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The best emulators of game consoles for Android



Game consoles appeared a long time ago, many of us began our journey into the world of games with these small devices. Some of the games that were popular on SNES, Sega, PlayStation, remain popular until now. New versions of some hits are appearing on the latest gaming consoles. For example, forever alive Mortal Combat. Now they are going to revive Crash Bandicoot.

Sometimes you want to play not in the novelties, but in the old games - those that we played many years ago. This can be done - in the markets and in the network there are old used consoles, accessories, games. But there is a more affordable option - emulators of game consoles. Thanks to emulators, you can not waste old consoles, cartridges, discs with games. Programs of this kind are many, they are available for various platforms. Today we will look at the best, time-tested and many players versions of emulators of game consoles for Android OS.

The game console emulator is a software shell that emulates the operation of the hardware of the device itself. Developing an emulator is not so easy - it requires both programming experience and knowledge of accurate information about the principles of operation of the emulated device itself. Most emulators can be divided into two groups, including “simple” and “composite” programs. Emulators provide even more functionality than old consoles (for example, saving in games for Dandy and Sega).
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With simple it is easy - you need to install the program, download the image of the game, and everything - you can enjoy the process of passing. Settings in such programs at least. "Compound" require additional components - these are BIOS prefixes (usually a .bin file) and various dll plugins. For the vast majority of emulators of consoles for Android, plug-ins are not needed. But the BIOS is needed. These files are protected by the rights of the manufacturer, so that the developers of emulators can not embed them - otherwise such an emulator will not get into the Google software catalog. You need to search for the BIOS on the network - there are many sites where these files are shared.

Need and images of games. Their emulator developers also do not have the right to build in their software. Images, or ROM, are available on the Internet. For Sega or PlayStation, the number of ROM reaches many hundreds. Now on the Internet you can find images of even very rare games that were previously difficult to obtain in the store.

Oldest Systems


ColecoVision


ColEm Deluxe



This game console is not known to everyone. It first appeared on the market in 1982. It became popular thanks to games like Centipede, Dukes of Hazzard and Buck Rogers.

The ColEm Deluxe emulator works without problems with the images of all games for this console. You can use the most advanced features, including support for Wi-Fi or multiplayer. The program is compatible with external Bluetooth gamepads and keyboards. As in all other cases, the game requires an image of the game - there are enough of them in the network.

Commodore 64


C64.emu



This is a paid emulator, its cost is $ 3.99. One of the most stable emulators
Commodore 64. Works with a large number of file formats, there is support for multi-disc. The emulator is based on VICE 2.4.20, the port is native, without using SDL. Tested on devices such as the Xoom, Galaxy S2, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, NVidia Shield, Xperia Tablet Z and Xperia Play.

It is possible to save games, support NTSC / PAL. Wireless keyboards and controllers are supported. With the emulator, images of games are not supplied - as a rule, the user of the emulator should search for them himself.

Frodo c64


The free version of the emulator system Commodore 64. The author, unfortunately, no longer supports the program. Despite this, everything works stably, there are no problems. If you do not want to pay $ 4, you should choose this emulator.

Marvin

This is one of the best emulators ZX Spectrum. It provides full emulation of 48 / 128k systems. The speed of the games corresponds to the original, the frame rate is 50. The program reproduces high-quality sound. There is a database of thousands of games. Automatic decompression of .zip files.

NES and SNES


Nostalgia.NES Pro



Nostalgia.NES Pro is one of the best eight-bit emulators in the market. True, the program is paid, its price is $ 1.99. But almost all known games are supported by the emulator. You can change everything - video mode, graphics controller, sound. Cheats, wireless controllers are supported.

There is an interesting function of returning the character to the past. If during the passage of the game you are "killed", then you can turn on rewind, and go back a certain time ago. You can also avoid the fatal consequences of death by saving the game at important points in the gameplay in order to boot up in case of a problem, but this takes time. And here - one click on the button, and the deceased hero returns.

There is an emulation of light guns - you can use your finger instead of shots. Of course, this is not at all the fact that real shooting with a light pistol at ducks, but better than nothing.

Superretro



SuperRetro16 is one of the best SNES emulators from the market. Its cost is $ 3.99. Support for almost all games, including problematic names for other emulators, for example, Super Mario RPG. Among other features of the emulator: save "on the fly", support for external gamepads and cheats. There are multiplayer over the network.

Sega


GENPlusdroid



GENPlusDroid - open source emulator Sega Genesis. Works with Sega Master System and Sega Mega Drive games. High compatibility with games. Good performance. If you install the program on a phone or tablet with a powerful graphics adapter, you can use shaders - in this case, the quality of graphics is greatly improved.

Opportunities:


The emulator is free.

MD.emu



The program works with games for Sega Genesis / Mega Drive, Sega CD and Master System / Mark III. The project is open, third-party developers can use the program to create their own versions of emulators.

The program was tested on Droid / Milestone, Xoom, Galaxy S2, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, NVidia Shield, Xperia Tablet Z, and Xperia Play. The developers promise a normal gameplay on other devices with similar characteristics.

Opportunities:


Game boy


John GBC



With a price of $ 2.99, this program is an excellent Game Boy Color emulator. There are some more Game Boy Color emulators, but John GBC is one of the best. High compatibility, good performance, support for downloading archive files and the ability to save. Like other emulators, it supports Bluetooth controllers and keyboards.

At the beginning of work, the emulator scans the device’s memory — both the main and the memory card; it detects the saved images of the games and shows them to the user in a list. Cheats are supported.

My boy



One of the most rated emulator software. The program is paid, the price is $ 4.99. Stable work, compatibility with almost all games of the emulated device. It is possible to accelerate the gameplay to quickly go through the slow stages of some games.

Almost all basic and additional functions usual for emulators are supported: saving, loading, connecting external gamepads and keyboards.

Additional features:


My OldBoy!



The Game Boy Color emulator and the usual Game Boy were developed by the same team that worked on the My Boy project. Therefore, the differences in functionality are few. For the usual Game Boy it is possible to customize the graphics mode in which you can change the color scheme of games. In other words, black and white games can be given a series of shades. There is an emulation of the connecting cable.

Nintendo 64


MegaN64



Free open-source project. This is a modified version of the open-source project Mupen64 +, which is distributed under the GNU GPL v3 license. Changes include performance improvements for specific phone models, such as the Nexus 4 and Galaxy S4, and minor user interface improvements.

Good compatibility - almost no problems with this emulator. If a mobile device with an installed emulator has a good graphics chip, then the graphics can be improved by using the “advanced” mode.

Tendo64



This open-source emulator has appeared recently. Now developers are actively developing the project. There is a free and paid ($ 2.18) version with no ads. The functions of both versions are the same. The emulator is quite simple, so there should be no problems with it.

Sega dreamcast


Reicast



Sega Dreamcast is the fifth and last game console of the Sega company, the successor of Sega Saturn. As an attempt to conquer the market during the sixth generation of gaming systems, the Dreamcast was designed to compete with the PlayStation and Nintendo 64.

Reicast is the only emulator of this game console for Android. It is not perfect, but it can run most games. Its system requirements are not too high, the lower threshold is a dual-core Cortex-A9 with a frequency of 1 GHz.

An emulator appeared in 2013, developers are actively working on the project now. Thanks to this, the emulator supports the majority of games released for Sega Dreamcast. When you run some games, graphic artifacts appear on the screen. Judging by the reviews, the emulator is productive, there are no problems with “brakes”.

Sony play station


ePSXe



ePSXe is one of the oldest PlayStation PC emulators. The current version is a port for Android. The emulator is paid, its price is $ 3.75. The program is considered one of the best emulators of the game console for mobile devices. High compatibility with games (99% of games supported), excellent performance. It is possible to change the control buttons, setting the output video, audio. External joystick and keyboard connected via Bluetooth or USB are supported, such as WiiMote, Sixaxis, Xbox 360, Moga, Ipega.

There is compatibility with OpenGL plugins, which allows to improve the graphics and game performance. Cheat codes are maintained. ePSXe natively supports ARM and Intel Atom X86. This is an emulator for smartphones and tablets (1-4 players), including a game for two on one screen.

FPse for Android



The second PlayStation emulator is not inferior to the previous program. These two Sony game console emulators are best known.

FPse works with almost all games. There is support for OpenGL plugins, which allows you to customize the output of video for different games.

FPse is more complicated than ePSXe, there are more settings in this emulator. If you just need to play, choose ePSXe. If you want to set up your mobile device as efficiently as possible, I recommend FPse. There is even multiplayer support for some games, including Tekken3.

As in the previous case, there is support for Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 gamepads and other game controllers.

Detailed information on how to work with this emulator can be found here via this link . This is a video tutorial from the developers.

Universal emulators



Classicboy


The emulator is conditionally free. The cost of the version without ads and with additional features - $ 3.99. This is a universal program, which included emulators SNES, PS1, GameBoy Advance and Color, NES, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, SNK NeoGeo.

Free version features:


Features of the paid version:


RetroArch



RetroArch is a free cross-platform shell based on the Libretro API. More than 40 emulator cores ported to libretro. Here, only open source emulators are ported, mainly under Linux. There are no proprietary emulators as part of a common shell. Many cores are only included as part of RetroArch.



Opportunities:


Development has been underway since 2013.

Emulators of other systems

DraStic DS



This program is a Nintendo DS emulator. Almost all games for this device are supported by the emulator. The game goes with full speed.

Opportunities:


PPSSPP



PSP emulator. Its price is $ 5.99. This is higher than the cost of most emulators, but there are few analogues in the market. There is also a free version, but an advertisement is shown to the user in it. The project has appeared recently. The application has been developed for several years, and now the emulator works fine on smartphones, tablets and even TV-sticks. True, the device configuration must be modern, old phones or tablets will not be able to work with the emulator.

The emulator sometimes does not work correctly. Compatibility - not with all games. But developers constantly improve the program, improve existing ones and add new functions.

MAME4droid



Free emulator. Allows you to play games for most arcade systems (slot machines). The name of the emulator is an acronym for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Developed an emulator to prevent the disappearance of old games and save them for history.

The program supports more than 8,000 images of games for different systems. To improve the gameplay, you can use USB and Bluetooth game controllers. In the settings you can change the video and audio mode.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/395839/

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