This thread is an audit of Windows PC games' playability on a tablet or touchscreen monitor.
I recently bought an Asus Vivotab Smart
Update: now using Acer T232HL desktop multi-touch monitor.
Many games, including the vast majority of classic point-and-click adventure games, won't run at all. A lot of games play OK but don't allow you to quit. Some behave weirdly with a touchscreen, or rely heavily on right-clicking which is cumbersome on tablet.
If you've just bought a Windows 8 tablet you might be hoping to play your back catalogue of games as if it they were iOS or Android apps. Unfortunately, unless it was bought from the Windows 8 Store it's more than likely unplayable.
I am going to start it off with a bunch of games I've tested myself and I hope others will join in. However, there are some caveats:
I have a rudimentary rating system for my tests:
I will rate a game as playable if it can be played entirely with the fingertips, from launching to quitting. There may be some quirks which I will detail but they are not enough to spoil the game.
Some games will be more than playable; they will be preferred. This is entirely subjective, but there are some games I would much rather play with a tablet on a couch than sitting at a keyboard. These are the games that would be successful iOS or Android ports (and often are).
Unplayable is obvious but there are many possible reasons which I will state.
Can you quit? is a separate but important question. Many games are played with a mouse, but assume you have a keyboard attached so you can press ESC and quit. On a tablet, quitting these games is a frustrating exercise. If the game is awesome enough, you may be willing to deal with this frustration.
(Update: touch monitors like my Acer may be even worse due to no Windows key - I'll be re-testing and updating where necessary)
Before I launch into my ratings, let me restate for emphasis: most of these problems disappear when you plug in a mouse and/or keyboard. This thread assumes you can't or won't resort to that solution.
The games
DOSBox, SCUMMVM, Adventure Game Studio
(Update: there have been improvements since; see below)
DOSBox and AGS-based games fail straight away if no mouse is detected on the system. I guess touchscreens aren't technically mice? Even though they're both used similarly to point at areas of the screen?
If you own as many GoG.com games as I do, this knocks out most of your collection.
Here's the message I get when launching Ben There, Dan That!, an AGS game:
Every AGS game I've tried gives the same message, including all the Wadjet Eye games (Blackwell, The Shivah, Gemini Rue etc). If you plug a mouse in before launching, then unplug once the game has started, you'll probably be okay. I'm personally not willing to bother with that at the moment, but you might think differently. Otherwise, we can only hope that there's a patch for AGS, or someone makes a driver that makes games see the touchscreen as a mouse in Windows.
DOSBox I'm more optimistic about, as it's open source and someone may be able to modify it. There may be a configuration option I haven't yet found.
SCUMMVM will launch but is impossible to control with touch. Even the menu is unusable.
For the purpose of this thread any game using DOSBox, SCUMMVM, or Adventure Game Studio is currently unplayable on a tablet/touch PC.
Telltale Games
Now for some good news. I have tried three of Telltale's adventure game series on my Asus and I'm happy to say they are excellent on tablet.
From the first series of Sam & Max adventures, I tried Episode 103: The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball. I had stopped playing this series after the first two because they hadn't gripped me enough to justify sitting at a desk for hours clicking on things. On my tablet, it's a whole different story. I can have it lying around while I'm cooking or something and reach over to tap the screen when I think of a possible puzzle solution. The characters and items are big and easy to use with fingers (no pixel-bitching). The menu is easy to access and navigate. Even better, some of the mini games (like the whack-a-rat, below) are easier on the tablet than with a mouse.
I haven't played through the whole thing, but from the time I've spent so far the tablet is by far my preferred choice for playing Sam & Max.
Similarly, the Strong Bad episodes are rated as preferred, for all the same reasons.
I've already played through them all but if you haven't already, grab them and play them on a tablet.
Unfortunately, the Puzzle Agent games don't fare quite as well.
They launch fine, and they play fine. They're great games, and I'd love to recommend them. But like a lot of games I tried, they're playable, but won't let you quit.
Unlike Sam & Max and Strong Bad, there's no clickable menu in the top left. You'll have to use Ctrl-Alt-Del. Which you don't have on your tablet. So tap the Start button and hope you can work out how to shut the game down.
Defcon
This one hurts almost as much as DOSBox. I can't think of another game I would want to play more on a tablet, just to see the looks on people's faces on the train as I control global thermonuclear war on my portable device. The game runs well, and it looks beautiful. Amazingly, you can even use multi-touch to zoom in and out (probably because Windows 8 uses it to emulate the mouse-wheel). Unfortunately it is unplayable, because it relies heavily on right-clicking, and right-clicking doesn't work in this game.
If your tablet is anything like mine, if you tap and hold for a second or more, your left-click becomes a right-click. That works most of the time. But not in Defcon.
Botanicula, Machinarium, Samorost 2
More good news. These are all preferred on tablet. They are more fiddly than the Telltale games but not annoyingly so. I suspect any Flash-based point-and-click game is going to work well on tablet because they rarely use right-click.
Botanicula does use right-click, to raise the top menu. But unlike Defcon, it works, and you won't use it often enough for it to get annoying.
TRAUMA
Another Flash game, so like the Amanita games it is preferred on tablet. However, because of its gesture-based interface, it is a far, far better experience on tablet. On desktop with a mouse, it's a bit of a pain. On tablet, it is fantastic.
Peggle
You'd think this would be great on tablet, given Peggle's been ported to just about every other touch device, even the DS. Nope. It's unplayable.
On desktop, Peggle uses the mouse position to aim, and click to launch. With touch, there's only click (tap). This means as soon as you try to aim, the ball launches in the direction the launcher was previously aimed at.
This is an interesting quirk. If you think Peggle is too easy, try it on tablet. You will have to launch the ball while simultaneously setting up for the next shot. This was too challenging for me, and I gave up. You might enjoy it!
Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 3
The screen says it all. Use keyboard or gamepad to play. Why do I even mention it?
Because it was simultaneously released on iOS and Android. I hope in future developers become more aware of tablet PCs as a viable platform, and include touch interface as an option. Unplayable.
Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!
Fun, weird game. Some of the icons are on the small side but due to its casual gameplay it is preferred on tablet PC.
Bejewelled
I have no interest in playing it, but I tested it. No issues. If you like it, I'd say it's preferred on touchscreen, again due to its casual nature.
Plants vs. Zombies
Again, no issues. Preferred.
To The Moon
This one's unplayable, but in a whole new way. The game responds incredibly poorly to touch. I thought it wasn't responding at all and I couldn't get past the menu until I guess I tapped hard enough or often enough to start the game. Then I had to tap furiously to advance every dialogue. Avoid.
Uplink
When starting a new game you have to type in a name and password. Assuming you manage to do that once, you'll never have to do it again. Dumb, but past that point it's more or less playable. However the interface may be too fiddly for it to be fun. I also had a pink triangle glitch (see screen) that may or may not appear on your machine. Try it if you already own it, but otherwise avoid.
Sanitarium
Unplayable, I think. Couldn't work out how to move the guy around. It may rely on right-click too much.
SpaceChem
Like Defcon, this is another one I really hoped would work. It relies on right-clicking way too much and dragging the icons around doesn't work well. What a shame, it would be fantastic on tablet. Unplayable.
World of Goo
This is a tough one. I initially found it playable, with a few annoyances. You can't drag the screen to scroll, you have to go to the edge like with a mouse, but it scrolls way too fast. You can't click and drag a goo, you have to select it first so it's highlighted, then drag it. I got used to these quirks, played a few levels, and had fun.
Then I got to the level in the screen above. The wheels are turning the goos around and you have to quickly select and drag the yellow one off one wheel and on to the next. But while the goos are moving, I can't keep them selected long enough to be able to drag them. Because I can't pass this one level, I have to rate the game unplayable here, even though I'll probably continue playing other levels.
World of Goo has been ported to other touch devices so I can only hope the PC version will be updated.
Osmos
Like so many others this should be the perfect touchscreen game (it even has an iOS port) but it's uplayable. I'm not sure why, I just find it much harder to control, and in the difficult levels it's painful. It's either poor response to touch, or the hold-to-right-click getting in the way. It's also another game that's hard to quit, and every time you die you'll have to switch to start menu and switch back in to bring up the main menu.
Frozen Synapse
Should be awesome. Isn't. Too fiddly, relies on right-click. Unlike Defcon, you can't pinch to zoom. Has an iPad port. Unplayable.
Spectromancer
You know that thing Steam does, where it displays the game's registration key and you just press Shift+Tab to make it go away? When you have no way to press Shift+Tab, it's really annoying.Spectromancer is otherwise great on tablet. If you like Kard Combat on iOS this is basically the same game. Preferred.
Edit: I played a little more and realised it is very easy to accidentally cast spells. If you want to look at a spell card without casting it, you'll have to do a workaround to select it without casting. Not insurmountable. Rating downgraded to playable, with quirks.
Update: now using Acer T232HL desktop multi-touch monitor.
Many games, including the vast majority of classic point-and-click adventure games, won't run at all. A lot of games play OK but don't allow you to quit. Some behave weirdly with a touchscreen, or rely heavily on right-clicking which is cumbersome on tablet.
If you've just bought a Windows 8 tablet you might be hoping to play your back catalogue of games as if it they were iOS or Android apps. Unfortunately, unless it was bought from the Windows 8 Store it's more than likely unplayable.
I am going to start it off with a bunch of games I've tested myself and I hope others will join in. However, there are some caveats:
- This is not a reviews thread. The only question answered here is whether a game is playable on a tablet or touchscreen monitor.
- Performance is not covered here. Tablets and desktops with multi-touch monitors have widely-varying specs.
- Before testing, please remove any mouse or keyboard, including docks. As soon as you plug a M/KB into your tablet, it becomes a low-powered desktop PC. Many games (as you'll find out below) fail to launch if they can't detect a mouse on the system. Physically unplug them (and disconnect any bluetooth devices) before launching the game or your results will be misleading.
- Play the game with your fingers. We want to know if the game can be played on the train, or lying in bed, or on a Comfy Couch (TM). If you have a fancier tablet with a Wacom stylus, please try it both with and without. Can you tap without fear of selecting the wrong unit, or setting your character on fire? How forgiving is the game?
- No Windows Store (RT/Win8) games as they're designed with tablet in mind.
I have a rudimentary rating system for my tests:
I will rate a game as playable if it can be played entirely with the fingertips, from launching to quitting. There may be some quirks which I will detail but they are not enough to spoil the game.
Some games will be more than playable; they will be preferred. This is entirely subjective, but there are some games I would much rather play with a tablet on a couch than sitting at a keyboard. These are the games that would be successful iOS or Android ports (and often are).
Unplayable is obvious but there are many possible reasons which I will state.
Can you quit? is a separate but important question. Many games are played with a mouse, but assume you have a keyboard attached so you can press ESC and quit. On a tablet, quitting these games is a frustrating exercise. If the game is awesome enough, you may be willing to deal with this frustration.
(Update: touch monitors like my Acer may be even worse due to no Windows key - I'll be re-testing and updating where necessary)
Before I launch into my ratings, let me restate for emphasis: most of these problems disappear when you plug in a mouse and/or keyboard. This thread assumes you can't or won't resort to that solution.
The games
DOSBox, SCUMMVM, Adventure Game Studio
(Update: there have been improvements since; see below)
DOSBox and AGS-based games fail straight away if no mouse is detected on the system. I guess touchscreens aren't technically mice? Even though they're both used similarly to point at areas of the screen?
If you own as many GoG.com games as I do, this knocks out most of your collection.
Here's the message I get when launching Ben There, Dan That!, an AGS game:
Every AGS game I've tried gives the same message, including all the Wadjet Eye games (Blackwell, The Shivah, Gemini Rue etc). If you plug a mouse in before launching, then unplug once the game has started, you'll probably be okay. I'm personally not willing to bother with that at the moment, but you might think differently. Otherwise, we can only hope that there's a patch for AGS, or someone makes a driver that makes games see the touchscreen as a mouse in Windows.
DOSBox I'm more optimistic about, as it's open source and someone may be able to modify it. There may be a configuration option I haven't yet found.
SCUMMVM will launch but is impossible to control with touch. Even the menu is unusable.
For the purpose of this thread any game using DOSBox, SCUMMVM, or Adventure Game Studio is currently unplayable on a tablet/touch PC.
Telltale Games
Now for some good news. I have tried three of Telltale's adventure game series on my Asus and I'm happy to say they are excellent on tablet.
From the first series of Sam & Max adventures, I tried Episode 103: The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball. I had stopped playing this series after the first two because they hadn't gripped me enough to justify sitting at a desk for hours clicking on things. On my tablet, it's a whole different story. I can have it lying around while I'm cooking or something and reach over to tap the screen when I think of a possible puzzle solution. The characters and items are big and easy to use with fingers (no pixel-bitching). The menu is easy to access and navigate. Even better, some of the mini games (like the whack-a-rat, below) are easier on the tablet than with a mouse.
I haven't played through the whole thing, but from the time I've spent so far the tablet is by far my preferred choice for playing Sam & Max.
Similarly, the Strong Bad episodes are rated as preferred, for all the same reasons.
I've already played through them all but if you haven't already, grab them and play them on a tablet.
Unfortunately, the Puzzle Agent games don't fare quite as well.
They launch fine, and they play fine. They're great games, and I'd love to recommend them. But like a lot of games I tried, they're playable, but won't let you quit.
Unlike Sam & Max and Strong Bad, there's no clickable menu in the top left. You'll have to use Ctrl-Alt-Del. Which you don't have on your tablet. So tap the Start button and hope you can work out how to shut the game down.
Defcon
This one hurts almost as much as DOSBox. I can't think of another game I would want to play more on a tablet, just to see the looks on people's faces on the train as I control global thermonuclear war on my portable device. The game runs well, and it looks beautiful. Amazingly, you can even use multi-touch to zoom in and out (probably because Windows 8 uses it to emulate the mouse-wheel). Unfortunately it is unplayable, because it relies heavily on right-clicking, and right-clicking doesn't work in this game.
If your tablet is anything like mine, if you tap and hold for a second or more, your left-click becomes a right-click. That works most of the time. But not in Defcon.
Botanicula, Machinarium, Samorost 2
More good news. These are all preferred on tablet. They are more fiddly than the Telltale games but not annoyingly so. I suspect any Flash-based point-and-click game is going to work well on tablet because they rarely use right-click.
Botanicula does use right-click, to raise the top menu. But unlike Defcon, it works, and you won't use it often enough for it to get annoying.
TRAUMA
Another Flash game, so like the Amanita games it is preferred on tablet. However, because of its gesture-based interface, it is a far, far better experience on tablet. On desktop with a mouse, it's a bit of a pain. On tablet, it is fantastic.
Peggle
You'd think this would be great on tablet, given Peggle's been ported to just about every other touch device, even the DS. Nope. It's unplayable.
On desktop, Peggle uses the mouse position to aim, and click to launch. With touch, there's only click (tap). This means as soon as you try to aim, the ball launches in the direction the launcher was previously aimed at.
This is an interesting quirk. If you think Peggle is too easy, try it on tablet. You will have to launch the ball while simultaneously setting up for the next shot. This was too challenging for me, and I gave up. You might enjoy it!
Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 3
The screen says it all. Use keyboard or gamepad to play. Why do I even mention it?
Because it was simultaneously released on iOS and Android. I hope in future developers become more aware of tablet PCs as a viable platform, and include touch interface as an option. Unplayable.
Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!
Fun, weird game. Some of the icons are on the small side but due to its casual gameplay it is preferred on tablet PC.
Bejewelled
I have no interest in playing it, but I tested it. No issues. If you like it, I'd say it's preferred on touchscreen, again due to its casual nature.
Plants vs. Zombies
Again, no issues. Preferred.
To The Moon
This one's unplayable, but in a whole new way. The game responds incredibly poorly to touch. I thought it wasn't responding at all and I couldn't get past the menu until I guess I tapped hard enough or often enough to start the game. Then I had to tap furiously to advance every dialogue. Avoid.
Uplink
When starting a new game you have to type in a name and password. Assuming you manage to do that once, you'll never have to do it again. Dumb, but past that point it's more or less playable. However the interface may be too fiddly for it to be fun. I also had a pink triangle glitch (see screen) that may or may not appear on your machine. Try it if you already own it, but otherwise avoid.
Sanitarium
Unplayable, I think. Couldn't work out how to move the guy around. It may rely on right-click too much.
SpaceChem
Like Defcon, this is another one I really hoped would work. It relies on right-clicking way too much and dragging the icons around doesn't work well. What a shame, it would be fantastic on tablet. Unplayable.
World of Goo
This is a tough one. I initially found it playable, with a few annoyances. You can't drag the screen to scroll, you have to go to the edge like with a mouse, but it scrolls way too fast. You can't click and drag a goo, you have to select it first so it's highlighted, then drag it. I got used to these quirks, played a few levels, and had fun.
Then I got to the level in the screen above. The wheels are turning the goos around and you have to quickly select and drag the yellow one off one wheel and on to the next. But while the goos are moving, I can't keep them selected long enough to be able to drag them. Because I can't pass this one level, I have to rate the game unplayable here, even though I'll probably continue playing other levels.
World of Goo has been ported to other touch devices so I can only hope the PC version will be updated.
Osmos
Like so many others this should be the perfect touchscreen game (it even has an iOS port) but it's uplayable. I'm not sure why, I just find it much harder to control, and in the difficult levels it's painful. It's either poor response to touch, or the hold-to-right-click getting in the way. It's also another game that's hard to quit, and every time you die you'll have to switch to start menu and switch back in to bring up the main menu.
Frozen Synapse
Should be awesome. Isn't. Too fiddly, relies on right-click. Unlike Defcon, you can't pinch to zoom. Has an iPad port. Unplayable.
Spectromancer
You know that thing Steam does, where it displays the game's registration key and you just press Shift+Tab to make it go away? When you have no way to press Shift+Tab, it's really annoying.
Edit: I played a little more and realised it is very easy to accidentally cast spells. If you want to look at a spell card without casting it, you'll have to do a workaround to select it without casting. Not insurmountable. Rating downgraded to playable, with quirks.
