[General Topics] Menneisyys:
Now that I’ve finished introducing and comparing almost all the gaming console emulators, I’ve embarked on publishing reviews and tutorials on emulating 8/16-bit home computers under Windows Mobile.

The first home computer I elaborate on is the Commodore Amiga, which was no doubt the best computer, gaming-wise, in the late eighties and early nineties, which also means a lot of Windows Mobile users would still would like to know how it should be used.

First, I have some bad news. The emulator you will need to use, PocketUAE by PocketInsanity, while pretty much compatible with Amiga titles (after all, it’s based on the pretty stable UAE core), has severe sound problems. If there’s anything happening on the screen or the system is accessing the (virtual) floppy disk, the sound will most probably stutter.

Furthermore, even if you disable sound, you won’t really have 100% speed unless you skip at least 3-4 frames a time. This is perfectly visible with, say, the horizontal shoot’m up title Katakis.

Never forget what I have stated in my previous articles: when possible, if a given game has been released for more than one platform, try to find an emulator that runs the game with a better speed. For example, Turrican is pretty unplayable on the Pocket PC with music (music is a must with the game – Chris Huelsbeck’s music really rocks). As Turrican was released on many platforms, you, therefore, want to look around . For example, the currently available TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) (see the emulation guide HERE), you may want to prefer it to the Amiga version. Granted, the Amiga had better (tracked) music, but you won’t be able to play the game without stuttering sound.

Again and again, don’t forget I’ve reviewed ALL the desktop and MOST handheld gaming console emulators, along with the MS-DOS emulator (and will also review other, 8/16-bit home computers like the Commodore 64 and the Atari ST(E)). Make sure you read them – the ports of the Amiga games, if exist, may run FAR better in other emulators than in PocketUAE.

Furthermore, it has some other problems; for example, you won’t be able to enter any text / use the on-screen keyboard if you have a VGA device. Fortunately, with VGA devices with built-in keyboards like the HTC Universal, this isn’t a problem because you can use the built-in keyboard any time.

Otherwise, the emulator is pretty cool: it supports high resolution on VGA devices, is free and REALLY compatible with MOST titles. If you can live with the, in most cases, (in most games) stuttering sound, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Usage

Download it from HERE (latest version: 21012006). Unzip the contents of the ZIP file.

if you don’t already have some games, you can get them from HERE and HERE. Unzip the games if they are ZIP’ed and copy the ADF files to the “disks” subdirectory of the emulator.

get the Kickstart ROM 1.3 HERE and, after unZIPing it, copy it to the “roms” subdirectory. (You can also do the same with the 3.0 ROM but you will rarely if ever need it – after all, Amiga 1200 games will run even slower than the original Amiga 500 titles and PocketUAE is known to work slower with the 3.0 ROM than with the 1.3 one. Note that most games will run OK with the 1.3 Kickstart ROM; exceptions are, for example, the Archon I and II bundle, which require the 1.2 ROM version not available for direct download anywhere.)

transfer everything to your Windows Mobile handheld and start Pocket UAE Launcher.exe from a file explorer tool; for example, File Explorer or Total Commander. (You may also want to create a shortcut to it in the \Windows\Start Menu\Programs folder for quicker access.) (A quick remark: Pocket UAE Launcher wasn’t part of the distribution with previous PocketUAE versions. Now it is – that is, no separate download is necessary.)

Go to the “Disk” tab and, in the Floppy Disk 0: drop-down menu, select the ADF disk image you’d like to play (Screenshot 1, 2)

Go to the “Chip” tab and make sure KICK13.ROM is selected and active in the Kickstart ROM File: drop-down list (screenshot 1, 2) (you will need to do this only once – as opposed to selecting a game in the previous bullet)

in the same tab, you may also want to enable Fast Copper and set Enhanced Chipset (A500, A2000) instead of the default Original one. (The latter isn’t compatible with, say, Xenon 2)

in the Audio tab, you will find the way of completely disabling the sound (if the stuttering gets on your nerves). Then, just make sure None is selected in the Sound Output: drop-down list

if you have a VGA device, you must go to Video and select 640x480 (VGA PocketPC) in the Screen Mode: drop-down list. Note that if you plan to use your device in left-handed landscape mode (if you’re either left-handed or plan to use the native orientation of most HTC Pocket PC’s with a built-in slide-out keyboard), make sure you switch the Rotation radio button to “Right”

go to the Buttons tab and, if your Pocket PC doesn’t have five application buttons (as is the case with, say, the HP iPAQ 2210), the fifth generally being the Record button at the top left, click Set under Joystick fire button and press the button you’d like to assign this functionality to. Also note that it’s also here that you can assign the left and right mouse click functionalities and quitting the emulator. As far as the latter is concerned, it’s, by default, assigned to app button 3. Therefore, if you reassign the fire button there, make sure you reassign it to, say, the (still) unused Button 4 to avoid clashes.

Of course, if you have more than four buttons and the fifth (sixth etc., as is the case with multibutton Pocket PC models like the F-S Pocket Loox 720) button is on the upper left side of your Pocket PC, you’ll want to prefer it to a fire button next to the D-pad. This way, you can use both hands to control the D-pad and the fire.

Note that, unfortunately, the emulator doesn’t support on-screen buttons.

Finally, if you have a device like the HTC Wizard, where the upper left (Wireless settings) button is the sixth, you will also need to redefine the button layout in the above-explained way so that it’s the least awkward.

also notice the Mem tab. When a given game REQUIRES you to give it a given amount of Chip / Fast (and, in cases, other kinds of) memory, it’s here that you will need to set these amounts.

now, just press Launch UAE in the bottom left corner and the emulator will launch. Just press the Exit button (by default, the third application button) to exit.

Compatibility issues

I haven’t encountered problems running the emulator on the following models: iPAQ 2210, Dell Axim x51v, Pocket Loox 720, HTC Universal and HTC Wizard. All run OK in the default GAPI mode. (With the Wizard, of course, you will want to overclock the device to, say, 273 MHz to achieve acceptable results – without sound, of course.)

It doesn’t work with the HTC TyTN / Hermes because of the ATi video controller. See THIS, THIS and THIS.

Unfortunately, it is NOT compatible with MS Smartphones (Windows Mobile 6 Standard), not even QVGA ones (thoroughly tested on the HTC Vox (s710)). The lack of the compatibility front-end isn’t a problem; that of UAE.exe (after all, you can just create / modify the .uaerc by hand or with the front-end running on a real Pocket PC) is. It’s the latter that doesn’t run (entirely crashes the Vox, which means the need to take out the battery to reset), even with all the parameters set correctly.