SmartGear v2.0.8 Beta

SmartGear v2.0.8 Beta is released. SmartGear is a multi-system game emulator. SmartGear allows you to play games written for classic handheld and console gaming systems on your Windows Desktop PC, Pocket PC or SmartPhone. It currently emulates GameBoy, GameBoy Color, NES, GameGear, MasterSystem, TurboGrafx-16, and Genesis/MegaDrive. SmartGear is written in portable C code and can be built on a variety of systems. The mobile version uses optimized ARM assembly language components for maximum performance. The purpose is to accurately emulate your favorite classic games at full speed on any Windows device.

SmartGear 2.0.8 The major version of SmartGear has jumped from 1.x.x to 2.x.x due to a complete rewrite of it's internals and a new set of features. All of the internal emulator code has been rewritten to be thread-safe/re-entrant and error checked. What this means is that more stability and cool new features are now possible. Critical feedback and suggestions are always welcome; the emphasis of this product is to reflect the users' needs, so please feel free to send me a note with any ideas you have for improving it. Here are the highlights of the new version: Optimized Display Paint The ARM assembly language display routines have all been rewritten to be significantly faster (especially for rotated displays). What this means is that now you can play fullscreen, full framerate on most devices. There are now 3 choices for your display settings: 1) Best Perf - Tries to fill the display as best as possible, but uses standand stretch/shrink sizes (e.g. 75%, 100%, 150%, 200%, 300%) 2) Fit_to_window - Fills the display from edge to edge while maintaining the correct aspec ratio. 3) Fullscreen - Fills every pixel of the display Live File Browser The live file browser is one new feature that's only possible because of the game engine rewrite. As you select the filename, the game is loaded and displayed running fullspeed in the preview window at the bottom of the display. This feature currently only works on portrait displays which are native portrait direction (e.g. not on a T-Mobile Dash 3G). If this is something that you find really enhances SmartGear usability, please let me know and I'll spend more time fleshing out this feature. Below is a sample screenshot from my TouchPro2. Create Shortcut This is a feature that I just thought of because I tend to only play a few games and saving a few clicks is very convenient. The way it works is that you select a game (ROM image zip file), and then create a program shortcut to it. Running the shortcut will open the game in SmartGear and start playing it. The shortcut gets created in the \Windows\Program Files\Start Menu directory and can be named anything you like. Savegame File Consolidation The old savegame code had a lot of replicated code and inconsistencies. I've consolidated all of the code into a single set of routines and a single file format. All games are now saved in *.sgsav files and the ".sgsav" file extension is registered with the system. What this means is that you can use savegames as shortcuts to run SmartGear and it will open that game where you left off. The save/load menu has now also been enhanced to show the time and date of any save states to make it easier to choose which save states to run. Bluetooth Gamepad Support I try to own the popular WM devices so that I can better understand the user's perspective. After purchasing the HTC Touch Pro 2 and especially the HTC HD2, I realized that the built-in D-Pad and buttons were a vanishing breed. There are currently two choices for BT wireless controllers and both are supported by SmartGear. The BGP100 is a gamepad that was released in 2005 and works reasonably well on all devices. It has noticeable lag, and poor battery life, but the ergonomics are good for classic games. SmartGear directly supports communicating with up to 2 of these controllers simultaneously. These can be purchased from several Chinese vendors for around $25. The Zeemote is a relatively new BT controller that is not officially support on WM. For those of you whose devices use the Microsoft BT stack, I have support in SmartGear for communicating with the Zeemote controller (up to 2 at a time). These are not easy to buy directly, but can be found on ebay and bestbuy for about $40. They are quite compact, have little noticeable lag, and good battery life. 2-Player Support SmartGear now includes support for 2-player simultaneous games with or without the use of the bluetooth controllers. There is also head-to-head support for GameBoy and GameGear games (simulates link cable). I'm experimenting with networked game support, but it needs more work. Status Display SmartGear now displays the current state of the P1/P2 controls on the main window. This allows you to test your keyboard and wireless controllers before starting a game. Sound Fixes Sound problems have plagued SmartGear from the very beginning, but I believe I have addressed all problems and now sound is good on all platforms (including Genesis!). If you still encounter problems with sound quality, please let me know.

Download: SmartGear v2.0.8 Beta
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