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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 definitive guide to playing (early) Sierra games on Windows Mobile

Many "oldtimers" recognize the name of the game developer / publishing company Sierra. They have published several games since 1978.
As their games are, generally, very cool, there have been a lot of efforts to make an interpreter to run their files, as is the case with other, well-known adventure companies like Lucasfilm (ScummVM) and Magnetic Scrolls (see related article HERE)
There are two interpreters for Sierra games: PocketSarien and FreeSCI. In this guide, I explain everything you'll ever need to know about these titles. I also recommend the generic forum for all platforms at AGI Games (despite the name, it also discusses SCI games and interpreters!) for a quick read after reading this guide.
PocketSarien
One of the results of these efforts was the multiplatform Sierra Sarien (which has, in the meantime, merged with ScummVM; interestingly, the Scumm compatibility list doesn’t list any Sierra titles), which is able to run all Sierra games (and, more generally, games written using the same AGI (Adventure Game Interpreter) engine) released in the eighties (but not later).
Sarien also has a free Pocket PC port, which runs on all Pocket PC's (even MIPS/SH3 Pocket PC 2000 ones).
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It also runs on VGA devices, but without the on-screen keyboard, as can be seen in the following screenshots: 1 2 3 4 5).
It should be pointed out that PocketSarien will not run games released in and after 1990. That is, it won't run anything in the Larry series starting with part 2, in the Space Quest series starting with part 3, in the King's Quest series starting with part 4 etc. See the list of all supported games in the sarien.conf file included in the distribution ZIP file.
Note that they are NOT compatible with the AGDI (Anonymous Game Developers Interactive) remakes (see THIS; right now, KQ1, KQ2 and Quest for Glory II) either! (Incidentally, if you're a fan of free (!) adventure games, make sure you give these games a try.)
Getting and running PocketSarien
Go HERE; it’ll be listed at the bottom. Direct link HERE.
Unzip PocketSarien.exe to anywhere on your Windows Mobile device. As explained in the readme.txt in the same ZIP file, you may also want to create a directory named etc in the root of the built-in storage of your device and copy the file sarien.conf in there.
Now, copy all the files from the original AGI games to anywhere on your Windows Mobile device (make sure you install Mad Programmer’s File Dialog Changer to be able to navigate anywhere on your device. See THIS for more info on this). You can safely leave out *.ovl, *.com, *FONT files and the AGI file to save storage.
Now, just run PocketSarien.exe and select any file from your games, let it be VOL.0, VOL.1 or anything else visible. The game will start.
Getting the original AGI games
Unlike with some Lucasfilm games or all Magnetic Scrolls ones, it’s not possible to acquire all games off the Web because of the copyright issues. However, some of them are still (legally) downloadable; for example, The Black Cauldron (also see THIS) and Donald Duck's Playground on Al Lowe’s personal homepage (Note that the other games don’t seem to be compatible!)
(A personal remark: I really recommend the above-linked Donald Duck's Playground; back in the eighties, my little brother’s favorite game.)
Also, the two compatible fangames, Space Quest 0 – Replicated and Space Quest - The Lost Chapter (also see THIS) are freely available.
Finally, you can also download LSLI and SQI off the Web.
Unfortunately, the well-known abandonware site Underdogs doesn’t list many AGI (and, as far as FreeSCI is concerned, SCI0) titles.
Verdict
I can only recommend Pocket Sarien. It runs just great on all QVGA devices (and also VGA ones if you do have an external / built-in hardware keyboard; unfortunately, it’ll always use Portrait, which isn’t the best with landscape keyboards). Highly recommended!

FreeSCI for PocketPC 0.3.4c
While PocketSarien is an AGI-only interpreter, FreeSCI is an SCI0 (Sierra's Creative Interpreter version 0) one. Please see this Wiki page for more information on what this means and what other SCI versions there are.
The author of the port, PocketInsanity, is the author of some other, free utilities like XRick, OpenJazz, PocketUAE and Wolf3D. They’re all free and should be given a test ride. Yes, free doesn’t necessarily mean bad not only with the PocketInsanity stuff, but also vijay555, FdcSoft / DotFred and n0p.
This WM2003+ (no pre-WM2003 compatibility – it is NOT compatible with PPC2k2 devices either!) emulator is for some of (the ones in the SCI0 and SCI01 section here and also this list) the newer Sierra titles. This means that its compatibility is much narrower than what the official homepage states (also see this thread on this problem). That is, the game is not compatible with the vast majority of the list "Leisure Suit Larry 2-7, Space Quest 3-6, King's Quest 4-6, Quest for Glory 1-4". This is certainly bad news.
Note that the freely available Leisure Suit Larry 2 Point and Click does not use SCI (but AGS) and is, therefore, incompatible with FreeSCI.
Installing and running FreeSCI
Get the file HERE (alternate, direct download HERE).
Unzip freesci.exe anywhere on your Windows Mobile device and read the enclosed README.PocketPC.
Unfortunately, unlike with Sarien, you MUST list the games you have on your system in the main configuration file of FreeSCI. This is problematic because of two issues.
First, the configuration files use the Unix newline convention and they MUST stay in this format. This means you can’t edit the files with Windows’ Notepad (because it doesn’t handle Unix-style newline). You can’t use Windows’ Wordpad either because it’ll save the edited file using the Windows newline convention, which is incompatible with FreeSCI. Therefore, you MUST use for example the easy-to-use, free EOLNconv for converting between the two formats. In my article “Java Midlets on the Pocket PC - the Complete Tutorial”, I’ve also recommended this tool for conversion from the Unix newline format to that of Windows (for exiting) and back.
Second, under newer editions of the Windows Mobile operating systems starting with WM5 (including, of course, WM6), you can’t create a directory starting with a dot. This is unlike older (pre-WM5) operating systems. This bug hasn’t been fixed in the last 1.5 years and no one has been able to find a solution to it (also see THIS, THIS and THIS (note that the there recommended Resco won’t help)) – before me, that is. Yes, I was the first to be able to fix the bug. (The Windows Mobile community can call itself very lucky to have a coder / programmer like me to fix problems like this - and I haven't even mentioned some of the other productivity apps I've contributed to!)
To fix the bug, using a hexa file editor, position to cbe74 and change '2e' to, say, 66 (the hex code for 'f'). If you are afraid using a hex editor, I’ve made the hacked EXE available HERE; it requires the config file to be put in the ffreesci (instead of .freesci) directory in the root.
Finally, note that you must also list the version number of your game in the config file, not only its directory. To find it out, open the main .exe file (it's about 70 kbytes and, with most games, it's called sierra.exe and sciv.exe) with a file viewer (for example, F3 in Total Commander) and look for (Find, F7) the string ".000". When you find it, paste the entire X.000.XXX version number it's located in into the configuration file. (Also see THIS – it’s a worse description though).
Note that it works with external keyboards; then, however, the cursor keys will not be remapped to the landscape mode and will, therefore, work the other way around.
Speed issues
Unfortunately, unlike with Sarien, the FreeSCI is VERY slow (also see for example THIS). It’s like playing these games on an imaginary 1 MHz IBM PC with CGA emulation on a Hercules monitor. Really-really bad, even on a fast Windows Mobile device!
Note that some people recommend (see for example THIS) tweaking the graphics parameters; using the
dirty_strategy = 1
pic0_dither_mode = dither
parameters instead of the default
dirty_strategy = clusters
pic0_dither_mode = flat
In my practice, this didn't help at all.
Note that (I've tested this all!)
turning up the speed to 16 (Speed/Change) won't help at all – on the contrary
adding the pcmout_driver = null option to disable sound won't really help
also note that if you remove midi_device and sound_server, things will get much worse
See THIS for more info on these parameters.
Related info: PG.
Verdict
Unlike with Pocket Sarien, I don’t recommend this interpreter. It’s just TOO slow, even if you try to tweak the parameters. It’s pretty useless to try to play anything in it.

Emulating home computers on Windows Mobile Part III - Atari ST

The Atari ST, a remarkable 16-bit home computer, was a direct competitor of other 16-bit systems; most importantly, the Commodore Amiga.
To emulate the platform, you’ll need the free (!) CastCE. As opposed to, say, PocketUAE (the Amiga emulator for Windows Mobile), it offers almost flawless (except for some minor glitches like the lack of hi-res support on VGA Pocket PC’s) emulation.
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Is it worth at all?
I’d say yes! While the Amiga is definitely better suited for gaming (particularly when it comes to audio), its emulation on Windows Mobile is pretty bad, particularly sound-wise. Therefore, if you’re looking for playing an Amiga classic not (necessarily) existing on other, emulable platforms (or, at a much lower quality – see for example Stunt Car Racer, which had the best port on the Amiga and the Atari ST), giving a try to the ST isn’t a bad idea. It might offer the best emulation capabilities and/or gaming experience.
Of course, with most multiplatform titles, always try preferring console ports (most importantly, 16 bit (!) consoles of the late eighties: Sega’s Genesis / Mega Drive or NEC’s TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine) for superior emulation & gaming quality.
Download, usage
Download the emulator from HERE. Unzip the ZIP file to, for example, a storage card (making sure you also transfer the, by default, empty subdirectories – it’s there that you’ll need to put ROM and floppy images).
In order to run the emulator, you’ll also need a TOS ROM; for example, version 1.00, which is available HERE. Note that there are other ROM versions; for example, 2.06. You will, however, not necessarily need it, mostly because many games are incompatible with newer ROM’s.
UnZIP the ROM(s) and transfer it (them) to the Tos subdirectory.
Copy your disk image files (*.msa or *.st; they may be ZIPped to save space) into the Disks subdirectory. (I’ll later elaborate on where you can download them from.)
Start Castce1.2.exe and click OK in the dialog (“are you sure...”).
Go to Prefs / Tos rom and select the TOS ROM image. You’ll need to do this once.
Go to Prefs / Input / Configure, click Up and press Up on the D-pad. Do the same with all D-pad directions, the fire button and, finally, at least the two mouse buttons. Note that, during this, after setting “Fire” or the labels in the mouse button section, you may encounter problems when trying to select any other button. Then, just press another button (it’ll be assigned to Fire) and come back to Fire later (even after pressing the big OK button and, then, coming immediately back to individually set the Fire button).
There aren’t many other settings to set. In Prefs / Sound, you will want to keep both Sound and Sample in the ON state to have sound. (If you – rarely, for example, with Populous or Xenon 2 – do encounter sound problems, just click Sample OFF to disable sound and/or set the Frameskip, which is 0 by default, to a higher value.)
Unlike with most other emulators, Prefs / Frameskip, which is set to 0 by default, don’t need to be touched with many games. It’s only when you do encounter messed-up music that you will ever want to touch it and raise it. Otherwise, you can safely leave it at 0, which, again, will work the best with most games (unlike with almost ALL other emulators under Windows Mobile)
You, in general, don’t need to touch Prefs / Monitor either. Only switch it to Monochrome if you plan to use a monochrome-only program. However, as mono apps are, generally, high-resolution (which CastCE doesn’t support, not even on VGA Pocket PC’s), in general, you’ll want to avoid them because of the downscaled, ugly, hard-to-read images.
Now, you can load a disk into drive A. To do this, go to Disk / Load Disk A and click the game disk you’re like to load.
Now, click File / Reset and the game will start.
Most games start without having to mess around in the operating systems. Most notable exceptions are, for example, Turrican. With it, you’ll be taken to the GEM (operating system) screen and shown the TURRICAN.PRG icon. Just double left-click it to load (remember which hardware button you’ve assigned the left mouse button to? If you don’t, you can still click the two mouse button icons in the lover right corner.) The situation is the same with Populous: then, you’ll need to (after scrolling down) double click Populous.prg from the file list you’re presented.
Should you need to access the keyboard, click the Keyboard icon at the bottom (to the right of the leftmost Exit; in this screenshot, I also hover the Windows mouse cursor over it so that you can quickly identify it). You’ll be shown the top of the keyboard. To maximize it, just click it the left edge of the screen (to the left of the mouse cursor in the above screenshot). Should you want to return it to its original size, click the left edge of the screen again (also see how n0p's DOSBox port handled keyboard maximizing requests using the upper left corner.) Alternatively, if you don't want to maximize it, just scroll down, click the rightmost part of the screen (again, at the edge).
Note that there are other buttons at the bottom of the screen; for example, a button to enable autofire, two buttons to quickly change screen orientation (it also supports Portrait mode as can be seen in here; note that, in this mode, upon trying to access the toolbar (which, then, will be repositioned at the top), you may encounter problems like bringing up the system-level Start menu in the background), to hide the taskbar (Hide), quickly switching off and on the sound emulation and switching between the color and the mono monitor emulation.
Should you want to exit to the main menu any time, just click Exit (again, the leftmost icon). To return to the game, then, select Emulator / Continue (NOT Emulator / Reset – it’ll reboot the disk image!)
(Note that the emulator also has a manual but it’s VERY outdated and far less verbose than mine.)
Mouse emulation
Note that the emulator uses the “touchpad” emulation mode known from, say, n0p’s DOSBox port (see THIS for more info). This means you’ll need to drag the mouse on the screen to make the original mouse cursor move.
Saving state
As with all decent emulators, you’re offered the ability to save / reload states under Emulator / Load and Save State. You can use five slots.

Downloading games
You can download public domain games and utilities HERE (some explanations of them are HERE). This server is part of the U-M Software Archives.
Atari Legend, also linked from the Wiki, has some commercial (and MANY free / public domain) games; for example, The Blagg, Box the Dragon & Mastermind etc.
Some publishers, for example, CinemaWare (see Defender of the Crown), have also made available their Atari ST games on their own pages. (Funnily, the disk image they have online is a pirated, cracked version, also having some other games.)
The (some dozens of) BEST games for Atari can be downloaded HERE (linked from, for example, HERE). It’s all in French; just click the disk icon at the top left of each game page to download. For example, the Turrican II-related page is HERE; that of Xenon II HERE.
Compatibility
I had no compatibility problems on any of my Pocket PC devices. I’ve tested many (HTC Universal, HP iPAQ h2210, Dell Axim x51v etc). It runs even on slower machines like the HTC Wizard (dynamically overclocked to 273 MHz) without any sound or speed problem – with exactly the same animation speed than that of, say, the Axim x51v.
Unfortunately, it’s not compatible with the MS Smartphone (WM6 Standard) platform: it complains about incompatibility with the GAPI. (I’ve tested this with the original PPC GAPI files copied in the home directory of CastCE. It didn’t help.)
Other articles
Please make sure you follow my Emulation reviews. Nowhere else will you find such thorough, up-to-date information on Windows Mobile emulation-related questions.

REVIEW: Pocket Commodore 64/VIC 20 3.0 released with multiplayer,VASTLY improved core

A major breakthrough in C64 emulation: the long-awaited version 3.0 of Pocket Commodore 64 Plus Vic 20 has just been released!
If you’ve read the Commodore 64 Emulation Bible (make sure you read it; in this article, I will NOT elaborate on how you can import / run games under the emulator), you already know that Pocket Commodore 64 has, apart from the CPU usage problem, always been the best C64 emulator for the platform.
The new version, along with a plethora of new features,
- also fixes the CPU usage problem (on the 624 MHz Del Axim x51v, while just idling, while the previous version uses all the CPU cycles, the new one about 35%... 45% (measured on the x51v and the iPAQ 210, respectively; both running at 624 MHz).
- has built-in support for the Commodore VIC 20
- it supports edge softening on VGA devices (accessible via Settings / Soften video). This has excellent results. For example, compare the following two screenshots:
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(non-smoothed)
(smoothed)
The smoothed version is indeed much easier on the eyes – as is the case with, say, ScummVM running on high-res devices (not only on Windows Mobile but also, say, high-res Symbian devices like the E90).
Multiplayer - a full tutorial
Another major new feature is supporting a non-multicast IP-based LAN / Internet multiplayer games (read THIS if you don't know what they are and how they should be used). This works the following way (unfortunately, it’s pretty vaguely explained in the original docs so I found it better to explain it more verbosely).
1. Connect the two Pocket PC’s to the Net; make sure at least one has a direct IP visible. This is always the case in p2p networks like an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection between the two Pocket PC’s or two PPC’s connecting to the same access point. However, as the IP model is VERY flexible (much more flexible than, say, doing the same with an app with native Microsoft BT support only), you can play a multiplayer game over any kind of connection – even with a remote friend.
2. Start the standard (PComm64) emulator on the server, on the client PCRemote64
3. On the server, go to Settings / Setup Controls (the third button from the top on the bottom left):
Click Network Game in the upper right corner of the interface (well above the huge Close button).
Now, PC64 will report the server running and will also display the IP you’ll need to enter to the client:

4. On the client, enter the server address (the input field takes the same area as the three virtual drive icons normally); here, 169.254.155.017 (note that it’s different from the previous screenshot)
and click Connect under the IP input field:
Note that all the file loading icons are disabled. This is because it’s always the server that must initiate file loading; the client doesn’t need to do anything.
I’ve played Wizard of Wor in this setup (over a Wi-Fi p2p LAN connection). Worked flawlessly (apart from being a little bit slow), particularly after increasing the, by default, 1 frameskip a bit. With Archon, however, firing didn’t work at all on either the server or the client, rendering the battle useless and, consequently, the game unplayable. I haven’t tested other, multiplayer games.
Emulation core compliance tests
The new version also boasts of a brand new emulator core. I’ve thoroughly tested it with my standard tools (games & demos) to see whether it’s true and how much it has been improved.
The emulation indeed seems to be better, meaning more games being compatible with the emulator. For example, while nothing happened after the cracking note with the old version, with the new, it got as far as the other, desktop-based emulators - with the Guild of thieves (Blast! 336 / *).
The demo tests have shown HUGELY improved compatibility:
- while it’s still incompatible with Altered States 50% by Taboo (compatible with VICE 1.21 on the desktop), it at least displays the first textual message screen (“His drive”…))
- Bumpmania by Arise resulted in exactly the same results than the other emulators (the first part ran OK; after that, it just showed a white screen)
- Biba 2 - Dream Injection by Arise – it sees a distorted, useless directory; can’t load anything
- Dutch Breeze by Blackmail runs pretty well
- Cycle by Booze Design: runs – with graphical glitches because of the FLI mode. At least the initial soundtrack selection screen is presented OK
- Follow the Sign 3 - Unsound Minds by Byterapers runs OK until after the logo:
Then, in the default Fast CPU emulation mode, it exists with an invalid opcode message and asking for enabling the accurate mode. Unfortunately, running it in the accurate mode doesn’t help either: it immediately hangs after the logo above.
- One-Der by Oxyron is played back OK in both(!) modes.
- Tower Power 100% by Camelot: works great (including the animated countdown) until the title in Fast CPU mode; then exits. Accurate mode doesn’t help either: it crashes.
All in all, the emulator core has indeed been made MUCH, incomparably better.
Cons
As far as the cons are concerned, unfortunately, the game still doesn’t seem to be compatible with MS Smartphones. That is, you’ll need to stick to the recently-updated and, now, by default QVGA and Landscape-compatible PocketHobbit. It has other bugfixes too and is (still) free.
Note that it does ask on touchscreen-enabled Pocket PC’s whether it has a touch screen. The "do you have a touchscreen device?" shows it MAY support non-touchscreen devices. However, on none of my Smartphones (HTC s310 WM5, HTC s710 WM6) did it work. While installing WMCab.cab worked, as opposed to PCommodore64Vic20Setup.exe - when installing the latter on the platform, the installer transferred a CAB file fully incompatible with the Smartphone –, the emulator itself refused to run complaining about a missing component. (Screenshots of the two Smartphones I’ve tested it on HERE and HERE).
I’m still waiting for the answer to some of my questions from the developers (for example, on possible rebates for 2.xx owners); as soon as I have some relevant info, I post an update.
Verdict
This is indeed a major breakthrough. The multiplayer, the lack of the CPU usage bug of the old versions and the really cool, new, MUCH more compatible emulator core makes this title a REAL must if you’re into Commodore 64 (and/or VC-20) emulation. While it’s a bit pricy, now, with all these enhancements and bugfixes, the emulator is certainly worth the money.

UPDATE (10/31/2009): Posted three videos demonstrating how multiplayer needs to be set up and used on three great two-player games.
Note:
1. in order to have access to the “fire” functionality, I had to manually assign each and every direction to the hardware D-pad and use the on-screen fire button to fire.
2. I needed to enter the IP of the server only once; this is why I don't enter it on the videos at all
3. I switch to "no slowdown" mode during loading of sll the three titles to speed up loading and skipping intros
The videos:
Adept (Archon II)
Wizard of Wor
International Karate

Hey Menneisyys!!
Long time no see you around
Cheers,

orb3000 said:
Hey Menneisyys!!
Long time no see you around
Cheers,
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I'm still here - it's just that there are so few new apps / games to review (most devs have switched to the iPhone) that I much more rarely post than, say, two years ago.

tried it on my HTC Leo, it starts but the interface (on screen keyboard) does not works at all...

Same on TD2 with WM 6.5. Also the emu has totally disappeared from the manufacturer's website. I wonder what is going on? Not compatible with 6.5? Simply abandoned the program?

Anyone know if this is still available? I would love to try it on my TP2.

Joe USer said:
Anyone know if this is still available? I would love to try it on my TP2.
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I don't know either - have been trying to contact them (I'm a paying customer); no answer so far.
(The worst is that I cannot activate it on my iPAQ 210 any more - that is, the device I've originally purchased it for.)