Looking for good games to play on Android?
Well so was I before I realised that they had all been made years ago.
Here’s my compilation of successfully emulated games and how I did each one.
These emulation attempts were performed on a tablet (Samsung SM-X110) and a mobile phone (Fairphone 4) that each had an SSD for extra storage space but most games listed should be small enough for most modern phones.
I was successfully able to emulate Gameboy, GameCube and Windows games on Android 13 (Fairphone 4) and Android 14 (Samsung SM-X110) so the main restricting factor will be the performance of your device.
Gameboy
Gameboy games are relatively easy to emulate using a program called “Fullroid” which I have provided a download for below.
Example Games
Pokémon Fire Red
Pokémon Fire Red and other mainstream Pokémon games are easily found and downloaded on various ROM sites.
Pokémon Fire Red Rocket Edition (and other Rom Hacks & Mods)
Of course with the easily acquired ROM’s come the more interesting modified versions such as Pokémon FireRed Rocket Edition (in which you play as a Team Rocket member and can only acquire new Pokémon through theft).
Download Pokémon Fire Red Rocket Edition Patch
How To Patch Rom Hacks On Android
In order to apply modification such as FireRed Simply use Unipatcher (download below) and select your game ROM file and the patch and then save the output file.
Then you can simply play the output file using Gameboy emulators just like the original ROM file.
GameCube
Dolphin Emulator seems to be a great all around GameCube and Wii emulator for Android devices.
Example Games
Legend of zelda twilight princess
I was honestly surprised this one even worked on my Fairphone 4.
Download Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
Super Smash Brothers Melee
You won’t have multiplayer but the single player seems to work fine enough.
Download Super Smash Brothers Melee
Windows
For old old old Windows games you can use Winlator to (not) emulate Windows on your Android device.
This will allow you to play games like Geneforge (the old versions, not the remakes such as Geneforge 1 Mutagen) on your tablet.
Example Games
Geneforge 1-3 (Demo)
A childhood favourite of mine the old Geneforge games 1-3 work even on less powerful devices such as my Samsung SM-X110.
Geneforge 4 (Demo)
Some games like Geneforge 4 may require a specific screen size to be emulated.
Fortunately this is easily changed in Winlator.
Once you’ve set that resolution it should run fine.
Seid Meir’s Pirates
This one took some work to find the right file but once I had it I managed to get it running on my Fairphone 4.
Unfortunately older devices such as my tablet have no chance in hell of getting it working.
