Advance(R), and most recently for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R). Broken Sword is now an award-winning franchise with three sequels. The most recent, 'Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death', has just been released and is currently number 1 in the charts.

"We always dreamed of writing the game on a device that would reach beyond hardcore gamers; with the emphasis on intelligent, cerebral gameplay, rather than the requirement for manual dexterity, the game was always intended to have a broad appeal. Writing the game on Palm OS(R)and Windows Mobile(R) platforms has finally allowed us to achieve this goal", said Charles Cecil, Managing Director and co-founder of Revolution Software.

"We are really proud of how the game has turned out on Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R).", said Tony Warriner, co-founder of Revolution Software, "The PC version was praised for its beauty and subtlety, and this has translated perfectly".

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the release of 'Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars', Astraware is making the game available at a very special discount price. From Friday 29th September to Sunday 1st October 2006 ONLY, 'Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars' for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) for Pocket PC will be available with an Anniversary-only discount. This offer is available from the Astraware website for this limited period only. Visit the site at http://www.astraware.com/promo/brokensword1 for more details.

About Astraware:
Founded in 1994, Astraware Limited develops, publishes and distributes games for mobile devices. Some of the company's best known handheld titles include Bejeweled®, Cubis®, Zuma®, Insaniquarium and Zap!2000/2016. Astraware is a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner. Mobile gaming enthusiasts have downloaded more than 30 million copies of Astraware's products, and the company has customers in over 100 countries. For more information, contact Alison Barclay at alison@astraware.com, or visit http://www.astraware.com.

About Revolution Software:
Revolution Software was founded in 1990 and writes narrative-driven adventure games; from Lure of the Temptress in 1992, followed by the highly-acclaimed titles Beneath a Steel Sky, In Cold Blood, and the multi-million selling Broken Sword series. As well as developing their own highly successful games, Revolution has worked with companies such as Disney, Dreamworks SKG and Celedor to develop video game versions of their properties. For more information on Revolution Software, visit their website at http://www.revolution.co.uk.

The Zodiac only 'Orbz' game has now been released for free. The game was one of the best Zodiac only titles, but when Tapwave closed, the game dissapeared also. The developers have now kindly released the game for free (you will need the DevAccess to play the game). If you want to know more of the game before you download it, you can find a video review on the Video Reviews page.

To download the game, you can use this link
http://www.plankfilms.com/pfm/ORBZ.zip

Easy Install Guide -
1. Download the Zip file (extract)
2. Install the .prc file from 'Launcher' into the main Zodiac memory (hotsync it)
3. If you want to keep the larger file in the 'programs' folder on your SD card, simply put ur sd card reader in and put in ur card. Go (on the card) into /PALM/PROGRAMS/. Now drag the folder in the zip called 'ORBZ-XAob' into that directory!
4. If you want it on internal, copy the file to ur sd card. Use FileZ to create a folder named 'ORBZ-XAob' on your internal card, then simply move that .cfl file into there!!

Make sure that you put the joystick sensitivity down to between 15%-25% since it will make the game soo much easier to play! (This can be changed in the 'Options' menu)

Well, have fun. Email me if you have any questions about the game/installation.

NEW CONTENT - StarPop - Video Review


StarPop is a new original title from Astraware with simple gameplay, perfect for all the family! POP away

If your interested in buying this game, please use this link as it will support the work I do -
http://www.astraware.com/?ref=plank

NEW CONTENT - The Wall - Video Overview

Comments, suggestions and ideas gratefully appreciated. Details on contact page!

Press release from Astraware! (don't forget to check out my 'Astraware footage library', you can get to it through the footage page!)
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PRESS RELEASE

Arrrrr! Celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day with Astraware!

THE MIDLANDS, UK - September 18th, 2006 - Avast me hearties!!! Tuesday 19th September is International Talk Like a Pirate Day and the Astraware Team is celebratin' once again! ARRR!

We're dressin' and talkin' like a pirate the whole day and when the workday is done we be bowlin' like pirates too (photographic evidence will be here soon)!

A word from our fine captain, Redbeard Tomlinson: "Arrr, now's yer chance to get a bit piratey - and if we don't get at least an Arrr out of ye, it'll be twelve strokes of the cat and no internet access for the rest of the day! A-harrr."

If ye want to join us in a bit of pirate fun, why not get your PDA or Smartphone shipshape with a copy of Tradewinds or Seven Seas. You can even get a few dubloons off the price! Visit our special piratey promo page for more information here: http://www.astraware.com/promo/pirate2006/

The fine shipmates at Marie Curie Cancer Care are also joining the pirate fun for the day, and in cooperation with Popcap Games and Sandlot Games we'll be donating the booty from both games to them at the end of the month.

About Astraware

Founded in 1994, Astraware Limited develops, publishes and distributes games for mobile devices. Some of the company's best known handheld titles include PopCap Games? Bejeweled®, Zuma®, and Insaniquarium®, Sandlot Games? Tradewinds, and Astraware Sudoku and Zap!2000/2016. Astraware is a Microsoft(R) Certified Gold Partner. Mobile gaming enthusiasts have downloaded more than 30 million copies of Astraware's products, and the company has customers in over 100 countries. For more information, contact Alison Barclay at alison@astraware.com, or visit http://www.astraware.com/?ref=plank


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NEW CONTENT - Frutakia Video Overview
More to come very soon!

Comments, suggestions and ideas gratefully appreciated. Details on contact page!

Yes, I am still here and PFM is still very much active. The new site is looking very impressive (I'm not making it). I'll see if I can get an ETA on the new site, and if it is a while off I will add some of the new content up here instead of waiting!