So, you've got a 332 MHz top-of-the-range smartphone from 2007 with 3D graphics acceleration hardware and a 16 million colour screen. What do you do with that? Obviously, you'd use it to emulate 8-bit home computers and consoles from 1982! Another winning feature from Krisse...
Read on in the full article.
Hi,
In Krisses previous TV-out article there were discussion about the bluetooth joystick available for S60. One possibility would be using Nintendo Wii controller with the phone. It uses bluetooth and there exists drivers for PC. Somebody familiar to BT stack programming should port driver to S60! Its motion sensors could also be used to bring a fresh experience to old games! Wii controller costs about 40-50 euros in Finland.
Another possibility is to use good old, often underestimated, N-Gage for a BT pad for N95! IMHO it has the best controller in any cell phone. Again, we need a driver for delivering key events over BT.
What is also great is a possibility to play multiplayer games over BT. Piconet supports maxi 8 devices which is more than enough for emulators. E.g. in Frodo S60 multiplayer games were not supported for obvious reasons. But the support is there just waiting for few lines of code for enabling it!
Br,
Hannu, Frodo S60 developer
Hannu, thanks for checking out the article!
"In Krisses previous TV-out article there were discussion about the bluetooth joystick available for S60. One possibility would be using Nintendo Wii controller with the phone. It uses bluetooth and there exists drivers for PC."
It's a really really really good idea, but the only PC demos I've seen had very limited functionality, they didn't have the pointer movement which is what we're after, they only had motion sensing. Some S60 models already have their own motion sensing support, as seen in the Nokia 5500...
Even if the drivers support pointers though, there would still be the question of the "sensor bar" (actually just two infrared lamps) which is what the Wii controller uses to determine its location. The bar would be a bit difficult to build yourself, and I don't think anyone seriously wants to put two candles on top of their TV (in fact they couldn't do that if it's a flat screen!).
"Another possibility is to use good old, often underestimated, N-Gage for a BT pad for N95! IMHO it has the best controller in any cell phone. Again, we need a driver for delivering key events over BT."
This is the exciting thing though: we don't actually need any new drivers if they make a bluetooth joypad that just uses the existing keyboard technology. That's why I'm so keen on such an accessory, it would be very very easy and cheap to create. The arrow keys on the keyboard work fine, it's just they're attached to the keyboard and they're big keys! 😊 If they could be turned into a direction pad they would be much more comfortable to use.
I wonder if there's any way to make the N95 think that the N-Gage is a bluetooth keyboard? That would turn it into a joypad, or of course someone could write a special application just like you suggest.
"What is also great is a possibility to play multiplayer games over BT. Piconet supports maxi 8 devices which is more than enough for emulators. E.g. in Frodo S60 multiplayer games were not supported for obvious reasons. But the support is there just waiting for few lines of code for enabling it!"
Yeah, BT multiplayer would be nice... I think some S60 1st / 2nd emulators supported it? It's odd that so many emus were made for S60 1st/2nd which never made the transition to 3rd Edition, perhaps the whole security lockdown thing killed them off.
Apart from BT multiplayer though, how about internet multiplayer? The website of the author of the non-C64 emulators in the article has a section on Symbian network play:
http://fms.komkon.org/EmuSymbian/
Go to the section that says Network Play Feature. (I didn't have the chance to try this, might have been interesting.)
You can actually use NetPlay in MasterGear (soon with other emulators as well) between N95 and another phone or a PC, but the N-Gage is a pre-3rd Edition phone: MasterGear will not run on it =(
Thinking about retro games, even using the four way direction controller (does it support diagonals?) in the Wii Remote would be nice. Especially if you own Wii already 😊 Not to talk about attached Classic Controller...
Right, aiming would be great for certain kind of applications/games. Wii sensor bars are also sold separately, so that is no problem.
So what we need is BT keyboard "emulation" SW for N-Gage and other phones. But for multiplaying we probably need custom BT application, as I suspect BT keyboard interface do not support concurrent keyboards 😉
I cannot think Internet multiplaying could be added to games that have not been designed for multi *screen* playing. Game screens/engines must be synchronized and that needs a special code in game logic.
Nice article, though I can't find any mention of al the great emulators for series 60 as in Picodrive-Megadrive/Genesis emulator, totally free and works on 3rd and 2nd edition with full sound.
Vampents SNES/NES emulators and my favourite so far V-Bag the Gameboy Advance emulator which is the only one I play now.
It runs pixel perfect and with full sound ,Sega Rally on my N95!!!
Dogz, Mariokart, Rayman, Super Ghouls and Ghosts, Yoshi's Island, F-Zero, Final Fantasy, Doom, LOTR, Castlevania, Mario Bros, Super Mario...etc
Drooling yet?
To Hannu: I think we need to just simplify the task by stating it as follows: We need a way to attach a standard directional gamepad (BT, USB, or wired) to a Nokia phone. The simplest way to achieve this would be to use this:
http://darlamack.blogs.com/darlamack/2005/07/bluetooth_gamep.html
As far as a bluetooth joypad goes, we really do need something like an N-Gage but without the screen. Even with retro games, emulators can require the whole keypad to operate properly, and many S60 games definitely do use the whole keypad (TibiaME for example). Having a complete keypad on a bluetooth joypad would ensure complete compatibility, so you wouldn't have to leave the sofa at all.
"Picodrive-Megadrive/Genesis emulator, totally free and works on 3rd and 2nd edition with full sound."
I couldn't find the 3rd Edition version anywhere, are you sure it's been released properly? I know there was a trial release on the My-symbian boards a while back, but I haven't really heard anything about Picodrive after that...
"Vampents SNES/NES emulators"
The SNES emulator isn't on 3rd Edition yet, at least I can't find it listed on their website. Again, there were some trials a while back but haven't heard anything after that...
" and my favourite so far V-Bag the Gameboy Advance emulator which is the only one I play now."
Ooh no, no emulation of current systems. Emulation should stick to systems and games you can't buy in the shops any more. Well, that's what I reckon anyway... 😉
PicoDrive: "I couldn't find the 3rd Edition version anywhere, are you sure it's been released properly? I know there was a trial release on the My-symbian boards a while back, but I haven't really heard anything about Picodrive after that..."
There is a highly unofficial version, evidently developed by some Russians (or Ukrainians?) and placed into some very obscure Web forum. I do have it at home and will send it to you tonight.
Vampent SNES: "The SNES emulator isn't on 3rd Edition yet, at least I can't find it listed on their website. Again, there were some trials a while back but haven't heard anything after that..."
There is a version of Vampent's SNES emulator for the 3rd edition. Aside from being a bit sluggish on my E70 and lacking sound, it is pretty nice.
luarvique wrote:To Hannu: I think we need to just simplify the task by stating it as follows: We need a way to attach a standard directional gamepad (BT, USB, or wired) to a Nokia phone. The simplest way to achieve this would be to use this:http://darlamack.blogs.com/darlamack/2005/07/bluetooth_gamep.html
Someone actually put the guts of this gamepad in to a playstation controller along with some other 'fitting' modifications. Unfortunately the flickr set is down but engaget still has a pick of the final result.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/22/bluetooth-playstation-controller-for-axim-pda/
Picodrive is 'officially' on 3rd edition, as in coded by the original author, Anotherguest as he's known.
Get it here wapsville.c o m/nws/pics3.sis
That's the official version and is totally safe, you may find you have to press 'c' in game to ungarble the sound sometimes.
There's some very cool about doing this in a geeky kind of way. I've found I've been using TV out a fair bit more than I ever thought I would. Haven't done much retro gaming though 😊
"Picodrive is 'officially' on 3rd edition, as in coded by the original author, Anotherguest as he's known."
It's a bit of a strange way of releasing it though. Why isn't it listed on the My-symbian catalogue for example? The 1st/2nd edition version was, and the 3rd Edition was featured in the My-symbian forums.
I'm not criticising the emulator, I'm just a bit puzzled at this method of releasing it... 😊
I've seen elsewhere a Gamepad that the user claimed he was using with his N95, might have been the Vampent VBagX forum. . . much nicer than the one pictured at Darla Mac.
I love the TV-out feature, can't wait until by BT-keyboard arrives in a few days to really get the most out of it.
Its interesting to note that people are using the TV-out for in-car monitors, I saw one article where people were using this facility with a BT-keyboard to effectively have a mobile office. I wonder if Nokia ever considered that TV-out could actually be an effective business feature. . .
And do not forget that "Sixaxis", PS3 contoller, uses Bluetooth also. So it is technically possible to use that with S60 TV-out. Anybody tried? 😉
"Its interesting to note that people are using the TV-out for in-car monitors, I saw one article where people were using this facility with a BT-keyboard to effectively have a mobile office. I wonder if Nokia ever considered that TV-out could actually be an effective business feature. . ."
I suspect we'll see them plugging TV Out as a business feature when it first appears on an Eseries model, as it's their business-oriented range.
There's so many possibilities, for example plugging TV Out into a projector and using your phone to make a presentation including video and live demonstrations of software and websites.
Just in case anyone missed it, the previous part of this TV Out article series dealt with using the N95 as a mobile office:
"And do not forget that "Sixaxis", PS3 contoller, uses Bluetooth also. So it is technically possible to use that with S60 TV-out. Anybody tried? 😉"
I wonder how easy it is to use Bluetooth peripherals on devices they weren't intended for. Is there some kind of lock-out that Sony can apply in this situation, or are all Bluetooth gadgets open to each other if they have the correct drivers?