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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

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 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 II - Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC home computer, while, internationally, definitely not as successful as the Commodore 64 or the Sinclair ZX Spectrum , the two most important, competing home computer platforms, may still be worth emulating. At least, to bring up memories if you was a CPC user back into the eighties.
To emulate the platform under Windows Mobile (as opposed to the desktop operating systems, where there are a plethora of emulators), your only choice is PocketCaprice, port of caprice32, a (comparatively) incapable newcomer to the CPC emulation scene.
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(another screenshot showing the DOS screen on a VGA device, after listing the directory of a mounted disk)
Is it worth bothering?
If you’re looking for a generic gaming platform, I’d say no.
The CPC could only gain the market leading position in France, and, apart for the superior screen resolution & modes, was technically definitely inferior than the C64. This also means games written (or, in most cases, ported from the Sinclair Spectrum) are, in most cases, far inferior to their C64 (or, when it does exist, say, Sega’s Genesis / Mega Drive or NEC’s TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine) counterparts, particularly animation speed and sound / music-wise. A perfect example of the difference between the graphics scrolling / speed and sound/music capabilities of the C64 and the CPC is, say, the two Turrican versions running on the two devices. The C64 has excellent music and scrolling without problems; the CPC doesn’t even have in-game music and much blockier scrolling.
There are very few exceptions to this rule; for example, text-based adventure games taking advantage of the 640-pixel wide screen (as opposed to the 256 / 320 pixels of the competing 8-bit platforms). These games, however, aren’t really worth playing in the emulator either because the emulator doesn’t emulate high-resolution modes correctly on a VGA Pocket PC’s - it downscales images to 320 pixels wide. This means you’ll want to stick to emulators of other platforms (or, with Magnetic Scrolls titles, game interpreters) to play games relying on the 640-column video mode.
Some other, remarkable games for the platform are Hewson's (all 8-bit fans know who they are and what they are famous for!) Cybernoid II (linked from HERE; also see THIS; it’s one of the, unfortunately, very few CPC games with excellent in-game music), Switchblade (linked from HERE; also see THIS on the vastly inferior ZX Spectrum version) and Get Dexter (linked from HERE).
Getting, installing, using
Get either the setup or the binary package from HERE. If you get the latter, just unzip its contents to anywhere (including storage cards) and start PocketCaprice.exe; with the former, install it via ActiveSync.
After loading (if it doesn't load or you put the memory card into another Pocket PC, make sure you delete cap32.cfg from the home directory of the emulator), click the Disk icon (note that you can return from this tape / disk menu to the main menu by clicking the Back icon) and, then, the Folder icon. Now, click the Disk icon to load. In the next screen, select a program without an (or, with the .BAS) extension; for example, in this example directory listing, I’ve selected the file CYBERII because it has no file extension, meaning it’s an executable file. Click the RUN button.
Should you provide text entry, bring up the on-screen keyboard with THIS icon (result HERE). Note that built-in / external keyboards do NOT work with the emulator.
Use the screen orientation change icon to switch between the Portrait and the two Landscape orientations. Using Landscape mode is particularly recommended on QVGA devices (to maximize the screen estate used) and NOT recommended on VGA ones (because, then, it'l only use a postage stamp-sized screen area and you just can't make it bigger).
In the Settings menu (bring it up with this icon), you can set the video, the sound and generic parameters.
In the video parameter dialog, you will most probably need the CPC zoom adjust drop-down list if you have a QVGA device used in Portrait mode (then, set it to 75% instead of the default 100%) OR (still with QVGA devices) when you would like to see scene demos / cracker intros that also draw on the border (an example screenshot of the Turrican cracker intro, heavily using the borders to scroll / animate).
In the generic parameter dialog, you will want to click “Map joy to pad” if a game can’t be controlled with the joystick (the fire buttons are all the traditional Pocket PC app buttons).
Finally, still in the main menu, with the Reset icon, you can reset the emulator and, with the Power icon, you can exit it completely.
(Note that the official documentation, UserGuide.html in the doc folder, is far more terse and harder-to-understand for a newbie than my tutorial above.)
Downloading games
Most games are available at CPC Game Reviews. Some publishers, for example, CinemaWare (see Defender of the Crown), have also made available their CPC games. Just copy these files (without decompressing them - you don't need this) to anywhere on your Pocket PC (assuming you've installed Mad Programmer's File Dialog Changer; if you haven't, then, to either \My Documents in the main storage or into either the root of your storage card or an immediate subdirectory in there.)
You can also find some scene demos HERE. Note that, on QVGA devices, you’ll want to set the zoom factor to 50% in Portrait or 75% in Landscape mode so that you can see what’s happening on the borders (if any). In VGA, this isn’t necessary: the default 100% mode allows for displaying everything happening on the borders:
Compatibility
In addition to the three recommended games linked in the first section, I’ve tested the emulator with Turrican I and II, Ghostbusters II (linked from HERE), Xenon (link from HERE) and Magnetic Scrolls’ The Pawn. I haven’t encountered problems or hiccups running these titles on my test Pocket PC’s, QVGA and VGA alike, ranging from WM2003 to WM6.

Interestingly, the emulator can’t read the directory of the other two Magnetic Scrolls titles, The Guild of Thieves (linked from HERE) and Jinxter (linked from HERE).
For example, with the latter, the PPC-based emulator reports THIS directory structure (and, naturally, refuses to run anything). With the desktop-based WinCPC emulator (as of 0.9.26 / build 4102 (february 1, 2007) on the desktop, it’s working great (check out this screenshot to see the correct directory list!)
Smartphone compliance: none
The emulator starts on new(er) QVGA MS Smartphones (WM6 Standard), but it’s fully useless: attempts to bring up the Program Load (via SPHelper) result in a black screen & crash. The built-in keyboard in models like the HTC Vox / s710 can’t be used either. (Needless to say, the emulator doesn’t support the Landscape mode on Smartphones).
(Tested on the HTC Vox / s710.)
VGA vs QVGA
One of the best features of the CPC was the 640-column mode, which – as opposed to, for example, the CGA card on the IBM PC - could be combined with 16-bit color modes in split-screen mode. This was the main reason of the many adventures for the device.
This mode is, unfortunately, NOT emulated. While on a VGA device, the screen area is smaller (qurater of the original), it doesn’t try to emulate the original resolution. This means you are unlikely to want to play games making use of the high resolution (mode 2), not even if you have a VGA device.
Some screenshots to illustrate this issue (these screenshots also show how the zooming modes work in different orientation modes):
QVGA: Portrait 75% mode (so that the entire screen is visible), 100% mode (the left and right side of the screen is chopped off); Landscape 100% mode (everything visible but still at low-resolution). Note that Landscape support is internal; that is, it also works on pre-WM2003SE devices.
VGA: Landscape 100% mode; the same in Portrait. As can be seen, you may want to stick to the latter so that you have a bigger screen estate used. (But, I'd still prefer using a QVGA device for emulation so that the utilized screen estate is maximized.)

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:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(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,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.)