MAME on Dell Axim (PocketPC)

[_) (V) (-)]

Not sure exactly where to post this question so if anyone has a suggestion of where to put it . . . 
 

OK, I've been 'blessed' with a Dell AXIM x51v (at my employers expense)
and have just started messing around with it.

Out of the box it's not so useful.
The music player sucks because it;ll only play 1 song, then you have to load another. And their version of Excel Mobile does something horrible to my files, blows them up 200% in size and screws up the formatting.

Lets just say I could complain about it all day if I had to.


Then I discovered how to put other programs onto it.
The bootleg versions of Winamp doesn't work so hot but I found something else called 'IBE music player' that seems pretty cool. I had to try about a dozen or so before finding one I liked.

But this I can use! Things are looking up.

Then I found a MAME emulator called 'pcmame04a' or MAME PocketCult.
I've got it running and have tried a bunch of ROMs on it so far without much luck. Qix is the only one I've got to work 100% but I've only really tried about 10-12 ROMS with this PocketCult version so far.

I'd like to know if there is a better version(s) of MAME for a pocket PC (running Windows Mobile 5) that I could be using on this thing?
Can't seem to find anything about em by searching the posts here.

Now for my question.

Does anyone here use one of these things or have a favorite place they can recommend where I can find useful programs for one?

I'm just looking for basics here, mp3/divx players, MAME, Picture viewer and maybe something to make Excel a little more friendly.  If someone has a CBR file reader (Comics) for one that would be cool too.

'preciate the help!
_)

[Samstag]

I can fix your media player problem, at least.  To play multiple songs you'll need to update your library.  It will search through all your storage for files and afterwards selecting any in your library will queue them all up.  It's still a pretty crappy player, but I've never bothered to replace it.

There are a couple of websites for free/shareware PPC stuff, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.  When I needed anything specific I just googled the type of app and added PPC/PocketPC/etc.  I've never tried any emulators and I don't use Excel.  I use mine mainly for GPS and books in MS Reader.

[ark_ader]

Actually there is a few.

I have  a XDA and there is is some Mame games that run at speed without sound like frogger, other games suffer due to processor speeds.  My guess your Axim is 500Mhz or more (610?).

You need to get a copy of www.fpsece.net

Its a cool PS1 emulator that can play games in full speed.  It also has a ISO cruncher so you can get games like Soulblade down to 70mb...ish.

Here is a great site that covers more of them:

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/article/emulators_for_pocket_pcs_an_overview_of_the_best_article

Enjoy.   

[patrickl]

I used MAMECE for my PocketGalaga (it has an iPAQ inside). It works just fine, but I found it was too slow on my PocketPC. Maybe your Axim works better since it should be a lot faster. Eventually I got a snes emulator to play the games on.

I use tcpmp to view movies, but I'm not sure if that still is the best to use. I downloaded it ages ago and haven't looked at anything else since.

[vidmouse]

I think MAMECE is a step in the right direction
(don't know for sure, I use a palm-OS based device
and thu PalmMAME).  One thing I had to do with
my palm is to convert my roms back to 0.36 format,
not sure what format MAMECE requires.

But portable MAME?  Oh yeah, the play is awesome.

[_) (V) (-)]

Hey thanks for the pointers guys!

Samstag is right about there bieng some sites out there, WOW!
Seems many are out of date or for other systems, most want $$$.

To further complicate the situation, there are so many different o/s's (?) for these things, Palm, Win CE, Mobile, PPC, (2000-2003) etc
The question now is how to cut throught all the clutter and find stuff that'll work on this Axim thing?

Ark Ader,  I have to admit that I don't even know what an XDA is!
Thanks for the article though, it was some help.

My Axim says it has a PXA270 624 MHz processor, whatever that means.
I was able to run StreetFighter2 with sound (Audio was a little choppy)
Seems to be the benchmark set by some guys in another forum I was reading stuff on. (Metal Slug is another but I don't have thet ROM to work with) There are not very many buttons on this thing for me to work with. Maybe I need a detachable frankenpanel.   

I'd like to try that PS1 emulator but have to wonder how to make the games fit into the PDA? All of mine are on cd's and I don't know how to make ROMS from them.

Patrickl & Vidmouse, I've now got something called MegaCE3 installed but it dosen't really work as well as the other one I was using. I think this is a newer version of the MAMECE program you were guys were pointing me to. It actually intergrates itself into the O/S alot better but dosen't run as well as PCMAME.

I am not really sure how to tell what version # my roms are or how to convert them. I know they work with MAME32 v66 Ugh! (More reading ahead I guess)

Anyway, so far I've got Asteroirds (rev 2) Marble Madness (set 1) & Qix, working very well and Street Fighter II (World rev B) and Mega Man - Power Battle (asia) working pretty good. Just need some better controls to work with. (and more room for storing them ROMS on the device)

In case anyone is interested in trying this PocketMame thing out, here is a link to their site:

If nothing else it gives me an interesting way to figure out how to work this counfounded thing. LOL! 

Thanks again for the tips! (keep em coming)
I've got a lot more reading to do...

[vidmouse]

Sorry, haven't done the research on the Axim.

I've had a Tapwave Zodiac 2 for awhile now, and have
been well-pleased.  Gotten PalmMAME, LJZ (a SNES,
NES, Genesis, Gameboy emulator all-in-one), Doom,
Hexen, Heretic, Duke Nukem 3d, TCPMP, ScummVM
(graphic text based adventure games), ePSXe (a
PS1 emulator), Frodo (a C64 emulator), UAE (an Amiga
emulator), CaSTaway (Atari ST emul), and one of
the first versions of Palm DOSBox to run, to varying
degrees of success and playability.

To convert your roms to v 0.36 (or any other version),
you will need a program like CLRMAMEPro or RomCenter
(I use CLRMAME) to back-convert them.  You will also
need the associated dat file for the version of MAME
you want.  Older Dat files are located here:

http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/MAMEBeta/MAMEBetaHistory.php

Be sure to download the correct one for the version
and the program (either ClrMame or RomCenter) you
intend to use.  Google CLRMAMEpro or Romcenter and
you should be able to find those downloads.

Note:  I've noticed the back-converting doesn't work 100%
across all roms but it hits the majority of them ok.

Here's some instructions on using an older version of
CLRMAMEpro:

http://www.mameworld.net/easyemu/clrmameguide.htm

Let me know if you have more questions....

[_) (V) (-)]

Thanks for all the info Vidmouse!

But my head is ready to explode so I'll get into this in a little while.
Must administer multiple 12 oz doses of alcohol STAT! 

[vidmouse]

Heh, that's how I play MMORPG's...


"Newbie died again."

"Let's all take a swig while he comes back to life"

"Hey, these monsters all getting all fuzzy..."



Drink responsibly.