Possible? Im sure tablets are more powerful that some older pcs. Wondering if they could be used with a touch screen or not.

I'm wondering this as well.

I tried Beneath a Steel Sky with ScummVM for Android and I'd say it was OK. Very playable, but not nearly as easy as playing it on a PC. I didn't like having to use the tablet screen like a touchpad mouse/scroll pad on laptops. The response wasn't nearly as quick as I would have liked and it was sometimes laborious trying to get the mouse to hover over a small item to pick it up. However, since there isn't very much in the game that is very timing-dependent, you are free to take as much time as you need. I imagine the other ScummVM games will be about the same. If you had a keyboard and mouse attached, I think it'd be perfect for many games.

For Android, games that use DOSbox or ScummVM should be playable... same goes for iOS... at least in theory, I don't have a tablet. Dunno if there are any Windows emulators / virtualizers for these OSes.

Windows 8 x86 tablets are expected by the end of the year, meaning, they could run the .exe files (the ARM ones won't, third party code isn't allowed on that architecture), but still it is too early to tell how the games would work, if at all.

Adventure Games that run on ScummVM, will do well on Tablets (at least they ran even find on my iPhone 3G). The IOS Port is not perfect, but really well done.

Just give it a try... what may you lose if it does not work? :)

Thank you for reminding me about this. After watching the video, it looks like it has actual tap capabilities rather than moving a cursor like a touchpad would, which is nice. I'm going to have to give it a shot sometime.

Also, the first app screenshot on the emulator's market page shows BG2.

I havnt actually looked at it for a while now, this thread reminded me so posted it up.

Its still a work in progress but it is looking like progress is making good headway. Good thing about Android Market and also iOS is that it updates apps automatically. Think I may give it a shot in the next few days if I can clear some space up on my memory card for one of the games (To many movies and music taking up space also a huge list of C64 & Amiga games on there which is taking up a few Gb's!)

Another one I just remembered : Quake2Android

t allows you to run Quake 1, 2 & 3 on your phone or tablet. Looking at the updates it has an onscreen overlay for controls, DPAD etc :

http://sites.google.com/site/quake2android/

I really don't understand the appeal of playing on a tablet.

The touch-screen interface really isn't all that great with most games. You could argue that it works with point and click adventures but only as long as it's a single click interface. Like "Myst" for example.


But as soon as it gets more complex, the simplicity of the touch screen no longer suffices.

As stated, ScummVM games work pretty well on android. With dosbox and dos games the problem is, that older games tend to rely heavily on keyboard, so there's a lot of jumping back and worth to virtual keyboard, which makes the playing a hassle.

ASUS Transformer has a nice keyboard which makes it feel _almost_ like a real laptop, but then since you can get a more powerful and multipurpose laptop for the same price or even cheaper, it may be kinda pointless.

In fact, I'm starting to think the current tablet machines are mostly just a trendy phase. Their main features will be just integrated into future laptops, and then people are back to using either smartphones (when maximum mobility is required, e.g. connecting to net or some services while on a bus or walking outside), and laptops for the rest.

This is quite different from some recent claims that smartphones and tablets would be completely replacing "PCs". At least currently I don't feel that way, as tablets are nothing more but overgrown smartphones.

Heck, I installed a certain Android VoiP app into the tablet over weekend, and it insists using the machine in an upright positiion (the screen doesn't tilt to landscape position), which is kinda silly considering the keyboard. Likewise, all the Android apps like Skype, MSN Messenger (-compliant clients) etc. seem to be just restricted cut-down versions of their Windows versions, obviously because they have to be usable also on smartphones.

Nice toy, but frankly if I need I'm going somewhere where a smartphone is not enough, I wouldn't depend only on a tablet either, but I'd (also) get a laptop there.

I withhold the right to change my mind later, depending how the tablet market evolves.

Old games need a real (x86) PC to be played on, so no joy for the tablet toy owners out there.

You know, there is one thing that I think tablets are great:

Reading comics.

I use a Kindle Fire for exactly this purpose as I just don't have the space to collect paper issues anymore.

The same thing is true for books. I simply cannot find the room for more bookshelves so I started to switch to ebooks.
I use a Kindle 4 (and a Kindle 3) for books though, as their eInk displays are just so much more comfortable to read (and their batteries last a month instead of 10 hours).

But other than that I simply cannot find any good use for a tablet that wouldn't be better/more comfortable than on another device.

Good point, maybe also watching some movies on the road.

Still, I just can't get over it how cumbersome using the virtual keyboard is. I guess I could be writing this as well using one, but I just don't want to, I think I type with the Android or ASUS virtual keyboard about 25% the speed I type now on a proper Lenovo laptop keyboard, or even the ASUS Transformer chiclet keyboard (which is similar to cheapo laptop keyboards).

A workmate of mine just happened to point me today to some new laptops which have a touchscreen, the laptops seem to be running Windows 7 for now, probably to be replaced by Win8 soon.

They seem to be pretty much how I envisaged them, e.g. the screen is not necessarily detachable, but you can e.g. roll and tilt the screen so that it rests on top of the keyboard (hiding it below), after which it is basically an overgrown tablet, for the few cases where you don't want to use the real keyboard, e.g. if there is no desk.

So far the prices are quite high though, but then so were the laptop prices overall a decade ago.

Nobody's mentioned the free remakes of King's Quest 1-3 yet? http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/games.html There's a free Android port of the AGS engine here: http://www.bigbluecup.com/yabb/index.php?topic=44768.0

They also did a remake of one of the Quest for Glory series. Get the GOG versions for the manuals, though, playing the gameswithout the manuals is not very easy.

Of course, playing on a tablet is very, very different than playing on a PC. Pixel-hunting in particular is annoying. But it's really nice to be able to take my games with me on the go.

Personally I do a lot of reading with my tablet. It's much more convenient device on that than any laptop or PC I've used. It's also handy in web browsing, watching movies on the go and such.

I wouldn't try to write a long e-mail or do any serious work with it, but a tablet does trump over a laptop in some areas.