Mobile Jigsaw for the Pocket PC
from Mobile-Stream

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Do you like jigsaw puzzles, but don’t like to clean up the mess of all those tiny pieces laying around on the table? Or how about putting your favorite picture together while you’re riding down the road? Well, Mobile-Stream has the solution for you! They've released Mobile Jigsaw for the Pocket PC. I’ll admit, I like puzzles, but they are a bit cumbersome to deal with and you need space for all those pieces. I downloaded several pictures from various websites and added them to the built-in puzzles that were included.

Features:

• Supports VGA Resolution
• Classic & Curly puzzle shapes
• Fancy Figure shapes
• Import your own BMP or JPG files as new puzzles
• Various levels of pieces (from 9 pieces to 256)
• Piece rotation can be turned on or off
• Eight included images to get you started
• Save / Restore your game
• Customizable controls
• Customizable orientation
• Change background color of puzzle board

Mobile-Stream makes it easy to move the pieces around and start your puzzle. The game pieces will lock into place once you have them in the correct places. As with most puzzles, I start with the outside edge first. The pieces can be stacked on top of each other without any problem at all. Once a large section is assembled, you can easily move it aside to assemble the rest of the puzzle.

I found the larger pieces easier to deal with, but with practice and determination, you can increase the number of pieces to make it more challenging.

If you really want a challenge, try the fancy shape pieces. Trust me, they do fit together!

The newest release now also allows you to import JPG files of any size. They will be automatically resized to fit the screen. I tested this feature using a smaller picture of only 120x240 resolution. Here are the results:

I also imported a much larger photo (1600x1200) to see the results. It took a little longer to cut it down into pieces, but it works great.

As you can see, you can also change the background color to make it easier on the eyes. The picture you are looking at above is of a moss covered tree taken in Ponce deLeon Springs in Florida. I selected 12 fancy pieces. As you can tell, the program does add some pieces since I selected the fancy cuts. A majority of pieces are fancy cut. You will find some odds and ends due to the cutting of the puzzle. If I had selected the curly or regular cut pieces, I would have ended up with only 12 pieces. I could have selected up to 256 pieces. Perhaps with a VGA resolution device it would be easier to deal with that many pieces.

A few additional notes… when importing pictures, the application will search the entire device (all folders) for either JPG or BMP files. Depending on the size of your memory card, it can take a moment to locate all of the files. Don’t panic if you don’t see the list immediately, it’s working. With my nearly full 1GB card, it only took about 20 seconds to locate all of the JPG files on my device. Also, while working on a puzzle, you can hide the application. Click MENU and select HIDE. The program will return to the regular Pocket PC screen. You will not find the program hiding in memory (using a task manager). In order to return to the puzzle, just open the application again. If you do close the application, it will ask if you want to re-load the last puzzle you were working on, however the background color does revert to normal.

Mobile Jigsaw sells for only $12.50 (what a deal!). A free trial download is also available for Windows Pocket PC 2002/2003/2003 SE (standard and VGA resolution), plus Palm 5 OS. Sorry, Mobile-Jigsaw does not support Pocket PC 2000. The program works fine on the Phone Editions as well. The application requires 1MB of RAM plus the size of the imported photos you wish to add.

Download a copy today and start your traveling puzzle games immediately. You may also want to visit some other sites to download new pictures. I found NASA’s website of Hubble photos to be very challenging as well as Escher’s drawings.

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Special thanks to Mobile-Stream for sending us a full version to review.
Unfortunately, I don’t own a VGA Pocket PC, so I wasn’t able to try that version.
This game was tested using the Verizon XV6600 Pocket PC Phone Edition running Windows Mobile 2003 SE.