Palm OS Developer Releases Source To Classic Games, 20+ Years After Release

Munich-based developer Aaron Ardiri is Slashdot reader #245,358, with a profile that still identifies him as a Palm OS developer. Which surprised me, because Palm OS's last update was in 2007. (Then again, ardiri's Slashdot profile also still includes his screen name on AOL Instant Messenger.)

So, a long-time Slashdot reader. And this week he stopped by to share a little history — in more ways than one. ardiri writes: Before the iOS and Android entered the scene — heck, even before the smartphone concept — was the handheld personal digital assistant, with the likes of Newton, Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Symbian.

Palm OS had a thriving gaming scene; with the likes of emulators and implementations/clones of classics such as LodeRunner, Lemmings, and the classic Game and Watch.
But the real news of ardiri's original submission is hidden in its headline. "Palm OS developer releases source to classic games, 20+ years after release." Written mainly in C and optimizations in assembler — maybe these games will make their way to the various Arduino like micro-controllers out there; designed for low memory, low processing power environments they would port perfectly.

I'd like to see more of this

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

A lot of fascinating software is getting lost to history. I don't have the time or spoons but have daydreamed about finding the corpses of former companies and buying their source code to put in the public domain.

Re: I'd like to see more of this

[yeshuawatso]

You'd need to find the source code of their libraries as well. Looking through the code, it heavily relies on device/os specific libraries like VgaGetScreenMode which I can only find pointing to other PalmOS software made by Handera (which still exists somehow). Converting this to anything useful for other embedded devices would be easier to rewrite from scratch. Some of the frequency conversion stuff for the audio might be useful, but otherwise this might be best suited for emulating the PalmOS and hardwar

Re:

[retiredJan]

A "good" look at the source code kan give you a good idea of what is going on or at least what the autor is trying to do.
And that's all what is needed to make a functional copy of it.

Re:

[shanen]

The Palm OS app that I remember most fondly was actually a password manager with syncing. I also miss the rapid input with the stylus, though voice dictation has finally reached the point of being a surpassing replacement.

However I never forgave Sony for orphaning my Clio... Which reminds me of the CSB idea again as a way to keep such devices alive. I would not be surprised if there were enough of us to do it, even at this late date. But no profits, so no can do.

But would I like to see more of this? Not so

Re:

[ardiri]

You'd need to find the source code of their libraries as well. Looking through the code, it heavily relies on device/os specific libraries like VgaGetScreenMode which I can only find pointing to other PalmOS software made by Handera (which still exists somehow). Converting this to anything useful for other embedded devices would be easier to rewrite from scratch. Some of the frequency conversion stuff for the audio might be useful, but otherwise this might be best suited for emulating the PalmOS and hardware more than trying to convert it to Arduino/ARM/RISC platforms.

most of the PalmOS libraries are pretty well abstracted.. heck; most of the graphics routined i actually rewrote for the VTech Helio - which is the vtos-gfx/ repository which pretty much uses a pointer to the display which is effectively a framebuffer graphics approach. it would be super easy to port. soon i will release SHARK; our cross platform engine that we built just after the palm os stuff - and that has been ported to iOS, android and a slew of other platforms.

Re:

[backslashdot]

Sounds like a job for a non-profit foundation, many people can contribute.

Now THIS is News for Nerds

[greytree]

Thank you for this story.

Now stop with the NFT-hyping and fix the gross errors in the stories when they are clearly pointed out to you.

woops - better update my profile :)

[ardiri]

i'm now bouncing back and forth between Stockholm (Sweden) and Margaret River (Australia) and my main focus these days is security within the internet of things space :P i plan to release more source code; this is only the tip of the ice berg - yes, there are dependencies on operating system level libraries (Palm, Sony, Handera); but - these are all part of their SDK's, which i do not have permission to release. you'll find our code is pretty well documented (rare).. haha.. i just didn't want this stuff to be lost over time, felt it was better archived for the world somewhere.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[Catvid-22]

You seem to have binaries in your repo. Is that correct? Do you know of any emulator that can run these?

Re:

[ardiri]

You seem to have binaries in your repo. Is that correct? Do you know of any emulator that can run these?

binaries are there for people who still have devices that work! (notice - i even posted full registered (unlocked) binaries so no registration system).
as for emulators? we always had POSE and the PalmSim that was part of the SDK's.. there is also this:

https://cloudpilot-emu.github.... [github.io]

Re:

[Catvid-22]

You seem to have binaries in your repo. Is that correct? Do you know of any emulator that can run these?

binaries are there for people who still have devices that work! (notice - i even posted full registered (unlocked) binaries so no registration system). as for emulators? we always had POSE and the PalmSim that was part of the SDK's.. there is also this:

https://cloudpilot-emu.github.... [github.io]

Thanks! POSE appears to be Windows only, at least in binary form. So I guess it's cloud pilot for me.

Re: woops - better update my profile :)

[yeshuawatso]

Considering all the low-level work on these devices to get them performing well, it makes sense that you'd be in the IOT space. Replacing all the external calls to the SDK for something that could be abstracted and spec'd would be beneficial to generating cross-platform libraries that could be interfaced (this is how Google clean-roomed Android compatibility with Java). I just couldn't find anything on the original calls' documentation wise to see what the inputs and expected outputs would be in the 30sec g

Re: woops - better update my profile :)

[ardiri]

check my blog...

www.ardiri.com/blog/

I plan to do a new release soon, after palmos - I build a cross platform development library, just like you mentioned called SHARK - a precursor to other dev kits like unity, marmalade and heck, even SDL!? I ported it to over 14 platforms.. even the Sony PSP ;)

I currently focus on IoT - specifically security.

www.riotsecure.se

Re: woops - better update my profile :)

[yeshuawatso]

Ha! I have been to your blog before back when I was first getting started with Expressif and Arduino. Looking forward to SHARK!

Re:

[antdude]

Thank you! :D

that brings back memories

[roc97007]

I was an early adopter of the Pilot, and discovered early on that games on the Pilot would keep my very restless kindergarten-aged daughter occupied in restaurants while we waited for food. Her favorite game as I recall was depth charge. Years later, she asked that I bring my Pilot out of storage so she could play that game again. I ended up gifting it to her, and it still sits on her knick knack shelf.

I'd very much like to see some of these games return. I guess Tricorder isn't possible, due to licensi

Re:

[ledow]

My mum destroyed dozens of Palms playing games.

Started on the Pilots and ended up on the... TX ? I can't remember.

She still has one but every one she's every owned has huge scores in the touchscreen etc. from where she's played it so much. The TX she currently has has a grid engraved on the screen from playing so much Bookworm (which is the same game on Palm as on the PC version) with the stylus.

I still use one

[tlhIngan]

I still use my Palm, though I've had to replace it a few times since.

I had a Tungsten C that that up and died one day, updated to the flagship Tungsten X which was probably the last unit ever made or so without funky hard drives or such. That one went through probably 5 or 6 LCD screens before it too just up and died. I did luckily buy a refurb unit from the same place I got the LCD screens, but that company is gone, or transitioned to iPhone parts or something like that. That unit died in 2018 and I got a

Still looking for more OS/2 Source Code

[martiniturbide]

I still want to find someone at IBM with the authority and will to open source OS/2 Warp. I have been collecting OS/2 source code for years now [github.com], but I still need CPI, SOM, Presentation Manager and Workplace Shell.