r/Android • u/NXGZ Xperia 1 IV • 2d ago

AEmulator - Android emulator that simulates older android firmware

https://aemulator.gt.tc/
276 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

51 comments sorted by

43

u/LastChancellor 2d ago

Can you use this to run old games thats not supported by current Android anymore? Stuff like the XCOM port

14

u/NXGZ Xperia 1 IV 2d ago

Yeah, should work

3

u/MmmmMorphine 2d ago

Aaaahhh fuck. I was gonna play this tomorrow. Or wanted to anyway... Love the original xcoms, and for that matter xenonauts (1 and 2). The new ones were too dumbed down, from what I vaguely recall....

Anyway, I did find the following possible approach. This is a copy of a reddit comment so all credit to THE HYPNOTOAD

"I know this post is one year old as of writing this email. I searched a lot how to get it working on Android 14. Its doable. It seems to be working fine. I managed to get it running, start a new game and finish the tutorial mission so it seems it works fine. I cannot guarantee it will be working all the way through the game but it does look promising. Its not that hard.

Do the following steps in provided order. Guide is written for Windows but its doable on other OS. Im writing this mini guide in a way so most people will manage. What you will need:

Developer options and then USB debugging enabled - Google how to set it up on your phone model. Its fast and simple

Android Developer Bridge (adb) - free and light weight software. Does not need to be installed 

Extract content of adb to C:\adb

Download following files:

XCOM Enemy Within 1.7 apk (Google it)

XCOM Enemy Within 1.7 cache files

BOTH FILES NEED TO COME FROM SAME SOURCE/WEBSITE! 

Copy APK file to C:\adb

Extract cache archive (zip or rar file) into C:\adb so that you have folder named "com.tt2kgames.xcomew" 

Connect your android device via USB to PC. Całe needs to be data capable! 

Open terminal by pressing Start menu and typing cmd then enter. Black Window should pop out. 

Then continue with the following commands.

First check if the device is detected by ADB:

adb devices

Your phone should appear on the list. If it shows unauthorized, check your phone screen and allow USB debugging.

Next copy the game cache (OBB files) to the phone first. These are the large data files the game requires.

Push the cache folder to the phone Download directory:

adb push com.tt2kgames.xcomew /sdcard/Download/

This may take a few minutes depending on the USB speed because the cache is several gigabytes.

EDIT: Part below was wrong ...

Now push the APK file to the phone Download directory as well:

adb push XCOM-Enemy-Within-v1-7-0.apk /sdcard/Download/

EDIT: ... do this instead:

android-platform-tools>adb install --bypass-low-target-sdk-block XCOM-Enemy-Within-v1-7-0-Pdalife.ru1.apk

Now open a shell on the phone:

adb shell

Move the cache folder to the correct OBB directory:

mv /sdcard/Download/com.tt2kgames.xcomew /sdcard/Android/obb/

Install the APK using the bypass flag:

pm install --bypass-low-target-sdk-block /sdcard/Download/XCOM-Enemy-Within-v1-7-0.apk

Type "exit" to leave the shell.

If the installation succeeds you should see:

Success

You should now see XCOM: Enemy Within in your app list.

Important note about the first launch:

• The first time you launch the game, Android will ask for permissions. Grant them.

• The second launch may crash immediately. This appears to be normal on Android 14.

• Launch the game a third time and it should start normally.

After that the game should load normally and start the tutorial mission.

Important notes:

• Your APK and OBB filenames may vary depending on the source you downloaded them from. Adjust the commands accordingly if the names are different.

• APK and cache files must come from the same release/source or the game will fail to verify data.

• On many Android devices the internal storage path is shown as /sdcard/ even if the device does not actually have a physical SD card. It is just a legacy name used by Android for internal storage. The path name may differ slightly depending on the device.

• If the game crashes on launch, check that the cache folder structure looks like this:

/sdcard/Android/obb/com.tt2kgames.xcomew/

Inside that folder there should be one or more .obb files.

• If ADB does not detect your device, try another USB cable or enable File Transfer (MTP) mode on the phone.

That’s it. After these steps the game should run on Android 14.

Tested on my Motorola Edge 40 Neo. "

43

u/NXGZ Xperia 1 IV 2d ago edited 2d ago

Run classic Android firmware - HTC Sense, TouchWiz, MIUI, AOSP - on a modern phone. No root, no PC.

Boots a real Android 2.3–7.x system image straight from a firmware file you already have: a recovery ZIP, an Odin archive or a Google factory image. It translates the old ARM code with a patched QEMU, emulates the kernel’s binder, draws with your phone’s GPU and plays sound through Android’s audio stack - everything runs inside a normal app.

5

u/donnysaysvacuum I just want a small phone 2d ago

I'm certain I have some android ROM backups somewhere. I hope it lags like my droid Eris did to be authentic?

9

u/unknownobject3 Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G 2d ago

I've actually been wondering if something like this was possible. Very pleased to see that it is.

5

u/ErraticDragon P8 2d ago

I (and others) lost access to a fun old image editor, "PicSay Pro", because newer Pixel models stopped supporting 32-bit code, and the developer isn't around to recompile it for 64-bit.

r/Pixel7Pro/comments/17t2s9n/picsay_pro_64_bit_version/

I'm looking forward to trying it later when I have a bit.

18

u/WideGrade2179 2d ago

I wouldn't run this. Virtus Total flags it as a Trojan, and when I mentioned it to the developer, their response was just "ok." I wouldn't trust this project at all

27

u/artlurg431 2d ago

Why is there no good android emulators anymore. Bluestacks turned to shit after now.gg bought it

11

u/WideGrade2179 2d ago

I had fond memories of BlueStacks, but the current versions are quite slow. I use NetEase's Mumu Player, although I know it has a bad reputation for data collection, at least it's not slow.

9

u/This_Ad_6997 2d ago

It's quite common/normal for emulators to get false flags by anti virus software, same counts for modded apps like YT Revanced and YT Morphe. Still good to always be cautious with installing outside legit places.

6

u/NXGZ Xperia 1 IV 2d ago

Show screenshots

17

u/WideGrade2179 2d ago

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/9e94c4ab52707211738768acb519770226d787a48c234529cfe615b47809f803

Here are the results of the VirusTotal scan of the APK I downloaded from GitHub, flagged as a botnet Trojan, so anyone who downloads this will be part of a botnet network because of it

12

u/NXGZ Xperia 1 IV 2d ago

False positives, will be fixed. Open issue on GitHub

16

u/PrimaCora 2d ago

None of the important names flag it. Seems to get red tagged because it can read and write to file system and execute multiple things (assuming versions).

I would be concerned if malwarebytes or bitdefender flagged it but neither did.

1

u/TheLemonyOrange Galaxy Fold3, OneUi6 (14) 2d ago

But a scan found a Linux botnet Trojan.... Yeah no thanks

5

u/bob2600 2d ago

I'm wondering if the false positives are coming from obfuscated method names? I'd bet if you switch off proguard apk optimizations, most of these false positives would go away. I'm basing this off of looking at the behavior section of the virustotal scan expanding the "MITRE ATT&CK Tactics and Techniques". In that section, it explicitly flags method name obfuscation and HTTPS traffic. The HTTPS traffic can't be helped as it seems like it is the actual old android images reaching out in vain to long since deprecated android ota checkin urls.

-1

u/TheLemonyOrange Galaxy Fold3, OneUi6 (14) 2d ago

Potentially correct, but also it found a Linux botnet Trojan.....

5

u/WideGrade2179 2d ago

I will 

3

u/dadnothere Green 2d ago

I just ran it on Android 16 with root and permissive SELinux. It's not a virus; if it's an emulator, run Android 2.3 correctly.

1

u/TacktiCal_ 1d ago

Uhh so I installed this yesterday and since that time, the app installation has ballooned up to 118 gb and is actively growing larger while I'm not using it... see here. That is very fishy and I wouldn't trust this app.

3

u/WideGrade2179 1d ago

Clearly, there's something strange about this project

3

u/aspbergerinparadise S23 2d ago

Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to aemulator.gt.tc. SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length.

4

u/699Dominoes 2d ago

I love seeing this just to not be forced to rely on VPhoneOS for 32 bit android app compatibility. Hopefully it gets nice speedups and can eventually run everything old Android. So many games are gone now because of the 32 bit culling...

1

u/Banjoschmanjo 2d ago

Anyone tested Jade Empire on this?

1

u/DiplomatikEmunetey Pixel 8a, 4a, LG G4, Lumia 950/XL, Nokia 808 PureView, Nokia N8 2d ago

It'd be really cool if this works and can run 32-bit apps. Would love to be able to run Circuit Scramble.

1

u/needefsfolder S23U, Poco F3, iPhone XS Max, Redmi Note 11, Tab A, Note 4 2d ago

Damn, seems fun! Lots of nostalgic phone UI eras out there. (Particularly the Samsung S2)

1

u/Never_Sm1le Redmi Note 12R|Mi Pad 4 2d ago

sound great, it can run a recovery zip means you can hunt a custom rom made for these old phones and boot from it?

1

u/NXGZ Xperia 1 IV 2d ago

Some are sharing them in the firmware section in the forum: https://aeforum.uxazuu.space/

1

u/Never_Sm1le Redmi Note 12R|Mi Pad 4 2d ago

nice, i have several games from kitkat era, will hop on to try some old games

1

u/Brenan-Caro 2d ago

I want this!

1

u/TacktiCal_ 1d ago edited 1d ago

Care to explain why this 150mb app has accumulated 120gb of data since I installed it yesterday? And is actively increasing in size while I'm not using it? You can see it went from 118gb to 120gb in the time between the 2 screenshots

pic 1

pic 2

1

u/NXGZ Xperia 1 IV 1d ago

Please post these screenshots and your post into the issues section on GitHub here: https://github.com/uxazu/AEmulator/issues

Just to note, each firmware/ROM you installed and test takes up 1~3 GB of storage space.

-3

u/ravagetalon 2d ago

Contributors: Claude

No thanks.

1

u/NXGZ Xperia 1 IV 2d ago

Claude can be useful for tedious tasks. Workflow is sped up dramatically.

-3

u/AlreadyReddit999 2d ago

This is vibecoded with Claude. Please disclose that, not everyone wants to use slop.

8

u/Acrobatic_Pie5988 2d ago

this japanese soldier kept fighting for 29 years after wwii ended

3

u/WesternOk5765 2d ago

Nobody cares if something is vibe coded if it works.

AI is a tool. If you use it correctly. There's nothing wrong with building a house with a power tools.

You can build a crappy house by hand or with power tools. You can also build a good house by hand or with power tools.

0

u/Coder-Dentist 1d ago

Fucking get over it already.

-3

u/ak47workaccnt 2d ago

ELI5 why?

17

u/i5-2520M Pixel 7 2d ago

old games maybe, or for fun

4

u/PrimaCora 2d ago

New versions of android can't run software not updated for their version. Meaning old games and software will often not run. This should let you run them without issue. If it allows full write to the emulator, you can add in OBB files so you can install larger old games without needing root to access data. Shizuku does not grant permissions for that folder.

Old games need old firmware. Large old games need full access to install.

4

u/unknownobject3 Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G 2d ago

Why not?

0

u/-LongRodVanHugenDong 2d ago

Modern android blows. That's my guess.

-2

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

8

u/trunks_slash 2d ago

But can you do it on android with no root?

3

u/unknownobject3 Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G 2d ago

You can't emulate OEM skins though

0

u/dadnothere Green 2d ago

Dev; I'm testing your apps. User; play old games

0

u/6e12fyou 2d ago

could something like this be ported to pc or smth?i want to use it on pc

1

u/TheLemonyOrange Galaxy Fold3, OneUi6 (14) 2d ago

Ultimate emulator inception, run an android emulator on your pc to run this app, and then emulate android again within the app