Emulation On Pdas - Palm & Pocket Pc Etc

[Shirohagen]

OK, so I love my BLU, but the recent talk of an Amiga emulator on the Pocket PC caused me to casually check out the possibilities. I think I'm getting more and more interested in investing in a good PDA to use for emulation as well as all the usual PDA stuff.

From what I've gathered, there are more emulation projects on the Pocket PC than Palm devices, although I use a Mac and Palm connectivity may be better with that. It seems as though an ARM processor also improves performance. Does anyone have any experiences of running emulators on PDAs? how playable are the PDA controls and is there a particular model on the market which suits the purpose best? I would ideally love to emulate C64, Amiga & Old DOS games, so what are the chances and what else is out there that people have used?

I think the thought of being able to check email and do useful stuff on it as well as projecting a more sensible impression on the tube rather than looking like I'm obviously playing games would be great - I would be bound to actually have it with me more often - I could even get away with having it at work!

Anybody have any useful PDA links - a good community board like GP32x would be a great place to start...

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[Jr2swiss]

i dont think most pdas have good controlls to play with.

 

[carlgeorge]

I am still waiting for a Zodiac from GBAx that I ordered and paid for over a month ago (bare with me here) I am seriously considering cancelling the order now because 4 delivery dates have come and gone. Anyway I am currently looking at PDAs to get instead of the Zodiac. I too have found very little about emulation on Palm devices so I also am looking at pocketPCs. The best I have found money to performance wise is by Dell, but I would like to find out more about pda emulation in general. I believe a lot of pdas require the use of a stylus for control in games, so I am a little worried about that.

As for the Mac problem, there is a program called pocketMac (or very similar) that will allow you to use a pocketPC on a mac!! (It was a couple of years ago when I owned a mac.)

Jr2swiss, I think you need to read the first post a bit more carefully.

 

[Jr2swiss]

what do you mean?

 

[carlgeorge]

you've edited it since I last posted. He didn't propose any particular pda. And I think you are right about the controls.

 

[CrazyDesi]

Go to the PocketMatrix forums and you can get tons of information on PocketPCs. I personally suggest the Asus620. Although I don't own it I did look it up a couple of times.

 

[lymbery]

I have a Pocket PC the emulator have very good compatabilty the best one is MorphGear but this is a commercial emulator that does GB,GBA,SNES,PCE,Genesis,SMS but the controls on my pocket pc are very iffy at best which is why i got a GP32 which although slower has much better controls making it more playable

 

[Jr2swiss]

you've edited it since I last posted. He didn't propose any particular pda. And I think you are right about the controls.

lol damn that thing that notifies that the post has been modified.

 

[yaustar]

perosnally I think they are a nightmare to play on especially when you get to consoles that have multiple buttons (snes, well anything with more then 2 buttons).

However there are some plus points, SCUMMVM is great with the stylus and pocketQuake isnt bad either.... the is also a dos emu (although not free) so that opens up a lot of potential.

 

[mr twit]

I have a Pocket PC the emulator have very good compatabilty the best one is MorphGear but this is a commercial emulator that does GB,GBA,SNES,PCE,Genesis,SMS but the controls on my pocket pc are very iffy at best which is why i got a GP32 which although slower has much better controls making it more playable

What's the GBA emulation like? Is it fullspeed?
Also, MorphGear's webpage says it has virtual controllers on screen that you can use to control it, do these work well? Are they playable with?

 

[raven]

I only have a Palm to play around with (Tungsten E) but I don't like playing emulators on it. There are some great emulators available and they run fast enough but the controls make it impossible to play comfortably. All buttons including 'd-pad' are located at the bottom (like they are on most handhelds) and are simply not designed for gaming.

Lot's of people are getting carried away with the power of the latest handhelds (Playstation emulation) but without decent controls the experience will never be the same. An Amiga emu may be great but I wonder if you would be able to really enjoy it without decent controls.

 

[yaustar]

the virtual pads are equally difficult to use since the can only register one keypress (including directional) at a time....

 

[Shirohagen]

Wow, seems like the controls are a BIG issue! I found a review of a PDA which seemed to say the controls weren't too bad...

http://www.pocketmatrix.com/reviews/a620/

I suppose I really need to have a go on one to see what they're like, perhaps I can get a demo in a shop or something. I heard about Age of Empires for the PPC, has anyone seen this running? I suppose mouse led games like that and Lemmings etc would be ideal for the stylus...

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[yaustar]

I can only comment on the PDA I have got (HP1940), and the d-pad seems to be worst then the one in the review...

Another selling point you may consider is the storage space, my hp can only take SD cards but ones like the one in the review can use Compact flash which means they can also use pocket drives (i think that is what they are called) which are considerably cheaper then Flash cards ableit slower access times..

 

[Exo]

ever consider a subnotebook ? an Older model like the toshiba Libretto 50 or libretto 70CT

The 70CT has 120mhz Pentium I cpu with 32mb of ram (maximum) standard harddrive is aprox 1.5gb but can be upgraded also 640x480 screen, If you look around on ebay it will probably cost you about same price as a cheaper pda ( £120 maybe more depending on extras) you get the advantages of been able to run any software or emulators already out for the pc and its about the same size as a VHS tape (maybe a bit big to carry around all day?)

 

[Shirohagen]

Yeah the chief attraction to me apart from the power boost is the convenience of always having it with me. The GP32 is great but I tend to only have it with me when I have remembered to bring it out (If you see what I mean) - I'm a bit worried about damaging it etc, whereas the PPC would slip in my bag easily and be useful all day in lots of ways. I'm not sure but if any of them have cameras in them which would also be cool.

I may ave to sit back and watch the PPC market for a bit, maybe hope they bring one out with nicer controls...

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[yaustar]

Damn... I wish I knew about those 'mini laptops' before I bought my pda.. that was exactly what I was looking for

Ah... bull cookies

 

[CrazyDesi]

ever consider a subnotebook ? an Older model like the toshiba Libretto 50 or libretto 70CT

The 70CT has 120mhz Pentium I cpu with 32mb of ram (maximum) standard harddrive is aprox 1.5gb but can be upgraded also 640x480 screen, If you look around on ebay it will probably cost you about same price as a cheaper pda ( £120 maybe more depending on extras) you get the advantages of been able to run any software or emulators already out for the pc and its about the same size as a VHS tape (maybe a bit big to carry around all day?)

My friend has one of those but I think it was more of a copy of the Toshiba. Do you know a site that has a bunch of those subnotebooks and a fair comparison?

 

[carlgeorge]

I have cancelled my Zodiac order today and have been searching for PDAs. The Toshiba E800 (I think) has a 640x480 4" screen, does anyone have any views on PDAs with VGA resolution? i.e. many programs don't work even in 320x240 mode. I noticed it on the Amiga emulation page and it looks smart.

 

[thecheat]

I'm getting a prototyype of the new Palm Zire 72 for my birthday...
there is only one problem, the camera shoots upside down, but hey! just flip the palm