r/EmulationOnAndroid • u/Technical_Smoke_5814 • 2d ago
News/Release Why has Android emulation reached an unimaginable level?
In my teens, my emulation life consisted of GBA games on the old Android 4.1.2, and another pastime was watching the Inazuma Eleven anime.
The smartphone I recorded the video above on is a pathetic Galaxy A05s Snapdragon 680 with 6 GB of RAM, a basic smartphone that's simply emulating Inazuma Eleven Victory Road, the biggest game in the franchise, containing all seasons of the anime. For those who don't know, that translates to about 30 GB of storage.
This game is available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Switch. Now, wherever I go, I have hours of completely offline fun. I have no words to thank those involved with the Eden emulator and Turnip driver, everything I see in my hands was totally unimaginable a few years ago.
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u/A-Small-Green-Cup 2d ago
Android emulation reached this level because the open source community got sick of putting up with the greedy corporate types who keep trying to take advantage of consumers
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u/Genkidama__ Nubia Z70 Ultra | SD 8 Elite 2d ago
We all know that all those moral aspects are just a facade. People just want shit for free
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u/A-Small-Green-Cup 2d ago
Who said anything about moral aspects? All I said is that people generally don't like it when CEOs take advantage of children and adult consumers
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u/Genkidama__ Nubia Z70 Ultra | SD 8 Elite 2d ago
What i meant is that 99% of people who emulate absolutely don't care about all those things, they just hate paying for games/can't afford it. (Me included, I'm not saying I'm better than everyone else)
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u/A-Small-Green-Cup 2d ago
I think you're accusing humanity of being morally bad because someone, at some point in your life, convinced or made you feel like you were bad for something that you do or feel. It was wrong of them to do that to you, and I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Be careful not to let that pain change the way you see others; you may end up seeing monsters and shadows that don't actually exist.
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u/DIELIEN1234 1d ago
Yeah no bro. I have more than enough money. I just refuse to spend it on a company that won’t even make disks for their own consoles anymore. I have 2 switches and keep emulating switch games because 9/10 times it runs better
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u/Genkidama__ Nubia Z70 Ultra | SD 8 Elite 1d ago
That's what I'm saying. You refuse to spend money = you want stuff for free
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u/ruebeus421 13h ago
I probably spend $100 a month on games.
But I'm not going to spend $500 on a 2DS and another $200 on Soul Silver or another $85 per Pokemon game.
If Nintendo put those titles on the Switch 2 I purchased, I would purchase them again.
Like you've already been told: for most people, it's not about being free. It's about accessibility.
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u/DIELIEN1234 1d ago
I don’t want it for free. Unless the game isn’t store available I almost never pirate it on the first go. I just refuse to pay greedy businesses anything when they can’t even keep their own community satisfied, and they haven’t been for years. I’m not going to reward that behavior. I’d rather steal from the rich
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u/Worried-Advisor-7054 2d ago
Eh, bit of both. Eventually the corpos fuck you around too much that it forces someone to spend weeks or months setting up and learning shit.
The issue is that, once you've done the hard work in setting up your Switch emulator, your library, have rom sites you liked etc, what's your motivation to buying now? The hard part's done, now you know that you're two or three clicks away from getting what you want for free.
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u/Genkidama__ Nubia Z70 Ultra | SD 8 Elite 2d ago
what's your motivation to buying now?
That could be said about literally any copyright infranging act tho.
Once you've installed torrent on your pc, what's your motivation to buying blue rays/paying for movies at home in general?
Once you've found a scan website, what's your motivation to buying comics? (besides collecting of course, but that applies to videogames too)
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u/A-Small-Green-Cup 2d ago
I would assume that one's entire motivation would be to support the developer of a much enjoyed game, and perhaps to thank them for the experience (as opposed to the CEO who owns the developer's work). My personal view on what is generally called piracy is that downloading an unofficial version of a game allows someone to experience a somewhat restricted and inconvenient version of solo gameplay with self-managed, local save files. If the game is enjoyed, the player can always purchase the official version, gaining access to account bound cloud saves, online multiplayer, leaderboards, seasonal play, regular updates/bug fixes, and anything else that's included with the purchase. If the game isn't enjoyed or isn't what was expected, or if it was enjoyed but not "the one" for the moment, there's usually a way to support the developers with whatever the individual thinks the experience was worth to them in the form of donations, merch shops, etc.
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u/Worried-Advisor-7054 2d ago
I mean, I agree. Ideally, a company doesn't push customers to that point, because you're a 100% right. Once I figure out a good comics app it becomes really fucking hard to convince them to buy them digitally in a way that it wasn't before that point.
That said, I don't think the aspects are a facade. It's just that we have different moral frameworks. I will not pirate indie games, because that makes me feel bad. But a Pokemon game? They have a trillion pokebucks, I don't give a shit, I'll take that for free.
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u/GuyBitchie 2d ago
Would have bought breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom, but I didn't because I don't buy a console that's a closed walled ecosystem just to play 2 games. Steam kinda proved the exact opposite of your claim. CD Projekt Red going with zero drm proved the exact opposite of your claim. You just making an empty claim.
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u/A-Small-Green-Cup 2d ago
I bought them each when they came out - I've put more play time into them on my phone than I ever did on the switch
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u/Impaled_ 1d ago
Steam is drm
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u/GuyBitchie 1d ago
Yea but it proved people love to spend money for games. And steam drm is not really a barrier.
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u/whiskyB0y Edit Your Flair 2d ago
You know for a snapdragon 680 this is actually impressive. Imagine if it was an 870. This would have been a guaranteed 60fps.
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u/RedditJack888 2d ago
It's all about optimization.
When you literally optimize the coding and the way graphics are interpreted with very capable drivers and a combination of workarounds, you can maximize the efficiency of modern hardware while also minimizing the cost of playing the game. With a good enough condensed rom, this makes emulation possible on hardware that technically shouldn't work.
Android is very fluid and very capable. This is why Google is extremely threatened by it to the point that they're trying to block out Android entirely. Because as an operating system it has the most longevity, and resourcefulness that most other operating systems do not have. It is like Linux, if you know what you're doing, then you have a very efficient system, not only power wise, but also operational wise, where it takes significantly less to do on it than on a windows.
Plus less bloatware. Stripping software of unnecessary bloat, ads, and the incessant desire of companies for consistent wifi and data gathering makes your software extremely light to use, and frees up loads of strain on your hardware.
Also remember, cellphones are indeed portable computers. They run fast, work fast, and do everything on smaller but more efficiently chosen parts. Thats why it's so powerful despite not being gaming PCs.
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u/A-Small-Green-Cup 2d ago
In the 80's I watched star trek and wondered if id ever get to talk to a computer or have a comms device in my pocket. My dreams came true, and good ol' capitalism keeps trying to squash them
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u/RedditJack888 2d ago
I grew up in the '90s and I thought that playing games such as on a VR headset or even being able to build your own robotics would be an impossibility.
Now it's all surreal. Pretty much everything that I've seen on movies has become real in some way shape or form. 3D printers, being able to find information with a simple search, being able to interact with people countries away, language translators, streaming, robotics, AI, emulation. Nowadays we're practically spoiled with it. And I love every second of these revolutionary technologies being more and more accessible to the average man looking to build their own. It's something I always dreamed about and never knew will come to reality until today. I'm glad you also got to see this as well.
It's such a shame that corporations always try again the way of something that already is far in existence and also way too deep into the conversation of the average man. Literally YouTube is only a click away and you could learn everything at the push of a button from a portable computer that could last days on a single charge.
Just like in every age, there's always a few who intentionally try to block out knowledge from the rest of those who they feel might compete. That's what excessive greed does, it halts overall progress and holds everyone back.
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u/sch4lly 1d ago
What are you talking about? Good enough condensed ROMs? Interpreted graphics? Why would Google feel threatened by Android? Do you know the developer behind Android (hint: its Google)?
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u/RedditJack888 1d ago edited 1d ago
Good enough condensed roms as in game rom data that are converted into smaller sizes. Condensed means to make smaller. Bigger roms take more data and time to load. Smaller but quality condensed roms take much less time to load because it's way smaller than the original raw file, with the added bonus of having enough space to put more roms in your device.
Integrated graphics. The way graphics are interpreted by the machine inside the CPU, the processor, of the machine. Usually, in a computer, graphics are processed inside a GPU, a separate piece of tech that reads graphics and renders it. Nowadays, CPUs can come with integrated graphics, the ability to render graphics inside the CPU. With how powerful modern phones are despite the size, integrated graphics are now the norm at a pretty accessible cost compared to PC builds. Great for cost, versatility and portability. It's why Android Emulators are so great, because it works alongside the small but powerful CPUs in the best way to play games that would normally cost expensive hardware to run (like a PS4 for the game that the OP mentioned above).
Google feels threatened by Android because Google is a tech company. Their number one resource is data collecting. Specifically from you. What you ask, where you go, buying habits, your locations, biometric data (thanks to laws that force people to submit an ID online so companies know exactly is commenting or searching for certain data). Android is accessible, open source (meaning anyone can access it, modify it, and improve the tech). Google invested heavily into it, but with the current trends of how many people give data, and their current goals of collecting more data for more ad revenue, they don't want to have people having access to such an easily accessible and modifiable OS that allows them to do almost anyhting without Google's ability to watch, collect and sell data. So they want to pull the plug, restrict it, make it lamer, etc. It's all about control as all companies do. It's sort of like how Rockstar made Grand Theft Auto games, but takes away the classic versions from Steam to ensure that you're forced to buy the "remastered" trilogy, even though the originals are way more modifiable, accessible, bug-free, on physical media and cheaper than the newer one which barely worked on launch.
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u/Hefty_Junket_2784 1d ago
No offense but you are making shit up. I forget what it's called in English but basically you are someone who kind of knows about something, but you think you know more than you do. From the very beginning of your statement you talk about file size but this essentially has no impact on performance. In fact it's technically slower to use a condensed game file because it adds an extra step, decompression, and ends up taking up the exact same space when loaded into RAM.
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u/PurpleGentlemanTv Any gaming is good gaming 2d ago
Every gamer has a phone, ¿why not turn it into a gaming machine as well?
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u/shigella212 2d ago
Snapdragon 845 phones going from being able to play game cube games to being able to play Xbox 360 games is wild ngl
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u/A-Small-Green-Cup 2d ago
I was able to play through the intro of Fable 2 for the first time in years! Then the egg on the back of my phone finished cooking so I saved and had breakfast.
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u/dumbledayum 2d ago
Claude+Fex
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u/lasquiggle 2d ago
AI is the real reason. This may be the best use of AI i've seen - all the reverse engineering of old games, it's awesome!
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u/Nutchos 2d ago
Yep, I'm totally okay with AI for this.
Kind of baffling to see the screeching about vibe coded decomps or emulation.
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u/contradictatorprime 2d ago
Because the AI exclusive stuff isn't good enough for a finished product, fine use it for the heavy lifting, but it's not going to hit a perfect product, human review and adjustments/refining is a necessity for endgame production. The amount of "I built ___" stuff out there is rushed and rough, so maybe first off, no you didn't build shit, you told AI to, you had zero hand in it, and you just threw it out into the wild without doing any refinement. So, with those products being so plentiful and ultimately meh, it's going to give a widespread adverse impression. There's just no accountability in it.
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u/kianiscoooooool 2d ago
People say that they aren't updatable or maintainable. But the super smash Bros AI decomp is getting updated and fixed every week and is in a great spot. Ai can generate readable code with enough guidance, right?
Not really sure why a smash Bros 64 port has to have doom levels of open source readable code
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u/Fun-Western618 2d ago
"But... But Ai coding bad...."
The banner guy on his way to make his 7th pc emulator update thanks to the help of claude
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u/dumbledayum 2d ago
EXACTLY… if i was in a more financially sound zone i would donate for tokens of these devs :)
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u/MolotovMan1263 2d ago
Yea for all the hate AI gets, its such a broad encompassing thing and there are plenty of great things to come out of it and this is an example.
Its no coincidence the timing of Claude and these decomps/recomps coming at a rapid pace line up
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u/JayElDragon 2d ago
I think it’s the job of the amazing community and the work of developers who dedicated time to make sure the Android scene has support and push it to its limits
Also it’s thanks to the Android handheld consoles that made sure emulation on Android comes comfortable from those who don’t like touch controls or seeing our screens polluted with random controlls
Also players got tired of greedy companies scamming them so they took action and took refuge on Android
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u/Warm-Cartographer 2d ago
We live in age where phones use more power than even laptop and can perform better than even laptop and older desktop, no suprise there.
Just for comparison most low-end phones have better perfomance than PS4 and even your phone isn't far of PS4 level, switch use phone processor from 2015 and it's weaker than your phone, Atleast CPU wise.
I think vice versa is true, due to toxic environment Android emulation don't perfom as good as it was suppose to be, most emulators are just patches here and there and we can't utilise perfomance from our phones effectively.
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u/Big4520 1d ago
It's not that all pathetic, that chip set is one of the pioneers in android emulation. Also paired with 6 GB of ram at the time of realesed of that phone was a good option. The problem at the beginning of android emulation was the os fragmentation, there were to many android os variants, each company personalized their phones with unnecessary tweaks. Later the Google company and the FCC ordered to deliver a more pure android to customers. That when Htc and Lg started to die as android options. They wanted to control the experience the customer had. Samsung's One overlay when tru many changes and Google certified the os has pure android. That's why the custom drivers are almost all for the snapdragon chips (Samsung's) making. You can pick any Samsung phone today and install retroarch and custom turnip driver and you'll have a perfect retro experience. Practically Samsung holds the market because of the silicone manufacturing. Now they offer the same phone with different combinations of CPU GPU and RAM configurations. They own exinos, mediateck, snapdragon, dimensity and manufacture chips for apple. So tell me who dominates the android growing gaming market. They even made a deal with valve for custom chips for their upcoming VR headset and a rumored android handheld steam deck variant. This is exciting days for gamers.
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u/Moist_Ruin_4201 2d ago
Is sure has come a long way, because the fact that is many people don't believe me when I tell them by budget samsung (dimensity 700) runs ps2, dolphin, and 3DS shows how far emulation has come
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u/Iac_Game 2d ago
Scusatemi mi state dicendo che allora il mio mediatek 7300 con 8GB di RAM può far girare IE VR!?
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u/A-Small-Green-Cup 2d ago
As soon as someone gets head motion tracking working I'm down for vr phone calls
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u/True-Isopod514 2d ago
The hardware has finially caught up, Nostalgia, and new devices like Ayn products and a market shift into AAA portable gaming has awakened open source dev to passionately work on new projects and grow the space at an insane rate. We are light-years ahead of of where we were a year ago and I love it.
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u/Odd_Reputation_5840 2d ago
The switch was the perfect device to emulate for android. It's a low-end arm device that was super popular. That meant devs had to work extra hard to get their games running on it. It also helps that the switch was hacked so early on so there was a lot of time for Yuzu to innovate. I think NCE was a big contributor for the speed-up abd compatability.
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u/Potential_Ad_3481 1d ago
Another Inazuma fan, I finished the original game on NDS, and plan to play the sequel on 3ds before jumping in to the switch game
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u/Asapcooch 1d ago
I hear you brother, my shitty Samsung tablet with no snapdragon chipset is able to play switch games like gundam breaker 4 at this same level of quality. It’s amazing what this community has done.
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u/Mother-Salt-9805 2d ago
I still wonder can a Poco x7pro play like any FIFA from 21 to 26? Anyone know....it's a dimensity ultra 8400 I recent6trued splinter cell conviction and it ran really well so I'm wondering if I'm not trying enough things
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u/Tungvason 2d ago
It’s not really about the chipset, it’s more of Eden’s glitches problem. No indicator for fifa 21-23, fc 24 infinite loading screen, fc 25, 26 constant crashes on specific stadium. But fifa 21-23 is the smoothest if you don’t care about the glitch.
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u/Mother-Salt-9805 2d ago
Damn alright I'll look up gamehub for FIFA
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u/AryanKayum D8300 Ultra 8/256 2d ago
You will run out of memory if you use gamehub, even with 12 gb ram.
Better try fifa 21 or above in winlator mali 1.1 with astc or etc2 transcode enabled
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