[Copilot screen shot] [Copilot icon] Copilot - The Windows PalmPilot Emulator

FAQ NOTICE: If you are having trouble with Copilot, please read the Copilot FAQ before sending me email. This will probably answer your questions and you will get a faster response. Thank you.

Copilot is a Windows program that emulates the PalmPilot handheld PDA from Palm, Inc.. Copilot has a number of features for accurate emulation of the PalmPilot hardware platform, plus additional features for debugging PalmPilot applications.

Copilot is intended primarily as a developer's tool, although anyone can run Copilot. This means you can, for example, play your favorite PalmPilot game right on your Windows desktop.

Copilot requires Windows 95 or Windows NT, and will not work on Windows 3.x even with Win32s. Copilot is a 32-bit multithreaded program, and Win32s does not support multithreaded applications.

What if I don't have a real PalmPilot?

By far the most common question I am asked about Copilot is "I don't have a PalmPilot. Where can I get a ROM file?" There used to be a place on the net where you could download a ROM file, but it is no longer available. The Pilot ROM is copyrighted software by Palm, Inc., and copying it is software piracy. I will not send ROM files to anybody, so please don't ask me to send you one (any requests for ROM files will be cheerfully ignored).

I have heard from another Copilot user that TRG, a company that makes 3 MB PalmPilot memory boards, has a program that will download your current ROM file as part of their upgrade process. I have not tried this myself, but I don't see any reason why it would not work. Please see the TRG SuperPilot page to download their SETUP.ZIP file. (Alex Tang has written a description of this procedure.)

New Features in Beta 9:

View the latest release notes (updated 6/10/97)
Download Copilot now! (copilot.zip, about 180k)
View Copilot documentation online

Source Code

I have had a number of requests for the source code to Copilot so that other developers can port Copilot to different platforms such as Macintosh, Un*x, Linux, and BeBox. I have put together a package containing the Copilot source code and some documentation describing the various pieces and how they fit together. This code is, of course, provided as-is with no warranty :). But that doesn't mean I won't answer questions about the code - I'm very interested in seeing Copilot ported to different platforms!

Download Copilot Source Package (copilot-source.zip, about 180k)

Copilot Ports

Several other PalmPilot developers have ported Copilot to other platforms. Here are the current ones that I've been able to find (corrections and additions welcome):

BeOS
Linux
Macintosh (PowerMac only)
OS/2
Windows CE

Troubleshooting


Copilot is Copyright © 1996-1997 by Greg Hewgill
Email: greg@hewgill.com