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It’s not easy being a gamer trying to play the latest and greatest titles right now. It’s enough to leave this mess in the middle of the headaches you face when trying to get your hands on a PS5 or trying to afford a 3080 for new PC gear without paying a second mortgage. However, if you have a moderately powerful smartphone and are willing to invest some time, there is a world of classic gaming waiting to be unearthed (at a low cost) through the power of emulation.
Over the past 35 years, gamers have been using some clever software to reproduce the functionality of older consoles on modern hardware. It faithfully simulates the behavior of all the components that make up a game machine, from the CPU, audio and video chips to all the input/output circuits, and it contains a copy of the game software (mostly ‘ROM’). Connects with Without original equipment. Can be reproduced.
Like almost all software these days, emulation started on the PC, but the emulator moved to the smartphone and moved it up to speed. With access to the right app and the right ROM, you can play anything from blocky Atari 2600 (or VCS for cool kids) games to relatively modern Wii titles. So, what do you need to start emulation?
Choosing an Emulator
Unlike Apple’s App Store, Google Play is full of emulators.
Whether you’re after a home console, a handheld device, a rich 3D world, or whatever your taste for gaming is on the main platform, there’s an emulator that supports it all. Some try to emulate only one console, while others may focus on a few related devices. It is the most ambitious attempt to simulate almost any system under the sun. Let’s start with such a heavyweight retro arch.
Retro arch
It’s best to think of RetroArch like a framework: it’s not an emulator itself, but a frontend where you can install a “core” that adds support for different systems. There are dozens of things you can download to emulate anything from the NES to the latest consoles like the PlayStation 2 or Nintendo Switch.
The range of support is wide and RetroArch offers many useful configuration options, but it can be a bit overwhelming at times. If you have the option of installing 6 different Game Boy covers, how do you know which one is the best? So although very powerful, this solution may be more suitable for users who are familiar with experimenting and tinkering.
Citra
The Switch may be Nintendo’s current handheld console, but you still have plenty of games left on previous-generation systems like the 3DS. This emu is relatively new. It only came to Android last year, but it’s already made a name for itself. The Nintendo 3DS emulator also takes advantage of the smartphone’s hardware to support the console’s features such as the front camera and motion control. Technically,…