The 5800 and S60 5th Edition get 'Zinged'

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ZingMagic, creators of slick version of classic board and puzzle games on all platforms, have launched a range of their titles now supporting  S60 5th edition devices like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The list is: Backgammon Pro II,  Checkers Pro II,  Chess Pro II,  Chinese Chess Pro II,  Four In A Line Pro II,  Gomoku Pro II and Reversi Pro II.  All have a reworked UI (compared to the original S60 3rd Edition versions) and improved AI. There's also Zingles II, a bigger update, now supporting '4x4', 'thru 16x16', 'Jigsaw', 'Killer Sudokus', plus lots of 'solving aids, helper features'. Links, screens and mini-review of one of the new titles below the break.

Trial versions of Zingmagic's S60 3rd and 5th Edition games can be found at zingmagic.com.

I've been playing Backgammon Pro II, which (barring a few small oddities) has been quite impressive on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, with the touch-screen suiting games in particular:

Screenshot - Backgammon Pro II on the 5800

Above is the main playing screen, always in landscape mode and with plenty of room for finger selection pieces. The right hand toolbar is a bit fiddly, but you won't have to use it much (Undo, Help, Resign, plus options to toggle board and piece styles and colours). The way to move is to tap the piece you want and then the dice you want to apply, an easy modus operandi to get used to. And, as you can see, I'm thrashing the computer - a mix of some good luck and having Backgammon Pro II set on the 'Beginner' difficulty level.

Screenshot - Backgammon Pro II on the 5800

One feature of all Zingmagic games is that you can have multiple concurrent games. This is useful when you're trying out different strategies or, perhaps, letting someone else have a game on your phone while you're in the middle of a longer game of your own.

Screenshot - Backgammon Pro II on the 5800

You can have as many games going as you like. And each is saved as you go, so you never have to worry about games being lost when you switch away from the game or power down your phone.

Like all the Zingmagic games, Backgammon Pro II is slick and relatively glitch-free, even in this first version for S60 5th Edition. The addition of touch support makes a big difference to games - one reason why the iPhone and iPod Touch have been so big on gaming - we should see plenty of decent touch-enabled games coming to S60 in 2009.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 13 Feb 2009