Now that I’ve reviewed emulating most desktop gaming consoles (DO check them out if you haven't already done so, they're all
HERE - you won't find a better source of information on all these questions ANYWHERE else; no wonder they've all have been made sticky
the official Emulators forum at MobilitySite / AximSite by
Michu, author of the
Emupage, himself and some even had the honor of being frontpaged at
Pocket PC Thoughts and
Just another Mobile Monday!), I found it necessary to review how handheld gaming consoles can be emulated on Windows Mobile.
Note that I do NOT review how the Nintendo
Game Boy (GB),
Game Boy Color (GBC) and
Game Boy Advance (GBA) platforms need to be emulated. The reason for this is very simple: Masterall, one of the biggest players in the Pocket PC and Smartphone emulation scene, has just released another, very cool GBA emulator,
GBACE, and is continually working on it. Also, the other “big name” with (currently) GB / GBC (no GBA) emulation,
SmartGear, is continuously improved. As soon as they reach a semi-final state, I publish a FULL roundup of all Nintendo handhelds. In the meantime, if you need GBA emulator, use either
Sunbug’s
PocketGBA or the above-mentioned
GBACE.
Note that the first chapter, the one on the Sega
Game Gear (GG for short), also discusses a 8-bit, not really advanced (but sill better than the NES) desktop console of the eighties, the Sega
Master System (SMS). Some Game Gear games are just Sega Master System titles (with decreased resolution – to see the resolution difference between the original SMS titles and that of GG, compare the SMS screenshots in the reviews below to
this GG screenshot); in cases, increased color depth and, in VERY few cases, stereo music as opposed to the mono music of the Master System) in a portable, small cartridge format.
1. Sega Game Gear (and the Sega Master System)
There are three really usable emulators (and one outdated & non-working):
1.1 SmartGear 0.25
(Note that the current version, 0.25, already supports full-screen mode on VGA devices too. In this screenshot, I’ve only used the 150% mode so that the task- and command bar are also visible. Using full screen mode (which you will want to stick to because it’s blazingly fast on ALL VGA devices), I couldn’t have made them visible.)
A screenshot on the WM5 176*220 HTC Oxygen (s310) MS Smartphone:
On the HTC Vox, in Portrait mode:
(And
in Landscape – as can be seen, it also supports landscape QVGA Smartphones like the Moto Q.)
It runs most GG and SMS games flawlessly, except for the sound problems. I had absolutely no problems with the following titles:
5 In 1 Funpak (UE) [!]
Adventures of Batman & Robin, The (JUE)
Asterix and the Great Rescue (UE)
Bubble Bobble (UE)
Bust-A-Move (UE) [!]
Defenders of Oasis (UE)
Double Dragon (UE) [!]
Earthworm Jim (UE) [!]
Sonic & Tails (J) [!]
Sonic Chaos (JUE) [b1]
Sonic Drift (J)
Sonic Drift 2 (J)
Sonic Labyrinth (JUE)
Sonic the Hedgehog (UE).sms
Sonic the Hedgehog - Triple Trouble (UE)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (JUE)
Unfortunately, the emulator has SEVERE sound problems, which, it seems, can’t be fixed. I’ve tested all sound / frame throttling / video size settings / screen orientations on all by (wildly different – both Pocket PCs and Smartphones); the problem remained. Hope this problem will be fixed by the author very soon.
Good news for MS Smartphone owners: the emulator runs on the MS Smartphone VERY well. I’ve tested it on the WM5 176*220 HTC Oxygen (s310) and the WM6 QVGA HTC Vox (s710), the latter using both screen orientations and encountered absolutely no problems. It should be noted that both Smartphones have 200 MHz TI OMAP CPU’s – I’ve got VERY good animation speed without any kind of overclocking.
Also note that, because the native screen size of the old(er) / low(er)-end Smartphones, 176*220, is still higher than the resolution of the GG (unlike with the SMS), you won’t have ugly graphics (ignored original scanlines, which can easily ruin the emulation of platforms with higher screen resolution than 176*220) when sticking to original GG titles.
With
Dragon Crystal (JUE), I had severe problems: the screen turned black after the second animation (while, with the other three emulators, it ran just fine). I’ve tested this on my Dell Axim x51v, HTC Oxygen, Pocket Loox 720 and HTC Universal. It was only on that the HTC Universal that
the game really started when I did wait for the initial intro to be completely played back – on the other models, not even the latter did help. The other emulators all ran the game flawlessly, even without waiting for the initial animation to finish.
Note that the new, 0.25 version indeed works flawlessly on VGA devices. Games are perfectly playable even at full screen on VGA devices (using
FitWin; remember NOT to use
FitWin* because it may result in a crash).
Finally, note that, as with all the other Game Gear emulators, SmartGear also supports running
Sega Master System games (the desktop predecessor to the Game Gear), not only Game Gear ones – actually, the Sonic screenshots I’ve put in this roundup are all based on a Master System game. Of course, the majority of the games I’ve tested are native Game Gear ones.
1.2 CE/gg 0.5
This emulator is slower than SmartGear and it lacks features like full screen. However, it may be preferable if, for example, the sound problems of SmartGear get on your nerves, you want on-screen controls (unfortunately, they aren’t hidden) and/or you need an absolutely free emulator (not that the trial restrictions of SmartGear would be THAT limiting, except for the lack of game state save/load,
which is also supported by CE/gg).
Note that sounds are disabled, you will need to enable it in the settings menu. Go for “
Best sound” if you don’t want desynchronized, annoying music. (Also make sure you enable throttling by ticking in the “
Throttling” checkbox at the top.)
It also
lets for remapping hardware buttons; unfortunately, “extra” keys like the red/green phone buttons or WM5 soft buttons aren’t recognized, “only” standard buttons and numeric keys (if present).
All in all, this emulator, in cases, may prove a better alternative to SmartGear. However, give a try to the latter first, particularly if you’re a registered user, have a VERY slow (for example, a TI OMAP-based) device and/or want to save battery life (SmartGear consumes way less CPU cycles and, therefore, battery life than the two other emulators). MorphGear (discussed in the next section) is also a very good, albeit commercial alternative – it’s decidedly faster than CE/gg and is more featureful (full screen capabilities etc).
1.3 MorphGear 2.4.0.9
I’ve elaborated on MorphGear, the multi-module emulator in
many of my articles. Its Game Gear (and Master System) emulation capabilities are pretty good (as opposed to, say, its pretty low-quality Sega Genesis and GBA emulation).
It has the traditional (dis)advantages of MorphGear: on-screen controls when needed (usable in QVGA but too small in VGA), the ability to redefine buttons,
full screen capabilities etc.
Compatibility-wise, I haven’t encountered any problems with the games listed in section 1.1 (that of SmartGear). It’s also compatible with
Dragon Crystal (JUE) as can be seen in
HERE. The only minor problem I encountered was
Sonic Labyrinth (JUE) – there, the animation of the main sprite was somewhat stuttering, unlike in SmartGear.
Therefore, if you already have MorphGear or don’t mind paying for the Marat module (the one that also contains the MasterGear emulation), MorphGear is an excellent choice for emulating the SMS / GG platform.
1.4 SegaVirtualGameGear
This is a Compaq iPAQ 38xx series-only, very old and outdated emulator and can’t be installed on any non-h38xx-series device. I’ve tested it on the
3660 and on the
2210, without any success. That is, you will NOT want to pay any attention to it.
2. Atari Lynx
To emulate the platform, you’ll need
PocketLynx (latest version: 1.0 Beta 1) by
Domenico Dato. The
original homepage doesn’t exist any more; therefore, you’ll need to
download it from the Emupage.
(Note that in-game the upper taskbar isn’t visible, unlike on the above screenshot. I’ve let the system display it so that my readers can see I use my own screenshots.)
The screenshot of the main menu is
HERE; the
Sound menu only has an on/off switch.)
Note that this title is NOT compatible with any VGA models. Even if you do copy the boot ROM (explained below) and install the GAPI patch (which may be needed with some pre-WM5 devices; on the WM2003SE Pocket Loox 720, I’ve even tested the GAPI hack by Picard), you won’t be able to start any games.
In order to run games, you’ll need the Boot ROM
HERE. Just put it in the root (!) directory of your handheld – NOT the same directory where
PocketLynx.exe resides. Otherwise, you won’t be able to start any game.
Note that, while you can’t redefine hardware buttons, the emulator uses them – that is, you don’t need to rely on the tiny on-screen buttons.
Additional info:
• Pocket PC for All,
FreewarePPC.com,
THIS and
THIS threads.
3. WonderSwan and WonderSwan Color
To emulate the platform, you’ll want to use
PocketWS (current version: 0.02b) by
SunBug. This emulator is from the author of the currently best GBA emulator, PocketGBA, and is way better than the two other emulators (
oswanCE and
Cygne. For example, the latter is way slower and weaker than PocketWS and, for example, exits upon pressing the Action button).
(
a screenshot of a black-and white ROM (
DigiMon (English-Asia Version) (J) [M]))
It has pretty good setting capabilities (Screenshots:
System main menu;
video;
sound;
button.)
Note that, should a game not start, tap the screen to pause it, go to
System / Video and switch to 1 line/render (
screenshot), press OK and resume the game with
File / Resume. Now, it should display OK. Then, just switch back to the old 144 lines/render in the same dialog.
4. Watara Supervision
You’ll need
PocketVision (current version: 1.0) to emulate this platform. Note that
the developer’s homepage may not work when you visit it – at first, it didn’t work with me; next day it already did.)
Unfortunately,
this emulator only works on QVGA Pocket PC’s, not on VGA ones. I’ve tested it on my all VGA models; none of them worked (after loading a ROM, the screen didn't change).
It also supports sound emulation, but
it’s disabled by default and I don’t recommend enabling it, as it has pretty bad quality.
5. Neo-Geo Pocket and Neo-Geo Pocket Color
The dumbed-down handheld version of
Neo-Geo (also see
THIS on emulating the desktop version) has only one pretty mediocre emulator,
Neopocott.
(
another screenshot; note that, on the Dell Axim x51v, the lower screen are isn’t visible, as is the case with many other emulators)
This emulator is quite slow, has no music and completely lacks any settings capabilities (screenshot of the one and only main menu
HERE). Given that Neo-Geo Pocket (Color) titles are, generally, a much lower-quality, dumbed-down rewrites of original Neo-Geo titles, you will want to prefer using
FinalBurn to emulate the original titles. It’s WAY faster than
Neopocott, has sound, screen tap areas and everything else one would need.
Note that there is another NeoGeo Pocket emulator,
NeopopCE, but it’s useless: you can’t use any keys or screen tap areas with it (and you can’t redefine keys as can be seen
in this screenshot.)
