Smartgear works great on Touch Pro 2! NES! Genesis!

[THE-COPS]

IMHO, the virtual d-pad wouldn't be very useful on any WM device. Reason being is multi-touch. Most games require the use of more than one button at a time. And with these resistive touch screens, hitting more than one place on the screen wont work. One could not effectively play a game. There is however, something being worked on that enables multi-touch. I forget where I seen it. I wonder if that could be implemented.

[bitbank]

Originally Posted by THE-COPS

IMHO, the virtual d-pad wouldn't be very useful on any WM device. Reason being is multi-touch. Most games require the use of more than one button at a time. And with these resistive touch screens, hitting more than one place on the screen wont work. One could not effectively play a game. There is however, something being worked on that enables multi-touch. I forget where I seen it. I wonder if that could be implemented.

I agree with you. The multitouch on resistive touchscreens looks like it will only be useful for pinch/zoom operations because it can't give you exact positions of the 2 fingers. The current hack that allows multitouch on the HD2 isn't much better because it uses the custom pinch/zoom messages that HTC sends and so does not allow sensing more than 2 fingers at a time. Even a game as simple as Tetris becomes quite difficult with touchscreen controls when it starts to speed up. I also tried experimenting with using the G-sensor for direction control, but it's got a pretty low sample rate and it's really hard to control. My conclusion is that you need physical controls to play these games and they either come from a real keyboard/keypad/d-pad or a wireless controller. Another option I can offer is using another WM phone as a wireless controller. E.g. using a T-Mobile Shadow to control your TP2 over bluetooth. Not the most practical solution, but it works. Thoughts?
L.B.

P.S.
This weekend I'm going to read through this entire thread again and test/fix all of the issues people have found. I'll focus on fixing bugs and wrapping up features so that I can call it an official release. I'm also working on documentation for SmartGear and I will handle the English, Spanish and Portuguese versions. Would anyone be able to help translate it to French, or German?

[salvamag]

I'd be able to translate in spanish since i'm fluent but i see you got it covered. keep up the good work.

[Rippa_MD]

Originally Posted by salvamag

I'd be able to translate in spanish since i'm fluent but i see you got it covered. keep up the good work.

+1 if you need help with Spanish translation. cool stuff bitbank!

[bitbank]

I'm much closer to a 2.0 release build of SG. Here's a new EXE with many things fixed and a few things removed (e.g. File->Browse).

www.bitbanksoftware.com/sg.zip

I have also begun writing documentation which will eventually be accessible from within the program. Please take a look and let me know what you think so far:

www.bitbanksoftware.com/SG_Help.html

[csciguy]

Thanks! I can't wait to try it out. I checked out the documentation and it seems fine so far. More screenshots help out for many people. Though the only screenshot is from a Windows Smartphone not Mobile. Though I'm sure they are very similar. Keep up the good work.

[bitbank]

The todo list to get to a 2.0 official release is getting shorter. One of the items I'd like to tackle is the security model. I've been using Handango/Clickapp/Mobihand's algorithm for compatibility with their sales engines, but since I've closed all of those accounts and will only use paypal, I wanted to use something more robust. The warez sites easily crack the Handango keys and I'd like to avoid that for the new version. The process has always been problematic because the algorithm counts spaces and upper/lower case and doesn't support Asian characters. My idea for a new model will be based on the unique ID of each device (no more user names). It will require everyone to send me the new ID, but going forward it will be much simpler for everyone. Here's the todo list as far as I can remember:
1) New security model.
2) Clean up touchscreen controls
3) Flesh out documentation and make accessible from within the program
4) Bring the Desktop PC version up to date with the new features of the mobile version
5) Fix any remaining issues with specific game systems

If anyone has last minute requests or can think of something that I've forgotten, please let me know.
L.B.

[bitbank]

I didn't get to finish everything last night, but I finally finished the design of something I've been thinking about for a while. I wanted to add the ability to navigate the GUI with the wireless controllers and have the ability for SmartGear to drive other programs (use it as a "driver") from the wireless controllers. I simplified it and got it working. In the controller setup screen you have the option of using the P1 or P2 wireless controller to drive the GUI. What this does is generate fake key presses when you press buttons on the wireless controller. You can navigate every function in the GUI, load games, pause, exit games, etc. These fake key presses will only be sent when you're not playing a game, otherwise the controller will only affect the running game. The following keys have been mapped:

U/D/L/R = VK_xxx codes for d-pad arrows
A = Left soft menu key
B = right soft menu key
Start = Enter
Select = Back

I've also decided to leave this working in the unregistered version so that people can use their BGP100 or Zeemote in other applications (through SmartGear) for free.

I'll post a new build tonight.
L.B.

[eyepoker]

I'll b downloading the most recent build to take a look at.... BTW, i did order that one BT controller (not the zeemote... the other one... forgot the name already!) and am waiting for it to arrive, at which time I'll be able to check things out and provide feedback, though it might be after you launch. I'll give feed back either way.

About the registration... how will you handle if a user migrates to another WinMo device? What if I buy now for my TP2 but end up moving on to an HD2?

IT might be too early to ask, but have you hd a chance to consider WinMo 7?

[bitbank]

Originally Posted by eyepoker

I'll b downloading the most recent build to take a look at.... BTW, i did order that one BT controller (not the zeemote... the other one... forgot the name already!) and am waiting for it to arrive, at which time I'll be able to check things out and provide feedback, though it might be after you launch. I'll give feed back either way.

About the registration... how will you handle if a user migrates to another WinMo device? What if I buy now for my TP2 but end up moving on to an HD2?

IT might be too early to ask, but have you hd a chance to consider WinMo 7?

Thanks for your support. The way I will handle multiple devices is not changing. I license my software per user, so a user can submit multiple device IDs and I'll provide multiple registration codes.
I have been thinking about this issue as well. SmartGear is written in native code. It contains thousands of lines of C and ARM asm code which has taken years to write. I would need to rewrite all of that code into managed code and lose considerable performance. The result is that TG16 and Genesis emulation would not be possible. GBC, GG/SMS and NES might still be possible because they are much simpler/slower machines. I will investigate if the Marketplace would allow such an application and if so, will consider my options.
L.B.