I'm not certain how to describe this situation...

I need to get some screen caps of games I have loaded, which include Baker Street, and Trivial Pursuit, which take full control of the screen. There is no command bar, and no top bar, so none of the task switchers work.

I have tried 5 different screen cap utilities, including Epiphany CE screencap, CE capture 1.0, PQview's screen cap, Resco picture viewer's screen cap, and even a pc-based called GetPDAscreen.

I've tried them loaded to buttons, used built-in time delays, all with no luck. I get screen caps, but they are of my today screen, and not of the running game. It's as if these games have a 'window always on top' feature, and the screen cap utility just can't grab it.

Does anyone know a way around this? I'd appreciate the help before I contact the game developers. Thanks a bunch.

What if this weren't a rhetorical question?

A bit more information from a helpful developer of Screen Cap programs.

I would guess that these programs uses GAPI (the game api), which gives them direct access to the display hardware, thereby circumventing the normal Windows API for faster drawing. Unfortunatly, this also fools the screencap programs, since they normaly use something like GetDC(NULL) to get the current screen from Windows. As a workaround, try looking for programs that uses GAPI to take the screenshot. Im sure there's plenty out there somewhere. =)

With all the software reviewers out there, I thought for sure someone would have found a cap program which solved this issue, but have not been able to find one. Has anyone see something which would work? Thank you again.

(Here's a plug for his program, which is free, and sits on your PC, making getting caps much simpler. They will be expanding support for jpgs and other file types soon. Look for "GetPDAScreen" on this link: http://www.newmad.com/software.asp )

What if this weren't a rhetorical question?

There are only two truly infinite things, the universe and human stupidity; I am unsure of the former.

-Albert Einstein

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Thanks, Raynne, I'll give it a try, but I have 3 cap programs which I can assign to a button, and they all still grab the today screen. I think it's a function of the way the game is written.

(Do you have a link, I'm not finding that one)

I'm pretty surprised that none of the other software reviewers have run into this, I keep having troubles.

What if this weren't a rhetorical question?

There are only two truly infinite things, the universe and human stupidity; I am unsure of the former.

-Albert Einstein

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Someone on PDACorps suggested DotPocket too. I'll try 'em both, and list here if they work. This would be a nice problem to solve.

Thanks, as always, for your help.

What if this weren't a rhetorical question?

There are only two truly infinite things, the universe and human stupidity; I am unsure of the former.

-Albert Einstein

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Thanks for the suggestions! I have been looking for something to do this, too.

Get Remote Display Control for Pocket PC from MS, which puts your current/active PPC Screen on your PC. then do a screen cap on your PC and crop it down to just the PPC Screen.


Microsoft's Power Toys for the Pocket PC

   

This is becoming more of a job than I had thought. Details so far:

DotPocket (pretty cool, sounds like MrKlaatu's remote display) does connect, and show the pda screen...until I start up one of these games. Then it just sits there and shows the today screen, like all of my other screen cap programs. Very funny, since you can actually run the pda from your desktop through this program, I can click where a game menu would be, and change the pda...but I can't see it.

I d/l'd and installed remote display, but cannot get it to connect. Hints appreciated.

Valksoft's program is not freeware, and I have so many cap programs which don't work, I'd prefer not to buy another. Anyone who owns it want to try Trivial Pursuit, or Baker Street, and see if you can grab a cap?

Man...

What if this weren't a rhetorical question?

There are only two truly infinite things, the universe and human stupidity; I am unsure of the former.

-Albert Einstein

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Reeeeeaally? That's great, Raynne, thanks. I owe them this review, and that was the one I needed.

I appreciate your help!

What if this weren't a rhetorical question?

There are only two truly infinite things, the universe and human stupidity; I am unsure of the former.

-Albert Einstein

Paid to Read Sites that Actually Pay

   

Remote Display must be installed on both the PC and the PPC, you must be ActiveSynced and have cerdisp running on both devices.

I usually get connected with ASync, then start cerdisp on my PC and then start it on the PPC.

It is not FAST, by any means, but if you can pause your game on the PPC, the PC Image should match within a couple of seconds, then try the screen cap on the PC.


Barring anything else, you could always take the Neandertal approach and take an actual picture of the screen and then "clean it up" in a photoshop type program on your PC.

   

MrKlaatu, I've installed both places, have as running and begun it on the pc and pda... the piece on the pc never connects. Having something like this would be helpful, perhaps it's just my setup.

A setting in DotPocket (changing graphics from "Driver Integrated" and "Direct Video Memory Access") got it to grab these programs, so I may have a solution. Except that I now see warnings about using the software with the Axim!

Raynne, I'm beginning to think it IS just me - valksoft didn't work for me in TP either. All I get is a cap of my today screen.

What if this weren't a rhetorical question?