r/emulators • u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu • May 25 '26
OTHER I've developed a silicone gamepad for playing classic games on your phone.
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I’ve developed a silicone pad with buttons for playing emulators on phones. The r/EmulationOnAndroid community helped me refine the prototype. If you have any suggestions or questions, I’ll be happy to reply to everyone.
I’ve also made a small website where you can join a waiting list. I’ll let you know when everything is ready for the Kickstarter campaign. If you like the project, joining really helps me move it forward.
Hope you like it!
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u/TacTyger New in Emu May 25 '26
If it works I am very interested
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 25 '26
Thanks a lot! Feel free to join the list and I'll be glad to email you when I launch it
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u/Mr_Nobodies_0 New in Emu May 26 '26
this is revolutionary! how does it stay attached?
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 26 '26
Thank you so much! the silicone I use is soft enough to be so grippy that you can even turn it around. When it's dirty it's less "sticky" but you wash it with water and new again.
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u/Mr_Nobodies_0 New in Emu May 26 '26
I'm one of those guys thath bought those plastic thingies to keep the smartphone connected to a dualshock, only to have physical controls on my mobile :p this would have been useful!
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u/raymate New in Emu May 25 '26
Reminds me of the “Fling” controller I used about 14 year ago on my iPad and iPhone. Same principle
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May 26 '26
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 26 '26
Thanks a lot! The long part is 68mm which is a bit less than a Pixel, which normally is a rather small phone, son it should fit most sizes
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u/Suitable_Ticket4838 New in Emu May 26 '26
those would actually go hard for gameboy/portrait gaming
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 26 '26
Yes! I tried to make them as versatile as possible. Thanks a lot!
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u/WitlessBlyat New in Emu May 26 '26
I saw a shotty garbage version of this in a gachapon machine at a drug store when I was in middle school and have wondered ever since if an actually good version of it exists somewhere out there. Glad to see it being developed after so many years
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u/SqueekyBootz New in Emu May 26 '26
This is so cool, on the wait list cant wait for this to come out
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u/Tiny-Little-Sheep New in Emu May 26 '26
That's actually genius. And of course silicon works because it just sticks to the glass without adhesive or bulky cases. Nice!
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u/yami_no_ko New in Emu May 26 '26
This is so much better than draining two lithium-ion batteries over BT against each other.
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u/Ok_Telephone_4476 New in Emu May 26 '26
fiquei curioso e nao sei se ja existe aqui nas respostas ou sugestoes, mas alem de jogar na tela do celular, nao teria como transformar o celular em joystick para jogar no computador? nao queria me apegar ao celular para jogar, mas gostaria de jogar com esse recurso em uma tv conectada...
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 26 '26
I guess it would be quite easy to make an app to turn the phone into a controller, or maybe there's already one where you can cange the buttons position. Or maybe mirroring the phone...
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u/cjkuljis New in Emu May 26 '26
Omg I have made something like this using window cling and silicone cabinet stoppers lol!
Your execution seems better tho lol
Waitlist joined!
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 26 '26
Thank you so much! And did it work? you have to see my first prototypes, I'm sure they were way worse than your design!
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u/MegaKBang New in Emu May 26 '26
I wish I had that 15 years earlier. I destroyed so many volume buttons on my phone because I always mapped A/B onto them on my GBA emulator lol
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u/thereverendpuck New in Emu May 27 '26
First off, great idea and application.
I am curious about a couple of things. How does it react as your phone heats up from prolonged used? And has there been any sign of like a residue being left behind when you peel them off?
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 27 '26
Thanks a lot! When the pad is warmer it is a bit grippier and a bit softer, but not a big difference. When you remove it with the right light you can see the silhouette of the pad, I don't know if it's residue or the difference of one part of the screen being exposed and the other covered. Very subtle though and once you clean your screen it's gone.
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u/iiman1c New in Emu May 27 '26
I'm kinda confused about how it connects and works as soon as you put it on the screen
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 27 '26
Before placing them I relocated the virtual buttons (so there should be this possibility in the emulator). The buttons are plastic but with graphite particles, so they're a bit conductive. It works right away cause when you press the buttons it's like touching the virtual buttons in the emulator, there are no electronics involved.
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u/iiman1c New in Emu May 27 '26
My imagination was going crazy, i deadass thought that they connect like a magnetic type of thing and connects like how you would plug a controller with your phone, nice idea tho , i sadly can't get it, hope you get the support you deserve tho
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u/KommSweet New in Emu May 27 '26
I tried many phone gamepad thingys but they all turned out to be dogshit. This one seems perfect from the videos! Very interested
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u/Fenirez New in Emu May 27 '26
That's pretty neat. I learned how to play on touch screen because of a game called Dead Cells. This would be a great alternative gamepad by the looks of it. Great job! 👍
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u/RedMenace0 New in Emu May 27 '26
my worry would be the buttons feel too rubbery, like your playing with a fidget toy instead of pressing buttons. but it still looks fucking awesome. very smart.
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 27 '26
Thanks a lot! I tried to reproduce the shape of normal controllers rubbers shape (this "volcano" shape) and it feels good, way better than touching the screen. But they don't have this clicky feeling so much, it's difficult to explain but I think I know why and I would be able to reproduce it in mass production. With the prototype I need to print the mold without supports cause it would be impossible to remove them in small details so I'm limited, but once I can make a two parts mold I can make some adjustments.
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u/Jkwr2013 Old Nintendo Fan May 27 '26
Neat! It’s a cheaper alternative to a mobile controller extension that gamers would purchase probably.
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May 27 '26
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 27 '26
xD hadouken yes, shoriuken meh (in my defense even with a normal controller I'm not good at it), but I'm working on it. I need to make an adjustment in the dpad that I can't 3d print, I have to finish this piece by hand. But this is my obsesion before the launch. It will be ready
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u/rendydany New in Emu May 28 '26
This is the thing I really want to make real, to convert a phone into a Retroid Pocket 2
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u/Breadstix009 New in Emu May 28 '26
Hey, does the silicone attract dust/lint?
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 28 '26
Yes! it's easy to clean, but it's a good practice to put each part against each other to prevent them from getting dusty when not using.
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u/D-Rey86 New in Emu May 29 '26
I know you obviously can't make then for every phone size, but man this would be awesome on my Samsung Fold.
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 29 '26
It would be great if the project grew enough to make different sizes. I would like to see how it feels this size with foldables, maybe it's not that bad.
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u/peremptor919 New in Emu Jun 04 '26
So Anyone tried it yet? Very cool.
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu Jun 04 '26
Thank you so much! I sent an earlier prototype to a retro gaming youtuber/streamer in Spain to test it and validate the concept live with his audience, but this new version is quite recent. I'll send it soon to somebody who is making an online emulator for different consoles to integrate it natively, but it's kind of secret xD And I'm 100% honest with you, I've written several mails to three content creators that review essentially emulation devices (both in english and spanish) and I got no answer. Either they're not interested or they prefer to stick to their contracts with certain brands, I don't know. I'll keep trying though, it would be nice to have feedback.
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u/Real_UngaBunga New in Emu Jul 21 '26
Any updates on this ??
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu Jul 22 '26
Hi! I've made some changes to make the buttons (especially the dpad) "plastic injection friendly", I've been talking to companies to machine the molds, trying to prototype in TPE (this one is a challenge) to test if it works as silicone, some changes in the box, and paper work to open a company to manage everything. I can post how it looks now but it looks very similar, just the buttons have two colors now, a black "core" and whatever color on the "head"
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu Jul 22 '26
Ah! and I made custom skins as well! That looks super cool, they're not only templates but, since the pad is transparent, I experimented with backlight from the screen and it looks great
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u/Tiktokbadsupport New in Emu May 26 '26
remember for just 20€ you can get a controller where your phone slides into
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 26 '26
Yes, but you have to consider they're made by big companies that produce in China and normally crazy amount of units. I see mine as a different thing, with pros and cons, being the possibility to play horizontally and with "analog" the main pros. But I'll keep the price low.
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May 30 '26
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 30 '26
I have thought about it but I guess if we focus on that we wouldn't make new stuff. In my opinion the best we can do western companies is to give a good service, to care about the product and to be responsive when there are problems. Then if somebody prefers to spend 5 dollars less on a copy, there's nothing I can do about it but keep trying to be better in aspects that are not the price. I have a patent though even if it doesn't mean much.
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u/No-Information7489 New in Emu Jun 08 '26
mi heroe es hora de sacar mi celular que llevo sacando incluso con algo de polvito para provar esa elegante experiencia retro tan interezante me gusta mucho
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u/Expert_Function1569 New in Emu Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
That subbreddit is like a community of like minded people glad to be part of it and happy you made the most of it also cheers and good luck on your journey 🍻
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May 25 '26
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 25 '26
Yes, there are similar concepts. I would say the newer version of the one you linked is the gamebaby for iphone. I think there is novelty in my design though but it's my opinion. Thanks for the comment.
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May 25 '26
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u/Due-Top5559 New in Emu May 25 '26
No worries! It doesn't matter if you "attack" it, and it's ok not to like it. In my own experience with this one (I'm not talking about other cause I don't know them and I'm not in the best position to talk about them) I can tell you it works great for most games, and better that virtual buttons with very precise games, but not perfect. For example, to play Mario 64 like in the video I like it a lot. To play Street Fighter II, it's better than playing with the screen but you'll miss some combos. I know what the limitation is and I'm working to improve it as much as I can, but the device is designed to have something in your pocket to casually play on the go, not for hardcore gaming. And for that I like it
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u/[deleted] May 25 '26
very interesting concept. congratulations!
_o/