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Looking for an Android emulator (piefed.blahaj.zone)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
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  • Runs on Android 12
  • Supports, at the very least, GB, GBA, NES, SNES, Genesis, and Game Gear
  • Takes input from physical buttons
  • Lets you hide on-screen buttons

I have a Sidephone with the Mini Controller keypad and I want to play games on it. There's a bespoke (unofficial) emulator for the phone called SideRetro, but it only supports GB, GBA, NES, and Genesis, and it's vibe-coded, so I'd rather use something else. Tried Lemuroid but it doesn't take input from the physical buttons and can't hide the on-screen buttons.

Edit: It's been tough finding a good selection of apps that recognize my physical buttons, let me hide the on-screen buttons, and play what I want. RetroArch seemed to do the trick, but if I hide the on-screen buttons there's also no way to open the RetroArch menu that I can find.

For now it looks like I'm sticking with SideRetro for the games it can play -- even if the dev uses AI to code it, I don't think it can actually harm my phone, and it's not like I'm paying for it. Nostalgia GG works great for Game Gear (it has ads, but thankfully only on the launcher) and an option no one mentioned yet for SNES, Snes9x, which turned out to be perfect.

Thanks for all the input, everyone!

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[–] 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

You didn't mention RetroArch, have you had any issues with that one? I know people have opinions on it, but it's always worked for me.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    As long as they don't go above N64/PS1. I would say that RetroArch is great. Get some core recommendations, some are better than others.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 child)

    On the SoC in their phone, even N64 through Retroarch is a stretch for many games. PS1 will generally be OK, but I'd still recommend a stand-alone emulator for that, too. Everything earlier than that generation should be fine, though.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    I have a retroid 4 pro and it plays PS2 fine. The Qualcomm chips in many phones are more powerful than it's MediaTek Dimensity.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago

    You're right, my apologies. When I saw that the SoC seemed to be similar to the MTK I had in my last phone, I thought it was less powerful, and my phone could just barely scrape through a handful of simpler GCN and PS2 games. But after reading your comment I looked more closely and the SoC in OP's phone is actually a fair bit more powerful. So yes, PS2 and GCN should be no problem.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    I have Opinions about RetroArch, but I've downloaded it now and it seems to work fine.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago

    I used to really dislike Retroarch, but ever since they started defaulting to the ozone UI, I have less complaints about the usability of it. Still prefer standalones because their performance is usually better, personally, but it isnt as bad as it used to be IMO.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago

    I use RetroArch for all the systems mentioned. It's not a simple, pick-up-and-play app, but I don't think it's too hard to get the basics working, and there's plenty of documentation and community support online.

    RA maps physical controllers (configurably) to a logical internal "RetroArch controller", which is then mapped in turn to the specific emulated controller by each emulation core. So as long as the phone's mini controller pad connects to Android as a standard controller, there should be no problems, including remapping however you wish.

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