MAME on your cell phone

[Flare]

Today I was looking for other ways to justify my NGAGE. In my despair I stumbled upon this emulator called EEMAME, which is MAME for your Serires 60 Nokia mobile phone.

http://www.harmonicode.com/EEMame/

It is based on version 0.37b7 which is back when MAME was still cool.

Most of the old games like Mr. Do!, Targ, Nibbler, Frogger, etc. run at 30 fps which is nice.

On my "underpowered" NGAGE phone, I tried Zookeeper, and unfortunately it doesn't run fast enough. So Shane, stop, don't go out and buy an NGAGE just yet. :)

Maybe on the new phones like the Nokia 7610 it will run better, not sure.

[nukinetix]

I haven't tried MAME on any s60 handset, but regarding the "underpowered" comment:
Nintendo DS = arm9 @ 66mhz,
n-gage = arm9 @ 104mhz,
nokia 7610 = arm9 @ 125mhz.
nokia 6630 (and 6680/6681 too): arm9 @ 208mhz (100% faster than an n-gage).

Speed isn't the main reason why MAME would not be too enjoyable here though, the "bottleneck" is the small screen size, both physical and in terms of pixel resolution. All of the above s60 handsets have the same physical screen size (more or less) and a crippling 176x208 pixel res. I wonder how bad pixel-scaling looks on there.

The motorola A925, although a bit slower than a 6630 (arm9 @ 168mhz), has a much larger screen (physically more than twice the size of that of an ngage @ 320x208 pixel res) and should be better for emulation. Same for the SE P900/910, and motorola A1000.

[Flare]

I haven't tried MAME on any s60 handset, but regarding the "underpowered" comment:
Nintendo DS = arm9 @ 66mhz,
n-gage = arm9 @ 104mhz,
nokia 7610 = arm9 @ 125mhz.
nokia 6630 (and 6680/6681 too): arm9 @ 208mhz (100% faster than an n-gage).

Speed isn't the main reason why MAME would not be too enjoyable here though, the "bottleneck" is the small screen size, both physical and in terms of pixel resolution. All of the above s60 handsets have the same physical screen size (more or less) and a crippling 176x208 pixel res. I wonder how bad pixel-scaling looks on there.

The motorola A925, although a bit slower than a 6630 (arm9 @ 168mhz), has a much larger screen (physically more than twice the size of that of an ngage @ 320x208 pixel res) and should be better for emulation. Same for the SE P900/910, and motorola A1000.
Ah, well I was actually calling it underpowered compared to the newer S60 phones that are out there.

The resolution is bad, right. But older games like Mr. Do! and Frogger play very nice actually; those games made for a vertical screen look the best.

If I end up getting the 7610 I'll try it and see if games like Contra play any better.

[Flare]

If I knew how to do it, I'd rip the case of the 7610 (or even better, the 6630) and somehow, put the NGAGE (QD preferred) casing on it. That way I could have a better powered phone with a nice layout for gaming.

[Shane R. Monroe]

I haven't tried MAME on any s60 handset, but regarding the "underpowered" comment:
Nintendo DS = arm9 @ 66mhz,
n-gage = arm9 @ 104mhz,
nokia 7610 = arm9 @ 125mhz.
nokia 6630 (and 6680/6681 too): arm9 @ 208mhz (100% faster than an n-gage).

Speed isn't the main reason why MAME would not be too enjoyable here though, the "bottleneck" is the small screen size, both physical and in terms of pixel resolution. All of the above s60 handsets have the same physical screen size (more or less) and a crippling 176x208 pixel res. I wonder how bad pixel-scaling looks on there.

The motorola A925, although a bit slower than a 6630 (arm9 @ 168mhz), has a much larger screen (physically more than twice the size of that of an ngage @ 320x208 pixel res) and should be better for emulation. Same for the SE P900/910, and motorola A1000.

Throw me into the "underpowered" category too. But in this case, underpowered means underpowered software. You can have a Cray supercomputer, but if the only thing available is Pong at 15 fps, its still underpowered. Nintendo has proven that power means nothing and that software is king ... time and time again.

[nukinetix]

If I knew how to do it, I'd rip the case of the 7610 (or even better, the 6630) and somehow, put the NGAGE (QD preferred) casing on it. That way I could have a better powered phone with a nice layout for gaming.
It seems that your wish will come true in a few months time ... actually be prepared to get more than you bargained for :)

[nukinetix]

Nintendo has proven that power means nothing and that software is king ... time and time again.
That's true of course. I totally enjoy many GBA games even though it's severely underpowered by any standards. In fact, I still immensely enjoy many GB/GBC and old Spectrum games (which I play almost daily on my GP32 - the emulators there are very high quality and faithful).

Games are more about software - conception, design and implementation - than they are about hardware. But hardware has the potential to empower developers and enable them to create interesting software as much as it has the "potential" to be underutilised and misused.

[Shane R. Monroe]

Games are more about software - conception, design and implementation - than they are about hardware. But hardware has the potential to empower developers and enable them to create interesting software as much as it has the "potential" to be underutilised and misused.

Absolutely.

I tell you ... when I see masterpieces of gaming - I don't even see the graphics ... That Missile Command using DOS ANSI mode I talked about a couple months ago (link should be in the Links Database) thrills and amazes me - and as a bonus, its a damn fun game :)

[Flare]

Absolutely.

I tell you ... when I see masterpieces of gaming - I don't even see the graphics ... That Missile Command using DOS ANSI mode I talked about a couple months ago (link should be in the Links Database) thrills and amazes me - and as a bonus, its a damn fun game :)
I looked in the links archive but the Text Missile Command one is not there.

Is it this one (http://www.dosgamesonline.com/index/game/Text%20Missile%20Command/343/)?

[nukinetix]

when I see masterpieces of gaming - I don't even see the graphics
Wise words.

A successful and effective game design manages to do precisely that: immerse you and get you in a state of "flow" - in that state, there are no "graphics", as the player's mind has already abstracted the essential and meaningful in-game elements by the way they interact with each other and with the player.

Getting in a "large bandwidth" kind of immersed state of mind is the same as interacting without unnecessary details getting in the way.

[Shane R. Monroe]

I looked in the links archive but the Text Missile Command one is not there.

Is it this one (http://www.dosgamesonline.com/index/game/Text%20Missile%20Command/343/)?

Look here: http://www.textmodegames.com/

[nukinetix]

Very cool. There's still an underground "scene" doing ZZT games I think. A few years ago one of my colleagues was part of that scene - he introduced me to it, I hadn't even heard about it before. Incidentally, ZZT was written by Tim Sweeney who did the unreal 3d engine for the playstation3 live demo at E3 :)

[Flare]

I just found out how to increase the speed of EEMAME on the NGAGE. If you run the games without sound then you don't get as many frameskips.

I know, not a full experience, but most classic games don't really rely on it.

Karate Champ for instance is finally playable!