Knowledge Base

What is MorphGear?

MorphGear is a modular game system for Windows 98/2000/XP and Windows CE. Native games or emulators can be plugged into the MorphGear system to expand your gaming content. These plugins are known as MorphModules. Current MorphModules allow you to play GameBoy, NES, SNES, SEGA Master System, SEGA GameGear, SEGA Genesis, and TurboGrafx-16 games on your PocketPC or Windows Desktop. Supported processors include SH3, MIPS, ARM, and x86. Features include full color support for color games, screen scaling, video acceleration, input mapping, sound, and multiple configuration options.

How much does it cost and what do I get?

MorphGear and some of the MorphModules are Open Source and cost nothing unless you intend to use them commercially. MorphModules made available by our affiliates will be priced according to the affiliate's pricing structure. Please see the web store for current pricing information. When you purchase and activate a commercial MorphModule, the five minutes of play time limit is removed as well as the "Unregistered" label printed across the screen.

My activation code doesn't work, what should I do?

Activation Codes are based in part on the owner name in your Windows CE device or the name entered in the Global Settings option on the Windows Desktop version. If your owner name has changed since you ordered, you will need to reactivate.

How do I install MorphGear?

For Windows desktop machines, download the installer to any folder and double-click to run. For PocketPCs, make sure your PocketPC device is connected to your desktop machine and ActiveSync recognizes it. Then, download the install file from the web page and run it. This will start the ActiveSync installer and will copy the appropriate binaries to your Windows CE device. The setup program is self explanatory.

You may also choose to install using a CAB file, although this is primarily only recommended for Mac users. To install, copy the CAB to a folder on your Pocket PC and then use Explorer on your Pocket PC to launch it.

I just purchased a new Pocket PC and have not made a backup. Is it safe to load MorphGear onto it?

Backups are your responsibility. Before adding any software on your system, you should backup your files. ActiveSync provides an easy way to do so. We are not able to certify all hardware configurations for compatibility. You must accept the risk of losing your data. It is recommended that you maintain a current backup before testing this software. Be sure to test the MorphGear software on your PocketPC before you purchase any commercial MorphModule.

I installed it, now how do I run it?

The install program creates a shortcut to MorphGear in the Games folder of the Start Menu. The actual MorphGear binaries are installed into \Program Files\Games\MorphGear.

On my Pocket PC, how do I make my games show up in the Open File Dialog or use a Storage Card?

There are two prerequisites.
  • Games must have a .GB, .GBC, .GBA, .NES, .PCE, .SMS, .GG, .SMC, .SWC, .SMD, .BIN, or .ZIP file extension.
  • Games must either be in a My Documents folder or in a subdirectory off of the My Documents folder. If you're using a storage card, you'll need to create the My Documents folder manually on the storage card and then put your games into it. Alternatively, you can use the new open file dialog that comes with the Pocket PC version. To enable, go to the Global Settings screen and make sure Custom File Dialog is checked.

I load a game and nothing happens, why?

It's possible the game was corrupted during your download. You may also not have enough available memory free to load the game. You need at least the size of the ROM plus about 1 MB, except for the GBA and SNES modules which could require between 4 to 8 MB additonal RAM. It could also be that the game is simply not supported by the emulator at this time. Always check the Options/Console for information.

I have an emulator MorphModule, now where can I find games?

There are several devices for sale that allow you to transfer your cartridge ROM games to a file on your computer. The most popular device for GameBoy games is called the GBXChanger. The files it generates typically have a .GB extension. You can either purchase a device to transfer the cartridge to a file, or you can do some digging on the net to see what you can turn up. You may not transfer or download commercial games that you do not own. Just as an Operating System on your desktop computer runs applications, emulation MorphModules for MorphGear are for running software that you have already purchased. You can also check the Games section of this site for public domain games.

How do I play games full screen?

You can only go full screen when a game is currently in progress. To toggle full screen mode, just tap the center of the screen on a PocketPC or double-click the center of the window on a desktop PC. When in full screen mode, you need to tap closer to the top to return.

Does MorphGear support a virtual game pad on the Pocket PC?

Yes, MorphGear supports a virtual game pad when playing in full screen mode. When using the virtual pad, you have the following choices. You can either use the eight directional controls on the virtual pad and hardware buttons on your device for A/B, OR you can use a hardware directional pad and the virtual A/B buttons. You can not use both directional controls and A/B on the virtual pad simultaneously. This is not a bug. It works like a mouse click, and there is no way to detect two simultaneous clicks.

Also, it is important to note that the current virtual game pads were designed for QVGA Pocket PCs. If you have a VGA device, you will need to resize the virtual pad image to twice the resolution before installing if you want it to display correctly.

Does MorphGear support sound?

Yes, all of the emulation MorphModules support sound, you just have to go to the options panel to enable it. You must enable it in both Global Settings and in the specific emulator you wish to hear sound in. Some modules also require that you check the Emulate option and restart your game.

Does MorphGear support screen rotation and landscape video modes?

Yes, with caveats. All screen access modes (DirectX, GAPI, RawFrameBuffer, GDI) support rotating the game screen by changing the Orientation setting on the Global Settings dialog in MorphGear. However, the toolbar (and taskbar) will remain in its portrait (North) orientation. The GDI driver (also selectable in that dialog) is the only video driver capable of handling WM 2003SE or higher OS screen rotation. If you have your Windows Mobile device configured to landscape orientation and want MorphGear to remain in that orientation and move the toolbar accordingly, you must change your MorphGear driver to GDI. On some devices, this may result in reduced performance. If using MorphGear's orientation setting, the on screen game pad is disabled. If using OS rotation, the game pad will be visible but drawn sideways, so it is recommend that you disable this feature while using OS landscape modes.

I thought MorphGear supports color, why is my game in black and white?

If the ROM file you're using supports color, you'll see color. Otherwise, you either have a black and white version of the game or your Pocket PC doesn't support color.

How can I increase performance?

There are several things that affect performance, so you'll have to tweak things to adjust what's right for you:
  • Screen Size - If you've turned on scaling/zoom so that the game image is larger, this will decrease performance. If you make the window as small as possible, things will run faster.
  • Frame Skip - The higher you raise this value, the more frames get dropped, and thus the faster the game may appear to go. The result is that things may look a little jerky and depending on how high you go and some sprites may disappear or flicker. When Auto Frame Sync mode is on, this acts as the potential number of frames to be dropped. If it doesn't need to drop any, it won't.
  • Image Smoothing - Turning on image smoothing improves visual quality when screen size is enlarged, but it slows down emulation.
  • Sound - Enabling sound slows down game speed significantly.
  • Running other programs - Obviously if you're running other programs on your device performance may suffer.
  • Processor speed - Some desktop systems and Pocket PC devices are faster than others.
  • Overclock your system - Do this AT YOUR OWN RISK!
The GameBoy Advance, Super NES, and SEGA Genesis MorphModules are very processor intensive. Many Pocket PCs are not capable of achieving full or sometimes even playable performance. Please test the evaluation version thoroughly to ensure compatibility and satisfaction.

I have a Viewsonic V37 with the PPC2003 upgrade and am experiencing button issues, why?

Viewsonic introduced a bug in their upgrade. Try the following for a possible workaround:

Start -> Settings -> Buttons -> Up/down control

Set "Delay before first repeat" to the far left (short) Set "Repeat rate" to the far right (fast)

I have an older iPAQ and it won't let me press more than one button at a time, why?

Some older devices and are incapable of registering multiple button presses. For example, in Super Mario, you can run OR jump, but you can't run AND jump. If you've played any Mario games, you'll quickly realize this makes the game unplayable.

Additionally, some direction pads only support 5-directions -- up, down, left, right and then ALL the diagonal directions map to the action button. For the pad to work well for game play, it needs to be 8-directional -- up, down, left, right, up/left, up/right, down/left, down/right.

The solution is to use the on screen virtual pad or to purchase a hardware solution.

I have a NEC 900c and am unable to access the About or Activation features of the application. It displays only a blank window. What is wrong?

MorphGear relies upon the web features of Internet Explorer and requires the appropriate DLL files and registry entries to control it using COM. This particular device does not ship with the appropriate DLL files. You need to acquire htmlviewer.dll and webviewer.dll for your device and add the appropriate registry entries using TRE.exe and the accompanying webviewer.reg file. Search a site like Google for more information, or try contacting Denis Doucet who has successfully performed the procedure.

Can GameBoy Advance (VGBA) save states be transferred to other emulators or hardware?

There are two kinds of saves in VGBA (on which the MorphGear GBA module is based):
  1. State saves (.STA files). These are native to VGBA and may even change between different VGBA versions. You can't transfer them to other emulators.
  2. SRAM/EEPROM saves (.SAV files). These are basically copies of whatever has been written into cartridge SRAM, FlashROM, or serial EEPROM. You can easily transfer them to the real GBA (with a flash cartridge that has memory for them) or to other emulators. I suppose you may need some conversion program for that, but as far as VGBA is concerned, these are just saved as plain data files, no headers, encryption, or anything else.