PPC / WM2005 Programming tutorials?

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Original post by cdxrd Hi all, I have managed to put together several games using c++ and allegro for my desktop, but my real interest lies in programming games and software for the pocket pc. Are there any good, basic tutorials out there? It seems like whatever searcg terms I use, I'm just not finding what I need.

There are many tutorials in MSDN. They cover everything from writing your first "hello world" to the "dancing zombies" sample, to the small soccer/pinball game, finally building up to a few fairly comprehensive business and game apps.

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Also, I understand that for the testing its done on the pc in a virtual ppc and using a rom image. Where do I obtain these? Can I get an image off of my current wm05 ppc?

Testing is generally done on one or more real devices. Although the emulator generally works the same as real hardware, there are major performance differences and many user experience differences between the two.

You can freely obtain the emulator images from MSDN and Microsoft downloads, and as part of the free SDK.

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Edit: I have found sites and a few resources on libraries such as hekkus and pocketHal.. but still, while these are good to know, how exactly do I go about getting started? (without spending $50-$100 that I don't have on a book).

The Hekkus Sound System is mostly free. If you don't pay, you must tell him how you are using it and thank him. It's a really generous license for those people who are unable or unwilling to fork over a few bucks.

As far as getting started without a book, if you are already comfortable with the language you intend to use, you do not need a book dedicated to the Pocket PC. If you are not comfortable with the language you should start on the desktop and wait until you are comfortable. All the SDK documentation you need is available through MSDN. Tons of additional information and many years of discussion is available in the Microsoft forums (use Google's newsgroup search).

And of course, you can ask some specific questions on here.

Thanks for the reply. Was hoping I could use the express versions, but from the looks of it I need the full VS 2005. =(

If you can't afford VS2005 you could always develop for WM2003 using the older dev tool embedded visual c++ 4.0 which is free(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1DACDB3D-50D1-41B2-A107-FA75AE960856&displaylang=en). The executables will be compatible with WM5.0

dave

Thnx for the link, I'll have to check it out! =)