[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Nullstring:
Neko

Remember NEKO? Ok after reading that wiki, now you do.. :)

and here's the video preview of Neko. Thanks to the0ne from 1800pocketpc.com

[youtube]J5Poqqd5yVM[/youtube]

Boring days while in vacation and I was playing this old dos games from my sister's flash drive and I was so happy when I saw this little old program called "Neko". I first played with it way back Windows 3.1 or I think that was 95. So I runned it and I was so happy when It worked on Windows 7. Suddenly this bulb of mine suddenly turned on again and I thought .. why not make a Windows Mobile version of it? and that day I started coding!!

A bit challenging because I have to deal with form transparency which it did not work well due to some irritating form tearing and I also tried custom shaped form which it did not work as well because of delay of reshaping and form refreshing.

So I looked for some reference in Pinvoke.net, Googled, bindump coredll.dll and I saw this one method which helps a lot and done a great job of making a the form transparent .. sadly .. it works only for Windows Mobile 6.5 and up (I guess)

So! what does Neko do?

- Neko can chase your finger

- and while Neko is not doing anything, Neko does different things

-- Run in different direction

-- Yawn

-- scratch

-- sleep

-- lick

What you can do with Neko?

Icon designs are now exposed and that means you can now create and change how Neko look. You can probably make a Dog version, or sheep, or whatever you want or something the runs.

A little bit of

NOTE

:

DO NOT USE BLACK COLOR

in your design because BLACK is the transparency key. Instead use #101010.

Icon Editor

You can use either Corel or Adobe Photoshop and import those PNG or PSD to ArtIcons Pro or try IcoFx

and keep in mind that Neko needs 32 Icons and must be named "Icon_1.ico" - "Icon_32.ico"

check "%installpath%\nekoimages\Default" folder

Deploying your custom theme - 1.2b

Neko is now theme-able. If you have created your own Neko look, then put them in a folder and name it whatever you want and save it in "%installpath%\nekoimages".

Setting up Neko - 1.2b

Well, you have to tap on Neko to bring Settings Window up.

If ever you set Neko into smaller size .. well, I suggest use something pointy (stylus) to tap on Neko :p (bleh)

sampe code on form transparency

WM6.5 - Creating custom shaped form with animation and set opacity level

THEMES

from Sony Xepria X1

-- Psyduck

from thedicemaster

-- Gardevoir

Known Bugs

for Windows Mobile 6.5.x

- Neko wont stay on top!!

---- am not sure why HWND_TOPMOST doesn't work with 6.5.x

REPORTING AN ERROR

it would really help a lot if you include something important such as error details or screenshots or both.

History

June 22, 2010 - version 1.3b build 62210

- hope this fixed the "flickering" issue when using Sense 2.5

- Quit Neko bug fixed

- Neko running updated

- Globalization issue fixed - about that parsing error issue

June 20, 2010 - version 1.3b

- improved graphical performance

--- am not sure if this fixed some "flickering" issue on other phones

- fixed Neko's running bug.

June 19, 2010 - version 1.2b

- can now be customized

--- change theme

--- Size

--- Neko can now be quit

--- Run speed

- fixed bug

June 19, 2010 - almost 1 am

- exposed icons for redesign

- fixed graphics issue

- fixed IndexOutOfBounds issue

June 18, 2010 - (just before midnight)

initial release

here's the beta version of

Neko