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Great, FREE Carmageddon clone Death Drive out - a must have!

Thanks to great German multiplatform mobile gaming site PocketGaming.de, which were first to report on the latest “made in Russia” game Death Drive, I've also given a try to the brand new, great Carmageddon / Destruction Derby / Twisted Metal / Death Rally clone, which has just been released for the Pocket PC. That is, unlike what the title suggests, it's not a "plain" Carmageddon clone - it's just that the title length is limited and had only place for one title. That is, it's pretty much like Handy Entertainment’s Dreamway and Garga Games’ Ganxta Race on the Pocket PC - but all in 3D, unlike these 2D games.
The game uses the same Voxel technology used in, for example, the Comanche series, which, at its time (in 1992), was a real breakthrough on PC gaming with its (compared to alternative technologies) excellent speed and visuals. The speed advantage is present on the Pocket PC too - the game is pretty playable on, with today's standards, low-end Pocket PC's and has no problems on VGA devices either.
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The homepage of Gajon Entertainment’s new game is here (BabelFish “translation” here; a related article & comments (Babelfish here) and thread (both in Russian) ).
The company mostly develops for other platforms (most importantly, the PC and the PowerTV set-top box) and this is their first Pocket PC conversion. Despite this (and the fact that it’s free), it is a VERY mature product - actually, it's even better than MANY commercial Pocket PC games. This also applies to the English of the game – it’s all in English with no, say, Russian leftovers.
Availability
The direct download is here (original Gajon Entertainment page; may be slow to download) and here (very fast PocketGaming.de back-end).
Installation
Un-RAR (with, for example, WinRAR or the free (!) and highly recommended (its proprietary 7-zip compression is about 15% better than even the compression rate of RAR!) 7-zip) and copy the deathdrive_hires directory to your PDA. Execute DeathDrivePPC2003.exe inside to start the game.
Compatibility
It had no problems with my following Pocket PC’s:
WM5 VGA Dell Axim x51v (A12)
WM5 VGA HP iPAQ hx4700. Unfortunately, the D-Pad-based controls in the game can’t be redefined and the movement can’t be controlled by the stylus; therefore, on the hx4700, you’ll want to use an external Bluetooth gaming pad
WM2003SE VGA Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720
WM2003 QVGA HP iPAQ h2210 (it was clearly slower on it than on the first three devices)
On my non-overclocked HTC Wizard, it was pretty slow. If you don’t plan to overclock, just disable the mirror, the engine sounds and the minimap in the Setup menu – then, it becomes pretty usable. With overclocking to 240 MHz, you don't need to do this - then, the game becomes pretty playable.
While the game is advertised as PPC2k2-compatible, it isn’t (there’s no PPC2k2-compliant executable). This is certainly bad news for PPC2k2 users.
Note that, up to now, I've received two reports of it not working on Samsung CPU-based models (HP iPAQ rx1950 , HTC TyTN etc) and haven't received any success stories on these CPU's. That is, you may too have problems with the game if you have a Samsung-based model.
Gameplay
Please read the above-linked Wiki pages to read all about it. It's a combination of the listed games
My personal remarks: Much as the game, at first, seems to be rather boring for non-Carmageddon / Desctruction Derby etc.-fans (including me), taken into account all the game / tournament options, weapon upgrades and so on, it becomes pretty fun.
Control
Unfortunately, it can only be controlled with the D-Pad and, if present, a dedicated jog dial. Unfortunately, it doesn't support SmartSKey, the great "make your volume slider of previous-generation WM5-based HTC phones to a jog dial" hack either, which is bad news for example for HTC Universal / Wizard users.
If you don't have a (dedicated) jog dial, you'll welcome the fact that the weapon key (the Action button, which can't be reassigned) is "sticky" and you'll end up having to re-press it few times.
Note that while some state it can also be controlled with stylus (just like GeorallyEX or Handy Entertainment’s Dreamway and Garga Games’ Ganxta Race, this is definitely not the case.
Visuals
For a free game, I’d say it’s excellent. OK, there’s no 2700G support or VGA hi-resolution, but you can’t expect much of a FREE game, can you? (Note that many state it's hi-res on VGA devices. This is not the case.)
The game uses (right-handed) landscape orientation; this can’t be changed (bad news for users of devices with bad landscape polarization or left-handedness).
Sounds & music
As far as in-game sounds are concerned: for a free game, they’re excellent. Probably the biggest problem is the engine sound: there are only two engine sounds for “slow” and “fast” speed; this can be pretty misleading when you don’t pay attention to the speedometer. Fortunately, it can be disabled in the Options menu.
Unfortunately, there’s no in-game / menu music.
Verdict
This game has set a new standard for freeware Pocket PC games and is a must. Go get it!
UPDATE (11/06/2006): some updates to the article; a link to the PocketPlayers.de review published in the meantime.

Game is kinda fun but how in heck do you exit it?

Press the Email button. If it doesn't work, try tohe othe rhardware buttons

does not start on my htc hermes!

sebi112 said:
does not start on my htc hermes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1, Did you copy all the files?
2, did you try a soft reset before running?

yes i copied all the files a also did a softreset. when i start the game i just get a file called debug in the gamdirectory. nothing else happens!

Menneisyys said:
1, Did you copy all the files?
2, did you try a soft reset before running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have completed thart first race so many times and I still get no points and no cash despite it saying complete. What gives?

sebi112 said:
yes i copied all the files a also did a softreset. when i start the game i just get a file called debug in the gamdirectory. nothing else happens!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you ask fellow Samsung (Hermes) users to test the game? It seems the game is incompatible with the Samsung CPU.

Updated version posted

UPDATE (11/17/2006): Jim Karpen’s related article may also be of interest.
Many users have reported (see for example this, this, this and this) it wouldn’t switch to next tracks in Tournament mode and/or wouldn’t add money to the account.
Some people (see for example this) say you must install it to the main memory to fix this problem.
I’ve thoroughly tested the tournament mode on my x51v in three cases (game copied to the root of the built-in storage of the device, the root of the SD card and a subdirectory on the card); all three worked OK with me.
However, if you do encounter problems like the above, try copying the game to the main storage of your PPC to see whether it helps.

Artemis almost perfect for it
Driving with the scroll wheel on the Artemis would be perfect if it weren't for the fact that the car turns the opposite direction you are turning the scroll wheel. I wish there was some way to change that! Otherwise, I guess I will just have to train myself as though I were backing up!!!!

sebi112 said:
yes i copied all the files a also did a softreset. when i start the game i just get a file called debug in the gamdirectory. nothing else happens!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same behaviour in my htc tytn.
dont work
if somebody wants to know, the debug file created has the following data (without quotes):
" Log > open
(release)
"

HTC TyTN - Samsung CPU not supported
Folks with HTC TyTN/Hermes/O2 XDA/QTEK 9600 can commit suicide, because this game does not work on Samsung CPU processors. Unfortunatly author of this game is not able to cooperate with developers to fix this problem or even let us know which graphical engine is used.
I believe problem is in the graphic engine which is using specific processor instructions in ASM which are not supported by Samsung CPU

Enigmo-alike Gloop Zero ported from the Palm/Zodiac to the Pocket PC!

Ever played Aspyr’s Enigmo (note that Aspyr has removed their Enigmo page in the meantime, this is why I’m giving you a Handango link. See for the 3D Accelerated Pocket PC Games and Demos Bible Part II for more info and the alternative review in German here)? Wanted something similar for the Pocket PC, running on all Pocket PC models, not only on Intel 2700G-enabled ones? (Unfortunately, you must have a 2700G-based Pocket PC – that is, currently, a Dell Axim x50v or x51v – to run Enigmo.) AeonFlame’s Gloop Zero may be of interest to you!
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Availability, compatibility
It’s available here. The full version costs $14.99; there is also a trial version.
The game is compatible with WM2003+ operating systems (this means it’s NOT compatible with PPC 2002 – I’ve tested this). I had no problems running it on my QVGA/VGA WM2003(SE) / WM5 test devices – it ran OK on all of them.
Visuals
Pretty good, albeit nothing extraordinary. There’s no Hi-Res VGA support. The game is Landscape-only.
Sounds / music
Absolutely nothing. This is a BIG problem – the Zodiac version has nice in-game music. The developer should implement music as soon as possible. However, with the hack I've found out, you'll be able to play the original music in the background - see the next section.
Do you still want the original music on the Pocket PC?
If you have a compatible (Palm OS 5 and HiRes(+)) Palm OS device too, download the original Palm OS demo, install it onto your Palm device (installing will ONLY work through HotSync; direct PRC install off a storage card doesn't work), go to \PALM\Programs\GloopZero-GLPZ\data\other\music\ on your storage card and copy the files to your Pocket PC. These are midi files; this means you'll need to have a midi-enabled local player on your Pocket PC if you want to listen to just these files while playing the game. Please read the Midi Bible for more information on all these questions. Fortunately, the game lets for playing anything in the background - so, this hack will work.
This will only work if you have a Palm OS device - the Pocket PC version doesn't have these files and, as far as I know, it's not possible (without some elaborate hacking) to extract the original files from the given installer file.
Compared to Enigmo...
There is, in my opinion, no comparison as far as graphics and sound / music are concerned. Enigmo has very nice music and sound effects and is, of course, high-resolution. Even after dumbing down (which unfortunately, I don’t think will ever happen as Aspyr doesn’t seem to support the game any more, let alone release a new, non-2700G-only version of it) not to require hardware OpenGLES support (2700G, GoForce), it would still remain, in my opinion, better than Gloop Zero.
Playability-wise, on the other hand, Gloop Zero is a bit easier / faster in my opinion – with Enigmo, you need to position the gadgets far more thoroughly than with this title. With Gloop Zero, after deciding for a strategy on a given level, sometimes you “only” need to do some drawing with the stylus and all is set. With Enigmo, this takes far more time. That is, if you find Enigmo requiring far too much time to solve a given puzzle and want something similar, you may find Gloop Zero very cool.
Compared to the Palm OS version...
Unfortunately, the regular Palm OS version (I've played it on my Palm Tungsten T3) also lacks both sounds / music and HiRes+ graphics (it uses 320*320 in Portrait - that is, HiRes, without the + - only).
Verdict
Well, if you’re lucky enough to have a Dell Axim x50v or x51v and have already given Enigmo a try (if you haven’t, do it now – it’s a masterpiece!), I think you’ll be disappointed with Gloop Zero at first – Enigmo is definitely better-looking and -sounding. It's only because of the much faster gameplay that you may want to prefer this title to Enigmo.
If you, on the other hand, don’t have any 3D accelerated Pocket PC devices and want to have an entertaining game that will keep you and your brain occupied, you definitely want to consider giving the trial of this game a try – it is pretty cool, despite the major flaws (no music / sound and, to a lesser degree, no high-resolution support). Remember, again, that you can "hack" the original midi music files out of the Palm OS version if you really want to listen to them while playing.
(News source: PocketGamer.org.)

Ever wanted to play Nebulus on Windows Mobile? The Nebulus Roundup

I don’t think I need to introduce Nebulus to anyone older than, say, 30-35 years – it was one of the best games written by no one else than Hewson (later: Graftgold), the developer of other, similarly nice titles as Paradroid and Uridium; two really excellent home computer games (and, as you can except from any Hewson titles, it was blazingly fast on the Commodore 64). If you really don’t know the genre, I REALLY recommend you download the desktop version HERE, unzip it to any directory on your desktop’s hard disk, start toppler.exe and engage playing. I also recommend this add-on MP3 file - just copy it in the home directory of the game and (re)start it. I’m pretty sure you’ll like it.
Now that [email protected] has just released their Nebulus clone Towers Tricks, I’ve found it important to finally publish a full (!) roundup of Nebulus ports on Windows Mobile, particularly because there is a REAL, free gem almost noone has ever heard of; that is, n0p’s Tower Toppler port.
n0p’s Tower Toppler
First and foremost, the first port you should give a try to is the Windows Mobile port of the well-known Tower Toppler project.
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The game has been ported to Windows Mobile by noone else than n0p, who is really famous for some of his other ports; for example, Genesis Plus/Pocket PC, PocketSNES, DOSBox and Stratagus – four well-known emulators. (DO check out his homepage and Google for user remarks on the other stuff he’s ported to Windows Mobile!)
This port is, in my opinion, the best available Nebulus clone. After downloading the new, ARM version, decompress it (WinRAR will handle the .7z file just fine). If you decompress it on the desktop and, then, transfer the files to your PDA, make sure you transfer the uncompressed files to your PDA directly, via ActiveSync (with either File Explorer or the WinCE file system plug-in of Total Commander). Then, just run toppler.exe.
Otherwise, if you copy the files to a storage card in a card reader and try to run toppler.exe, the game will not run and will display a (null) message at the top as can also be seen in here. This is caused by the file copying’ automatically converting all files to uppercase characters. You can only fix this by renaming all (but at least m1 – it contains the first few maps) .ttm files to their lowercase equivalents from either Resco File Explorer (after letting it display file extensions too) or Total Commander, both run on the PDA. This requires a lot of work (you need to manually rename all files); therefore, whenever possible, try using the ActiveSync-based file copy method I’ve explained above.
The game runs just great; the only problem is that you can’t directly enter the map code in the Options dialog on a device without a built-in keyboard (devices with built-in keyboards work just great; I’ve tested this on my Wizard), should you want to jump to a map directly. Then, you will want to add a row (or edit it, if it’s already in there) in the file .toppler.rc containing
password: "cxt"
where change cxt to the map code you’d like to jump to.
Also note that you can freely delete / hide the .ttm map files as you wish. Should you want to get rid of the first few maps, get rid of m1.ttm and so on. You can also see what maps are contained in a given file by quickly peeking in them; they contain the map names also displayed at the start of each map.
I haven’t encountered any problems on any of my test devices (x51v, hx4700 WM5 2.01, Universal, WM2003 iPAQ 2210, HTC Wizard etc.) running the game.
The Windows Mobile version doesn’t differ much from the desktop version – other than it doesn’t make use of high-resolution of (W)VGA devices. But, at least, it’s really quick and responsive – even on “slow” TI OMAP-based Windows Mobile models (for example, the HTC Wizard) running at the factory default 195 MHz. The other titles in this roundup (particularly the Palm OS Nebulus) exhibit quite remarkable choppiness at lower CPU speeds.
Note that while the desktop version is able to initiate playing back the in-game music (conveniently offered as a downloadable add-on MP3 file), the Windows Mobile version is unable to make use of it. However, you can play it back in any player in the background, it won’t have any bad effect on the gameplay or the in-game sounds. This isn’t the case with the other two titles, however.
(P.S. I’d like to thank AximSite forum member DaLabrador for pointing out the n0p port has a filename capitalization problem.)
Towers Tricks
The second title you may want to check out is [email protected]’s brand new Nebulus-alike Towers Tricks. Unlike the other two titles, it’s not trying to mimic the original Nebulus as closely as possible. While the towers are exactly the same, the sprites and the background are different and there are weather effects (fortunately, the latter can be switched off).
A unique feature of the game is that it’s compatible with ALL the available operating systems – yes, even PPC2k2 and, yeah, MIPS / SH3 PPC2k! Note that while the game is compatible with even MIPS / SH3-based, very old Pocket PC 2000 models, you probably won’t want to play the game on these devices (unless you have an E-750 overclocked to 290 MHz) – it’ll be far too slow (yes, I’ve tested this on my 150 MHz E-125). Unfortunately, the same stands for the 206 MHz StrongARM-based PPC2k2 iPAQ 36xx series: the game runs pretty slow, even when overclocked to 236 MHz. On my other test Pocket PC’s (400 MHz PXA255 HP iPAQ 2210, HTC Wizard with dynamically scaled CPU speed, Dell Axim x51v), it runs OK. Speaking of the Wizard, with the CPU speed at the factory default of 195 MHz, it’s still playable, but stutters now and them.
Incidentally, the game initially sold at $19.95. At that price, I wouldn’t have recommended it at all. The price was reduced to a much more friendly $9.95. While I still recommend n0p’s free Tower Toppler to it, at this price, you may also ant to give it a test ride.
Note that the game doesn’t utilize the high resolution of VGA devices – as is the case with the n0p port.
Finally,
The Palm OS version of Nebulus run under the StyleTap Palm emulator
If you already have these two pieces of software, your Windows Mobile device is powerful enough (after all, emulation needs a lot of CPU power) and you don’t want to take a look at the alternatives (you should, most importantly to the free and very cool n0p port!). With the current version (v1.0.025) of StyleTap, the REAL Palm OS emulator for Windows Mobile, the game is running OK too.
A remark to VGA users: you will want to use the hi-res Palm OS 5 version (Nebulus_PalmOS_5.prc) instead of the low-res POS 3/4 one(s). Note that you must switch the emulator to 66% screen mode so that you won’t have graphics problems during emulation.
A quick chart
Verdict
As I’ve emphasized, I think you will want to give a try to the n0p port first. It’s free, fast, doesn’t chew through your batteries and is a perfect remake of the original Nebulus.

The Guide to Playing Magnetic Scrolls games on Windows Mobile

Many older computer users know what adventure games the excellent folks Magnetic Scrolls have produced some really good adventure games. (See THIS (if the link doesn’t work, THIS) for more info). If you want to play these really excellent games on your Windows Mobile (WM for short) device, I have some very good news for you: yes, they’re all playable – and not only under CPU-hungry and not-the-best-suited-for-the-Windows-Mobile-UI emulators, but also real interpreters.
You may have already heard of “Magnetic”, THE Magnetic Scrolls games interpreter. It, fortunately, also has a Windows Mobile port.
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(another VGA shot; a QVGA one)
There are three main revisions of Magnetic: 1, 2 and 2.2. Of course, the higher, the better (see the three charts comparing them HERE for more info on the version differences if interested). For WM, fortunately, a port of the latest, 2.2 version is available; as with the desktop Windows. Note that there is another version called for WindowsCE-based Handheld Pro and 2000 devices: chiark’s MagnetiCE; you will NOT want to use it on your WM device because it uses H/PC menus even under Windows Mobile.
Installing the interpreter
Download it from here (linked from this IF-Archive page) (alternative, direct download here). Unzip MagneticWinCE.exe and transfer it anywhere on your handheld.
Note that the interpreter is only compatible with WM2003SE and newer operating systems. It doesn't seem to run under WM2003 (tested on my iPAQ 2210), let alone PPC2k2. I had no problems running it on my (several) WM2003SE+ devices; worked flawlessly even under WM6. It makes use of built-in keyboards and landscape modes without problems. It also supports command history (up/down cursor keys), which is very useful particularly if you want to, say, repeat “wait” many times.
Getting and installing the games
Fortunately, all compatible games are available online and you don’t need to do any conversion. Go HERE and go to the bottom, to the bottom-most Game Files chart. Download the “Story files” of all the games you’d like to enjoy. Unzip it to anywhere on your storage card. Make sure you only put it in a direct descendant (subdirectory) of the root of the card and not the second, third etc. one; this, unfortunately, also applies to the \My Documents directory on your card) or in the main storage, under a directory in \My Documents.
If you don't like this restriction because of the standard file selection dialog, you can fix the problem by getting Mad Programmer’s File Dialog Changer , the current WM5/WM6-compliant version of which is 1.66. Get it HERE. You'll also need GSGetfile.
I’ve often elaborated on the installation / usage of this really useful utility (see for example THIS). Just a quick recap (with WM6 screenshots): after transferring ARM\filedlgchg.cpl from filedlgchg.zip and ARMRel\gsgetfile.dll from gsgetfile-i.zip to \Windows on your mobile device, go to the new Settings / System / File Dialog Changer applet and just check in “Exchange Standard File Dialog”. This will make it possible to peek in anywhere in the file system as can be seen in here.
In addition to the (text-only) story, you may also want to download the image repository (see the “Graphics file” column for all the games you’d like to run). Title graphics and title music files are also downloadable (if present); you will need to separately watch / listen to them from a multimedia player and an image viewer. Hint files, on the other hand, are also handled by the interpreter engine; therefore, you will want to download them too if you do need hints.
Then, just start MagneticWinCE.exe, select File / Open and select the game to play.
The menu of the interpreter is pretty straightforward; in addition to the standard Open / Exit functionality, in Edit / Verb, you can select five predefined verbs to speed up input words. In Display, you can set the size of the images displayed (and whether they’re displayed at all).
The Palm OS Kronos emulator
If you have a Palm OS device, you may have heard of Kronos, an emulator for Magnetic Scrolls, Infocom-style ZMachine, and Scott Adams style adventure games. It’s very advanced: as opposed to the original Windows (and Windows Mobile) version, it supports automaps and popwords.
Unfortunately, it (as of the latest, 1.4.7 version) crashes the current version (1.0.025) of StyleTap, the Palm OS emulator for WM, in the 66% screen mode and, as can be seen in here, in 100% mode, on VGA devices, it uses a low-resolution display. However, if you can live with this (because don’t want to enjoy the images), running Kronos under StyleTap may be a good alternative.
Note that as far as QVGA (low-resolution) Windows Mobile devices are concerned, images are almost invisible on them; example screenshots here and here. However, if you don’t need images at all or can play in 66% mode on QVGA devices, the images are, then, correctly displayed (1 2).
Note that Kronos offers autoload/save features. This is missing from the WM version. The latter, however, supports saving and loading the game state (via the save/load commands) any time.

The ONLY REAL guide to Sega Genesis / MegaDrive emulation on Windows Mobile

The desktop gaming console Sega Genesis / Sega Mega Drive (from now on: MD) was pretty famous in the late eighties and early nineties and has received many quality titles, most importantly, the Sonic series, which are still way better than any native Windows Mobile platformers (except for, maybe, BoneyBoy). Now that, just as with NeoGeo / CPS (see article HERE), some REALLY excellent and almost flawless emulators have been released in the last few months, I found it necessary to devote an entire article to playing MD games under Windows Mobile. (Needless to say, there are no other REAL and up-to-date articles on this subject.)
Should you bother?
The answer is Yes! While the Genesis is definitely old hardware, it has some really excellent titles not quite matched by any ntive (non-emulated) Windows Mobile titles: for example, the above-mentioned Sonic series is REALLY good. In addition, you WILL want to give a try to other titles like Xenon 2 (remember to enable the in-game music – it’s disabled by default) and Risky Woods. The latter two also had PC ports – you may well know these titles already. (I loved them back in 1990-1992 and have spent a lot of time playing them. I’ve even bought the Gameboy version of Xenon 2!)
Now that there are some excellent and, what is more, FREE emulators for Windows Mobile, it’s no longer impossible to play these games full screen, with enabled sound, decent controls and with speed no worse than with the original console. Give these emulators and games a try – I’m absolutely sure you’ll love them!
Again and again, the emulators are free; so are the games. You should, however, own the original cartridges so that you can (legally) download the ROM game images off the Web.
First and foremost, you must know of two major emulators, Masterall's PicoDrive (current version: 0.052) and n0p’s Genesis Plus (current version: 1.06). These two emulators will be all you need for playing any games on your mobile device.
PicoDrive
First, let’s take a look at the BEST MD emulator available today, PicoDrive. It’s available for download HERE, at the bottom of the first post. (You’ll need to register yourself in the Modaco forum to be able to download the file.) Note that the FinalBurn homepage has an old and almost useless version (0.030).
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It’s developed by Masterall, the author of the Windows Mobile port of the excellent, high-quality NeoGeo and CPS emulator FinalBurn Alpha introduced and explained HERE. As the user interface (UI) is very similar to that of FinalBurn Alpha, I don’t explain it here: once you get known to FinalBurn Alpha, you’ll also find the UI of PicoDrive familiar. There are very few differences; the most important of them is the lack of invisible screen controls. Hope this will be fixed in a subsequent release.
Please also consult the comparison / feature chart of the article for usage tips and tricks.
Genesis Plus
Genesis Plus is another, slightly slower but somewhat better thought-out (for example, its active screen tap areas don’t take up any screen estate, unlike with PicoDrive) emulator.
It’s very simple to use: you just download the GenPP.v1.06.7z archive file from HERE, uncompress all the files and transfer them to your mobile device and start genpp.exe. As you may run into download problems (or, you will want to decompress the file with the built-in ZIP support of Windows Mobile 5+ or Resco File Explorer), I’ve also made the archive available as a standard ZIP file on my database back end HERE.
After starting genpp.exe, you’ll be prompted to select a ROM file to load. (It, as with PicoDrive, supports compressed ROM images too. Note that PicoDrive even supports RAR’ed images – using RAR results in an even less storage memory need than with ZIP.) Select it and, then, just start playing. At the bottom of the screen, you will have access to some functionality; of course, the hardware buttons can also be used to control games (Action being mapped to Start by default).
Unlike with all the other emulators, it can’t be configured at all (except for setting the frame drop parameters and disabling the Z80 emulation; you most probably won’t want to do either) in the GUI as can be seen in this menu screenshot. However, upon the first run, it’ll create a file named genpp.cfg. If you directly edit it, you can fine-tune a lot of parameters, including hardware button assignment; see the comparison / feature chart for more info.
Not recommended emulators
MorphGear 2.4.0.9
(Main page HERE; while the emulator has commercial modules, the Genesis emulation is free; its (separate) homepage is HERE. Download the main MG CAB HERE and the Genesis CAB HERE. Install both.)
This emulator, as usual, is pretty useless and long superseded by the two above-introduced emulators in every respects. There is absolutely no point in bothering with it.
Mobile Drive 1.1a
(alternative download HERE and HERE for the two versions)
This emulator is not recommended either. It has two versions: the Cyclone-based is faster but less compatible, the Musashi-based is even slower but more compatible. As both PicoDrive and Genesis Plus are FAR more compatible with existing titles, FAR faster and FAR better, there is absolutely no point in bothering with these two titles.
PocketGenesis v1.0 (Beta 2)
This is a long-forgotten & abandoned project; its old homepage no longer exists, only an archive here with the 1.01 ARM / MIPS versions. Version 1.0b2 is ONLY available HERE, in Michu’s archive. It wasn’t able to run any of the ROM I’ve thrown it at.
Finally,
darcNESCE
This project has been discontinued too (for example, its homepage no longer exists either). It seems to be entirely incompatible with the better games.
The feature / comparison / compatibility chart
It’s available HERE. Don’t forget to check it out for
some usage tips (how some things should be configured / accessed; make sure you follow the screenshot links to see them)
real-world, dependable compatibility reports
The rows are pretty easy to understand (particularly if you’ve already read my other emulation-related articles); therefore, I won’t elaborate on them in here. Let me know (post a public message / request) if you REALLY don’t understand something.

Hi Menneisyys,
Great guide you've written here, as are all your other guides. Sorry for digging up an old thread I'm currently trying Genesis Plus on my PDA and it ran very well. Is there a way to have soft keys for the gamepad buttons while using landscape? I saw some screens on the n0p website with buttons ABC on the bottom, but I only have the quicksave/quickload buttons on mine. Any ideas? Thank you.

sorry for bringing up a old thread but can anyone help with the above question plz? This is the best Sege Emulator since all my games work and sound is perfect. Picodrive don't work on some games and the sound can be bad even with messing with sound settings. I figured out how to map my buttons by using the .cfg but I don't know what numbers to use to map to my I,O,P on my mogul.

Osetjka said:
Hi Menneisyys,
Great guide you've written here, as are all your other guides. Sorry for digging up an old thread I'm currently trying Genesis Plus on my PDA and it ran very well. Is there a way to have soft keys for the gamepad buttons while using landscape? I saw some screens on the n0p website with buttons ABC on the bottom, but I only have the quicksave/quickload buttons on mine. Any ideas? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
frankly, dunno. give a try to my Button Enhancer Bible - assigning injecting button codes / characters to HW buttons might work.

I downloaded PicoDrive on my desktop. then extracted it on my desktop. then an other UnZipped folder was there clicked on thagt n tried to run it but it says int not a valid win32 app.... ne 1 go an idea??

picodrive and genesis plus crash on rom load
Dude, thanks for penning an excellent resource. have installed picodrive and genesis plus but both crash and close when I select a rom. this happened when I had tgetfile installed but I currently don't. am on touch hd / blackstone running energy rom 24th july. thanks in advance for any ideas!