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January 31, 2005
Pack Monster Simulator
I really enjoy retro gaming, and I very much like and respect the various emulator & simulator projects out there. Simulators are, as opposed to emulators, not emulations of the original hardware, but they try to reproduce or clone the functionality of the original as close as possible, without reproducing the internal workings of the device.
While arcade systems & various consoles are built around well known hardware, and thus candidates for emulation, handheld games are often built around more custom, less documented hardware, and that’s why you don’t see many emulators for handheld games out there. In fact I know of just one handheld (tabletop actually) game emulator, and that’s the emulator for the very rare ‘Adventure Vision’ from Entex (1982), in the ‘Multiple Emulator Super System’, or Mess.
So, for preservation of handheld video games, we have to rely on collectors, and simulators. I have a modest collection myself, but check out the Handheld Games Museum, now that is a collection! (and a great reference)
So, one day I decided to have a go at simulator programming, and the Pack Monster Simulator was born. Check out this description of the real thing (aka Packri Monster, Hungry Monster or Ogre Eater) on the Handheld Games Museum. I tried to make it as closely resembling the real handheld as possible, and have gone a long way to implement every move, cutscene, blink & beep. Here's a screenshot of the simulator in action (click for a larger version):
This simulator should run on just about any Windows system out there, with at least a 800x600 true color display. (1024x768 for the full console display). Just download PackMonster1.0b.exe (1.2M) and run it to install the simulator. For those who have seen it before on my old site, there are no real changes for this version (1.0b), I just recompiled and repacked it for a smaller download size.
Posted by Dominique at January 31, 2005 10:41 PM
Comments
Hi Dominique,
I posted a news on www.emuita.it about your update, and uploaded it in the "handhhelds area".
Just a quick notice for you: the simulator requires the "sdl_mixer.dll" which 99% of users don't have on their PC.
I suggest you to re-release the simulator, with the missing DLL.
Best regards :-)
Luca "MADrigal" Antignano
Posted by: MADrigal at February 2, 2005 02:01 PM
This brings back some memories! My siblings and I used to love Packri Monster when we were younger. Nice job, it's a very good simulation.
Posted by: Ross at March 10, 2005 06:27 AM