Is anyone working on emulating cell phones?

[Cryomancer]

Anyone heard anything about cellhpone emulation? Not emulators FOR cellphones, but emulating cellphones on a PC / other platform.

I figured the minute a final fantasy came out on one this would be done but I've never heard of any. There's a lot of interesting ports / remakes / side games / etc for various classic games coming out (mostly in japan of course) that I would like to give a try sometime, but hell if I'm gonna import phones for one game and then not even be able to download the things because they wouldn't get service.

So yeah, anyone heard about any projects related to this? and if this is considered an unsafe subject, feel free to lock.

[kaedesdisciple]

I thought most of the stuff they make on cell phones was Java-based in some way. This was done to make them portable across many different cell phones and carriers. The programs should be pretty easy to port if this is the case.

No sense in adding the overhead of emulating a cell phone if the code is portable.

[Graham Mitchell]

I thought most of the stuff they make on cell phones was Java-based in some way. This was done to make them portable across many different cell phones and carriers. The programs should be pretty easy to port if this is the case.

No sense in adding the overhead of emulating a cell phone if the code is portable.

Yeah, but the thing is that not all cell phones are created equal. Games on my Motorolla Razr suck. Atari 2600 games run smoother, despite having worse graphics. I also had a Samsung phone that played the most pathetic excuse for Dragon's Lair I'd ever seen.

My friend on the other hand, has nome newfangeld nifty phone that slides open and has a horizontal wide screen. He downloaded NBA live '08 on it and it looks incredible. It looks and plays similar to (but better than) NCAA Basketball on the SNES. We're talking Scaling, rotation, and a resolution that appears similar to a PSP. I doubt that thing's running the shitty Java games my Razr runs.

[Cryomancer]

So how can one tell what kind of phones stuff will run on, anway? I'm mostly interested in playing D3's cell games: http://www.d3p.co.jp/s_dx/ most specifically, the EDF ones: http://www.d3p.co.jp/s_dx/game/edfmobile.html That practically looks like it plays just like the ps2 version, only scaled down. And the shooter looks fun too: http://www.d3p.co.jp/s_dx/game/edfshooting.html

[Kamisama]

Phone Emulators are usually made by the companies themselves. I once wanted to code for my old nokia and they had all the tools incl. an emulator on their homepage. My friend did the same with some Samsung and they offered one aswell.
So maybe have a look at the "Developer" Sections on the homepages of the companies. :)

[Jorpho]

also had a Samsung phone that played the most pathetic excuse for Dragon's Lair I'd ever seen.

(You've seen the ADAM version, right?)

[robotriot]

Actually, cell phone emulators have been around pretty much since day one. Developers sometimes use them to test their programs/games on them. You can usually download them from the manufacturers website, if you register as a developer. There's even software to convert the games jar/jad files to .exe for Win32.

[Snapple]

Does that mean it's possible for us to play all those nifty games that are only released on Japanese cel phones, like Friends of Mana?

[roushimsx]

The sooner someone codes up an NGage emulator that plays Pathways to Glory and Pocket Kingdoms, the better.

[Jorpho]

The sooner someone codes up an NGage emulator that plays Pathways to Glory and Pocket Kingdoms, the better.

I thought the whole novelty of Pocket Kingdoms was the vast multiplayer potential.

[Graham Mitchell]

(You've seen the ADAM version, right?)

Despite being like 16 colors or whatever, I'm almost positive the ADAM version surpasses this piece of shit. It didn't have any sound, displayed 1 frame of animation for every 20 that were in the arcade version, and had to load each room for 7 minutes between rooms...and the rooms took about 20 seconds to complete.

[Cryomancer]

The sooner someone codes up an NGage emulator that plays Pathways to Glory and Pocket Kingdoms, the better.

Yes, also agreed on this. Ngage has some interesting looking exclusive titles i'd like to try before I go out and pay whatever outrageous price they still are due to having to buy a phone plan.

edit: someone linked me to a program called "Midp2Exe" today, that can turn jar files into windows exes, very neat stuff!