Hey manwolf,
ALL of the PBP examples should work on EP 5, once you have changed/removed the includes that set up the fuses, OTHER than the LCD examples that write to the CG ram.
On the mE boards the RW pin is hardwired to Vss.
Until now I haven't seen any mE examples that write to the CG ram.
And I agree, the best sim is a soldering iron and/or a bread board!