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MicroEmulator

Emulation software

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

MicroEmulator (also MicroEMU), is a free and open-source platform independent J2ME emulator allowing to run MIDlets (applications and games) on any device with compatible JVM. It is written in pure Java as an implementation of J2ME in J2SE.

01History

In November 2001, MicroEmulator project was created on SourceForge.

On 31 March 2006, MicroEmulator version 1.0 was released.

In November 2009, project moved to code.google.com, and after Google closed it, development moved to GitHub.

On 10 January 2010, the last stable version 2.0.4 was released.

On 24 May 2013, the last preview version 3.0.0-SNAPSHOT.112 was released.

After 2014, MicroEMU technology was acquired by All My Web Needs company and all the MicroEmulator's docs and binary builds were removed from the official site.

All sources and binary previously released on SourceForge, Google Code and GitHub preserved as open-source, but development stalled since then.

Wikipedia website in Opera Mini 8 browser running in MicroEmulator with full-screen Eee PC device skin
Wikipedia website in Opera Mini 8 browser running in MicroEmulator with full-screen Eee PC device skin

02Ports and forks

Android

MicroEmulator has official support for the Android platform. It is also possible to convert J2ME MIDlet JAR-packages into standalone APK files.

J2ME Loader, is an enhanced fork of MicroEmulator for Android.

JL-Mod, is an enhaced fork of J2ME Loader with the Mascot Capsule 3D API support.

iOS

Microemulator on iPhone crosscompiled with XMLVM
Working: List, Alert and TextBox
Video by AtoroGM on YouTube

MicroEmulator has been ported to iOS, but it requires to use iOS jailbreaking technique to install it on iPhone or other iOS device.

Mac OS

MicroEmulator officially supports Mac OS, but there is also package in MacPorts repository.

03Usage

MicroEmulator as Opera Mini sandbox

  • Web applet with Opera Mini MIDlet running inside MicroEmulator has been placed on Opera official website.
  • MicroEmulator used together with Opera Mini MIDlet to browse Internet via metered networks and slow mobile GPRS connection on netbooks (such as Asus Eee PC), low-end PCs and other mobile devices.
  • In some countries mobile network operators provided free traffic or very lowcost plan with unlimited traffic for Opera Mini and some social networks and services via its J2ME clients (like Facebook, Yandex Maps, etc.). Use of MicroEmulator together with Opera Mini or other app with free traffic plan allowed to browse Internet fully free on PC (with USB modem attached) at home or on netbook on the go.

MicroEmulator as J2ME SDK

  • MicroEmulator, together with few MIDlets for programming directly on phone (J2ME SDK Mobile, Mobile BASIC, MIDletPascal, etc.), could be used as a fully complete J2ME SDK: it is possible to write MIDlet source code, compile and preverify Java class files, package all files and resources of MIDlet project into JAR with JAD, and then run built MIDlet for test and debug without even leaving MicroEmulator window. The only external dependency is a JVM installed on PC or device to run Microemulator itself.
  • MicroEmulator could be used as alternative to Sun's and Oracle's JavaME emulators for various desktop Java IDE's. For Eclipse, there was initially an open source bridge plugin known as EclipseME, but Eclipse 1.7 and onward got its own bridge plugin.
  • MicroEmulator available as org.microemu plugin for Apache Maven build automation tool.

04Publications

05Video

Watch videos about MicroEmulatorExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article MicroEmulator, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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