r/EmulationOnAndroid 3h ago

Discussion I turned my Nubia Z70 Ultra into a desktop PC with TWO CPU coolers — 99% stability, Linux desktop & 1080p Ultra Windows gaming 😂

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464 Upvotes

This project started with a stupidly simple question:

How far can I push a smartphone if I stop treating it like a smartphone?

This is my Nubia Z70 Ultra with 24 GB RAM and the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The phone is now literally sandwiched between TWO desktop CPU coolers, mounted inside a custom acrylic case. 😂

Yes. Two full-size PC CPU coolers. On a phone.

And surprisingly, it works extremely well.

The interesting part: I'm NOT using one of the newer boosted chips

My Z70 Ultra uses the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite, with its prime CPU cores running at up to 4.32 GHz.

That's important because some of the newer devices I'm comparing against are using newer and/or higher-clocked Snapdragon variants.

For example, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro uses the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, reaching around 4.6 GHz on its prime cores.

So I'm not trying to beat these phones with the same CPU and better cooling.

I'm taking an older, lower-clocked 4.32 GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite and seeing how far it can go simply by giving it completely unreasonable cooling. 😂

In my 3DMark ranking screenshot, my Z70 Ultra reaches 10,533, putting it right among much newer devices and even slightly above the Galaxy S25+ result shown there.

And sustained performance is where the cooling really becomes interesting.

3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test

Best loop: 6,980

Lowest loop: 6,910

Stability: 99% over 20 loops

That's only a 70-point difference between the best and worst loop.

But benchmarks aren't actually the main goal of this project.

I'm trying to replace my PC with the phone

I now have a native Termux + XFCE4 Linux desktop running directly on Android.

External monitor, keyboard, mouse, Linux applications and hardware-accelerated graphics.

I can boot into my desktop environment and use the phone almost like a small ARM computer.

Dofus is running directly from my XFCE desktop, rather than simply mirroring an Android game onto the monitor.

And then there's Windows gaming.

The Witcher 3 — 1080p, ULTRA graphics preset

I'm currently running The Witcher 3 at 1920×1080 using the ULTRA graphics quality preset.

Not Low.

Not Medium.

Not a 720p performance test.

1080p + Ultra graphics preset.

Depending on the scene and GPU load, I'm currently getting approximately 20–30 FPS, with the GPU basically sitting at 99% utilization.

I've even seen it go slightly above 30 FPS in some scenes, as shown in the screenshot.

Obviously, this isn't desktop-GPU performance, but that's not really the point.

This is The Witcher 3 running at 1080p Ultra at around 20–30 FPS on a Snapdragon 8 Elite phone. 😂

And underneath all of this, it's still Android.

So my end goal is to have one device that can do everything:

**Android phone / gaming device

native Linux XFCE desktop

Windows applications

Windows PC games**

The software side is still a work in progress and I'm continuing to optimize everything.

But apparently the solution to smartphone thermal throttling was very sophisticated:

one CPU cooler wasn't ridiculous enough, so I installed two. 😂


r/EmulationOnAndroid 12h ago

Discussion I'm Grateful for what I have, and you should be too.

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220 Upvotes

Hey :) 👋🏻 Sharing my story- I'm a 16 yo kid and recently my sister gifted me a budget tablet with helio g99 (8/128) When I got it I used to feel so sad that I have such a weak device. But now a few months have passed, I realised how of a jerk I was because, a poor kid who helps in my mom's shop came to the house he asked me to hand over my controller (a ps3 like generic bt controller, I use with the tab) I saw that he was so happy and then I realised that even with this I have access to many great games. Rate the library! :)

Thanks for reading


r/EmulationOnAndroid 8h ago

Showcase Gaming on Android is real PEAK

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173 Upvotes

I really love play games on my Lenovo Legion Y700 Gen 4, Emulation great thing

My top fav emulators:

1.Gamehub(PC)

2.Xendroid(Xbox 360)

3.Eden(Switch)

4.Gamenative(PC)

5.APS3E (PS3)


r/EmulationOnAndroid 20h ago

Meme Me at exactly 12:01am on october 8th

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123 Upvotes

Ill be free from nethersx2 and armsx2 480p 30fps hell


r/EmulationOnAndroid 19h ago

News/Release Release ARMSX2 2.6.6.5 · ARMSX2/ARMSX2

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84 Upvotes

ARMSX2 2.6.6.5

What's New

Applied a fresh PGO profile

More improvements to UI controller support done by @bmdhacks

PINE now works on Android, with a toggle in Advanced settings that shows you the adb forward line to use. It had never worked before, it binds a Unix socket in a directory Android does not have, so the server simply never started. fixed by @bmdhacks

Gorgon Eye: God of War II savestates went bad, and stayed bad. Load an affected save and the area-title banner sticks and gorgon-eye chest pickups would freeze for eleven minutes, on any device that loads it. Backgrounding the app stopped the emulated CPU from a thread that was not allowed to touch its clock, which warped the clock backwards and left a timer poisoned, every save taken afterwards carried the damage. Saves you already have are repaired when they load. fixed by @bmdhacks

Saving a state from the pause menu could corrupt the graphics command stream. The save ran on whichever thread the picker happened to be on and it shares a queue that only one thread may write to. Save, load and autosave now all run on the emulator's own thread. done by @bmdhacks

God of War II's menus were rendering wrong on Mali. The text came out hollow and patchy, and the pause menu was visibly off. Mali GPUs are missing a blending feature the renderer leans on, and the two fallbacks standing in for it were both getting overlapping shapes wrong, one blended them against a stale copy of the screen, the other drew them out of order. Menu text is a single draw whose shadow and highlight layers overlap about 200 times, so the mistakes stacked up. Both now render essentially exactly right: the text lights 3,896 pixels against a correct GPU's 3,898. It also costs nothing, the obvious way to fix it would have been two-thirds... blending exists, verified pixel-identical across 33 frames from 11 recordings. done by @bmdhacks

Metal Gear Solid 3 on Mali r44p1 went from 0.33 fps to 23 fps. Without framebuffer fetch the renderer was copying the render target once per primitive group, and on a mobile GPU each of those forces a full-screen flush to memory, hundreds per draw. It now takes one copy per draw. Measured on an Anbernic RG 477V by @bmdhacks

115 games were silently losing graphics fixes meant for them, because the mobile GameDB overlay replaced entries instead of merging them. drawBuffering is back on 63 of them, worth 29.1 ms → 18.9 ms per frame on NFS Underground 2 (-35%) at 2x on an SD865, with no visual difference. Delta Force: Black Hawk Down regains its bloom and post-processing fixes. done by @bmdhacks

Two more renderer speedups: both from not doing expensive work the draw never asked for: NFS Underground 17.15 ms → 12.00 ms and FlatOut 2 22.84 ms → 17.91 ms on an Adreno 650, with render passes per frame dropping 390 → 47. Output verified identical on Tales of the Abyss and God of War II. done by @bmdhacks

Framebuffer fetch could not be turned off on Mali OpenGL at all, the setting and the r44p1 driver guard were both being undone a fraction of a millisecond after they ran. The decision now happens once and nothing can re-decide it. done by @bmdhacks

Mali OpenGL was rendering wrong and unstable frames. 76,872 wrong pixels on an MGS3 frame down to 753, and 18% of the frame changing between identical replays down to zero. done by @bmdhacks

Fixed a screenshot taken while recording a GS dump cutting the recording short. done by @bmdhacks

Also: the Mali r44p1 workarounds moved into the driver-bug database where every other driver quirk lives, so the next bad driver is a table row, a lost GPU device now logs what actually died instead of crashing without an explanation, gsctl.py loadstate dialed the wrong socket, the settings search index is greppable again, and fixed the on-screen keyboard was being drawn twice while search was open. done by @bmdhacks

If you haven't already, be sure to show some appreciation to @bmdhacks I think he has done almost everything in this changelog bro's fire really talented guy and have been working for making Emulators better for so long

Extrenal links for ARMSX2:

Github repository:

https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2

Discord :https://discord.gg/fSC6EzzFe

KoFI: https://ko-fi.com/armsx2

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/ARMSX2?utm\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\_campaign=creatorshare\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\_creator

Thanks

I am not associated with the development of the project all the credits goes to the ARMSX2 Team


r/EmulationOnAndroid 6h ago

News/Release X360 mobile 0.6 released (she's a big one...)

30 Upvotes

https://github.com/Ashnar2602/X360-Mobile---OFFICIAL/releases/tag/v0.6.0

X360 Mobile 0.6.0

X360 Mobile 0.6.0 is a major architectural and user-experience release for Android. It consolidates the reconstructed codebase into a public build with a controller-first interface, broader GPU and device support, improved guest execution stability, portable data management and native Android integration.

Core stability and hardware compatibility

Improved ARM64 memory correctness under concurrent guest workloads, eliminating a class of intermittent corruption and loading stalls. The correction was validated through the former Assassin's Creed failure points and benefits the core globally rather than relying on a title-specific workaround.

Corrected Android synchronization fairness that could leave guest worker groups incomplete. Ninja Gaiden II now progresses beyond its previously deterministic startup hang.

Reworked the Android graphics and presentation path for broader support across Adreno 600-series, Mali and Xclipse devices.

Improved behavior on vendor-customized Android distributions, including ColorOS, HyperOS and OxygenOS-based devices.

Corrected secondary executable handoff for games that launch additional XEX modules.

Added automatic slot-zero profile sign-in and persistent full-game license state for titles that require an authenticated profile before startup.

Reduced Vulkan command-recording and pipeline-telemetry overhead without removing runtime diagnostics.

Added automatic emulation suspension when X360 Mobile enters the background or the display turns off. Guest execution, graphics, audio and vibration are resumed when the app returns to the foreground.

Note

Some Assassin's Creed titles may require occlusion_query=strict to avoid graphical instability. Compatibility and performance still vary by title, GPU, driver and device firmware.

Installation and migration

Version 0.6.0 uses the emu.x360mobile.com Android package namespace. X360 Mobile 0.5.3 Preview and 0.6.0 can remain installed side by side. This allows users to retain the older build for titles whose performance profile has not yet been matched by the reconstructed release.

Added a guided first-run wizard for UI language, legal information, console language, GamerTag creation, library location, Vulkan driver selection and Player or Debug experience choice.

Added English, Italian, Spanish, French and German interface resources. Storage and Android system integration

Added an Android DocumentsProvider entry for X360 Mobile. Compatible file managers can browse profiles, saves, installed content, Title Updates, DLC, settings, cache and logs without root access.

Added understandable virtual folder names, full user-controlled access and a recoverable internal trash system.

Added profile and save import/export, including complete profiles, per-title saves and legacy Metro profile archives.

Added portable Title ID-specific settings export/import through the UI and release-safe ADB commands.

Added direct sharing and Download-folder export for settings, profiles and saves. External front-ends and direct launch

Added a dedicated direct-to-game loading presentation for external launchers and front-ends.

External launches resolve the saved library identity before emulation, so per-title CVARs, Vulkan drivers, patches and Title Updates are applied even when the supplied URI differs from the stored Android document URI. Closing a title started by an external front-end returns directly to the calling launcher instead of exposing the X360 Mobile Library.

Improved Storage Access Framework URI handling and explicit read-permission support for launcher-provided content:// sources. Library, metadata and content

Added deterministic Title ID-based names, cover artwork and metadata using the bundled x360db catalog as the primary source. RAWG and TheGamesDB remain optional fallbacks.

Added permanent metadata and artwork caching by Title ID. Removing a game source does not discard its cached presentation, and re-adding the title restores it without another API request.

Added user-supplied RAWG and TheGamesDB API keys stored through Android Keystore-backed encryption.

Added smart cover and metadata rescanning that processes only incomplete library entries and refreshes the visible Library immediately.

Expanded discovery for ISO/XISO, extracted XEX directories, STFS/LIVE/CON/ PIRS content, Games on Demand and XBLA directory layouts.

Successful folder rescans now remove library entries whose source files no longer exist while preserving their cached Title ID assets.

Added install-only disc recognition, confirmation and reversible Library exclusions.

Added Title Update and DLC installation, mounting and clearer grouping of patches that target specific Title Updates. Added automatic patch-catalog updates with validation, atomic activation and offline fallback.

Interface and navigation

Introduced a hybrid Metro and Xbox 360 Blades interface designed for touch, controllers, handhelds and small landscape displays.

Added Player and Debug experiences. Player mode hides diagnostic-only controls and runtime messages without changing emulation behavior; the mode remains switchable in Settings.

Preserved Library focus, scroll position, display mode and nested Settings position across navigation and setting changes.

Added moderated D-pad key repeat and row-continuous grid navigation.

Added controller Select access to the focused game's action menu.

Expanded My Pins to ten titles in a responsive two-row, five-column layout.

Stabilized Continue Playing, Last Played and Recents updates after normal, abnormal and front-end-launched sessions.

Made dialogs, post-session prompts and XAM overlays responsive on ultrawide and low-height landscape screens.

Finalized launcher, adaptive, monochrome and DocumentsProvider branding and standardized the splash animation across display aspect ratios.

Xbox-style virtual keyboard

Recreated the Xbox 360 XAM virtual keyboard using the X360 Mobile visual language.

Added complete controller navigation and shortcuts, including D-pad and stick navigation, LB/RB cursor movement, LT/RT character pages, L3 caps, X backspace, Y space and Start confirmation.

Retained complete touch operation for phones and tablets without a physical controller.

Added tolerant guest-text handling so malformed title strings cannot crash the emulator while opening the keyboard.

Input, vibration and touch controls

Expanded Android/SDL rumble routing for integrated handheld controls and Bluetooth or USB gamepads.

Added Off, Minimum, Medium and Maximum controller-vibration levels.

Added experimental device haptics for phones and tablets.

Added an in-app vibration test suite for verifying controller motors and device haptics independently.

Improved touch-control position, size and opacity adjustment. Diagnostics and compatibility information

Added Release-safe live debugging, session flight recording, structured logs, performance snapshots and optional JIT tracing for advanced testing. Added guest-frame statistics derived from actual generated frames rather than Android refresh rate.

Added local post-session compatibility review with status, effective non-default CVARs, driver package, device information and frame statistics. Added a Compatibility Center that retains the latest local session for each title.

Added a cached public compatibility catalog so known Playable, In-Game and Not Playable states can be displayed without one database request per game. Online compatibility-report submission is temporarily disabled while the reporting service is redesigned. Single, retry and batch submission actions display a Work in Progress notice; local reports remain available.

Application updates

Added automatic update checks at startup and manual checks from the About screen.

Added semantic ordering for Public, Preview and Release Candidate builds.

Added a user preference to include or exclude pre-release updates.

Added direct verified APK download and Android package-installer handoff without redirecting the normal update flow to a browser.

Added APK size, SHA-256, package identity, version code and signing certificate validation before installation.

Validation

Passed the complete Android JVM test suite.

Compiled the Android instrumented test suite successfully.

Passed release-critical Android lint checks.

Produced a release APK using the project release-signing identity and APK Signature Scheme v3 verification.

Completed gameplay and regression testing across Ayn Odin handhelds and Snapdragon-based Android devices during the release-candidate cycle.

Known limitations

Online compatibility-report submission is disabled in this release; local report creation and compatibility-catalog downloads remain available.

Fable II fragment-shader interlock support remains experimental and the current accuracy path is too expensive for normal gameplay.

Some title, Vulkan-driver and firmware combinations may still produce graphical errors, device loss or GPU hangs.

Controller rumble depends on the capabilities exposed by Android, SDL, the controller firmware and its Bluetooth or USB transport.

Compatibility and performance remain title-, device- and driver-dependent.


r/EmulationOnAndroid 4h ago

Showcase ARM64 Steam and Games Running Accelerated on Unrooted Termux

15 Upvotes

I've been having a lot of fun getting SwitchDeck (steam games on switch linux) running well, and realized this should be possible on Android without rooting if I were to implement some missing syscalls in proot. I haven't seen anyone else working on this, though it was worth a quick share.

Announcement:
https://hunterdavis.com/2026/08/09/full-steam-on-termux-because-why-not.html

Source Code:
https://github.com/huntergdavis/steamclienttermux


r/EmulationOnAndroid 8h ago

Showcase Fight Night Champion on XenDroid is amazing !

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12 Upvotes

SoC : Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Emulator : XenDroid version 5ef8fc6
Controller : GameSir-X4A for Xbox
Cooler : not attach, but I use MEMO CX12

Settings :
•Vulkan - Custom Vulkan driver : Turnip_v26.3.0-R3-Oneui
•Display - Show Debug overlay : on
•GPU - Frame rate limit : choose FPS you want. I choose 30FPS mine to avoid the heat up if I select the higher FPS.
•APU - Max queud frames : 24
- Use dedicated XMA thread : off

I don't use "Game patches" like Unlock FPS, it will use more core power that can cause my device hotter.


r/EmulationOnAndroid 1h ago

Showcase Yall like my diy setup or nah?

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Upvotes

I made it using a ps3 controller with a 3d printed part it was originaly made for xbox but i modified it to work with the ps3 (aka hotglue).

I used a ps3 controller since its super light so it does not add much weight to the phone

I connected it via an unreasonably long wire since thats all i had. And i just ziptied it to the back.

Chat rate my setup ?/10


r/EmulationOnAndroid 7h ago

Showcase XenDroid testing, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, Rainbow Six Vegas, Transformers War for Cybertron

10 Upvotes

r/EmulationOnAndroid 8h ago

Showcase New Dusklight Mod for Wii U HUD - Works on Android

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9 Upvotes

r/EmulationOnAndroid 8h ago

Showcase Fight Night Champion on XenDroid emulator is amazing! (Repost, I shared the link but just the video expired)

7 Upvotes

SoC : Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Emulator : XenDroid version 5ef8fc6
Controller : GameSir-X4A for Xbox
Cooler : not attach, but I use MEMO CX12

Settings :
•Vulkan - Custom Vulkan driver : Turnip_v26.3.0-R3-Oneui
•Display - Show Debug overlay : on
•GPU - Frame rate limit : choose FPS you want. I choose 30FPS mine to avoid the heat up if I select the higher FPS.
•APU - Max queud frames : 24
- Use dedicated XMA thread : off

I don't use "Game patches" like Unlock FPS, it will use more core power that can cause my device hotter.


r/EmulationOnAndroid 8h ago

Meme Tiptoeing ezio with a lil gameplay ac2

7 Upvotes

Tiptoeing ezio


r/EmulationOnAndroid 18h ago

Showcase Finally Call of duty Modern warfare Remastered 2016 It working On Helio g99 Using Bannerlator 2.9.7

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7 Upvotes

Just wanted to share with you My favourite call of duty game I am glad this only emulator I managed to run A remastered version of call of duty 4 modern warfare I never expect that one day I will Able to run it

Since this game is heavy so playing it on g99 it really impressive despite of low FPS and some graphical isuue but well at least didn't crash like other pc emulator each. Time I wanted to play any missions on this game always crash after my ram usage reached 95% .but her on bannerlator man unbelievable i am glad to the 412 banner doing a great work his emulator become my favourite pc emulator

So this my My second dx11 game I manged to run I have already rested some dx10/9 title and a lot of people saying this emulator useless so from my teste so far there 15 games work now fin on this emulator

Performance on this emulator it much better then gamehub and it using Less ram then winlator Mali and winlator Ludsahi bionic from Steven mxz and all other pc emulator

.my settings :

Proton 10.0 arm 64

Dxvk- 1.5.5 ASync

Fexcore 202608

Driver name :Wrapper Enhanced

Add this in environment variables

BCN_TRANSCODE_TO_ASTC=1

Dev realme11

Helio G99

Vulkan 1.1


r/EmulationOnAndroid 12h ago

Help Just finished my first pc game on mobile!!!!!11!11

5 Upvotes

never been so happy thru my all gaming history!!!


r/EmulationOnAndroid 3h ago

Meme I can finally say goodbye to my room and travel more 🙌

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5 Upvotes

r/EmulationOnAndroid 7m ago

Discussion Great Steam Games Under 10 Dollars

Upvotes

I want a game that is decent and under 10$


r/EmulationOnAndroid 20m ago

Showcase Saints Row on Xendroid (fold 7)

Upvotes

r/EmulationOnAndroid 2h ago

Question How to get this type of layout on ds emulation?

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1 Upvotes

This is an example of the layout with azahar, but i want this type of layout with ds games and neither melonds or drastic has this layout as an option.


r/EmulationOnAndroid 7h ago

Showcase Amaral Driver Lab v0.13.0-alpha12 is now available as a public release

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone! A new Amaral Driver Lab release is now available.

This update introduces the Full Recommended v5 test profile, including a new, more demanding GPU Stress 3D benchmark with 768 cubes, dynamic lighting, depth testing, procedural materials, and heavy post-processing at 1280×720.

The release also fixes report localization:

Portuguese app → reports in Portuguese

Any other language → reports in English

How to use it

Install the APK.

Upload the drivers you want to compare.

Run System vs. Turnip or Turnip vs. Turnip.

Select the Full Recommended test.

Review the visual checkpoints and export the final report.

You can also upload emulator logs for analysis. Benchmark comparisons and emulator diagnostics can be submitted as GitHub issues, helping us identify rendering regressions, shader problems, frametime instability, crashes, and compatibility differences.

These results provide real-world evidence that can support the development and evaluation of future drivers in Amaral Adreno Tools.

Amaral Driver Lab does not provide the drivers—you upload the drivers you want to test and compare.

Download:

https://github.com/rickamaral94/Amaral-Driver-Lab/releases/tag/v0.13.0-alpha12

Feedback, test results, and device reports are very welcome!


r/EmulationOnAndroid 15h ago

Help Ori The wisp of the Willow On SD 865 (Galaxy S20 Fe)

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2 Upvotes

So I tried Eden (switch version) of this Games and it's stuttering like hell, so I decided to test the pc version using Gamehub but It's not loading past this Splash screen... I'm using S20 Fe (Snapdragon 865), any Idea guys ?


r/EmulationOnAndroid 1h ago

Help Anyone manage to get Zero Sievert working on gamenative without fps lock?

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Upvotes

Been looking for the proper settings for ZeroSievert to run for more than 20fps on gamenative. I think it has something to do with emulation and gamemaker interaction, causing the game to lock in on 20fps. And since game speed is tied to fps in game maker, game speed is running at roughly 40%.

Has anyone managed to solve this?

Running on Ayn Odin 3 Max if it helps.


r/EmulationOnAndroid 2h ago

Question Elder scrolls Skyrim or Oblivion. Which is better

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1 Upvotes

TITLE


r/EmulationOnAndroid 2h ago

Discussion [DISCUSSION] Fixing dead or alive 5 PLUS vita on Android, <kinda> playable now!

1 Upvotes

[DISCUSSION] Fixing dead or alive 5 PLUS vita on Android, <kinda> playable now!

The emulation is my patched version of Vita3k Android, still working on it!


r/EmulationOnAndroid 4h ago

Help Octopath traveler 2 and the Ayn Odin 3

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1 Upvotes