The Mobile Gamer

THPS 1

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (THPS for short) is a game from 1999 that started the Tony Hawk series (and led to many spinoffs and copycats) and made skateboardning videogames much more popular than ever before. The game was released on Playstation 1, Nintendo 64, Gameboy color (trust me, you don’t want to play that version) and for Nokia n-gage.

The first Pro Skater has 9 levels, with the Warehouse being the most iconic, 6 of them have standard 2 minute time limit and several goals, such as high score, combo, break 5 things, collect tape or collect S-K-A-T-E letters, while the remaining 3 are competition levels, they have 1 minute time limit and your goal is to achieve highest score with good combos while avoiding falling and thus ruining your mark.

Being the first game in the series THPS 1 still isn’t perfect, some things that are now elementary for the series aren’t in this one yet, such as manuals or custom skater creation.

PROS

• amazing soundtrack
• simple arcade physics and controls
• 9 different levels
• can be played well with touch controls

CONS

• no custom skater
• no manuals
• some may find the game clunky and graphicaly unappealing, but that’s a prefference thing

THPS 2

THPS 2 is, as the name suggests, second game in the series, and it improves the original game’s gameplay by a landslide. Now you can make even crazier combos thanks to the manuals, and you can make your own custom skater.

There are 8 normal levels, 3 of them are competition levels, and then 2 bonus levels you get by 100% completing the game as every skater it offers.

In the first game your skater’s skills improve when conpleting certain levels, in this one you will earn money for completing goals, and for the money you can buy stats and special tricks.

PROS

• same as THPS 1
• custom skater and manuals
• finishing the game with custom skater unlocks secret guest skater, a superhero from Marvel
• no Downhill Jam (arguably the worst level of THPS1)

CONS

• ‘Superman’ by Goldfinger is not present in the soundtrack
• can also feel a bit too old for some players

PS1 EMULATOR

For emulating ps1 games you can choose any free or paid emulator you like, my personal choice is lemuroid, it can also emulate many other platforms, some not well but ps1 works great and for Nintendo 64 it’s the best emulator you can find.

the following informations are mostly copied from the GTA:VCS and LCS review as the setup process is almost identical

To obtain the game files you can dump them from your legally owned CDs, or if you don’t own the games you can search various internet archives and websites to find digital copies, but be very VERY careful if you do that and don’t click suspicious links. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. ACT RESPONSIBLY AND CONSIDER ALL RISKS IN ADVANCE.

After you get the game or games, tou want to move them to your desired folder. you can move and unpack them with file manager apps. Make the folder wherever you see fit. I use Zarchiver file manager to do this, you can use any file manager you want, this one is just my personal favourite. Then you open the emulator and locate your games folder in it and play. You can use both touch controls and a gamepad, but gamepad is the better option.