The Battle Network games are a series of spin-offs for the popular platformer Mega Man that's seen some love in recent years thanks to Capcom releasing them as a part of two Legacy Collections. Featuring popular characters from the series, the Battle Network games slows down the action with more tactical grid-based combat that's proved to be popular even with those not too interested in what the main series has to offer. What is somewhat less well known however is that Capcom released two additional games in the mid-2000s for flip phones: Phantom of the Network and Legend of the Network. These games were dumped towards the end of 2023 and playable via emulation with a few quirks and minor glitches, with English translations following mid-2024. Now though, the first of those, Phantom of the Network, is available natively on PC.

This port features a locked 15fps (remember this is a flip phone game, 15fps is impressive!), render scaling, proper GBA-style button mapping, support for the English translation patch and online leaderboards, and is generally just more stable than the previous means of emulation. To get it setup, you'll need a copy of the original Japanese i-appli game files. From there you can simply follow the instructions on the GitHub page, largely involving patching the game files with the English translation, and then running the downloaded executable.

Those interested in checking it out can find the download below.

GitHub Download

 

[zychion]

I really wish someone does this for the Rockman Dash game.

 

[NitroRevolutionNX]

That's awesome! It's always nice to see stuff like this

 

[RedoLane]

To get it setup, you'll need a copy of the original Japanese i-appli game files.

So the 5 people who still own those

 

[Scarlet]

So the 5 people who still own those

Yeah just like how that Super Mario Bros remaster is for all the people with the capability to dump their NES cartridges. It’s a shame these ports are so inaccessible to the masses, but what can you do?

 

[PatrickD85]

Neat
Gotta love more Mega Man which every way it's mad available.

 

[Chellarina]

Ah, and when in the timeline do these happen? This is really cool, but is also the work Capcom should have done for their legacy collections, especially if they're part of the story. Though I guess it's better than Sega and Ubisoft who can't even be bothered to secure the music rights for their much more famous games...

 

[codezer0]

I really wish someone does this for the Rockman Dash game.

Did you mean megaman legends? There is an abandonware release of that, and runs pretty well nowadays. Helps that it is possible to map a gamepad to mimic the ps1 controls readily.

 

[Flame]

Time to dump my game from my flip phone...... *opens new tab*

 

[enigma85]

You can just download the games... Read the readme's for it all. Pretty easy to find.

 

[ChronoCrossfangirl2002]

linking this to my friend

 

[GengarsGhostlyGiggles]

I really wish someone does this for the Rockman Dash game.

Me too. I've love to play the mobile version with HD graphics and mods. The phone emulator for it kinda sucks.

 

[iGifted]

Was super excited until there was no source code. Guess we get to wait for it to drop.

 

[SDA]

Wish they translated the remainder of the Mega Man cell phone games instead. Chokkan! Rockman is the one I want to see in English the most.

 

[naxil]

Sorry but "flip phone" is a generic kind of hardware not? is a old java game?

 

[Scarlet]

Sorry but "flip phone" is a generic kind of hardware not? is a old java game?

It’s i-appli, which is itself some Java subset. Flip phone game is just easier to digest in my mind. I-appli is at least mentioned in the post.