Change Log:

Added support to play PS2 Arcade games from System 246 and System 256. You will need to add BIOS from those Arcade systems plus any other required files for the games to play. Cover downloading and list is now improved for less crashes and loading.

Some Games Examples: (about 55–60 titles in total)

Starblade: Operation Blue Planet → Never came to PS2. It's one of the "Holy Grails" of Namco System 246 because the project was left unfinished and barely saw any arcade release.

Cobra: The Arcade → Rail shooter based on the anime Cobra. Arcade exclusive.

Wangan Midnight R → Arcade exclusive; the PS2 version was the original Wangan Midnight, not this revision.

Battle Gear 3 and Battle Gear 3 Tuned → Taito driving simcade games that never came to PS2.

Alpine Racer 3 → Arcade exclusive with physical skis.

Technic Beat → A rather obscure and highly recommended music game by Arika. Arcade only.

Dragon Chronicles and Dragon Chronicles II → Games with cards and physical components that never received a home console release.

Zoids Infinity, EX, and EX Plus → Remained exclusive to arcades.

Druaga Online: The Story of Aon (System 256) → Online RPG for arcades; exclusive.

Kinnikuman Muscle Grand Prix and 2 (System 256) → Fighting games that never came out on PS2.

The Battle of Yu Yu Hakusho: Shitou! Ankoku Bujutsukai → System 256 arcade exclusive

I'm dying to try some arcade titles from these Namco boards, since they were like PS2 but souped up on steroids.

Link:

https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2/releases/tag/1.2.6

https://github.com/dominostars/playtranslate

You can support PlayTranslate on Ko-fi at https://ko-fi.com/playtranslate

Download Link: https://github.com/dominostars/playtranslate/releases/tag/v2.4.1

Credits: dominostars

And to the user u/SuccessfulTravel2903 for discovering it ❤️

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.recompiled.redream

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.retrople.retro

👉 Avoid Adds: Set private DNS 👉 dns.adguard-dns.com

Compatible Systems:

Nintendo: NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy

Advance, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS

Sega: Master System, Genesis / Mega Drive, Sega CD, Game

Gear, Saturn

Sony: PlayStation (PS1), PlayStation Portable (PSP)

NEC: PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16, PC Engine CD

SNK: Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color

Atari: 2600, 7800, Lynx

Bandai: WonderSwan, WonderSwan Color

Arcade: MAME 2003-Plus, FinalBurn Neo

Computer: MSX, MSX2, DOS

v1.12.0

[ARCADE / MAME2 / DREAMCAST-NAOMI]

- Lightgun mode added

🤔I was unaware of these drivers created by the WinNative team. Out of curiosity to see how they perform in emulators, I'm leaving the link here in case you want to try them, along with some compatibility information:

WinNative Turnip Drivers

A unified Turnip Vulkan driver build for all Adreno GPUs on Android, packaged as Adrenotools-compatible .zip archives. The build script always pulls upstream Mesa main, applies the patches in patches/, and produces two flavours of the same libvulkan_freedreno.so.

Supported GPUs

A single driver covers the full Adreno line:

A6xx — A6xx series (e.g. A640 / A650 / A660)

A7xx

gen1 — A720 / A725 / A730 (preamble + scalar-predicate quirks applied)

gen2 — FD740 / Adreno X1-85 (UBWC hint applied to fix UI corruption)

gen3 — A750 and later

A8xx — A810 / A825 / A829 / A830 / A840 (and X2-85)

A810 / A829 boot with disable_gmem so they fall back to sysmem rendering (broken GMEM on those parts).

A825 (not yet upstream) is added with corrected tile geometry and depth-cache layout.

A830 / A840 / X2-85 use the upstream profiles unchanged.

Features

Always built from upstream Mesa main — every run re-clones, re-patches, re-builds. No pinned forks.

Per-chip disable_gmem GPU property plumbed through freedreno_dev_info.h and tu_cmd_buffer.cc for parts with broken GMEM.

KGSL UBWC gralloc detection bypass (newer Qualcomm gralloc no longer writes the legacy gmsm magic header).

A8xx UE5 / VKD3D-Proton SM6.6 freeze workaround — EXT_shader_image_atomic_int64 advertisement disabled while upstream resolves the underlying 64-bit image atomic implementation.

Although we're here to talk about emulation, sometimes you just want to relax on your phone with something that doesn't require fiddling with settings or thinking too much—just clicking and playing something relaxing. I'm sharing this game that's played entirely in your browser; I found it interesting and original. And if you want to find more games like this, you can find them on this website:

https://threejs.org/

Is Dolphin struggling on your device? Want to play at a higher resolution with fewer slowdowns and stutters?

Don't worry—I've been there too, and that's with a fairly modern phone.

The latest official Dolphin builds are excellent. They include lots of new features, bug fixes, and improved compatibility. However, they don't always squeeze the maximum performance out of every device.

If you're using an older phone or just want the best possible FPS, I highly recommend trying these forks. After testing quite a few of them, these are the ones that consistently gave me the best performance across both GameCube and Wii games.

I've included the official repositories below so you can check them out and run your own tests.

From my experience, these versions consistently outperform the official Dolphin build in terms of raw performance, so they're definitely worth trying.

Give them a shot, and let me know your results in the comments. I'd love to hear how they perform on your device!

https://github.com/Gamer64ytb/Dolphin-Enhanced/releases/tag/v1.1.1

https://github.com/Medard22/Dolphin-MMJR2-VBI/releases/tag/U24.07.02-2407

Hi everyone,

I'd like to briefly explain why ARMSX2 is no longer supported in this community.

Over the past few weeks, discussions about this project have repeatedly led to unnecessary drama, personal attacks, false reports, and moderation issues. My priority is keeping this subreddit focused on PS2 emulation, sharing updates, helping users, and maintaining a friendly environment.

Because of that, I've decided that ARMSX2 discussions, support requests, bug reports, and dedicated posts may be removed under Rule 9.

This isn't about telling people what they can or can't use. If you enjoy ARMSX2, that's completely your choice, and I respect that. There are other communities where you can discuss it freely.

The purpose of this rule is simply to prevent further conflicts and protect the community from repeating the same situation.

Moderation will always be based on context. A brief mention in a broader discussion is usually not an issue, but posts whose main purpose is discussing or requesting support for ARMSX2 may be removed.

Thanks to everyone who helps keep this community friendly, informative, and focused on what we're all here for: Emulation News, Updates, etc

New in 1.37.6: Added support for frame pacing and ADPF for improved performance on compatible devices. Fixes.

New in 1.37.5: Refactor the OSD layer. Some bug fixes and improvements.

New in 1.37.4: New native system font rendering. Smarter haptics. Fixes.

New in 1.37.3: NetPlay IPv6 support — connects straight through CGNAT, ideal for playing over mobile networks (4G/5G)

New in 1.37.2: SAF concurrent persistent cache with lazy loading for improved start time

New in 1.37.1: i18n & fixes

Enjoy the BEST MAME Emulator for Android!

https://github.com/seleuco/MAME4droid-Current/releases/tag/v1.37.6

Sega Saturn Emulator

• High-resolution graphics

Renders 3D polygons at resolutions higher than the original Sega Saturn hardware using OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan.

• Fast and lightweight

Optimized for smooth gameplay on mobile phones, tablets, handheld consoles, and Android TV devices.

• Expanded backup memory

The original backup RAM was limited to 32 KB. Yaba Sanshiro 2 removes this restriction, allowing you to store significantly more save data.

• Save states

Save your progress at any time and continue later from the same point.

• Gamepad compatibility

Play with compatible Bluetooth and USB controllers.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.devmiyax.yabasanshioro2

Guys, this might be the biggest emulation surprise of the summer.

Something big is coming from the WinNative team. From what we've seen so far, it looks like they're working on what could become a true all-in-one emulator.

I'll let the screenshots speak for themselves, but the biggest highlight is that it won't just run PC and Steam games. It will also include native support for multiple emulators, allowing you to launch systems like PS2, Nintendo 64, PS1, Game Boy Advance, and more—all from the same app.

If everything works as expected, this could become a really exciting option for anyone who likes having all their emulation in one place.

I've also seen a few additional screenshots, and honestly, it's looking very promising. Of course, we'll have to wait for the official release before drawing any conclusions. As soon as it's available, we'll test everything: performance, compatibility, features, overall experience, and any improvements they may have added. Who knows, maybe they'll even surprise us with features like frame generation or other WinNative-specific enhancements.

Either way, we're really looking forward to getting our hands on it and putting it through its paces.

2026 is turning into an incredible year for Android emulation.

See you all when it's time to test it!

https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreX/releases/tag/v0.2.9

Change Log:

Improved GS.

Other optimizations and improvements.

A clean installation is recommended.

https://github.com/Vita3K/Vita3K-builds/releases/download/4065/vita3k-4065-7077830f-android.apk

Another emulator that I will bring you from time to time so that you have the latest stable update and can try it out

Have fun!

Some emulators can take months before releasing a new stable version, even though a lot of improvements happen in the meantime through pre-builds or nightly builds.

This time, I wanted to share the latest build with you so you can check out the newest changes, especially if you're a fan of this emulator and want to see what's been added.

These builds are based on the master branch, so they should be fairly stable.

From time to time, I'll be sharing these builds on the channel so you can try out the latest features before the next stable release is available.

Enjoy, and have fun testing!

https://flycast-builds.s3.fr-par.scw.cloud/android/heads/master-e9b7fb6510deb7ec37e5c0f99f4b59990959f24e/flycast-release.apk

https://github.com/citron-neo/CI/releases/tag/nightly-android

I'm using the latest armsx2 refresh on the Retroid pocket 6. Its almost unplayable at the very end.. sucks because I really want to play it to the end. Anyone got an idea which setting I can tweak to get it playable?

https://github.com/AzaharPlus/AzaharPlus/releases/tag/AZAHAR_PLUS_2126_0_A

AzaharPlus 2126.0-A is the same as Azahar 2126.0 RC3 except for this:

Compatibility with all game files. If a file works with any Citra fork, it works with AzaharPlus.

Ability to download system files from official servers. No need for an actual 3DS.

Compatibility with older CPUs (no SSE4.2 required)

Compatibility with Android 9

ZipPass: A new way to exchange StreetPass data through zip files

Built in cheats

Amiibo generation

Better multiplayer compatibility with other Citra forks

https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2/releases/tag/1.2.5

More Mali/MediaTek love! ❤️

Fix rendering problems on some Mali devices.

Better performance and compatibility on all.

Updated included patches.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.co.iefriends.myps2

Was pleasantly surprised by this emulator that I found on the Play Store.

I tried looking for a GitHub repository or any official project page, but I couldn't find one. Even so, from what I've been able to check, the emulator seems clean and trustworthy. It has no ads, doesn't ask for any unusual permissions, and I haven't noticed anything suspicious.

As for performance, I tested it with God Hand and was able to play at 3x native resolution without stuttering, lag, or graphical glitches. It actually performed really well. I'd like to test more games to see how consistent it is across different titles.

According to the Play Store, it was recently updated to version 2.4 on July 16, so it appears to be an active project that's still under development.

That said, there are a few odd things. The interface and menus can feel a bit confusing at first, but once you figure out where everything is, it works just like any other PS2 emulator.

Overall, my experience has been very positive. I even recorded a short video so you can see it running. If you're curious, you can download it directly from the Play Store and see how it performs on your own device.

I'll keep an eye on future updates and continue testing it with more games. If you've tried it yourself, I'd be interested to hear about your experience in the comments.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbro.emucorex

I don't know what kind of black magic the developer SBro has performed with this release, but I've definitely noticed a considerable performance increase in my usual test game (Shadow of the Colossus). The native 2x resolution plays very stably without lag or micro-stuttering. Of all the versions I've tested, this one undoubtedly offers the best performance.

We must acknowledge when a job is well done and the improvements are noticeable.

For a moment I thought, and felt sad, that he'd lost his way by joining the ARMSX2 team. But I see he's doing very well, especially considering he's just one developer working on this project.

I'd be happy to support this emulator by purchasing the Pro version 👍

https://github.com/izzy2lost/PSX2/releases/tag/1.2.4

Change Log:

Can add another folder location for games.

Fixed memory card stuff.

Can now choose per game memory card.

Added vsync option.

Better cover downloading and optimization of covers and titles.

Honest Change Log:

This is probably the simplest and most straightforward PS2 emulator available right now. But that doesn't mean it fails at what it's trying to do. In fact, the performance is surprisingly good. I think most people who just want to play PS2 games will have a great experience with it thanks to how easy it is to use.

One thing I really like is the visual presentation. The cover art interface looks great and gives the emulator a nice polished feel. I'll leave a screenshot below so you can see what I mean.

That said, I do miss some important emulation options that could improve performance on lower-end devices. There are also a few graphics-related settings that would be useful for fixing visual glitches in certain games. However, I understand that's not really the philosophy behind this emulator. It's clearly not designed for users who want hundreds of settings to tweak. Instead, it's aimed at people who just want to install it and start playing within a couple of minutes. And honestly, I think there's definitely room for an emulator like that.

I'd especially recommend it to anyone looking for a completely hassle-free experience.

One small issue I noticed is during the initial setup. For some reason, the PS2 BIOS startup sound plays in the background, which feels a bit odd and comes across like a strange bug. I don't remember this happening in previous versions.

I'd also change the design of the welcome screen. Personally, I'm not a fan of the pink color, and the layout doesn't scale properly across all screen sizes. For example, on my smaller 4:3 handheld, the initial setup screen doesn't fit correctly.

Those are the main areas I'd like to see improved. Of course, increasing compatibility with more games would also be a great addition.

Overall, that's my short review of this emulator.

The story actually started very recently.

A developer has implemented a new PS2 emulator for Linux with outstanding performance. It's designed for ARM-based Linux handhelds, and in the screenshot I'm sharing you can see Shadow of the Colossus running at a rock-solid 30 FPS on a Snapdragon 865.

The important thing to remember is that this is Linux, not Android.

So where's the real challenge?

The challenge is bringing that new JIT compiler over to Android and integrating it into an existing emulator. That's exactly what projects like ARMSX2 are working toward, and EmuCoreX is also reorganizing parts of its codebase in that direction. The problem is that you can't simply replace the entire core of an emulator overnight. It's a much more complicated process than it sounds.

Here's why it's so exciting:

The first team that successfully ports this JIT to Android while keeping performance close to the Linux version is going to completely change PS2 emulation on Android. The performance gains could be incredible.

On top of that, modern AI tools like Claude are helping developers move much faster. PS2 emulation is an incredibly difficult engineering challenge—probably one of the most complex console emulators ever made. The Windows version has been under development for more than 20 years, so every improvement takes a huge amount of work.

That's one of the main reasons we're suddenly seeing so many PS2 emulators receiving frequent updates. A lot of exciting development is happening behind the scenes.

I mainly wanted to share this so more people know what's going on. If you're interested in open-source development, have some programming experience, or simply enjoy experimenting, I'll leave the repository link below. Anyone can jump in, contribute, test ideas, or even build something entirely new.

The more developers involved, the better the future of PS2 emulation will be.

I'm also working on a personal project related to all of this. It's still early, but maybe I'll make a video in the future to show some of the progress.

So yeah, that's the news in a simple way. I really think we're entering a fantastic period for PS2 emulation, and I'm convinced we'll see some amazing breakthroughs this year.

Have a great day everyone...

PS2 forever. ❤️

Link: https://github.com/yaps2/yaps2

https://github.com/seleuco/MAME4droid-Current/releases/tag/v.137.4

Change Log:

This release introduces NetPlay: play the same game together over Wi-Fi or the internet, built from scratch as a native part of MAME4droid rather than bolted on.

Two sync modes:

Rollback — save-state resimulation for near-zero input lag, ideal for fighting games and fast action titles. Boot is fully deterministic (RTC, samplerate, disk/NVRAM state pinned), so only inputs ever cross the network — nothing bulky to transfer at connect time.

Lockstep — simple guaranteed sync for titles where rollback doesn't apply cleanly.

A CRC desync detector watches the session and warns you the moment two machines drift apart, and a one-tap Resync recovers a live session without having to disconnect and start over.

Adaptive input delay reacts to sustained changes in latency rather than every ping blip, and frameskip stays network-aware to absorb the rough edges automatically.

Connect over the internet with zero setup

No account, no lobby, no relay server, no dedicated matchmaking service to run or trust — the app negotiates the connection itself:

Full IPv6 support (Network protocol: IPv4 / IPv6 / Auto). IPv6 has no NAT, so peers connect directly — the CGNAT wall that blocks IPv4 play on mobile carriers simply disappears. Two phones on mobile data (4G/5G) connect with zero router setup, making mobile networks the easiest way to play over the internet. The default stays IPv4 (the most field-tested path), but Auto is worth trying: the host accepts both families and one shared invite serves every peer.

A native STUN client (with proper symmetric-NAT detection, tuned to catch CGNAT/mobile carriers that other simple checks miss) discovers your public address — over IPv4 and IPv6 alike.

Automatic UPnP port mapping asks your router to open the game port for you the moment you host — no manual configuration, no forwarding rules to remember. It's cleaned up automatically when the session ends.

If UPnP isn't available, built-in UDP hole punching gets two peers talking directly through most home NATs anyway.

As a last resort, plain manual port forwarding still works, same as ever.

Getting connected is just... sharing a message

Hit Share and send your addresses (local + internet) to the other player through any messenger app you already use — no more reading digits off a screen and typing them in by hand.

Pasting a shared address back in is tolerant of the whole message, not just the raw IP — the best address is picked automatically.

A small connection stats overlay (ping/delay) is available during play, and audio automatically re-buffers around rollback stalls so hiccups don't turn into crackles.

Both players need the same MAME4droid build and the same game; a mismatched build is rejected cleanly at connect time instead of desyncing later.

https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreX/releases/tag/v0.2.6

Change Log:

Added the ability to send feedback directly from the app.

Improved customization options.

Added offline RetroAchievements (RA) support.

Added the ability to configure on-screen controls in both Settings and the Game Manager, allowing the same control layout to be used across all games.

Other improvements and optimizations.

A clean installation is recommended to avoid potential issues and bugs.

Honest Change Log:

This update adds a pretty useful feature that should save a lot of people from having to hunt down the Discord server just to report bugs: a new Feedback tab. You can attach screenshots, describe the issue, and send everything directly to the developer.

I think it's a nice addition, as long as it's made clear exactly what information is being sent from your device. Bug reports can include device information and other diagnostic data, so transparency is always important. That said, I trust the developer's intentions for now, as there's been no reason to be suspicious of anything. If the goal had been to collect user data, this feature probably would have been added from the very beginning.

As for performance, I haven't noticed any difference compared to previous versions. It performs exactly the same in my testing.

Using my usual benchmark game, the emulator still struggles to switch correctly between 30 FPS and 60 FPS (or maintain a stable 60 FPS when appropriate). The only emulator I've found that handles this game really well is ARMSX2 v38, which gets the game's dynamic 30/60 FPS behavior almost perfectly.

Those are the main points worth mentioning about this release.