{BThe games for the Gameboy that can be bought on cartridges cannot be played on Goby (there
s nowhere to plug them in).
Instead, Goby can load files known as
ROM images
, which are exact duplicates of the information on a cartridge. These can be downloaded from the Internet from various web sites.
To load such a ROM image simply press the
button on the toolbar, or press Ctrl+O on the keyboard and select the ROM image from the open file dialog that appears.
In any EPOC machine with ER5 or later, the Gameboy ROM images will appear as Goby icons in the System and you can simply double-tap on the file to load it into Goby.
EIn version 1.2:
This new version has been released especially for the adoption of Goby by Palm-Tec from BacklitGames. Several features that were under development were not fully tested in time and so are not available in this version.
Removal of frameskip
simpler to use adjustment of the speed.
Invert colours has gone
this feature has been removed as it was little use.
GobyKey
in keeping with Palm-Tec
s other products this easier to use/remember copy protection has been implemented. Previous registered users will be sent their new code soon.
Several bug fixes
largely unnoticable but there are improvements.
In version 1.1:
Save state
save your place in any game at any time.
Auto start
the previous game you were playing loads when you next start Goby.
Auto continue
the previous game continues from the exact position it was at when you exit previously (registered users only).
File recognisers
double tap on a Gameboy ROM file in the system to load it (ER5 only).
Auto frameskip
let Goby adjust the frameskip for the current game to get the optimum speed.
Revo display mode
take advantage of the full height of the Revo display.
Border
make your own or use the default border.
Various and numerous bug fixes and small improvements, notably tapping the magnify buttons to change the display size.
Note: There is very little change to the emulation in this version; any software that didn
t work with the previous version is not likely to work this one.
sATo find games to play on Goby you can search for them on the Internet. See the Games section on the PalmTec site which tells you how to find ROM images.
Please note, PalmTec does not support or condone the use of illegal pirated software. There are plenty of quality free games and demos that have been developed for the Gameboy that we
ll do our best to help you find.
DThe Gameboy buttons are activated by pressing the keys on the keyboard:
Left
cursor left
Right
cursor right
cursor up
Down
cursor down
Button B - Z
Button A - X
Select - Space
Start - Enter
The emulation can be paused and unpaused by pressing Ctrl+P or by tapping the
Pause
button on the toolbar.
Due to what we believe is a limitation of Psion
s hardware, if two keys are held down when a third is pressed, the third key does not register. This can affect the play of some games.
There is also a joypad layout with diagonals (which can be selected from the preferences dialog). This is a simple way round the 3 key press limitation for most cases, the direction button key layout then becomes:
Left - . (full stop)
Right
Right shift
cursor up
Down
cursor down
Up & Left - L
Up & Right
(apostrophe)
Down & Left
cursor left
Down & Right
cursor right
Other buttons are unchanged.
Possible improvements are being considered for future versions, such as redefinable keys.
mEThe unregistered version of Goby will only play a game for 5 minutes before it freezes. You then have to either reset the Gameboy or load a different game. Also, note that the unregistered version will only save games but not reload them. As a result, although the previously played game will load automatically next time you start Goby, it won
t automatically continue from the same place in game play. Loading of saved games is only available to registered users.
What you get if you register:
No limit on the time playing a game.
The ability to load saved games and auto continue.
Free updates to the latest version.
To register you should visit the PalmTec website where you can pay
14.99 by credit card in a secure area or find details on how to order offline. You need to submit your GobyKey which is unique to your Psion and can be found in the Register dialog (off the Tools menu) in Goby. Then, via email, you will receive a registration code which is unique to you and unlocks Goby.
If you decide to sell your Psion or sell your copy of Goby, we would appreciate it if you would unregister it to prevent the next owner using it in your name without registering. You will be able to obtain a registration code for your new Psion by contacting us. You can do this by selecting
Unregister
from the
Tools
menu. If you haven
t yet registered this option is not available.
.DThe graphics can be viewed at several different sizes. You can swap through these by tapping the magnify buttons to the left of your Psion
s screen. To select one in particular, choose the
View preferences
option from the
Tools
menu and on the
Graphics
tag you can adjust the size to one of the following:
Single
Exact resolution of the Gameboy. As the EPOC screen is higher definition than the Gameboy, this appears quite small, however Goby runs fastest in this display mode. It is the recommended mode for running Goby on a Psion Revo.
Revo
Designed specifically for the Revo, this 160x160 size display takes up the full height of the Revo screen.
Double
Double the screen size of the Gameboy. Recommended for Series7 or netBook owners with larger displays though will be quite slow. Unfortunately, this size doesn
t fit onto the smaller Series 5/5mx screen.
240 high
Being 5/6 the height and double the width of the Gameboy graphics, this size has been specially developed to fit nicely onto the Series5/5mx screen and is recommended for those users.
CGoby can have a border displayed round the edge of the screen area. This border is taken from an MBM graphic file, also known as an EPOC picture file. You can select your own MBM graphics file to be displayed by choosing
Open Border
from the
menu.
You can create your own MBM files in the
Sketch
program that comes with your Psion. In Sketch you can choose
Export
from the
section off the
menu.
The default border that comes with Goby is located on the drive which you install goby on at
\System\Apps\Goby\border.mbm
you should not alter this file in any way but can always select it again if you
ve changed the border.
The border display can be turned on and off from the preferences window but if you open a new border it is automatically displayed.
4BEmulation of any computer system is very complex and requires a lot of processing power. For this reason, Goby does not run all games at full speed but you can improve it:
Decrease the resolution
the single size display runs faster than the larger ones, as no magnification is needed.
Change the speed
use the faster or slower buttons on the toolbar to adjust the speed. Alternatively select
Auto-adjust Speed
from the preferences dialog which attempts to optimise the emulation. For the emulationally experienced, changing the speed adjusts the frameskip.
DEither press Ctrl+K or select
View preferences
from the
Tools
menu to display the preferences dialog. The preferences dialog is split into three tags one for each group of options. Here are a description of the available options:
Graphics
Size
see the
Display size
section for details.
Display FPS
Display the number of frames per second for a measurement of the speed of the emulation.
Auto-adjust Speed
Goby will try and make the emulation fast/slow enough for your Psion.
Joypad
Layout
Changes the layout of keys which are mapped to the Gameboy button
s. See the
controls
section for details.
Reverse vertical
Swaps the up and down buttons which can be useful for some games, e.g. flying sims.
Show Pause banner
shows a banner on top of the display when paused, you might like to disable this if taking screenshots.
Confirm Exit
to prevent accidentally exiting mid-game Goby asks you if you are sure you want to exit. Note, if you install a piece of software Goby exits automatically as specified by Symbian.
Show border
displays the currently selected border bitmap or if that file cannot be found then it displays the default border.
mBYou can save exactly where you are in any game by saving the state of the game. To save, select
Save as
from the
menu and choose a filename to save the current state to. Next time you want to continue from that position, first load the game you were playing and then load the saved state using
Open state
from the
menu.
If you are playing a game and exit Goby, when you restart (as long as you haven
t moved the gameboy ROM file) the game will continue from where you left off.
Saving the state of the Gameboy is preferable to using Battery saved games as you can save whenever you like.
FCSome games on the Gameboy could save the game onto battery-backed memory inside the cartridge. Goby will only provide loading and saving for such games as would happen on a real Gameboy.
You should follow the instructions provided with the game about how to save/load, Goby then emulates this feature and saves the memory to a file called gamename.sav. The battery-backed RAM is then automatically reloaded when you start the game again.
This gamename.sav file can then be used on your PC with any good Gameboy emulator. Follow the documentation provided with your Gameboy emulator for the PC to work out where you should put the .sav file in order for it to load correctly.
There appears to be some slight incompatabilities between Goby and other emulators with some games. This is being looked into and I hope to find a solution soon.
BGoby has been tested on a Psion Series 5mx, Psion Series 5 and netBook, though we expect it to run on all machines using EPOC, including; MC218, Revo, Osaris, GeoFox, Series 7.
Unfortunately due to the heavy-duty processor requirements of Goby it is only recommended for use with machines with 36MHz processor or greater. This should include Psion 5mx, MC218, Revo, netBook and Series 7. You can check the speed of your processor from the system by pressing Shift+Ctrl+Q and looking at the
Hardware
tag of the dialog that opens.
CNo emulator ever is as good as the original system it is emulating, though many have valuable redeeming features - this is no less true of Goby.
Many games do not run at full speed. Fortunately, things can be done to improve this (see
Increasing the speed
) and we are working hard on getting Goby up to full speed for all games in the near future.
Due to imperfect emulation of the hardware, Goby does not currently run all the Gameboy software in existence. This will improve with continued development.
There is currently no sound emulation in Goby. Unfortunately, emulation of the Gameboy
s complex sound generation would slow down the emulation as well as delay development of other, more essential features.
Emulation of the Colour Gameboy is not currently supported. Software for the Colour Gameboy will only run on Goby if it would run on an original Gameboy.
Goby is in continual development and new versions are free to all registered users.
iDThere are a few minor glitches still in Goby. Although most people will not notice these glitches in everyday use, the idealistic approach would be to fix these issues and release this new version of Goby at a later date. Realistically, in response to our many user
s requests for the features that do work 100% ok, we
ve decided to release Goby with these glitches.
Multiple sessions
if Goby is already running and you tap Goby on the extras bar or double-tap on a Gameboy file, rather than bringing up the currently running session of Goby an extra session of Goby is started. When you close down these sessions, it is the last session you close whose state is saved.
Loading unrelated files
if Goby is running and a file is double-tapped which is not a Gameboy ROM image and is not associated with any other program (an MBM file for example,) then Goby is brought to the foreground.
As you can see, these glitches are minor problems and do not cause any harm to your Psion. If you discover any other problems with Goby then please email us to let us know. These glitches will hopefully be tidied up for the next version.
@Palm-Tec, best known for its award winning range of PDA hard cases, now produces some of the most acclaimed software applications on the market along with a selection of leading edge hardware solutions. The company is branching out, through its sister company Scribble (www.scribble.uk.com) into software and hardware for pen-based PDAs such as the Palm Computing range while continuing to release innovative new products for the EPOC platform.
The company began trading in 1997 with the introduction of the Palm-Tec Original hard case for the Psion S3 and S5 machines. This was the first hard case available for the Psion and was designed, quite simply, to offer the best possible protection to your PDA.
As well as the amazing Goby Gameboy emulator Palm-Tec also make the following
Have a look at these other software titles, for EPOC, from Palm-Tec:
BusyView - Extend the inbuilt agenda application with this powerful agenda manager.
Defender - Fast and Furious game play
in this handheld classic.
NoMan
sLand - Command heavy armour. Conquer the enemy. Control resources and fight to victory in this multi-campaign, real-time strategic battle simulation.
TomeRaider: Read encyclopaedias, guides and novels from your handheld.
TechBank: Control every aspect of your financial situation with this awardQ
winning personal accounts suite.
Visit the Palm-Tec website at www.palmtec.com
*GPlease note that cartridge-based Gameboy games cannot be played on Goby (there's nowhere to plug them in).
However, Goby is a fully functioning Gameboy emulator and it is consequently possible to use it to run illegally obtained 'cracked' versions of Gameboy 'ROM's. THIS ACTIVITY CONTRAVENES COPYRIGHT LAW AND IS ILLEGAL.
PalmTec Ltd. strictly opposes the use of Goby to play these illegally downloaded Gameboy ROMS and it is a condition of purchase or use of Goby that you do not use it to run any software which has been obtained illegally. Breaking copyright law is theft.
I have read and understood these conditions.
I accept them in full and I will not use Goby to run unauthorised software on my EPOC device.
This program is protected by copyright law and international treaties. Unauthorized distribution or reproduction of this program, or any part of it, may result in civil and criminal penalties.
This program is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. In no event will the author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software, including incidental or consequential damages, arising from the use or inability to use the program (including but not limited to loss of data, damage to data, or failure of the program to interoperate with other programs), even if such holder or other party has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
Gameboy is a registered trademark of Nintendo of America Inc.
EPOC is a registered trademark of Symbian Ltd.
Psion is a registered trademark of Psion PLC.
All trademarks are acknowledged.
PalmTec and Goby are in no way affiliated with Symbian, Psion or Nintendo of America.
About Palm-TecR
Goby!
Contact PalmTecR
Palm-Tec Ltd
64 Lansdown Place
East Sussex
BN3 1FL
Web: www.palmtec.com
Email: sales@palmtec.com
Tel: +44(0)1273 722246
Fax: +44(0)1273 771843
Goby!
AcknowledgementsR
Goby!
$Goby
The Gameboy emulator for EPOCR
An emulator is a piece of software that can run programs designed for one computer on another. Goby allows games written for Nintendo
s Gameboy to be played on any palmtop computer that uses Symbian
s EPOC Operating System.
Goby!
Getting startedR
Goby!
s new?R
Goby!
Getting some gamesR
Goby!
ControlsR
Goby!
RegistrationR
Goby!
Display sizeR
Goby!
BorderR
Goby!
Adjusting the speedR
Goby!
PreferencesR
Goby!
ScreenshotsR
If you want to save a screenshot of the Gameboy display, you can use the built in screenshot facility of EPOC by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Fn+S.