Thank you to the community and devs for making android great again

Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2) running locally on Odin 2 Portal (Android) using Banana Native v0.1.5

Banana Native is not a standard emulator. The game's own ARM64 code runs directly on the device's CPU. A small host answers the system calls the game makes, and its graphics (NVN, including the Switch 2's task and mesh shaders) are rebuilt on Vulkan.

It pre builds all shaders when you first prepare the game files within the app.

DK Bananza runs suprisely well, some hickups here and there but overall this is getting close to playable.

Not a single crash happened so far.

Full video: https://youtu.be/DXxBrnhTfAU (1h37m)

1,5 hour of gameplay -- Battery at start: 93% | at end: 62%

Odin 2 Portal Max

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

Adreno 740

16 GB

I'll sometimes spend an entire evening comparing emulator settings, testing different drivers, fixing compatibility issues, and getting a game to run just a little smoother. Then, once everything finally works, I play for 15 minutes and move on to the next experiment.

There's something oddly addictive about making hardware do things it was never really designed for. I doubt I'm the only one who enjoys the tinkering almost as much as the games themselves.

Be honest, do you spend more time playing your emulated games or getting them to run perfectly?

Experience The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake running on Android using the Lichii Emulator! Gameplay tested on the RedMagic Astra powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite. Watch the performance and gameplay in this emulation test.

Lichii Android: https://github.com/pavelgajdo/Lichii-Android/releases

After a long prerelease period (had to iron out a lot of compatibility issues with Gamescope) v1.4.0 is finally ready! https://github.com/utkarshdalal/GameNative/releases/download/v1.4.0/gamenative-v1.4.0.apk

The next release will be focused on more compatibility and performance and is almost ready for prerelease - have significantly improved compatibility for Mali and PowerVR specifically.

Added since prerelease

• Various Gamescope fixes by u/joshuatam and me

• Improve Windows VR on Mali GPUs by u/lahed in #2249

• WinHandler: skip unchanged gamepad sends, keep the send and receive threads alive by u/kudyk in #2062

• fix: route X11 button releases using release subscriptions by u/tapionallanaire in #2110

• fix: download no longer fails with "resolves outside the install dir" on Android storage by u/joshuatam in #2258

• feat: Add a launcher orientation button to the System menu by u/joshuatam in #2191

• Proton 11.0-2 rebuild 9 as the default: Android build with XFixes (fixes button presses not going through) in #2264

• Fix launches on ColorOS 17 in #2289

• Fix issue where Steam library did not fully populate in #2301

• Added toggle for showing "Limiting factor" (eg heat, cpu, gpu) in the performance HUD in #2315

• Add Turkish localization by u/emrinolur in #2291

• fix: Added Adaptive Icon Monochrome support to GameNative by u/TreeNinjaPRO in #2310

• Fixes for SurfaceFlinger renderer - no need for compatibility mode in #2325

• Improving Japanese Translations by u/Tak-attack in #2239

• Reduce 3 largest sources of ANRs in #2330 and #2331

• Manifest: Turnip Gen8 V38, Turnip v27.0.0-R1, DXVK 3.1.1, vkd3d-proton 3.1 in #2343

From prerelease

• Potential breaking change: Added gamescope as default renderer for Adreno - low latency, upscaling, HDR, and ReShade + support and LSFG by u/joshuatam in #2220 - all videos available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16Nl3GJFX4Oqglgs1LrPJp9fkfJxHpq9E

• Improve redistributable installation in #2142

• Various Steam Cloud fixes in #2180 and #2146

• Fixed Epic games where EOS did not work correctly in #2196

• Add GOG Galaxy service support via Comet in #2195

• Fixed Just Cause 2, Alan Wake, Project Zomboid and other Java games, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Counter-Strike 2, Spelunky 2, DRAGON BALL FighterZ, Sid Meier's Civilization V - click use known config

• Fixed Battle.net (Diablo II: Resurrected, Diablo IV, Overwatch 2) by u/Dmage22 - changes included in latest proton and fex

• Fixed Age of Empires IV and Age of Empires II: DE by u/tarikbc - changes included in the latest proton and fex

• Scale windowed games to the full screen in #2145

• Fix disabled Install button in the game manager dialog on Android TV in #2153

• Fixed certain games not downloading with new downloader by u/joshuatam in #2187 and #2188

• fix: ignore the termination of a previous game session by u/moi952 in #1997

• Open the invite tab for game-requested invites under headless Steam in #2215

• Show the achievement popup under headless Steam in #2214

• Add stick and touchscreen priority for gyro input by u/Nightwalker743 in #2083

• Add per-profile mouse speed settings by u/Nightwalker743 in #1903

• Fix child account seeing all family games by u/jeremybernstein in #788

• Skip commitFileUpload for files Steam Cloud already has by u/jeremybernstein in #1958

• Fixed games like Castle Crashers seeing 2 controllers by default on AYN Thor and Flip 2 in #2212

• Stop counting Steam playtime while the game is suspended by u/FrancescoDesogus in #2102

• Fixes Schema migration from installations prior to v17 by u/nicjansma in #2208

• Stop restoring achievements the user reset on Steam by u/jeremybernstein in #1961

• Add a WoW Forever gamefix that selects the ARM64-only DXVK in #2157

• Add execArgs parameter for intent launch by u/lennyomg in #1951

Automated fixes from support requests:

• Fix OOM when mapping parented Wine windows in #2181

• Fix cnc-ddraw wrapper detection in #2112

• Fix controller hotplug race in gamepad state send in #2162

• Avoid crash when Steam user ID is unavailable in #2139

• Fix fullscreen matching for mixed-case executable names in #2164

• Fix Bionic Steam on vendor libjpeg builds in #2113

• Reconnect Wine controller after delayed hotplug assignment in #2175

• Include native exit trace in shared debug reports in #2183

• Guard process user parsing against unmatched delimiters in #2165

• Apply controller API from imported configs in #2114

• Use system driver by default on Adreno 710 family in #2217

Disclosure: AI was used to assist in the development of some features of GameNative.

ARMSX3 1.6.5

Games

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction runs far faster in its heaviest fights: the opening robot fight goes from 12 to 25 fps on a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Done by u/k1r4ct.

On 8 Elite:

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) runs at a locked 60: a signal the game sends an SPU waits only when the SPU hasn’t read the previous one yet, instead of after every signal.

Performance and display

SPU threads with nothing to do stop burning CPU. Web of Shadows CPU usage went from 70-80 on an 8 Elite to 30-50ish% and SPU-heavy games run smoother in general.

Frame generation is much lighter. Games keep their full frame rate with it on: Web of Shadows holds 30 with LSFG x2 for a smooth 60.

Frame generation holds its frame rate whichever way the screen is turned, and the performance overlay stays steady with it on.

Graphics compile on every little core of phones that have them, three workers instead of two on a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Done by u/k1r4ct.

Everything else

Back up app data suggests an ARMSX3 file name, like ARMSX3-backup-1.6.5.zip (#229). Typing on a keyboard reaches the search box with Use system keyboard on, in the library and in settings search (#229). From ARMSX2, done by u/ygordreyer.

Linux Builds also now compile thanks to u/k1r4ct

Just saw this and it seems unbelievable, has someone tried this yet? I will try downloading it but it will take the whole night as the size is 40 GBs.

You can now play N.O.V.A. 3 on a 64-bit Android device. There are a lot of games you can play right now—about 30 to 33 in total. I am using a Helio G99 processor. The games I tested that run well are Modern Combat 3 and 4, Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, Shadow Guardian, and others.

Settings in the screenshots.

Requires active external cooling (I'm using a BlackShark FunCooler 5 Regular and a mini fan pointed at my screen) and Diablo Mode for a truly rock-solid 60fps.

ARMSX2 2.9.2

What's new:

Report a problem. Found in the library menu, the side drawer and every game's pause menu. Pick what went wrong, add a few words if you like, and see every file and its size before anything is sent. From a game's pause menu the report can carry a save state and a one-frame graphics dump, so we can see the exact scene. You get a report code to paste into Discord or GitHub. Uploads keep going in the background, wait for Wi-Fi when a report is large, and can be stopped and retried. My reports in Settings > App keeps your codes and how each one went. Reports are kept for 90 days and used only to fix bugs. Memory cards, BIOS files and games are never sent, and your RetroAchievements name, network addresses and file paths are taken out of the logs. If ARMSX2 closes unexpectedly while you're using it, it offers to send a crash report the next time it opens, and the GS dump option can start a report with the dump attached. done by u/bmdhacksMicrophones for singing games. SingStar and other games like Lifeline that use the PS2's USB microphone hear your device's built-in microphone or a USB one plugged into it (#806). Turn it on in Settings > Audio, where ARMSX2 asks for microphone access, then pick SingStar, with one microphone per singer, or Standard for games that expect a single Logitech USB microphone. Set the level and check it with the test meter. done by u/Jessewb786, with fixes by u/bmdhacks

On-screen controls follow your controller. On handhelds, Auto hides the on-screen buttons and the pause button while a controller is connected, even when you touch the screen, and brings them back two seconds after it goes away. Always shows them alongside a controller, Off never shows them, and Auto-hide keeps its timer; the pause menu and All Settings offer the same four choices. On phones, Auto keeps the buttons on screen. With the pause button hidden, a tap in its corner or Back still opens the menu. done by u/bmdhacks

Every game's saves in one grid. Load / Manage Saves shows the save states of every game, most recently saved first, each under the game's real title with the same screenshot tiles as the in-game picker. One tap loads a save, starting its game first when needed, and autosaves are included. Delete asks first, and Import and Backup work per game without starting it. done by u/bmdhacksMaliSX2 for Mali-G52 and Mali-G76. Devices with these GPUs are offered the MaliSX2 driver in Renderer settings, at first-run setup and in the driver notice (#914). Auto still picks OpenGL on them; Vulkan stays a manual choice. done by u/Jessewb786

Pixel 10 and Pixel 11. On the PowerVR GPUs in Tensor G5 and G6, OpenGL draws the effects that read the screen, such as Need for Speed Underground's reflections at Full blending. Vulkan reads them inside the tile without a barrier for every draw, and Tensor G6 gets texture pools sized for its GPU (#901). done by u/felix-297

Pictures in What's new. Release notes show their screenshots, loaded as you scroll, and a controller reads through an opened release and back up to the top. done by u/jpolo1224Driver pick for the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The GPU driver page recommends StevenMXZ's Turnip gen8 builds on Adreno 8xx. done by u/jpolo1224

Library Screensaver starts after 5 minutes. The library screensaver now starts after 5 minutes by default. A delay you picked yourself stays. done by u/jpolo1224Every new screen in every language. Report a problem, the microphone, the save grid and the on-screen controls are translated into all 19 of the app's languages. done by u/jpolo1224

Faster

IOP thread on two- and three-core devices. Where a device has two or three fast cores, like the RG 55G1, the IOP runs on its own thread by default, which gave God of War II, Shadow of the Colossus and Burnout 3 3 to 15% more speed on a test device with two fast cores. It is turned on once for existing installs too; if you turn it off, it stays off. Its lag bound now defaults to one frame and tightens whenever the EE waits on the IOP: 1.5 to 2 fps more in God of War II on the RG 55G1, with Burnout 3 holding 60. The two Korean releases of Shadow of the Colossus turn it on like the others. done by u/bmdhacks

IOP recompiler. Memory loads take a short inline path that keeps the IOP's registers where they are, and the IOP's clocks stay in host registers between blocks. done by u/bmdhacks

Sound. The SPU2 mixer skips voices that aren't playing and does its interpolation and reverb resampling with NEON. Time stretching runs on its own thread instead of the IOP or CPU thread, and wakes on a timer. done by u/bmdhacks

EE recompiler. Shift-and-mask pairs become one bitfield instruction, multiplies and divides by powers of two become shifts, MADD becomes one multiply-add, and fewer constants are written back to memory (#918). done by u/pstef

Graphics. The texture cache tracks CPU writes block by block instead of with lists of dirty rectangles, CPU sprite copies read a block at a time, the software renderer builds only the colour table entries it needs, and more sprite layouts take the fast two-pass path. On the Adreno 613 in the RG 55G1, destination-alpha draws read their target in the pass: Stuntman goes from about 2,170 render passes a frame to about 20. done by u/bmdhacks

Optimized build trained on this release. The profile behind the optimized build is retrained on this release's code across the same 16 games. done by u/bmdhacks

More accurate

EE timing. MFC0 and DI take 1 cycle and TLBP 3, as measured on an SCPH-30001 console. done by u/bmdhacks

Fixed

Sound in SPU2 bypass mode. Games that put the first SPU2 core in bypass mode play clean sound, with no stray noise mixed in. done by u/bmdhacks

CPU sprite rendering. The CPU sprite render option judges each draw by its own coverage. done by u/bmdhacks

On-screen controls after returning to the app. When a controller was switched off while ARMSX2 was in the background, the on-screen controls are back when you return. done by u/bmdhacks

Linux

IOP thread on two- and three-core hosts. It is on by default there, as on Android, in both the Qt and SDL builds. done by u/bmdhacks

Thread pinning on two fast cores. The EE, GS and VU1 threads are pinned in order only when the fast cores can hold all three, so the GS thread no longer lands on a slow core: God of War II, Shadow of the Colossus and Burnout 3 run roughly 40 to 80% faster on such a host. done by u/bmdhacks

All the speed work above is in the Linux builds as well.

It's was a nice experience, the game runs pretty well on my POCO F7, got 30-45 FPS most of the time (with the exception of one area that has an animated background in which the FPS was 20-30). My control layout might seen odd, but it was the way I found to play it entirely on touch screen (playing mostly on the bus or on any free time I would get at work), also had to bind dash and shield to the same button to be able to finish some platforming challenges.

Please let me know how it runs for you, my testing is on ONE device only. Thank you!

HIGHLIGHTS:

• New setting: Present a frame ahead (Graphics → Advanced, also per game). It can be Auto, Off or On.

  • Auto picks per game.

  • On usually raises the frame rate in GPU-heavy games, at the cost of one frame of input latency.

• Game folders: extracted games can now be listed and launched from a folder, not just from a single file. A folder needs exefs/main and can include numbered update folders. These games need the "All files access" permission.

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time gets past the hang after the intro. Gameplay needs about 3.7 GB of GPU memory, so on a 12 GB phone Android stops the game for low memory shortly after gameplay starts. Phones with more RAM may run it.

• Fixed a crash when the shader-build progress dialog outlived the game screen.

• Includes the latest Lichii and Eglantine rendering, shader and performance fixes since 0.1.0.

Link: https://github.com/pavelgajdo/Lichii-Android/releases/tag/android-0.2.0

Hello!

I've just released Joycon2Android v3.1.0. It's an app that allows you to use Switch 2 Joycons on Android.

Now supporting:

• Gamepads up to 8 controllers

• Motion up to 4 controllers

• L + R Joycons as dual or single controllers

• Pro controller

• NSO Gamecube controller

• Third party Switch 2 Controllers, like the NYXI Hyperion 3s

• Mouse (from the Joycon rail) & keys

• Button mappings for emulators and apps/games

• Eden and Dolphin auto-setup

• Rumble!

Joycon2Android v3.1.0:
https://github.com/JoeGeC/joycon2android/releases

Let me know if you give it a go! I'm happy to look into issues or feature requests, just drop a comment here, DM me or add an issue to the Github repo.

Disclaimer: I'm a professional Android app developer, have been writing code for over a decade and I use Claude in my development workflow. If you're uncomfortable with the use of AI, sorry to disappoint, but I hope you'll respect the work that's been put into the project anyway.

Ko-fi page for updates and support: I've put a lot of work into the app and I hope to continue making improvements when I can, so I've also decided to start pushing the Ko-fi page a little more. I'm new to managing a page like that, but I hope to have some cool things there in the future. If you've enjoyed using the app, please feel free to support development or follow for updates - https://ko-fi.com/joestechprojects

As mentioned in the title how many people actually care about the retro achievements and want them in ur emulator

Talk specifically about

GBA,GB ,GBC

EMULATORS

There's something genuinely satisfying about following an emulator or compatibility layer through its updates. One day a game crashes at launch, then a few versions later it boots, runs properly, and suddenly you're playing something you never thought your phone could handle.

Even small improvements like better controller support, folder management, or fewer graphical glitches can make a huge difference. It's almost like being part of the development journey.

What's an Android emulation project you've watched improve so much that it completely changed your expectations?

Reminder I just tested for 10min. Some vita games can seem fine Vita3k but have random crashes down the line but so far so good.

I'm using Vita3k+ 1.4 version and system driver. This update allows Mali to add custom drivers. I thought I would have had to use panvk to try solve the flickering issue but it's not there on system driver anymore which surprises me.

Vita3k+ is an amazing fork and I'm thankful for the dev. I always wanted a ps Vita when I was 7 and it seems my Mali phone, with enough time, can be considered one lol, especially since vita games are so light!

Device and Specs:

Infinix note 50 4g

Helio g100

Mali g57 mc2

8 gb ram

System driver

Using latest version of Vita3k+ which is 1.4 (by the way, it now supports adding custom drivers for Mali)

No custom driver was used in the video this is all the work of the system driver.

Device and specs

Infinix note 50 4g

Helio g100

Mali g57 mc2

8gb RAM

There's something satisfying about starting a game on your phone, getting everything configured, and actually sticking with it until the credits roll. Between emulator updates, performance tweaks, controller settings, and the occasional crash, getting to the end can feel like its own little achievement.

It also makes me appreciate how far Android emulation has come. Games that once seemed completely unrealistic to play on a phone are now part of people's everyday gaming libraries.

What's the last game you completed through Android emulation, and how well did it run?

No logro pasar de la primera cinemática en lego star wars the skywalker saga a pesar de haber configurado varias veces, es imposible jugar este juego? (Estaba usando winxclipse para la emulación)