Comprehensive Emulator Guide - Android Apps and Games

The reason I am writing this is because:
1.Classic games are way better than the crap Gameloft comes out with
2. Google has begun to remove popular emulators from the market. Whether this be due to open source issues or Game companies complaints I cannot confirm, but in either case the users of these apps lose and may not know where to find the emulator.
3. Numerous Fake emulators are listed when you search the market for "Emulator" . I do not know why the people are doing this but it is over 1,000 now and they are all basically the same thing and do not work. What happens though is it is hard to find the legitimate ones...I almost wonder if this is Google's doing as well.
N64oid: N64 emulator by Yongzh. Works quite good but the dev is still working on compatibility. I am able to play about 80% of my games. NOTE: A powerful phone is recommended For example Goldeneye ran sluggish on my Nexus One but on my Evo 3D it is full speed. For best performance get a phone with 1 gb of ram and a decent processor. Here is a link to download SlideME | Android Community and Application Marketplace
Ataroid: Another emulator by Yongzh and it works great has a wonderful interface. There are several other atatri emulators in the market but I recommend Yongzh. SlideME | Android Community and Application Marketplace
Gearoid: Works perfect in my tests. There are a few others but I recommend Yongzh: SlideME | Android Community and Application Marketplace
Game Boy Color: Again works perfect and there are a few other sources if you like but I recommend Yongzh: SlideME | Android Community and Application Marketplace Alternatively Brogila is a great emulator developer who is still on the market you can get his EMU here for the Game Boy Color: https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Robert+Broglia
Game Boy Advance: Yongzh also has a great one. Notice you will need a BIOS. Google is your friend. Try not to look dumb and complain about the BIOS missing.: SlideME | Android Community and Application Marketplace
Snesoid: Wonderful emulator by Yongzh for the SNES: SlideME | Android Community and Application Marketplace. Alternatively Brogila is a great emulator developer who is still on the market you can get his EMU here for the SNES: https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Robert+Broglia
NESoid: Again all Yongzh here SlideME | Android Community and Application Marketplace
Gensoid: I recommend Yongzh : SlideME | Android Community and Application Marketplace . Alternatively Brogila is a great emulator developer who is still on the market you can get his EMU here for the Genesis: https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Robert+Broglia
Playstation one: I recommend FPSE. FPSE has NUMEROUS features. You can have different settings for each game and almost all games work. The dev keeps constant updates and has an active support forum: https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Schtruck+&+LDchen forums: FpseCE Forum - Index page. Keep in mind you WILL need a BIOS file. Also the initial setup may take some time. Additionally PS1 ROMS average about 1/2 a GB but there are numerous software programs which can make them smaller. I recommend you research them (Pocket ISO, ICEDTEA and PS2PSP etc). Alternatively Zodttd has a FREE PS1 emulator that is also quite good and has good compatibility. I recommend having both in case you do come across a problem with a game. Odds are one of the two can get the game to work or get you passed the area that froze. psx4droid updated to 3.0.5 Zodttd is on a bit of a hiatus but if updates do come out you will be notified in the app.
Turbo Graphix Extreme (TG16): This is a great emulator that offers many old arcade games. Robert Brogila is an excellent developer who has kept support up for this product. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.PceEmu his website is also here : Ex Plus Alpha
DOSBOX : There are 3 DosBOX emulators I can recommend. The one I prefer IS : https://market.android.com/details?id=org.hystudio.android.dosbox&feature=search_result Android DosBox
But the following are also quite good:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.locnet.dosbox&feature=search_result (https://sites.google.com/site/andosbox/)
Android Games Development - Home page
With Dosbox you will need to edit the .CFG file that is saved on your phone's SD card in the app data folder. if you want to play more demanding games like Fallout or Doom. I recommend increasing Cycles, changing the core to dynamic/auto and increasing the memory used to 32 or 64 MBs. For more info browse these developers websites. The Dev for Adosbox seems to be the most responsive. Our phones are not strong enough for some Dos Games currently but will be in the future. DosBox emulation can be very rewarding but it is not for the faint of heart. You need to be willing to spend some time researching each game you want to play and possibly changing the control scheme used for each game(Dos was played on a full size keyboard so it can be awfully difficult or almost impossible)
CPS2HD : This is a great Capcom Arcade emulator that is almost 100% perfect game compabaility wise. Games like Marvel vs street fighter work great and are very small compared to their Ps1 counterparts. https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Jrioni. Android CPS2 Emulator
Jararcade: Note on NeoGeo/CPS1/MaME emulators: You may find that your ROMs do not work. That may not mean the emulator cannot run them. There are numerous formats for Arcade roms they are not like SNES or PS1. I recommend checking the developer's site for good sources for Roms or researching the specific rom set used by that arcade emulator. With that Said. I have found Jararcade to be the best for CPS1 Roms. Neo Geo roms work as well but I have had better luck with Tiger Mame with those. https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Jrioni and Jrioni Arcade
TIGER MAME: This is the BEST NEO GEO emulator. Many CPS1 games have sound issues with Tiger MAme but most all Neo Geo games run perfect. IMPORTANT NOTE: As I mentioned earlier rom sets differ between Mame emulators (my neo geo roms often do not work on Jararcade). Download a Neo Geo Bios to make this work with neo geo games .the Download games site he lists in the emulator is not very good. I did find a site that worked well and now have all 6 Metal Slugs working and just about every KOF, Samurai Shodown, and Aero Figthers games running. Install the app at this link ALL Tiger Emulators which will then direct you to all of his other emulators which are also very good but I feel some of the above are better. Once in the app download Tiger MAME. Try Rom world (mame section) for the best source of Neo Geo games. Some Roms have a long startup time and if you press too many buttons it may ask to force close just hit wait. Trust me if you use the source I suggest you will get them to work
APPLE 2 : This is an old Apple 2 computer emulator. This is a little dated even for me but it works pretty good. The only game I play on this is Oregon Trail...that alone is reason enough.
Scummvm: This allows you to play old point and click adventure games like Night of the Tentacle and Sam and Max hit the road. It works very well and the dev has a good update cycle: Android Games Development - Home page
The Below are other emulators that work well but I have not tested myself:
ZX Spectrum: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.seleuco.xpectrum&feature=search_result, xpectrum - hand-held ZX Spectrum Emulator - Google Project Hosting
Commodore 64: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.ab.c64&feature=search_result, Twitter
Amiga: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.ab.uae
EMULATORS UNDER DEVELOPMENT:
NDS: Two sources : Tiger has a good one ALL Tiger Emulators can be found the same place Tiger MAME is found. and https://market.android.com/details?id=com.chaos.nds4droid&feature=search_result
I find that the two NDS emulators are about the same but I trust Tiger more for updates. To give you an idea of how they run I have an EVo 3D which is Dual core and has 1 Gb of RAM. I have Overclocked it so each core is running at 2GHZ instead of 1.2 and the NDS emulator is still only 50%. I am sure this could run on my phone but the devs need to make some modifications...notable Open GL and enable sound.
Dreamcast: This is under development by the author of NullDC. nulldc - A dreamcast emulator, for win86 - Google Project Hosting. For updates get in touch with the dev at [email protected] here is a video of the emulator on an android phone: ‪nullDC Android Alpha- pt2 - Crazy Taxi & Dead or Alive 2‬‏ - YouTube. I think with the new phones coming out this year we should be able to play it.
GAME ENGINE PORTS (not emulators but just as cool)
If you want to play some classic games like Baulder's Gate 2 and Icemane Dale, or Heores of Might and Magic 2 and 3 among others check out this devs work https://market.android.com/developer?pub=pelya
start - [GemRB wiki]
VCMI Project - Heroes 3: WoG recreated ::
Quake 2 and 3: These work good and you can even play on normal Quake 3 online servers https://slideme.org/user/andershizzle. It appears this devs apps have fallen victim to Google's policing as well. I will try and get links to Quake 2 for you all. it appears he put Quake 3 up on Slide me though.
Quake 1: The best port I found was done by Zodttd I will see if I can get him to host it. When he does I will follow up with a link.
I also Recommend:
Spectral Souls:This is a port of a PSP game directly to Android. Lets all hope that more game companies follow suit. https://market.android.com/search?q=specteral+souls&so=1&c=apps
Triple triadhttps://market.android.com/details?id=com.viish.apps.tripletriad&feature=search_result
Tips and Tricks:
Some of these games have in game save features that use a memory card file. I highly recommend you use these. Sometimes updates break save states. You have been warned if you only use save states do not complain if they are corrupted. The devs have a hard enough time making these emulators work...trying to factor in updates just to include old save states sometimes delays an update or makes it impossible.
Use your phone's hard ware keys! You will find that it may be very hard to push two buttons at the same time if they are on the same side of the screen. If your phone has a camera, trackball or search button I recommend you map one of the keys that gives you trouble to one of those.
Example:
Resident Evil 2 requires you to hold R1 or R2 and then push X to shoot. I mapped R2 to the tracball on my phone and was able to beat the entire game no problem
Most people look past these emulators because the controls are hard BUT if you take time to get used to them you will find most games are very playable and a lot more fun than Angry birds.
Some games have memory cards. You can download memory card saves from gamefaqs.com and load up the memory card save for your game to skip to a certain point or say unlock all the characters in Tekken 3 etc. This may require conversion to different formats though. PM me if you need help. Also check with the devs on the emulators they are very helpful and can point you in the right direction.
If an emulator gets removed from the market check 3rd party app stores.
For questions or help post here and I am sure many of us can help you. Also check the developer sites and forums.

Related

App Recommendations: What do you like on your phone? + Games too.

(added october 7th, 2011)
This thread is filling with some great app and also a bunch of game recommendations.
When / if / as I have the time to do so i'll start moving things back up to this first posting. I'll maybe get some here and there, or a chunk at one shot, or whatever.
Meantime, or as usual, browse through the thread and find hidden treasure in all the replies
(end added october 7th, 2011)
So what do you all like to run on your phone?
I'll kickstart it off with some things I use, tell me what you like so I can see what i'm missing!
-File Expert - Free - Geek Software Technology Inc.
-Dual File Manager XT - Free - Medieval Software
-Root Explorer - Paid - Speed Software
File expert I keep for the FTP/web server capabilities. I use it or Root explorer back and forth. I like Root explorer better, I couldn't edit the keylayout file with File Expert. Dual file manager makes it so easy to copy things around I keep using it - call me lazy on that one but it works well.
-Android Terminal Emulator - Free - Jack Palevich
-Absolute System (Root Tools) - Paid - canvs2321
Fantastic suite of tools for use after root.
-Android Music - Free - JRTStudio
I love it more then other music players, call me old fashioned but i'm just used to this one. Simple, easy, no extra BS to worry about.
-Mobo Player - Free - Mobo Team
Simple, easy to use, and supports .avi files amongst others. My favorite video player.
-Realcalc -Free/Paid - Quartic Software
Superior calculator. I use the donate version - the doubleshot stock calculator is garbage, I was not very happy with it. I'd already been using this one before getting the doubleshot, so swapped it right in.
-ezPDF Reader - Paid - Unidocs Inc.
-Scan to PDF - Paid - Nym Computing
-Open Signal Maps - Free - Staircase 3, Inc.
This one shows me all the cell towers I connect to, and maps them out for me. Other handy stuff in it, it works well and I use it all the time.
-XDA Premium - you should probably have this by now if you're reading this here.
What are you all playing with?
I'll add to this list:
SweetHome Image Upload - kinda like Google+ Instant Upload for pictures, except it uploads to my local PC instead of into the Google+ cloud, as soon as I connect to my home network.
Tasker - great app to automate almost anything
RemoteLauncher - Allows you to launch programs on your PC remotely from your phone, I use this in combination with Tasker to automate things, ie. when I'm connected to my home network, I trigger the Windows Start Menu, so that my monitor will wake up from sleep mode. This way, I don't have to move the mouse or start typing on my keyboard to get my monitor to wake up (yes, I know, I'm lazy).
XBMC Remote - if you aren't already using XBMC (www.xbmc.org) to play/browse your media, stop reading this, download it now, and thank me later! XBMC is the slickest media centre software I've seen, and the official remote app for Android is pretty nice too.
If you came to this thread from the bloat removal thread, then here are my suggestions: (some from my first post above, again, but with links this time. I'm tired of typing now and don't feel like editing it at the moment.)
1 - Stock Browser = Opera Mobile
2 - Stock Gallery App = Gallery3D - I really like the version of this app found in the Nook Color (encore) version of CM7 (latest stable release)
3 - Stock Notes App = ColorNote
4 - Stock Polaris Office = Documents to Go 3.0 + Paid Unlock ( expensive, I know, but worth it - I do a ton of office stuff for work on this phone, and this app is fantastic. You may want to keep the stock office app. )
5 - Stock Music Player = Android Music
6 - Stock Calculator = Realcalc - not even a question here. Donate is worth it to me, because I do a lot of conversions. Free version is awesome too.
I am pissed about the stock calculator app we get on this device. This is an expensive phone, practically the best piece of hardware money can buy, and our stock calculator doesn't even fit the numbers on the buttons right...really? WTF HTC - bad, bad form. (Alternatively, IF you replace it right, the stock app from the encore version of CM7 is pretty awesome - simple, elegant, fits the screen very nicely.)
Elixer is the only thing you'll need if you're missing any of the widgets you lost in dropping the sense launcher - really. Fantastic app.
and last but not least Digitally Imported is more up my alley as far as radio goes, especially when i'm sitting around on the computer. It's just continuous mellow background noise...but the radio thing is all a matter of personal taste anyways.
So what do the rest of you have to say as far as apps for this thing?
My eyes have been opened to Opera Mobile, now a must have on my phone.
I guess besides that, I don't really have any apps I absolutely need on my phone.
As for the calculator, Algeo is pretty awesome.
New list, see post #33
What about games? I'm on the bus a lot so it would be nice to have something that I can pass the time with.
Homerun Battle...best game ever!
Sweet. Anything else? All I have so far is Robo Defense and Pocket Soccer. I'm not used to having games on my phone hahaha
I just got this game called third blade today.. It's pretty awesome so far.
Frankasaurus said:
I just got this game called third blade today.. It's pretty awesome so far.
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+1 for third blade
Third blade is pretty sweet. good call
Wow been missing out on Opera Mobile!
How does Opera Mobile compare to Dolphin HD?
Games?
If you like tower defense...
In the pre-selected path way of playing:
Sentinel 3 just came out on Android. The sentinel 1 & 2 games on my iPod Touch were simply amazing, and were the one thing I missed the most when it broke.
Now that the game dev. ported it to Android, and brought a whole new version, there's really no other tower defense game that can top it. Our device really makes it shine, because of the TV out. If you play this game through your device on a TV, you will be blown away.
I've been playing it for a few days now, and it's freakin' amazing. Everything I missed and so much more.
Also, GRave Defense HD is a great tower defense game. It was the best one of this type on the market until Sentinel was ported. ( In my opinion...)
In the open-field type of play:
Robo Defense as mentioned above is pretty good, and Fieldrunners HD isn't bad either.
Still think Sentinel is the cream of the crop, though.
For games, generally:
Samurai 2 is absolutely fantastic, and has been updated to work with the sensation, which is basically our phone. Great game, plays well on the phone, looks and plays like a console game when hooked up to the TV off the phone.
I've had people call me a liar to my face that the game was playing on the TV through my phone, even though they were watching me do it - it's that good.
Guerrilla Bob is a pretty fun game, and a good one to waste time on. It's well made and good fun, also on a half off sale right now so probably a good time to pick it up.
The two games by Mika Mobile are good too:
Zombieville USA is a side-scroller where you just shoot up a whole bunch of zombies. If you liked Guerrilla Bob, then you'll like this one too.
Battleheart is a pretty nicely done RPG type game, take a look at it if this kind of game is fun for you.
Also, some old favorites:
Jet Car Stunts is an old favorite, i'm sure everyone knows what this is by now...if not click the link and come out of your cave! lol...
Minisquadronand Minisquadron Special Edition are two old favorites of mine as well. Side-scrolling plane combat, with lots of planes to unlock and play with.
That should be a couple to get you started with, there are some others I play that I haven't listed yet - fighting for time on-line right now with all the stuff I have to get done off-line. I'll post up more when I get a chance.
try Pocket Legends, pretty rad
Blue6IX said:
Games?
Sentinel 3 just came out on Android. The sentinel 1 & 2 games on my iPod Touch were simply amazing, and were the one thing I missed the most when it broke.
Now that the game dev. ported it to Android, and brought a whole new version, there's really no other tower defense game that can top it. Our device really makes it shine, because of the TV out. If you play this game through your device on a TV, you will be blown away.
I've been playing it for a few days now, and it's freakin' amazing. Everything I missed and so much more.
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I can only find this as a pay game, is there a trial or am I not finding it?
zygut said:
I can only find this as a pay game, is there a trial or am I not finding it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, honestly never looked. If you can't find it it probably doesn't exist.
Edit: http://www.origin8.com/android/sentinel3/ Here's the developers website about the game, might help you in deciding if you want it or not.
I knew the developers previous games - part 1 and 2 were my hands-down favorite games way back when on my iPod touch. I really, really wanted this game ported to android, and as soon as I saw it I just purchased it. Didn't read any reviews, or anything - just click, buy, play.
Game play is awesome, the difficulty levels are scaled right, and you get to choose from a whole mess of weapons to play with, shipboard weapons that can be used from an orbiting spacecraft (that's the limit of your interaction with it)...and a commander 'mech that you can move to specific points in the battlefield to help your cause.
'Mech can be upgraded between levels as the game progresses, and it has both campaign and 'endless' modes for each map.
Weapons can be upgraded to a few different levels in each combat scenario, and as you unlock things progressing through the campaign mode you really get some firepower to play with.
Very visually appealing game, and i've been playing it in any spare few minutes I can whip out my phone and go at it. Haven't had any force closes, discovered any bugs, or anything. Very well done.
Oh, and if you hit the home key or just exit the game, it saves right where you were when you left the app. Next time you run the game you can pick up right where you left off - perfect. You can just quit the game and do something else with your phone immediately or put it away and not lose any progress.
Remember, though, that this is a pre-path type tower defense game. That means the waves of enemies can only travel over specific areas of the map. Something like Fieldrunners or RoboDefense is a different type of game, where the whole map is a potential path for the enemies.
If you like tower defense games, and thought GRave Defense was a decent game, you'll be blown away by how awesome this one is. Grave Defense is the same type of pre-path tower defense game, so it's a good one to look at to kind of get a feel for what Sentinel is like.
If you were gonna burn $2 in the android market somewhere, and you like tower defense games, this is a good place to do it. You may end up hating the game, and if so i'm sorry. Try the free version of GRave Defense, and if you can get into it, take it to a whole other level with Sentinel.
In case you couldn't tell, this is my favorite android game. Lots of re-play value...especially with the endless modes.
Now if I could only find a port of my second favorite game from apples store, Alive-4-Ever...
+1 on Sentinel3...thanks for the recommendation Blue6IX, I agree with you, this game is by far the best playing and looking tower defense game I've tried..
Robotek is a great game.
Root Explorer is a must have.
Go SMS Pro
Since this is media phone I definitely recommend PicSay. Fun, fun, fun!
Friendcaster is better than the HTC facebook app or the official facebook app. If you spend time on facebook you should look at it.
Sent from my MyTouch 4G Slide using xda premium
_atlien_ said:
...
Since this is media phone I definitely recommend PicSay. Fun, fun, fun!
...
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I second PicSay, i've had a lot of fun with that one.
Toonpaint is fun to play with too - but don't expect it to work on every, or even most, pictures. After you play with it for a little while you'll figure out what pictures will probably convert, and how to take pictures that will convert well.
Toonpaint takes a lot of playing with it to get the results to come out good, so don't get it unless you have a high level of patience.
It's fun though, and if you play with PicSay, Toonpaint goes hand-in-hand to turn life into a comic. Toonpaint to generate the comic frame, and PicSay to put the word/thought bubbles into place.
Pho.to Lab is another fun one to play with, i've had a lot of fun with it and it's about the same ease of use as PicSay.

Any game even remotely similar to Binding of Isaac?

Yeah, I know you can extract the .swf file and run it on the phone, but it runs awful. Also I know there's gonna be the Rebirth edition on android, maybe.
Thing is, I'm addicted to this game and I wanna find anything (emulation, probably) similar to it. I did tons of research and the best candidates are cardinal quest (android native roguelike, partially optimized on the Play, fun and simplistic but there's not much action) and "dicing knight" on the wonderswan color (LOL) which I don't even know if can be emulated. Every roguelike is basically too static, and every action rpg/dungeon crawler with realtime, skill-intensive combat either has not permadeath, or hasn't got random generated levels, or both.
I know there isn't a game really like Isaac. I'm just searching for something remotely similar, maybe just addicting, challenging, suited for long runs and small bites. You know, on a phone you'll want that.
Try Deadly Dungeons RPG. I love the game and while it doesn't look a thing like Binding of Isaac it is a rouge-like with random level and item generation and a perma-death mode. It is not Xperia Play optimized but works very well with touchscreen imo.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=DeadlyDungeons.App&hl=en
I came across that one too; I could play it with gamekeyboard if only it was playable in landscape.
Can it? It didn't seem to me, but then again I didn't buy it :x
Just play the original Legend of Zelda with an NES emulator. That's the closest you'll get, without running the .swf on your phone.
well... fact is, it's not randomized, hasn't got permadeath, and you gotta actually go into the dungeons. I mean, it's a completely different game (that I played, anyway)
Hey, to the best of my knowledge Deadly Dungeons cannot be run in Landscape but trust me, it's one of the few games worth using touch screen for. Too bad there isn't a demo but I enjoyed it far more than similar first person rogue-likes such as Grimrock.
i was playing a lot "legends of yore" when it was in its early stages.i think its complete now,give it a try
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk 2
I tried that, it's great but it's kind of towards the "deep rpg" side of things. Dungeons are actually randomly generated each time you enter, but you can save and load files, level up the character and stuff like that. I also find that game more suitable to the touchscreen, as it's not completely optimized AFAIK. I think I'll stick to cardinal quest for now, which basically works like legends of yore but it's simpler and roguelike. :\
Waiting for Isaac Rebirth to come and save me
Killer Cavern!
Try Killer Cavern, still in development but hopefully already fun! Can't post the link here but just search the Google Play Store for 'Killer Cavern'. Thanks!
Lostx Dungeon, a bit like
Lostx Dungeon, a mobie game on google play, Action game combines the elements of Dungeon Crawling, Rough-like, Shooter, Adventure, a bit like the binding of isaac , enter the gungeon

[GAME][2.0+][FREE][Open-Source] Mupen64Plus Android Edition (Nintendo 64 Emulator)

Mupen64Plus Android Edition (AE) is a free, open-source Android port of the popular PC Nintendo 64 emulator. The app includes specific optimizations for the Xperia Play and OUYA, and works on a wide variety of Android-based devices. Development has been going on for a couple of years. Interest in the project has understandably declined over time, but that has unfortunately left us with very few testers to try out new functionality on various devices. We currently have a couple of big changes that need to be tested (see my thread here).
The app is free to download on my forum at PaulsCode.Com, and it has a public repository on github (paulscode/mupen64plus-ae). Thanks in advance for your help with testing!
I have a problem with one of the ROMS I'm trying to play. Jet force Gemini keeps flickering a lot when there are cut scenes and when you're actually playing. I don't know if this is the place to ask you on a fix or not but it would be much appreciated. The game runs really smooth but it just keeps doing that. I've searched all over the internet for a solution but all I got was "Its not top priority because its not popular game." I really would love to play this game again.

Best way to make a game for Apple and/or Andriod

Hello Everyone,
I am new to this forum, and new to the world of mobile phone game construction.
I have spent the last month researching the best way to make an game app for android or apple phones and tablets.
I am struggling to find good information online, so I would appreciate any comments you may all have .
I wish to construct a 2D platformer game only, but want to use the most user friendly method to do this. I would also want to upload the game to the market once completed.
I have played around with the following software so far, but have failed to make good progress. This is because I am unsure which software I should be using:
Cocos-2dx
QT Creator
Andriod Studio
When using QT creator (also known as Eclipse I think) I was having trouble setting it up for mobile development. But I was able to get good information online and use demo codes to mess around with.
During my research people have been saying Android Studio is the way forward, because it has a gradle system apparently. However, starting off making a game on this is incredibly hard as there are no examples or demo code around. I am assuming I cant use the demo codes from the QT creator software on the Android Studio?
Does anybody recommend a particular software for 2D games?
I am not experienced in programming, but I just need a good starting point.
Thank you for your time.
Jamie
QT Creator, Eclipse, Android Studio are just code editors. They also have tools for GUI building, but that is not related to games - games draw everything with OpenGL or DirectX.
So, first of all, you have to choose game engine or framework. Prefer the most popular - that means a large community, a lot of info and help.
Unity, Cocos2d are mentioned often. And libGDX as well, which I use, but don't know really cool top grossing games made with it, maybe it means something
Game engines either have their own editors with gamedev-oriented tools or instructions on how to set everything up in popular IDEs. And they provide nice tutorials also.
stickin said:
QT Creator, Eclipse, Android Studio are just code editors. They also have tools for GUI building, but that is not related to games - games draw everything with OpenGL or DirectX.
So, first of all, you have to choose game engine or framework. Prefer the most popular - that means a large community, a lot of info and help.
Unity, Cocos2d are mentioned often. And libGDX as well, which I use, but don't know really cool top grossing games made with it, maybe it means something
Game engines either have their own editors with gamedev-oriented tools or instructions on how to set everything up in popular IDEs. And they provide nice tutorials also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Sticken,
Thanks for your clear response. It appears I have been going down the wrong road then. I will look at the ones your have mentioned. I have heard the name unity pop up now and again. After checking on the website you have subscribe to a pro version. I am hoping I would not need to do this as my game is just going to be a simple 2d platform
ja7me said:
After checking on the website you have subscribe to a pro version. I am hoping I would not need to do this as my game is just going to be a simple 2d platform
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No, you can find the restrictions of free personal edition on the website too. They aren't critical.
I am quite new to the game development scene too. I decided upon Unity myself late last year. I have found it a great tool
to develop on (both 2d and 3d) with lots of information and tutorials out there that could help you build your game.
I have been using it now for around 4 months and have just released my first game to the Google Play store.

RE: NES Emulator Development

RE: NES Emulator Development
I wasn't quite sure of where to post this, so if it belongs elsewhere, will an admin/mod please move it where it belongs. Thanks.
This is a post below from infidelity (a well respected NES ROM dev/modder). He states that he hopes that it "spreads around the internet like wildfire", so that this information will hopefully get out to the right people.
The issue for many, in being able to play many of the best and latest NES ROM hacks, is related to whether their favorite (or any emu they try on their preferred platform) has been coded to support (arguably?) the NES' most high performance and capable mapper: MMC5. EverDrive, PowerPAK, etc. owners are currently unable to run these games, as they also haven't implemented the mapper's support, yet.
Btw, on Android, I can confirm that Robert Broglia's NES.emu runs both of these ROMs great. It's a paid app, and well worth the price. There's a free fork of it (not as good, and several revisions back, but certainly a good and capable port). That would be NES.emu Free
Both of these games by infidelity are two of the best NES ROM hacks I've seen released...ever maybe. They're both pretty dang impressive at the very least.
Zelda - The Legend of Link
Super Mario All-Stars NES
I really hope this isn't disregarded as spam. It definitely isn't. I'm not infidelity (or close buddies with him), and have had little interaction with him, for that matter. I just saw read this yesterday, and felt it was important enough to share. Just trying to help spread the info.
infidelity said:
I hope that this gets spread around the internet like wildfire. So that other sites, and forums read this, and understand my actions. So if there are non Acmlm users here that are reading this, by all means share this post, link this post, etc, however it can get across, the more that see it/read it, the better.
I've been out of the scene for a few months now, my personal life is more busy than ever. I've been sort of enjoying the fruits of my labor, over my latest two projects, "Zelda - The Legend of Link" & "Super Mario All-Stars NES"
The consensus I've come across time and time again on the internet, is the issues people have with my projects on specific emulators, or retropaks/everdrives, etc.
So what I am about to do, is name off some things I've read (paraphrasing if you will) and answer them as best I can. But first....
Why I use the MMC5 mapper
The MMC5 mapper, is the most impressive & powerful mapper ever created by Nintendo. Some will talk about the Konami mappers being just as powerful, specifically due towards it's audio power, but that's not what I'm after. The MMC5 allows the user to max out the PRG-ROM & CHR-ROM chips to 1024kb's/1mb each, making that game a full 2mb's! That is an exuberant amount of space for a Nintendo game. A vast majority of retail Nintendo games, range from the sizes of 513kb's/769kb's. With 2mb's of size, you have so much freedom in the PRG/CHR department.
Speaking purely on the PRG-ROM, take my project "Zelda - The Legend of Link" for example. Without the PRG-ROM being maxed to 1024kb, there would be no Dark World, hell the Light World wouldn't be as big. There would be no advanced sound engine, no additional space for added assembly for enemies, or other various actions such as writing massive amounts of tile tables to the vram engine. Now take my other project "Super Mario All-Stars NES" for example. Without the PRG-ROM being maxed at 1024kb, there is NO WAY, that I would've been able to cram in those 4 games into 1.
Speaking purely on the CHR-ROM, again, take ZTLOL for example. Without the CHR-ROM maxed at 1024kb, there would be no fancy CHR Swapping. By now everyone has seen my story introduction, with the Windwaker Link & Ocarina of Time Link. That is all performed by CHR Swapping. Have you ever seen or created a flipbook, using stick figures on each individual page, and on those individual pages, you have the stick figure in a different position each time you flip a page? That's basically what CHR Swapping is, the MMC5 allows you to swap out different CHR pages, to give the appearance of animation taking place. Without that 1024kb's of CHR-ROM space, that introduction would've never seen the light of day.
Those two giant paragraphs pretty much sum up why I use the MMC5. It allows for so much creativity for the user to accomplish things, code wise & graphic wise.
On top of those things, the MMC5 can allow the user to have 4 individual save pages of $6000-$7FFF! The user can either use that area for actual saving features, or, the user can use it as additional PRG-RAM, or even PRG-ROM! The MMC5 also has very advanced graphical features, making it so instead of a 16x16 block having an individual palette, you can now set all individual 8x8 tiles (like in Super Nintendo) to have their own individual palette! Me personally, I have not utilized that feature, if you want an amazing example of that in action, I highly suggest you look at kuja killer's "Megaman Odyssey."
Answers To Some Remarks I've Seen
His game doesn't work, it just shows up as garbage
Answer: This is the #1 remark I've come across time and time again. There is nothing wrong with my game. The problem is with the emulator the player is using. The emulator obviously lacks the proper emulation of the MMC5 mapper. What is happening, is that the MMC5 reads pages 00-FF for the CHR tiles. But in my game(s), i have 4 individual 00-FF pages. So the emulator does not have that setup properly, causing garbage gfx to appear. Players sometimes like to stick to what they've been using for years & years, and don't like to update, or are just casual rom hack explorers, and find the easiest emulator on the internet they can obtain. In order to play MMC5 games properly, especially enhanced ones, it's recommended to update or obtain, the latest PC versions of FCEUX, Nintendulator, or Nestopia. PC emulators ported over to video game consoles, such as Xbox, PS3, Wii, various handhelds or smartphones, the porter needs to make sure the emulator he/she is porting, has MMC5 capabilities.
Why Doesn't He Use MMC3? It's The Most Popular, They Work On Everything.
Answer: MMC3 lacks the free space I require for additional PRG-ROM & CHR-ROM. There's no huge explanation for this one. :-/
I Tried This On The N8 Everdrive. It Doesn't Work
Answer: The N8 Everdrive (and I believe the Retro PowerPak) uses two 512kb SRAM chips for PRG-ROM & CHR-ROM. I've contacted krikzz, the creator of the Everdrive devices, and he has no desire to revise his device, to incorporate 1024kb PRG/CHR-ROM chips. I even suggested I purchase the same style chips, only 1024kb's each in size, but he said there is more to it than the chips themselves. So enhanced MMC5 games will never work on those devices. It is up to the respected creators. The only way you will ever see these games on actual Nintendo hardware, is by people sacrificing crappy MMC5 games that have the required size, and destroying them so that these enhanced games can replace them.
That Mario All-Stars Game. Why Didn't He Insert The Mario World Pirate As Well?
Answer: That game alone is 769kb's in size. The 4 Mario games I had inserted into the PRG-ROM, made it impossible for that game to be alongside the others. There also would be no room for any kind of introduction screen, controller function, etc.
That's all I pretty much have to say on all of that. I don't have the freedom to rom hack like I used to anymore. I'm not saying that I'm done forever, but I have zero clue as to when i'll ever get back to it. Anyways thanks for letting me get all of this out.
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Source: http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/thread.php?id=8336

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