The Japan-exclusive Mega Man game Rockman.EXE Phantom of Network has just received an unofficial native port to PC, courtesy of StraDaMa, giving players the chance to play the game without the use of an emulator.
As you may recall, Phantom of Network was one of two Mega Man Battle Network games released for i-Mode compatible phones in the 2000s, alongside its follow-up Rockman.EXE Legacy of Network, and was at one point considered to be at risk of becoming lost media (due to the Capcom website it was available from being shut down and any surviving copies of the game being locked to increasingly obsolete hardware).
However, in December 2023, a preservation group called SciLabSecrets managed to successfully recover and preserve both of these games online after years of research, making them available to play once again via the DoJa SDK emulator and inspiring a pair of fan-made localisation patches the following year from a group consisting of Prof. 9, Midori Woodley, MidniteW, and MegaRockEXE.
As we mentioned above, one of the main advantages of this new PC port is the ability to play the game without needing the DoJa SDK emulator, but that isn't the only bonus.
It also reportedly runs at a stable 15fps, features uninterrupted music and audio, and includes native upscaling from 1x, alongside being compatible with the existing localisation.
All you'll need is a copy of the original Japanese i-αppli game files to grab the assets, the localisation patch, and the files available from GitHub. You'll find further instructions here.