You can now emulate the Gizmondo on Android, Windows, and Linux

Developer PocketHLE has released an update to their open-source Pocket PC emulator, adding direct support for the Gizmondo across Android, Windows, and Linux. The developer first teased the addition on August 15, and the official cross-platform release went live on August 22.

The Gizmondo is one of the most notorious hardware failures of the 2000s. Tiger Telematics launched the handheld in March 2005 in the UK and October 2005 in North America, positioning it against the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. It ran on Windows CE, used an NVIDIA GoForce 4500 graphics accelerator, and included GPS tracking. The company spent hundreds of millions on extravagant marketing, including a launch party at the Park Lane Hotel in London, before collapsing in 2006. The system sold fewer than 25,000 units worldwide.

Sharing a Windows CE foundation

Emulating the Gizmondo has historically been difficult. Past standalone projects like giz-emu and experimental high-level emulation wrappers saw limited feature completion. They were rarely updated and left the handheld mostly inaccessible on modern hardware.

PocketHLE bypasses some of those hurdles by focusing on the operating system. The project initially started as an experimental emulator for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile software. Because both Pocket PC environments and the Gizmondo operate over shared Windows CE foundations, the developer was able to integrate native compatibility for the handheld's software. This update makes PocketHLE the first functional Android-compatible Gizmondo emulation solution.

14 games worldwide

The hardware architecture was niche, but the commercial game library was even smaller. Only 14 games were released for the Gizmondo in total worldwide (across Europe and North America), with only 8 of those games officially released in North America. Tiger Telematics tried to offset the high hardware cost with 'Smart Adds', an ad-supported pricing tier that pushed commercials to the device over GPRS.

That tiny lineup includes titles like Sticky Balls, Trailblazer, Colors, and Richard Burns Rally. I'm genuinely surprised anyone put this much effort into preserving a console with a library you can count on two hands. Most of these games were completely forgotten after Tiger Telematics filed for bankruptcy in February 2006 amid massive financial scandals involving executives Carl Freer and Stefan Eriksson. The story famously peaked when Eriksson crashed a rare Ferrari Enzo on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Free and open source

The emulator is free to download for Android, Windows, and Linux. Users will need to provide their own software backups to test the compatibility. The developer announced the release on Reddit r/emulation, noting that the project is still actively being refined, so some titles might boot better than others.

Supporting a defunct platform with such a limited retail footprint is a massive undertaking. PocketHLE gives those 14 games a way to survive without relying on aging, battery-swollen original hardware. The Android support is a natural fit, letting you play these early mobile-adjacent titles on a modern phone screen.