[General Topics] Menneisyys:
Note that, in the default Portrait mode, as the width of the physical Pocket PC (or QVGA MS Smartphone) screen is 240 (with low-res MS Smartphone screens, 176) pixels, while the original screen width of the Spectrum is 256 pixels, shrinking (read: dropping some pixel columns) must be done to fit the original screen into the available screen estate. It's worth pointing out that PocketClive, the only Pocket PC-based emulator (not counting in the not recommended, Russian, TRD-only, GUI-less PocketSpeccy) to use the Portrait emulation, not only supports shrinking, but also, to avoid the (ugly) consequences of it (completely dropped columns)

Finally, it's worth pointing out that FuseSP applies a VERY clever method at dropping lines as it uses some interpolation to render the missing info of the dropped columns in the neighboring columns. This results in the vastly enhanced and eye-friendlies, albeit a bit blurry representation in QVGA mode. On 176*220 screens, of course, this can't really help the situation.

Now that we've quickly reviewed the issues common to Spectrum emulation on Windows Mobile, let's see what emulators there are and how they compare to each other. In the following two chapters, I introduce Pocket PC and MS Smartphone emulators.

2. Pocket PC (Windows Mobile 6 Professional / Classic) emulators

2.1 UnrealSpeccyPPC 1.02

This new, excellent and, outside the ex-Soviet region, absolutely unknown emulator is by far the best Spectrum emulator out there, a port of the also successful and excellent Unreal Speccy. It has all the goodies one would effect from a decent emulator: auto fire, huge and, particularly on VGA devices, (almost) transparent on-screen keyboard (on QVGA devices, the buttons are considerably larger as can be seen in HERE), support for all tape / snapshot and even disk formats.

The main discussion thread discussing this emulator is HERE (Babelfish "translation" HERE). There are some other threads at other sites; for example, THIS.

What is more, the CAB file can be installed on MS Smartphones too as can be seen in here:

(note that it was only to prove the emulator is running on a QVGA Smartphone that I’ve made the task bar displayed (via activating SPHelper). Otherwise, it’s hidden.)

While the Smartphone version is in no way flawless, you will certainly want to play a bit with it to find out its weaknesses / strengths.

2.2 PocketClive v2B

A famous (but long-abandoned) emulator is PocketClive.

The most important difference between PocketClive and the most recommended UnrealSpeccyPPC is that PocketClive uses the Portrait screen resolution and a full keyboard showing all the original labels. Unless you’re an experienced Spectrum user and you DO want to know how the BASIC commands can be accessed on the original Spectrum keyboard, you may want to give a try to this emulator. (Or, alternatively, PocketSpeccy, which uses exactly the same on-screen keyboard, but is capable of reading TR-DOS disks; that is, TRD files.)

As this emulator is NOT recommended (but not disqualified either), it’s in the Chart that you’ll find the most information on using this emulator, NOT in the first chapter (which only discusses the two recommended emulators suiting the needs of 96-97% of existing users: UnrealSpeccyPPC for the PPC and FuseSP for the Smartphone).

Not many English threads discuss this emulator. The ones that at least mention it are for example "i just played Simcity on my Be300" or THIS

and THIS AximSite threads, THIS PG, THIS (“Pocket Genesis”) and THIS (“Just Chattin' - What games are on your PPC right now? (omit none!)”) threads. In the Russian language area, the situation is MUCH better; see the following threads:

1

2

3

4

2.3 SpectrumAnyWhere 1.1

This is another also-run emulator without any really outstanding features. UnrealSpeccyPPC is orders of magnitude more featureful.

The most important fact you need to know about this emulator that it can not directly be installed on WM5+ devices. This, however, can easily be fixed with a quick hack I’ve described in the Chart. Also note that you will NOT want to use it on WM2003(SE) devices because of the on-screen keyboard coordinate offset problems.

Even fewer existing threads discuss this title; the only English thread I could find was just a mention at Xda-developers (“amiga emulator on your pocketpc”). In Russian, there aren’t many more threads either; in addition to the zx.pk.ru threads linked in the previous section, I also recommend THIS.

2.4 PocketSpeccy

This emulator is pretty new, but already discontinued emulator “only” supports ".trd" disk image files – that is, it can NOT be used with any “old”, “traditional” tape / snapshot files. It has absolutely no GUI: for example, it’s in the config.ini that you need to supply the disk to load (and all the other – not many!) parameters before starting the emulator. Pretty awkward, if you ask me.

As it’s now discontinued and superseded by UnrealSpeccyPPC, I do NOT recommend it and don’t even include in the Chart.

Should you still be interested in the emulator, check out THIS Russian language thread.

2.5 SinclairSpectrumEmulator 1.1

This Handheld PC-based emulator is really outdated (from year 1999) and is, therefore, in no way recommended. Get UnrealSpeccyPPC instead. There is just no point in bothering with it – unless you have a Handheld PC, that is. But, even then, you may want to prefer trying to hack UnrealSpeccyPPC to run on your H/PC (assuming it has an ARM(-compatible) CPU).

3. MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile 6 Standard) emulators

3.1 FuseSP 0.22

This is THE emulator you should try first if you have any MS Smartphone model. It’s pretty capable (except for the lack of direct, phonepad-based text input) and highly recommended.

Please consult Chapter 1 for usage tips and don’t forget to scrutinize the Chart for additional tips and tricks.

Related threads: “A few thoughts on useability”

FUSESP in QVGA Landscape 320*240......

ZX emulator FuseSP v0.12a with NumKeys support, I added support for number keys

3.2 PocketClive for SP 2B-0.2

Unfortunately, this emulator seems to be only running on the oldest, 2002 Smartphone version, but not on newer (SP2003+) ones. I was just unable to access any kind of menu on either my WM6 HTC Vox / s710 or WM5 HTC Oxygen / s310. That is, don’t bother.