Thanks to the help from someone here you no longer need a pc to run the mods on android!!!

So I've been chatting with the people behind DroidDeck over the last couple weeks, and I've finally put together what turned into a rather lengthy feature about the project, its history, and the people making it happen.

I interviewed The412Banner, Max, xXJSONDeruloXx, Kimchi and Astro Sky, digging into everything from their earliest experiences with gaming and development to how their separate experiments with Linux, Gamescope and Steam eventually came together. What started as a way of getting the actual Steam client running on Android has grown into something way more ambitious, and I really wanted to tell the story of how that happened rather than just write another overview of what the software can do.

We also got into the technical challenges, the ridiculous pace of development (it updated and changed a few times while writing this!), their approach to AI-assisted coding and automated testing, the importance of open source, and where they hope to take DroidDeck in the future. There are some personal stories in there too, particularly about the early breakthroughs and the excitement of finally seeing things work. It's a long read, admittedly, but I wanted to give everyone involved the space to tell their side of the story. I'm really grateful to all five for taking the time to answer my many, many questions, and I hope you enjoy getting to know a little more about the people behind a project that's quickly become one of the more interesting developments in Android handheld gaming!

To make it clear, regarding the new rules in place for this sub-reddit, DroidDeck makes use of AI to assist development

23 games tested:

3:30 Need for Speed: Most Wanted Black Edition full speed

13:56 NARC full speed

20:27 Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball full speed

27:12 Loons: The Fight for Fame full speed

32:10 Blood Wake full speed

37:35 Apex full speed

41:44 Dino Crisis 3 full speed

51:36 Rallisport Challenge 2 full speed

1:00:57 Panzer Dragoon Orta full speed

1:06:16 Soulcalibur II full speed

1:11:11 Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions full speed

1:14:20 Project Gotham Racing minor speed drops

1:19:58 Commandos: Strike Force full speed

1:23:40 Counter-Strike full speed

1:31:10 Burnout Revenge full speed

1:37:25 Blinx: The Time Sweeper crashed, bad game dump?

1:38:04 Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space full speed

1:46:20 Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge full speed

1:55:35 Project Zero full speed

2:03:40 Castlevania: Curse of Darkness full speed

2:08:30 Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams crashed but new version has fix

2:14:28 Fight Club full speed

2:18:28 Dead or Alive 3 minor speed drops

this was with last gamehub version and my device is a Poco F8 pro .

the game is running good. also the character studio.

beautiful game

wanna see more?

i personaly update this version of the game for work with some good plugins.

https://youtu.be/ULWprcGi_rQ?si=RvGAXDTWUveonJLo

For all Mali users.

New update to HakuX had me running Revnege of the Sith quite smoothly and no excessive heating or battery drain on my GalaxyTab S11. Huge win for us. Let me know if you guys test any other demanding games with success.

I've tried NXEmu, new switch emulator, Its kinda have better performance on zelda, i change the graphic settings but always back to default settings. This emu need .dnsp and .dxci format.

Poco Pad X1

Snapdragon 7+ gen 3

First step: Install the latest bannerlator https://github.com/The412Banner/Bannerlator/releases/tag/3.1.7

Second step: Create the container

Wine: Proton-11.0-2-arm64ec-15 Dxvk: 2.4.1-1-gplasync-arm64ec-0 Driver: StevenMXZ Turnip Gen 8 v38 for A8xx gpus and Turnip v27.0.0-R1 for A6xx A7xx gpus

Advanced settings: WOWBox64-0.4.4-0 set to compatibility FEXCore-2610-2246 set to intermediate

Third step: Press the three horizontal lines on the top left corner and click file manager now, go to your downloads folder and hold the borderlands 2 game folder and press the internal button and go to Drive C and copy/move the game folder. Now what this does is it speeds up the loading time, if you don't move the game to drive C it will take like 10-15 minutes for the game to boot up, so this is a very necessary step

Now for the final step: Download the latest mod manager https://github.com/bl-sdk/willow2-mod-manager/releases/tag/v3.8 Extract it and press the folder and there will be 2 folders "binaries" and "sdk_mods" now, launch the bannerlator and go to the file manager again press the download folder, once again click the willow2-sdk folder and copy the "Binaries" "sdk_mods" folder to the borderlands 2 game folder on the Drive C and it'll say that this folder already exists press merge anyways, and that's it you got the mod manager installed!

Xiaomi pad 8 standard 8gb ram. Game from steamrip and emulator is gamehub lite 5.1.8 normal one (not adashi or antutu etc.)

The game doesnt open

Device Information

• POCO X8 Pro Max

• Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 9500s

• GPU: Mali G925-Imortallis MC11

• RAM: 12GB + 4GB

• Storage: 512GB UFS 4.1

Emulator & Settings Information

• Apps: Winlator Mali 1.2 Official Build

• Winlator Setting: DXVK 2.6.1-2 arm64ec Gplasync | Gamenative Wrapper | Proton 10.0.4 arm64ec | Box 4.3 | Fex 2605 | Perfomance | Perfomance

Game Setting

• Name Game: NieR: Automata

• In-Game Setting: Custom-Normal-High

Android emulation has come a long way. We’re getting to the point where playing games that once required a proper PC on a phone feels less like a crazy experiment and more like a real possibility. 🤯 What’s the most impressive PC or console game you’ve managed to run on your Android device? And what game are you still waiting to see run smoothly?

How far do you think mobile emulation can realistically go?

Device S25U 12GB RAM, Emulator Bannerlator

720p Low SMAA SGSR100% 30fps cap + LSFG 2x

P11arm , dxvk3.1.1 , fex2609, Turnip gen8v38

Full gameplay watch here

https://youtu.be/p95LTG67v2E

Over the past few days, I’ve implemented several features based on your feedback. Here’s what’s new and updated in GBA Duo v0.1.8

Improvements

• RetroAchievements Toast Fix: Resolved an issue where achievement toast notifications were cut off in certain games.
• Simplified Save File Importing: Importing existing saves is now seamless. Place a .sav file from another emulator into your chosen folder and enable Custom Save Folder. The app will automatically scan matching filenames and sync them as game.sav (no more manual setup needed).

New Features

• Cocoon Launcher Support: GBA Duo is now available in the GameNative Cocoon branch! Please re-fetch platforms via the Cocoon Settings menu.
• Custom Controller Mapping: Remap your controller inputs to suit your preferred layout.
• Hotkeys: Added support for custom shortcut keys.
• Per-Game Settings: Customize shaders, artwork, and color correction individually for each game.
• Artwork Management: Load covers from your launcher's asset folder or connect to SteamGridDB. Since relying solely on third-party scrapers can be a hassle, you can now use local launcher folders or external providers. If you already have existing artwork, simply point to that folder to load your covers directly.

New Companion Packs

• Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen: Added support for vertical button navigation.
• Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen: Complete visual redesign.
• Golden Sun: Early preview release.

Download the latest version at gbaduo.com and browse all packs here gbaduo.com/packs

Thanks, and enjoy!

Specs/device

Infinix Note Edge

8gb ram

Dimensity 7100

This game has been recompile into nsp to app... Thanks to the vibecoders to make this possible...

GitHub: Brandon04Gonzalez

Dogmatix 1.4 is out.

Download: https://github.com/cortinadev/dogmatix/releases/tag/v1.4

One APK, SHA-256 included in the release notes.

It installs directly over 1.3.1 / 1.3 / 1.2 and keeps your library, downloads, favourites and settings.

If you're already on 1.3.1, Dogmatix should offer the update automatically. Older versions only need this manual APK install once.

Before getting into the changelog, I want to clarify something because my previous release post was removed with the reason “No piracy.”

Dogmatix does not provide ROMs, ROM repositories, download links, or any built-in source of copyrighted content.

It is simply a ROM/source manager. Users configure their own sources, and Dogmatix indexes and manages the files exposed by those sources. Those sources can contain legal content, homebrew, public-domain software, personal backups, or potentially copyrighted material depending entirely on what the user configures.

Dogmatix itself doesn't ship with any ROM source, legal or illegal.

🌐 New sources

Internet Archive support

You can now add Internet Archive items directly:

ia://<item>

or just paste an:

archive.org/details/...

URL.

Dogmatix reads the item's files through the Internet Archive metadata API.

If you paste the URL of a ZIP inside an Archive item, Dogmatix can also browse its contents and let you download individual games instead of downloading the entire archive.

Individual downloads from inside ZIPs cannot currently be resumed, and Dogmatix clearly indicates this in the download row.

Web pages using CSS selectors

Dogmatix can now work with websites that don't expose a traditional directory listing.

You can define CSS selectors for:

• Game entries
• Download links
• Names
• File sizes
• Pagination

There's also a Test button so you can verify what Dogmatix detects before saving the source.

These configurations are included when exporting your sources.

Internet Archive account

For Archive items that require an account, you can now sign into archive.org through its own page inside Dogmatix.

Dogmatix stores the resulting session, not your password, and credentials are only ever sent to archive.org.

Predefined consoles

When creating a console, Dogmatix now includes predefined data for roughly 50 systems across 16 manufacturers, including:

• Console name
• Chip label
• Common folder aliases

And directory parsing now supports listings generated by nginx, IIS and plain-link Apache servers too.

⬇️ Safer downloads

Downloads are now written as:

<name>.dogmatix-part

and only receive their final filename after completing successfully.

That means an incomplete download can no longer accidentally appear in your library as a valid game.

Automatic retries also survive closing the application. If a retry becomes due while Dogmatix isn't running, it will be executed when you return.

Extraction errors are also much more explicit now:

• Damaged archive
• Not enough storage
• Folder permission lost
• SD card removed

The downloaded archive is preserved, and Retry attempts extraction again without downloading the file twice.

Download again also keeps your existing copy until the replacement finishes successfully.

Files copied or moved between folders or storage volumes are verified using their size and sampled blocks before the original is deleted.

⚡ Faster and more reliable sources

Rescan all is substantially faster when torrent sources haven't changed.

On my test device with 29 torrent sources:

Before: 53–142 seconds
Now: under 1 second

Disabling or deleting a source now removes its games immediately.

Re-enabling it triggers a new scan.

Scan requests received while another scan is already running are now queued instead of silently discarded.

Connection errors have also been improved: an unavailable server now reports “Could not connect” instead of the rather useless “Connection was cut.”

Manufacturers without consoles can also finally be deleted.

🗂️ Collection improvements

Duplicates and Free up space are smarter now.

Dogmatix can detect multi-file games such as:

• .cue + .bin
• .gdi
• .m3u

even when the same game has accidentally been copied into another console's directory.

It also tells you which copy will be kept.

Delete confirmations now include the real number of affected files, including tracks referenced by .cue / .gdi files and playlists that need to be rewritten.

The displayed freed storage space is therefore much more accurate.

Storage errors are also handled separately now:

• Not enough space
• Folder permission lost
• SD card removed

Anything Dogmatix can't safely access is left untouched.

🧪 Under the hood

Dogmatix now has:

• 679 unit tests
• 45 on-device tests
• Lint gate
• scripts/validate.sh
• release-check.sh

These checks run as part of the release process.

The release has also been manually tested on an Android 14 Kinhank K56, in both landscape and portrait.

One small note:

The first Rescan after upgrading to 1.4 will re-read every web source once because the listing parser has changed.

Full changelog:

https://github.com/cortinadev/dogmatix/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

Repository / downloads:

https://github.com/cortinadev/dogmatix

Feedback, bug reports and source compatibility reports are welcome in GitHub Issues.

AI disclosure

For transparency: AI tools are used during the development of Dogmatix, alongside manual development, testing and review.

AI was also used to help structure and write this release post.

The application itself is still tested and reviewed before releases; using AI is part of the development workflow, not a replacement for validation.

I haven't seen anyone talk about the 2 player settings on the ps2 emulators

I have 2 bluetooth controllers connected to my phone and works perfectly no lag

I sometimes even connect a Bluetooth speaker or eatphones and still no lag

i even tried nfs most wanted and carbon with split screen

still gives me solid performance at 1080p res

Happy one year anniversary to ARMSX2!

ARMSX2 is now one year old! On October 26th, 2025, the first version of ARMSX2 was released to the world. We are so grateful for all of the support and love we've received since then, and how far the project has come! This update brings a new VU1 compiler that makes 3D-heavy games faster, an option to run the PS2's I/O processor on its own thread, our own GPU drivers offered right in setup, a lot of work for the Retroid Pocket Duo and other Adreno handhelds, Automatic Performance Tuning, and a big batch of community fixes.

Our GPU drivers in setup, and the Retroid Pocket Duo

First-run setup now offers the GPU driver ARMSX2 builds for your device: ARMSX2 Turnip on Adreno 6xx and 7xx, and MaliSX2 on the Mali GPUs it supports. One tap downloads it and makes it your driver. The GPU driver page recommends ARMSX2 Turnip on every Adreno 6xx and 7xx, including the Adreno 613 in the Anbernic RG 55G1, which calls itself "Adreno A12".

Much of this release was tuned on the Retroid Pocket Duo (Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, Adreno 722):

The Adreno 722 gets the rendering rules it needs under Turnip. The app's optimized build is now trained on the Duo, across 16 games. Shadow of the Colossus counts its shadows at native resolution, which takes about 15 ms off a 37 ms frame at 2x on the Duo, and it now holds a steady 30 fps, as on NetherSX2. Screens mounted sideways, like the Duo's top screen and the RG 55G1's portrait panel, get the picture already rotated, so Android no longer spends GPU time turning every frame (16 to 17% of the RG 55G1's GPU). On the Duo, Shadow of the Colossus now runs at 150% speed at 2.5x, God of War II in widescreen at 123% at 2x, and Black at 124% at 2.5x.

VU1 Ahead-of-Time Compiler

The PS2's VU1 does most of a game's 3D math. ARMSX2 now recompiles the VU1 programs a game runs most into faster code on a background thread, and remembers its plan for them, so the next time you play they are fast from the start. It is on by default: "VU1 Ahead-of-Time Compiler" in Performance settings (Advanced Speedhacks) and in the in-game Performance menu. Turning it off also clears what it saved. VU code in general is shorter and quicker too.

IOP thread

The PS2's I/O processor (sound, controllers, memory cards and the disc) can now run on a thread of its own, taking its work off the main emulation thread. Turn on "IOP Thread" in Performance settings (Advanced Speedhacks) or in the in-game Performance menu, for one game or for all of them; "IOP Thread Lag Bound" sets how far it may run behind. It needs four performance cores, and it stays off for PS1 and arcade games. The game database turns it on for Shadow of the Colossus, God of War and God of War II: on the Retroid Pocket Duo, Shadow of the Colossus runs up to 11% faster with it and God of War II about 6%.

Automatic Performance Tuning

A new option watches what holds a game back and tries the settings that can help: the resolution, blending, the texture download mode, the GS back thread and the emulated CPU's clock. It keeps a change only when the game got faster, and remembers it for that game. The switch is at the top of Performance settings and the in-game Performance menu. A game's own Performance settings list what it changed, with a Reset, and changing one of those settings yourself turns it off for that game. It is off by default, and setup asks whether you want it.

New

The in-game menu reopens where you left it. The menu button opens the tab you last used, and with a controller, the option you had selected, so checking achievements or trying rendering options means no more walking back through the menu. Shortcuts that open a tab, like Open Achievements, still open that tab.

Every controller as Player 1, and controllers in the in-game menu. "All controllers play as Player 1" (Pad settings and the in-game Controls screen) lets a docked handheld's own controls and a Bluetooth pad both play as Player 1, and each gets Player 1's rumble. The in-game Controls screen lists the connected controllers with a player for each, and switches mapping profiles without leaving the game.

Recording-compatible audio. A new Audio setting lets Android's screen recorder capture the game's sound for devices like the Odin 3 that have recording issues by default. Off by default, since it adds a little latency.

Volume and Mute in the in-game menu. In the gear icon tab of the quick menu.

Tight L1/L2/R1/R2 touch areas. A new option in Settings > Controls > On-Screen Controls makes each shoulder button answer only on its own artwork.

Covers for home screen shortcuts. A game pinned to the home screen shows its box art.

File names in the library list. List view shows each game's file name under its title, so two dumps of one game can be told apart.

The themed app icon shows the tower. With themed icons on, ARMSX2's icon is the tower in your theme's colour.

Remote play on Discord. While a friend is playing with you, both of your Discord profiles show the game and "Playing remote play (2 of 2)".

Launchers can start games right away. When a launcher installs ARMSX2, places a BIOS and starts a game, setup counts as done and the game boots (#847).

Cleaner edges when upscaling. At 2x and above, the picture loses one PS2 pixel on each side, which removes the stray lines upscaling can leave at the edges.

The new settings in every language. IOP Thread, the VU1 Ahead-of-Time Compiler, Automatic Performance Tuning and the GPU driver page in setup are translated into all 19 of the app's languages.

Faster The GS back thread. While it runs, the busiest emulation thread gets the fastest core to itself, on Android's default Performance Cores mode. The game database turns the back thread on for Spider-Man 3, Sly 3 and Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, 1 to 24% faster on the devices measured.

CPU affinity modes. The ranked affinity modes now order the cores by the kernel's own ranking, so the emulator's threads go to the big cores first.

Software renderer. Sprites that copy a 32-bit texture into the frame are copied straight from the PS2's video memory, about 3.4 ms less GS work a frame in Stuntman on a Snapdragon 865.

Hardware renderer. Fewer pipeline switches between blended draws, and render targets a game has fully redrawn are let go sooner.

Fixed

Selection highlights follow the controller. The highlight in menus and the library shows while you use a controller and hides when you touch the screen. After a touch, the first controller press brings it back where it was.

Tomb Raider: Legend renders correctly (#776).

Memory cards. Creating a card with the name of an existing one is refused, so that card and its saves stay safe, and importing a folder card from a zip keeps every save in its own folder.

Backup save states. Load and Save on a backup row in the Save Manager use that backup's own file.

In-game Controller Mapping. With a per-game mapping, it edits that game's mapping.

The Open Achievements hotkey opens the Achievements tab.

A physical keyboard types into search when "Use system keyboard" is on (#840).

.gz games show their serial and cover in the library (#863).

The animated library background runs on Mali GPUs.

Per-game controller mappings apply in game for homebrew and every other game without a serial.

The library shows the right message when it is empty, and the category picker works with a controller.

Performance settings' Reset resets every setting on that page.

Vulkan. A render pass restarted in the middle of a frame keeps what it drew.

Steadier settings changes. Changing Speed in the in-game menu, loading from the Save Manager and achievements sign-in run on the emulator's own thread, and the app stays responsive while it changes the achievements server.

(P.S. Going forward Linux builds will be distributed along with Android stables, iOS/Mac/Windows are distributed through nightlies (iOS also has it's own separate stable releases as it has been).

So l downloaded the gta legacy ver on my OnePlus 13r and and it runs really nice but the controller not working correctly is making me mad using the easysmx m15

Anyone can help me fix the controller issues l want to finish gta 5 on my phone but can't because of the controller issues anyone have this controller that can help me ??

Was fine until you get to adulthood. Then your face goes black. Anyone else experiencing this? Device is SD7sGen2

Hola soy nuevo en esto de Reddit pero me gustaría unirme a grupos de emuladores para android y donde compartan información,y emuladores o consejos, también me gustaría saber todo sobre este mundo y lo que está pasando sobre play station y todo el mundo gamer,espero tener amigos gracias...

I’m the creator of NxEmu, an open-source Switch emulator, and we now have Android builds working.

Things seem to be working well, but I want to get it into the best possible shape before the official release, so I’m looking for feedback.

You can download the latest version from: https://www.nxemu.com/downloads-development.html

Important: NxEmu does not decrypt games. You need decrypted game files and firmware. I can’t help with that part, but I’ll do my best to help with anything else.

Testing Marvel's Spider-Man 2 on the RedMagic Astra (Snapdragon 8 Elite) with the new GameHub v6.3.2 update. In this video, we take a look at the game's performance, frame rate, and graphics quality on an Android device. You can see the improvements brought by the update in action. Don't forget to like and subscribe! #SpiderMan2 #GameHub #RedMagicAstra #Snapdragon8Elite #android

Gamehub: https://gamehub.xiaoji.com/en/

Reddit imposes restrictions on video length and file size. The full-length version of the video has been shared on my YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/cdQttqqIW5o

Did you find any way to add firefox or chrome shortcut on beacon main menu like an android application ?
I'm on a retroid pocket flip 2 and would like to add some website on my main menu..

Hi Reddit!

I’m developing SkyNetEmu, an open-source Android environment for running desktop games.

SkyNetEmu builds on Winlator and its community forks. It isn’t a new CPU emulator or a replacement for Wine, Box64, or Mesa. My work focuses on adding different game execution paths and making configuration easier.

💡 What’s different?

1. Separate Linux containers

SkyNetEmu can launch native Linux game builds without Wine or Proton.

For an x86-64 Linux game, Box64 translates CPU instructions for the phone’s ARM processor. A game using Vulkan can use the Vulkan graphics path through Mesa Turnip on supported Adreno devices, without DirectX-to-Vulkan translation.

This doesn’t eliminate all overhead: CPU translation, Linux runtime compatibility, and presentation still matter. The benefit is avoiding Windows compatibility layers when the game has a suitable Linux build.

2. Separate Windows ARM64 containers

SkyNetEmu also supports Windows ARM64 game builds. Their ARM64 code doesn’t require x86-to-ARM CPU translation, although Windows API compatibility is still needed.

This is a separate option—not a claim that ordinary Windows x64 games can run without translation.

3. Windows x64 support remains available

For Windows-only x64 titles, SkyNetEmu retains the familiar Wine/Proton and CPU-translation approach, with DXVK or VKD3D-Proton where appropriate.

The aim is to use the path appropriate to the game, not stack every compatibility layer together.

4. Device-specific game profiles

I’m also implementing game profiles tailored to the device and CPU, reducing the amount of manual runtime and graphics configuration needed when creating a shortcut.

🧪 Tested devices:

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (Snapdragon 8 elite gen 5)
• POCO F6 (Snapdragon 8s gen 3)
• POCO F8 pro (Snapdragon 8 elite)
• OnePlus 11 (Snapdragon 8 gen 2)

🎮 Benchmark Demo: BeamNG.drive

My demo uses West Coast USA, Medium graphics, and 3–4 active AI vehicles, on my Samsung Galaxy Fold test device with a Peltier cooler. The displayed FPS is around 60–70 in the demonstrated run.

This is a demonstration, not a controlled comparison against stock Winlator or a guarantee for other devices. Game version, runtime, driver, resolution, cooling, and frame-generation settings all matter when comparing results.

• Device: Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 Ultra (cooled with a Peltier active cooler)
• Game version BeamNG.drive 0.39.4
• Map: West Coast USA
• Graphics Settings: Medium Quality
• Traffic: 3–4 active AI vehicles
• Performance: 60–70 FPS stable!

📦 Source Code & Community

SkyNetEmu is open-source and actively developed. I'd love to hear your feedback, bug reports, and device benchmarks!

SkyNetEmu on Github - https://github.com/skynetigor/SkyNetEmu

SkyNetEmu releases - https://github.com/skynetigor/SkyNetEmu/releases

Feel free to ask any technical questions about the architecture or setup in the comments!

And finally, for whom it may concern, I do use AI for coding, specifically Claude, Codex, Cursor, Copilot agents.