Windows Phone Thoughts: MSDN: Porting GAPI Games from Portrait to Square Screens

"In earlier versions of Pocket PCs, the Pocket PC screens had a standard portrait resolution of 240 x 320. While it is not a good idea to assume that an application will run on a specific resolution, developers wrote applications with this specific screen knowledge built into their applications. Many legacy applications support square resolutions (for example, 240 x 240) automatically through the use of scroll bars, but full-screen applications, namely games, do not. Game developers need to keep multiple resolutions in mind when they develop full-screen games if the games are to appear and run correctly on different screens."

Since the introduction of the hw6500, many of you have questioned the compatibility of programs on a 240x240 square-screen Pocket PC. The introduction of the backwards compatibility layer has since allowed dialog-based applications to fit a square screen with the aid of scrollbars. Most applications support this, but as always, some do not. Many full-screen GAPI games tend to be non-accommodative for different screen resolutions based on the fact that they are not dialog-based applications. So while it's safe to assume that once the hw6500 is released, many programs will support it, you can still expect some problems along the way. Brian Cross' newly-published whitepaper describes the process of porting GAPI games over from portrait to square screens, so all you budding developers interested in ensuring program compatibility with square screens may want to check this out. This Windows Mobile Developer Resources package may also help you in your quest. Happy coding!