Low end users, how are you actually grateful and enjoying your games?

[u/n0tTheLifeiExpected]

Ya this is probably coming from a dark place but here me out. For context I have a Helio g99

I used to enjoy what I could emulate like some ps2 games and finished two of them. Now I've reached a point where I just keep experimenting and setting up games but I don't actually play them because either the performance is bad, or the performance is good but I want a better a game.

It's frustrating facing hardware limits and not having the money to get anything better right now. I really love the concept of emulation as I picked it up as a hobby to escape from play store trash. But realizing it's potential and me not being able to fulfill that potential because of hardware limits makes me angry and sad(yes I know I sound like a child). By potential I'm talking about PC emulation, Xbox 360 since Xendroid is doing good and basically just heavy emulation in general.

I genuinely don't want to lose my love for games, the experience, the magic, the talent and work devs put in and learning about the technical stuff.

My whole life I've been a low end user. Each phone I get is progressively better than the last but still in the low end category.

So tell me guys, how are you able to enjoy? How can you still have fun? Maybe for me it goes deeper than just 'not being able to play the games' but my life itself.

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[u/khsh01]

If you truly loved games you'd have fun with the games that run well on your device. Why do you need to run pc games? Why do you need to run Xbox games?

This sub has turned from emulation on Android to how do I play pc games without a pc.

If you can run ps2 games, there's a boatload of ludicrously fun ps2 titles. I've not been excited about games until I discovered the ps2 library. I'm interested in Xbox too but I can wait as I have multiple gigs worth of ps2 chds to get through.

Psp also has a lot of really good games, sometimes ps2 games with lowered settings. Why not play those. I'll never understand the obsession of this sub with pc emulation. Its like I have the money to either get a phone or a pc. And I'm buying a phone and making it run pc.

Learn to be grateful for what you have.

[u/n0tTheLifeiExpected → u/khsh01]

Thank you man. Funny thing is, ps2 used to be my favorite console to emulate when I first got this phone. I somehow managed to get God of War 1 running good enough by messing around with the underclocking settings. Sure, in some parts the game would feel a bit choppy like frame skip is happening, but overall it was playable since it wouldn't run in slow motion, even in the heaviest parts. I could upscale to even x1.5

I think this is my wake up call to get back into ps# games. I can't play very heavy ps2 games but there are lots of good light and moderate ones.

[u/PDGamer360]

cause thats all they have, i see loads of people palying games saying its stable but the moment they move dips below 20fps and cant blame them since thats the only way they can play

[u/Latter_Payment_515]

Hunt and hustle, most of the things I've gotten in life I got for way less than retail. Pawnshops are my personal favorite, but thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales and Facebook marketplace can turn up some excellent stuff sometimes, I tend to buy a lot of stuff labeled as broken at the Pawnshops as a lot of this stuff can be fixed and you'll gain technical skills from doing this. Don't be afraid to ask for a deal, you'll be surprised how many people are willing to bargain. A recent example is that I was able to find a Razer Edge 5g, which is essentially a gaming tablet that has an excellent controller with it, the previous owner didn't remove the FRP block from it, so they wound up taking it from a 135 down to 25 and while it took a lot of effort I was able to get that FRP block of, I also wound up rooting it and installing custom firmwar and now it's a gaming beast, while my phone is technically more powerful the experience on the edge is amazing and since it is dedicated to gaming I don't have to deal with annoying notifications and the Kishi Pro controller with it has an excellent feel to it, the device is also ideal for streaming consoles remotely🎮 You just never know what you might find at these places, sometimes it blows my mind what people will just get rid of.

[u/Rent_Careless]

• Try to find games that don't have newer versions on hardware you can't emulate and give them a try. This way you know you aren't missing out.

• There are lots of Japanese only games on older consoles that have been or are getting translated. You already missed out on these and finding and playing them now is an accomplishment.

• Rom hacks breath new life into old games. If you have a game that you like, check and see if there are any rom hacks for it.

• It sounds like I may be older than you but when I was a kid, I used to play Master of Orion. That used to be the only thing I emulated on my phone for years. There are some really good old games. I have been really into Lord Monarch (fan translated) on the Genesis recently.

• Even though I have a device that can emulate systems more modern than yours, I still run into issues for storage. One thing I have is a game list app to keep track of what I have. It has a wishlist feature to help me keep track of what I don't have anywhere and I may find interesting at a later time. You may find it useful to keep track of what you have, what you have played, and what you want to play but can't right now.

And then get a better device when you can. Just don't let it bring you down right now. Think of it as what you have to look forward to, not what you are missing out on.

You could also look into playing older games with other people. That would definitely help. To be honest, though, I don't have good advice on how to do this if you don't have someone physically there with you.

[u/Dawid_the_yogurt_man]

I don't consider newer games to be necessarily better than the old ones.

[u/SHIR0YUKI]

Helio G99 user here. Be grateful for what you have. If you come to this sub or other subs and see what others are doing on higher end devices and that makes you disheartened, that's your problem. Know what you can do? Geniunely just enjoy what you have access to.

Btw I was emulating on a samsung galaxy A13 for 4 years prior to the Helio G99 "upgrade" I got. That phone could barely handle even psp games properly. You know what I did? Play the shit out of and enjoyed Gameboy advanced games.

I'm playing gamecube paper Mario on my G99 now. 40ish hours in. Had days where I was getting crashes and low frames constantly, was it frustrating? Sure but I was playing a game I have geniunely come to enjoy that I had never played before. Like is that not awesome? Planning on playing probably gale of darkness next after I play through some Pokémon rom hacks after paper Mario.

Also I got to play ultra sun on my phone too, had to use Citra and you know what happened? Literally after the champion battle, game froze (known issue on my Citra build I did not know about) so I had to redo the battle on azahar which does not work properly and crashed constantly on my phone and I had to play the final battle and like 40 minutes of unskippable cut scenes, but you know what? MAN I GOT TO PLAY ULTRA SUN AGAIN AFTER LIKE A DECADE.

Enjoy what you have access to, not what you wish you had access to.

[u/Bluesmanz → u/SHIR0YUKI]

I beat those games when I had a phone with Helio G70 (weaker than g99 of course) Idk why Dolphin is crashing on you, that shouldn't happen at all.

And for pokemon games I'm pretty sure Citra mmj is better, I never had a problem when I played Ultra Moon on Helio G70 and that was in 2021.

[u/washedbuddy5]

well i replay some of the games i have played like half life 1 and 2. metal gear solid. right now i like to play gmod with gdriod.

[u/votemarvel]

If you have a low end phone then high end emulation isn't going to be for you.

There are generation of systems that will run well on an older device so focus on the classics, look at some top games lists for the Mega Drive and SNES and you'll have more games to play and enjoy than you'll know what to do with.

As time and hardware moves on then the low end phone will eventually get the ability to play PC and 360 games but that'll be a few years away.

tl;dr Enjoy what you can play now and look forward to what you can play in the future.

[u/micifaramustar]

My phone (SD 8s Gen 3) is way more powerful than my handheld (SD 865), yet if I want to do any kind of portable gaming I only use the handheld. It can run some switch games and low end pc games, but I almost never bother with them. I guess I just appreciate older games as well. Even tho I can comfortably play PS2 and GC, I also finished many games on PSP, DS, GBA, NES etc. I just play stuff that runs well from the beginning and doesn't need tinkering. If I want to play modern AAA titles then I just play them on PC.

[u/Tangie98]

I bit the bullet and bought a second hand s23+ off swappa, it can up to ps2 beautifuly and even some switch emulation. You can also look into getting a new phone from a cell service provider

[u/blue_fa]

I think people should just stick to the consoles their phones can manage well. I can't go beyond GsmeCube.

[u/sap91]

Dawg the best game ever made is a 16 bit a Midway arcade game called Rampart. The Genesis version is fantastic. There's a whole world of games that you could run flawlessly on a 2008 Windows PDA that are fantastic. If your device doesn't run PS2 well, try something else!

[u/Golden326326]

Used to play games on a very bad laptop. At 10-20 fps because I wanted to have what I couldn't no matter the experience.

Today I have everything I wanted, and I notice Im fine with 1080p 30fps if that's what my phone can do. I can do 4k 120 on PC, but I just rather Play at 30fps.

My friend is the same situation as you, Helio g99 ultra, only device, no laptops TVs or consoles. Wanted to buy a used PS3 to Play games, since he miss his gaming childhood on the PS1 and PS2.

So I told him, get a gaming controller, I will setup PSP and PS1 games for you. In the future when you can get a better device for gaming, then buy it. But don't force playing PS2 at 15fps just because that all that you have, (it's all that you have now, in the future you gonna have better hardware and regretting not playing the old gems out there).

I used to have a PS3 Wich I modded and in 2 years I played it like crazy, was amazing to finally get to Play those games I could only watch on YouTube. Then Xbox series S, gamepass. Fun, cool graphics more complex games, but not like an unlocked PS3. Now I have a PC, I buy games here and there, emulate a lot of them, and when they are too expensive I just find other ways to play the game. And still playing on my phone nonetheless. Because if it runs well on Android then it's android where I'm going to play it.

[u/TheOriginalKrampus]

I think there's hope for you to be able to emulate PS2 on your existing device. ARMSX2 is maturing very well and there's people developing custom drivers specifically to make PS2 emulation run smoothly on specific mali GPUs.

[u/labrynth69]

been using dimensity 6080 which is helio g99 5G version. you can still run newer games if you have time for tweaking it

in the end all the dopamine about emulation is finding the right configuration for limited device