[Touch Diamond2, Pure Themes and Apps] crow_mw:
Hi. I have recently spent some time trying to run SNES emulation on my Topaz and would like to share the results with you. I was using Topaz ESSentiaL v1.8.1 ROM (thanks to !aman!), meaning Windows 6.1.

First of all there is a number of definite/ultimate/absolute guides to running SNES emulation on WinMo phones on this forums and even on wiki. Unfortunately most of those threads date back to 2005 and refer to devices I have never really used. Obviously no information / testing for Topaz, short of any HTC devices was available.

I have tried two versions and multiple clones of PocketSnes. All of them require you to install additional libraries to be able to open roms. Even with that however I wasn't able to successfully run any rom. The closest one to working was SnesGo published here on xda-devs ( http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=518027 ), but even this would only successfully load rom, but than pause it every frame. When you click the screen to unpause the rom you can see it is actually running, but thats it.

I have also tried PocketNester and PocketNester Advanced. They managed to load some roms (albeit in some .nes format not the common .snc format). The display however was very small and flashing all the time. On game pause it would stretch to full screen. Admirably it was also able to emulate sound, though not to much use.

Finally, the only emulator that I managed to successfully run was MorphGear. I used the virtual pad created for Blackstone by Dredd67 ( http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=489147 - note that also the configuration he suggests for Touch HD worked well on my Topaz). It is a must, as the original MorphGear pad is too small to use. There is a nice split of 50% screen being used by vpad the other 50% by the emulated rom.

Note that also the pseudo multitouch functionality works on Topaz. It is hard to use (screen on Topaz is smaller and with higher res than Blackstone), but maybe it is possible to get used to it. Most of the time however you won't need to use it, as unlike Blackstone we have hardware keys to use. Unfortunately out of those I was only able to bind 'back' key. One hardware keys is however more than enough for the sort of roms I am interested in (say as a dash key you hold while moving). It also seemed to accept binding to green phone key, but it didn't work once the rom was loaded. Finally, even though hard to use, I was also able to bind volume up & down. Unfortunately - volume up is bound with the same code as 'back' key so all in all I was able to get two, distinguishable and working binds.

Important: Before trying to bind keys make sure to switch to default keyboard, not HTC one, or the bindings won't work

Sound doesn't seem to work, which is a pity, but doesn't prevent you from playing the roms. All other features, such as state save/load, display configuration, etc seem to work perfectly.

Now I am mostly interested in jrpg roms such as Final Fantasy series, and I have tested it mostly on similar titles. I was able to successfully run Legend of Zelda III, Lufia 2, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and to my greatest Joy - Chrono Trigger.

The bad news is, that the classic Final Fantasy titles do not work. The roms load and play intro properly, but do not respond to any key presses, neither from vpad nor from hardware keys. Some other titles, like Seiken Densetsu 3 don't work at all.

Summarizing - the only emulation that works well on Topaz seems to be MorphGear. You don't get the sound and not all titles are playable, but there is a nice range of ones that do work perfectly. Hope this short blog-like post saves few hours of searching the net for some of you.