Prerequisite

Required files

File:  j2me_utilities.iso
Size:  18,069,504 bytes
MD5:   4409B5A4A08DF64BB77B784C6BD27404
SHA-1: 275291182489BCCCFE500C609ACDAEBA71E5CF58

• jre-setup.xml - Multi-disk bundle file that will be used as a game image
• jre-setup.conf - DOSBox-X configuration file for the machine we're running
• jre-setup.bk2 - Installation movie that we'll be replaying

Guide

1. Put jre-setup.xml, jre-setup.conf, and w98.hdd in the same folder.
2. Drag jre-setup.xml onto the BizHawk window and wait for it to load the hard drive file (will take a few seconds)
3. Drag jre-setup.bk2 onto the BizHawk window and let it play until the end of the movie
   • To not let the emulated system run for unnecessary extra time, make sure the BizHawk option to pause on movie end is selected: File -> Movie -> On Movie End -> Pause
4. On the last frame of the movie go to DOS -> Export Hard Disk Drive and save it to a file called jre.hdd. It should have the following hashes:

MD5:   35643B843309FDCD867D0FEEEF9B337F
SHA-1: 069D647235209EC8155F52BE143B8954099D7F1B

• Installs InstMsiA.exe, needed in order to install the Java Runtime Environment
• Installs Java Runtime Environment 6 Update 7, latest one that works on Windows 98
• Sets screen resolution to 640x480, to fix overwhelming majority of J2ME games at native resolution

Recommendations

• When making the TAS, use a numbered release of freej2me-plus and pack it into an ISO file together with your game.
• During the main movie copy both files to your emulated Desktop (freej2me-plus has to be in a writable folder in order to work, so running it directly from the CD won't work) and launch freej2me-plus by double-clicking its .jar file and select your game from the File menu.
  • If you want to pass arguments to freej2me-plus upon launching it, you can create a batch file with that command and launch it from the Desktop instead of the emulator's .jar file.
• freej2me-plus defaults the framerate limit of 60 frames per second, and overwhelming majority of games won't need to overcome it. If you remove the cap, make sure to do so appropriately and within reason, and to explain that reason when presenting your movie. Removing it inappropriately is likely to make the games run the unintended way, for example by changing the game's physics visibly or subtly. If a game is known to run at lower framerate on a standard phone it came installed on, it's a good idea to use that framerate cap.
• Default .conf file that was use for JRE installation can be reused to TAS your game, but be aware of the cycles variable inside it. Increasing that value can make the game run more consistently but may make BizHawk itself run slower in real time, because it has to emulate more instructions per second. Set the value that results in the best presentation of the game as long as it's not problematic to work with that while making the TAS itself.
• Don't worry about optimizing the setup time, it will not be counted against your TAS, and it's unavoidable anyway because the OS has to launch in the first place.
  • It's still allowed to do all the preliminary file manipulations in an additional setup movie made specifically for your TAS, so the main TAS happens right away and savestates don't have to store the HDD changes.
• TODO: ways to pass SET _JAVA_OPTIONS=-Xms128m -Xmx128m -Dfile.encoding=ISO_8859_1