Own Custom Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) Games Collection

[Skobeloff_05]

Hey everyone! Apologies if this isn't the correct section of the forum to post this.

But I just wanted to share my very own Java mobile games collection that I've painstakingly built. This platform is very nostalgic to me so I took quite a bit of time to organize everything. 

All of this was possible thanks to the new FreeJ2me core by "AShiningRay" for RetroArch which is able to run these games and allows easy integration with LB. Though, there are a few bugs such as the emulator not closing even after quitting, it's nothing a little AutoHotkeyScript can't fix!

 

Since LB doesn't support the Java J2ME platform natively, all the logos, banners, descriptions are custom made. 

I've attached a zip with all the custom made media to help any future adventurers in the J2ME platform.

 

Let me know your thoughts on this!

 

 

J2ME Platform Images.zip

[AstroBob]

Hey, thanks for sharing this little piece of history, it looks great and thanks for sharing the media used.

We're currently looking for new platforms to add to the LaunchBox games database. I don't know too much about this one myself, but we'd certainly appreciate it if you could review the criteria and see if it might be a good contender to add.

 

[Skobeloff_05]

Thank you very much @AstroBob !

Yes, including it to the platforms would be a very valuable addition.

I'll be sure to write a detailed description on the post you mentioned.

[AstroBob]

No worries, thanks so much for that stellar description and detail over on the other thread. We really appreciate that and is exactly what we're looking for to help us add these platforms.

Make sure to follow that thread to stay up to date when we make additions. We're planning to have some new ones lined up early in the new year.

Cheers,

[Fabio2598]

On 12/27/2024 at 1:50 PM, Skobeloff_05 said:

Hey everyone! Apologies if this isn't the correct section of the forum to post this.

But I just wanted to share my very own Java mobile games collection that I've painstakingly built. This platform is very nostalgic to me so I took quite a bit of time to organize everything. 

All of this was possible thanks to the new FreeJ2me core by "AShiningRay" for RetroArch which is able to run these games and allows easy integration with LB. Though, there are a few bugs such as the emulator not closing even after quitting, it's nothing a little AutoHotkeyScript can't fix!

 

Since LB doesn't support the Java J2ME platform natively, all the logos, banners, descriptions are custom made. 

I've attached a zip with all the custom made media to help any future adventurers in the J2ME platform.

 

Let me know your thoughts on this!

 

 

J2ME Platform Images.zip 959.5 kB ·  3 downloads

Any chance you could share the files needed to run the core on RetroArch? (By PM if not allowed on the thread )

I can't seem to get it to run on RA (all I get is an error saying it can't access the jar file) and the emulator I'm using (KEmulator Mod) is not the most reliable when it comes to saving settings and that sort of thing

[Skobeloff_05]

1 hour ago, Fabio2598 said:

Any chance you could share the files needed to run the core on RetroArch? (By PM if not allowed on the thread )

I can't seem to get it to run on RA (all I get is an error saying it can't access the jar file) and the emulator I'm using (KEmulator Mod) is not the most reliable when it comes to saving settings and that sort of thing

Of course!

Grab the Latest builds of FreeJ2ME from GitHub:

https://github.com/TASEmulators/freej2me-plus

Direct links:

Java: https://nightly.link/TASEmulators/freej2me-plus/workflows/ant/devel

Libretro cores: https://nightly.link/TASEmulators/freej2me-plus/workflows/libretro/devel

 

Install the latest version of Java (current is Java 8 Update 431, I think).

Copy the “freej2me_libretro.dll” to the “cores” folder and “freej2me-lr.jar” to the “system” folder. Then load the game “jar” files from RA “Load Content” or via LaunchBox and the games should run. 

 

There's a bug tho. The emulator will keep running in the background even after quitting RA. So I wrote an AutoHotkey script that runs after the emulator quits as an additional app in LaunchBox to close it. I'll share more details about this script later when I get home.

 

[Skobeloff_05]

Here's the details about the AutoHotkey script:

First you need to download and install the AutoHotkey software. Then create a ".ahk" file and write the following code:

#Persistent
SetTimer, CheckProcesses, 1000  ; Check every second (adjust as needed)

CheckProcesses:
Process, Exist, retroarch.exe
If ErrorLevel = 0  ; retroarch.exe is not running
{
    Sleep, 2000  ; Wait for 2 seconds (2000 milliseconds)
    Process, Close, javaw.exe
    ExitApp  ; Exit the script since there's no need to check further
}
Return

Add this script as an Additional App and make it run after the main application as shown in the image attached. You'll need to do this manually for all games individually, which is a bit tiresome.

It's kind of an hacky way to force close the running Java application without needing to go to the Task Manager every time. Hopefully, the devs of the emulator will the fix the issue soon. 

One thing to keep in mind is that, it may close any other running Java apps that you might be running besides the emulator.

 

Let me know your thoughts on this!

[Fabio2598]

1 hour ago, Skobeloff_05 said:

Here's the details about the AutoHotkey script:

First you need to download and install the AutoHotkey software. Then create a ".ahk" file and write the following code:

#Persistent
SetTimer, CheckProcesses, 1000  ; Check every second (adjust as needed)

CheckProcesses:
Process, Exist, retroarch.exe
If ErrorLevel = 0  ; retroarch.exe is not running
{
    Sleep, 2000  ; Wait for 2 seconds (2000 milliseconds)
    Process, Close, javaw.exe
    ExitApp  ; Exit the script since there's no need to check further
}
Return

Add this script as an Additional App and make it run after the main application as shown in the image attached. You'll need to do this manually for all games individually, which is a bit tiresome.

It's kind of an hacky way to force close the running Java application without needing to go to the Task Manager every time. Hopefully, the devs of the emulator will the fix the issue soon. 

One thing to keep in mind is that, it may close any other running Java apps that you might be running besides the emulator.

 

Let me know your thoughts on this!

Would your script work if you added it as an exit script for Retroarch? (Since RetroArch doesn't need a dedicated exit script)

 

I've been using:

Process, Close, javaw.exe

But it's quite simple so it doesn't seem to work everytime (although there's a chance I left RA through the ingame menu rather than the exit key combination cause I was setting things up, hence why it didn't work flawlessly)

[Skobeloff_05]

4 minutes ago, Fabio2598 said:

Would your script work if you added it as an exit script for Retroarch? (Since RetroArch doesn't need a dedicated exit script)

 

I've been using:

Process, Close, javaw.exe

But it's quite simple so it doesn't seem to work everytime (although there's a chance I left RA through the ingame menu rather than the exit key combination cause I was setting things up, hence why it didn't work flawlessly)

Yes, that was also my first thought! I tried the exit script as well.

But it only works with the specific LunchBox exit key or Pause Menu exit. And unfortunately, it doesn't work every time.

 

Since I usually Quit from RetroArch menu, the Additional Apps method is what I found to be the best solution at the moment. 

[Fabio2598]

6 minutes ago, Skobeloff_05 said:

Yes, that was also my first thought! I tried the exit script as well.

But it only works with the specific LunchBox exit key or Pause Menu exit. And unfortunately, it doesn't work every time.

 

Since I usually Quit from RetroArch menu, the Additional Apps method is what I found to be the best solution at the moment. 

That makes sense, I'm gonna try your script as a running script to see if it works since it detects if RA is running or not, if it doesn't work I'll go the additional app route cause it seems more reliable than the exit script, it's a good thing you found the bug because honestly by the time I realised I had like 5 javaw.exe running in the background lol. I have to say playing Java games in RA is so much better than KEmulator Mod, now I can actually run games in different resolutions and at fullscreen without having to use 3rd party software (with bezels soon enough, after I whip something up. Happy to share those if you want them )