Pocket PC games

[ClubShrimp91]

Does anyone know much about them? I know you can get an official Windows Mobile emulator that can run Pocket PC games, but the games themselves are quite hard to come by.

This tistory page seems to have links to a lot of games, but I haven't tested them. It has links for most of the few games I was looking for, but I couldn't tell you whether or not they're demos. The games I was looking for which I found there were Turjah 1 and 2, Burning Armor, Odyssey: Battle of the Universe, and Fire Power: Onrush - all shooters. I'm also looking for Darklaga: Cannonball Symphony, ClayGun, and Eclipse: First Wave, also all shooters. I found a torrent for Claygun but it's basically dead; I found some rar parts for Eclipse, but I'm not sure how legit they are, given that Chrome flagged up the site as untrustworthy on a few of my visits to it; and I've only managed to dig up the demo for Darklaga - or at least, I think all I've found is the demo, unless this happens to be the full game. I resurrected two fairly old threads on a forum here and here where working links for both Eclipse and Darklaga were once posted, hoping to get a reupload, but I doubt I'll hear back from anyone.

There are also aspects of these games I don't understand. Some of the files are exes, which I don't get - does that mean you can install them on a PC? (EDIT: Does this have to do with the fact that the OS on a Microsoft phone is a version of Windows?) Some come with, or simply are, "cab" files, which seems similar to the .obb data files that sometimes come with android games, but I'm not sure.

So, are there any resident Pocket PC / Windows Mobile experts around here? I know this site only really uploads PC games, so I'm not requesting uploads to the site. All I'm looking for is a bit of elucidation, and perhaps some sources if possible. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: I also found a link to ClayGun here, but I have no idea if it's working or not. The reason I don't know this is that you have to reply to gain access to the link, and you have to sign up to reply, but for me, on three different browsers and with a good internet connection, the verification code image on the registration screen doesn't appear, so I can't sign up. If anyone has any luck with this let me know. The post itself is almost 5 years old, so I wouldn't be surprised if the link is dead, but it would be nice to get confirmation.

[RhymeKidder]

Pocket PC is a RISC cpu, like ARM in a way. Programs built for Windows Tablet / Mobile would likely not run on pc but I guess they share the same Windows naming formats.

I'm curious about this now and want to check up on this later in future. for mentioning this.

[hfric]

some games work some dont
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHEVGZBHON8
here how to set the emu ...

[Virgil]

Some of the files are exes, which I don't get - does that mean you can install them on a PC? (EDIT: Does this have to do with the fact that the OS on a Microsoft phone is a version of Windows?) Some come with, or simply are, "cab" files, which seems similar to the .obb data files that sometimes come with android games, but I'm not sure.

Windows Mobile/CE is a totally different OS only designed to look similar to desktop Windows. You can't execute DOS/Windows exe files, and there's even compatibility problems between different versions of Windows Mobile. Cabinet files are just install packages. Exes if I not mistaken are installers that you need to run on a PC with a cable or a docking cradle connected to your device. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but this was a topic of interest to me since I own one of the devices and I tried running some games on it.

[oldgamer]

EXE files are typically all "Portable Executable" format files (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Executable), same file structure but can contain code for different CPUs and OSes. Pocket PC (PPC) apps and games can come as single EXE version for MS ActiveSync.
Exe files fail to run on the wrong Windows/CPU. I don't know if newer Windows Mobile OS versions can run apps made for WinCE.
ActiveSync or newer Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center (also connects to older WinCE) can connect to the Emulator afaik because developers also needed to test.

Most PPC apps used a shareware model - unlockable to a full version with a serial.

I had 2 older automotive navigation system devices based on Windows CE, so basically pocket PCs (devices from 2000-2009 are probably all WinCE PPCs). I could make them run some games and play movies but the WinCE there is stripped down and some DLLs and fonts are missing, those devices also lack buttons. I was able to install much newer navigation software from other devices offered in forums.

If you know the original website a game was offered for download once (full trial or demo), archive.org might have archived those smaller files, like "Tower of Souls": https://web.archive.org/web/20050406034 ... wnload.htm.

A lot of PPC apps are still available here: http://download.cnet.com/s/pocket/

Some years ago I found a lot of working torrents with PPC games but they are rare now. You may search the eD2k network with Emule (via Kademlia) (https://sourceforge.net/projects/emule/files/)or similar P2P networks using terms like "ppc" or "pocket" or the game name.

[ClubShrimp91]

Thanks for that information, it's demystified a lot.

I used the wayback machine when I was looking for ClayGun, and I found the original site, but they also did the shareware thing. I've also come across a lot of links on cnet, but again, they're all demos. As for torrents, all the ones I could find are dead.

I actually found quite a lot through this weird, obscure, Russian site (be warned, some NSFW ads), but I'm not sure if everything I found is demos or not. I looked in the Windows Phone and Windows Mobile sections.

As for Emule, I'm too much of a nub to get it working. I've tried several times with no luck. Know of any decent tutorials? UPDATE: Scratch that, I got it running. I think the problem before is that I was trying to get Chinese ed2k links to work. Unfortunately though I wasn't able to find anything of note.

[oldgamer]

A trial version of a game usually contains the locked full version. Someone who knows how to crack it can make them a full version in the future.
From the preservation point of view: original trial (shareware) versions are quite good to collect and preserve and even better than broken cracked versions or cracked versions containing malware.

If there is no hint about cracking in the file names or txt/nfo files, it is probably uncracked. The only way to find out is to run the app I suppose.

If you are unsure about malware of desktop-Windows EXE files, a free VM like https://www.virtualbox.org is useful - you just need a Windows CD image (https://thepiratebay.se/search/%22Windo ... %22/0/99/0) to install the virtual OS - WinXP is fine. The VM also supports DX8/9 graphics acceleration.
To install some PPC games in EXE form you need ActiveSync (https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/downloa ... aspx?id=15) for Win XP or Mobile Device Center for later Windows versions.