Database Info

Emulators for WM6 smartphone (non-touchscreen)

The Wiki is down, or I'd look there...
I have a WM6.5 smartphone (non-touchscreen).
I no nothing of emulators, just that they exist for old game systems (like NES and SNES) and that current smartphones are plenty strong to run them.
What I want: some kind of SNES emulator and a way to play my old Mario games on my Samsung Jack (WM6.5 standard). I'd love, love, LOVE to get Super Mario 3 going. I played that for many hours as a kid, and I'd love to get it back.
What do I need to know to get an emulator for my phone?
Where can one find the games to load on my memory card?

Anyone?
Anything?

For SNES emulation I recommend PocketSNES. Good performance + possibility to rotate screen. Get it from http://n0p.tonych.info/?PocketSNES
For NES - use PocketNester if you don't want rotation, use PocketNesterPlus if you want it (warning - without rotation it crashes ). Google the first, get the second from Modaco (version by Masterall)
For Sega MegaDrive - get PicoDrive. Many versions on the net, there might be one for a smartphone.
I don't know if these emulators work on smartphone edition as I only have a touchscreen device. But I think you should try, if they work, they will provide you with hours of gameplay.

MorphGear is your best option. Works very nicely.

thesecondsfade said:
MorphGear is your best option. Works very nicely.
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It is paid though. What I posted is free. But if you want to spend money I think SmartGear is better (more systems and better performance for less cash).

Moved as not software release.

Mame4droid - New MAME emulator on the market

Haven't tried it yet, but grab it quick... emulates 0.37b5 ROM list. Yes, it supports Xperia Play buttons.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.seleuco.mame4all&feature=search_result
Project page: http://code.google.com/p/imame4all/

Nice find. Testing romset now

I prefer this to jrioni, it has a better user interface.
Games run at good speed, just as good as jrioni, and I find the sound better in this.
Still no save states that I can see though.
Posting for tiger kings emulator to own them all. Mame needs save states to be functional imho. I play for 5 minutes at a time at work and can't progress in games without save states.

The good thing about this emulator is that it saves all your high scores. with Jromi you have to manually save and load your high scores.
My Metal Slugs and CPS2 games dont seem to work though.

dsswoosh said:
I prefer this to jrioni, it has a better user interface.
Games run at good speed, just as good as jrioni, and I find the sound better in this.
Still no save states that I can see though.
Posting for tiger kings emulator to own them all. Mame needs save states to be functional imho. I play for 5 minutes at a time at work and can't progress in games without save states.
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They are *arcade* games. They're only meant to be played for 5 minutes at a time. Only purpose for savestates is if you are cheating your way through a game with infinite quarters.

zerojay said:
They are *arcade* games. They're only meant to be played for 5 minutes at a time.
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Totally disagree with this.
Some games take 30+ minutes to beat and complete. Some are even longer taking 1 hour+ to beat.
You forget that this is a mobile device. Which means you are playing games on the move.
People playing on trains, aeorplanes, cars, 10 minute work breaks, sitting at the bus stop, sitting on the toilet (yea i do this ), etc etc etc
You want to continue your game, but at a later date.
zerojay said:
Only purpose for savestates is if you are cheating your way through a game with infinite quarters.
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This sentence makes zero sense if you sit to think about it.
"Infinite Quarters" are there whether you have save states or not
Completing metal slugs, alien vs predator, final fight, street fighter, strider, rampage, ghould n ghosts, heck LOADS of games take ALOT longer than 5 minutes.
If you played ghould n ghosts for 5 minutes at a time, you would forever be playing the first level.
What is the point in that?
Yes, it is inconclusive, save states ARE needed.
However i have some unfortunate news, MAME4ALL will NEVER have save states, since it is based on a version of MAME that doesnt have them either.
Our only hope is to see what magic Tiger King can produce.

Anyway, no disrespect to Jrioni, i was one of the people that loved and bought his version of Mame.
I support him ALL the way.
But this version of Mame i prefer, the UI is superior to Jrioni. And since it is free, there is no need to purchase Jrioni anymore.
Anyone who wants to play Mame games, this is now the best version.

Glad I held off from buying Jrioni now. Was waiting for save states.
This seems better, though without save states as well.
...and to say Save States are not needed on a mobile device is well...I'm not going to get into it again...but its pretty stupid.

Red_Kop said:
Glad I held off from buying Jrioni now. Was waiting for save states.
This seems better, though without save states as well.
...and to say Save States are not needed on a mobile device is well...I'm not going to get into it again...but its pretty stupid.
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does Mame4droid support dip switches?
reason why i ask its pointless playing mame games for me on medium setting, i like to crank the difficulty up on games, otherwise no challenge !

harlzden said:
does Mame4droid support dip switches?
reason why i ask its pointless playing mame games for me on medium setting, i like to crank the difficulty up on games, otherwise no challenge !
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No it doesnt.
Which is quite annoying because i cant change the analog sensitivity for games like Paperboy, which is unplayable on Mame4Droid because he steers to the left all the time.
Jrioni's graphics seem to be a bit better too. Mame4droid is a bit blockier.
Sound and speed works best on Mame4Droid though. And Mame4Droid is far more user friendly in setting up screen sizes etc.

mame4droid support dip switches u can enable it during in games by pressing select+start at the same time will bring up the menu, only the bad side is the graphic blockier but enable smooth graphic the games lag if it can fixed this then this is the best emu u can get for play.

Does the APP comes with roms or do you have to download them if so from where?! does the app run well on the sony play?
Teku

squall12 said:
mame4droid support dip switches u can enable it during in games by pressing select+start at the same time will bring up the menu, only the bad side is the graphic blockier but enable smooth graphic the games lag if it can fixed this then this is the best emu u can get for play.
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Yes!
Dip switches work.
This is hands down the best Mame emulator for Android. The only thing that can top this is save states or support for newer ROM sets.
Guy above. Don't ask for roms here. They are easily findable with any search engine.

for the roms to work with this Emulator what file type do the roms need to be?

It tells you on the market download page

dsswoosh said:
No it doesnt.
Which is quite annoying because i cant change the analog sensitivity for games like Paperboy, which is unplayable on Mame4Droid because he steers to the left all the time.
Jrioni's graphics seem to be a bit better too. Mame4droid is a bit blockier.
Sound and speed works best on Mame4Droid though. And Mame4Droid is far more user friendly in setting up screen sizes etc.
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I must be doing something wrong because even though sound is a bit better than Jrioni's, this emus is much slower, almost unplayable. So I will stick to Jrioni.

rugalb said:
I must be doing something wrong because even though sound is a bit better than Jrioni's, this emus is much slower, almost unplayable. So I will stick to Jrioni.
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What games are you seeing that are slower?

For instance Three Wonders, and Mortal Kombat 2 does not work. On a second attempt I uninstalled it and downloaded from Market and works fine now.

FYI Three Wonders works perfectly in Tiger Arcade 2.20

I'm trying to put this on my ATT Captivate and I can not get the games to show up on the program. I know that I have the right versions of the games. After installing the program, I checked the SD card to see if a ROMs folder was created. There wasn't any so I created a ROMs/Mame4all/roms folder which didn't help. I tried to move the program to the SD card, but I couldn't see the folder when I put the card in a reader. What am I doing wrong?
Never mind. It was on the phone. I was able to see the folder after plugging the phone directly into the computer.

Scrolling Shooters?

What are the best scrolling shooters available that work with the XPlay controls? I've given R-Type a go and was wondering what others recommend

AirAttack HD Make sure it's the Xperia PLAY version!
There's also a game called Overkill. It's not specifically Xperia PLAY Optimized, but it works perfectly with the D-pad and X to shoot.

scrolling shooters? oh there are dozens but here are my favourites(long time STG fan.-)
for some shooting goodness fire up FPSE Emulator and get the following PS One Games:
-Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus(Salamander 1+Lifeforce AND Salamander 2 included,Salamander 2 is just great!)
-Gradius Deluxe Pack(Gradius 1+2,classic but i personally prefer Salamander)
-Gradius Gaiden(best of all Gradius imho,japan release only,nice graphics,much more accesible than classic Gradius)
-Parodius Deluxe Pack(Parodius 1+2,classic)
-Sexy Parodius(completely whack+hillarious..)
-R-Type Delta(best ps one shooter,period)
-R-Types(R-Type 1+2)
-G-Darius(some twisted shooting action with different paths,long bossbattles and psychedelic style graphics thrown in)
-Einhänder(the only Squaresoft Shooter,still great)
-Thunder Force Verfect System(great!)
on Genesis i highly recommend Contra:Hard Corps(they should have named it Contra:Hard Core,its really a challenge,its contra on speed) and Gunstar Heroes,intense shooting action,also the Thunder Force Series,on SNES Axelay is great also the SNES Contra
Neo Geo:Last Resort(great R-Type like Style,very challenging),Aero Fighters(Sonic Wings),Pulstar,Viewpoint(isometric unique style but frustrating),Shock Troopers(really really great one!),Metal Slug 1-5,Ninja Commando
Tiger Arcade(CPS2):Mars Matrix,Giga Wing,Progear no Arashi,Ecofighters,1944 The Loop Master
and finally if you want to see something very intense and weird or just for the fun:
fire up an NES emulator and get the game RECCA:Summer Carnival 92.its an japanese game especially made back in 1992 for a shooting game competition called summer carnival.thats just insane what they did with the very limited NES hardware,you won`t believe that this is a NES game:there are a mass amount of ultra fast bullets and enemies with no slowdowns,huge bosses and the music is great also the stages backgrounds are really tripping you out,its an adrenaline bomb-)
no actual games will give you the joy and challenge of those oldschool shooters,trust me..and finally,thats what the xperia play is for:emulation .-) when i see such half assed ports like R-Type where there is no option for turning off this touch overlay even with "xperia play optimized" stamp..really better to emulate

There is a port of Tyrian on the market. You have to configure the controls through a non obvious interface, but it is probably one of the best vertically scrolling shooters ever made.
Sent from my R800x using XDA App

As above.
Psone:
R-type Delta
Einhander
Snes:
Super R-type
R-type 3
Tigermame:
R-type
R-type 2
R-type Leo

Let me add for SNES:
Axelay
Darious Twin

orangesunshine said:
scrolling shooters? oh there are dozens but here are my favourites(long time STG fan.-)
...
Neo Geo:Last Resort(great R-Type like Style,very challenging),Aero Fighters(Sonic Wings),Pulstar,Viewpoint(isometric unique style but frustrating),Shock Troopers(really really great one!),Metal Slug 1-5,Ninja Commando
...
emulate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... forgetting the BEST Shooter on that System, maybe of all times:
Blazing Star !

Speaking of shooters... want to see something HARD? Look at this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70iFdnI-xfA&feature

genesis/megadrive:
hellfire
wings of wor

crono141 said:
There is a port of Tyrian on the market.
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Now you are my favourite person on the whole internets.
i tried to make it work via dos emulators, but never worked.
just like Raptor: Call of shadows, wich is my fav dos based shooter. Somehow you can make it work on android, with full controls, but i never found the way to do it.

Quantuml3ap said:
... forgetting the BEST Shooter on that System, maybe of all times:
Blazing Star !
Click to expand...
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what app/rom setup do you use to get this working? looks like a good one

Blazing star is awesome, as is Pulstar (both NeoGeo). Dont forget theres GigaWing (CPS2) All three of these games, and many more, are playable on the awesome emulator Tiger Arcade Game Emulator, or TigerMame on the android market. Remeber though you must have the original games in order to have the roms. I only remember these games because I dumped enough quarters into the arcade games as a teen... Oh and if you like the Turbo-Grafx 16, Sinistron is pretty good, not as good the above ones but still fun.
So in a nutshell:
NeoGeo:
Blazing Star
Pulstar
CPS2: (Capcom Play System 2)
Gigawing 1 & 2

hmm tiger arcade is giving me graphics issues and control issues. I see the text and coin graphics but nothing else... also cant seem to map the controls to the xpderia pad. ah dear

What version of Tiger Arcade do you have? Mine works flawlessly on my xplay.
My settings for Tiger Arcade. V 2.2.0
Orientation: Landscape
Scaling Mode: Stretched
Key Mappings:
-Up - Dpad up
-Down - Dpad down'
-Left - Dpad left
-Right - Dpad right
-Coin - Select button (next to srat)
-Start - start obviously
Button A - X
Button B - Circle
Button C - Square
Button x - Triangle

its the one currently on their site:
http://apps.tigerplay.net/
the apk download says 3.0.3 but my phone is charging so I cant see if thats the version listed in the app itself

dannejanne said:
Speaking of shooters... want to see something HARD? Look at this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70iFdnI-xfA&feature
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hehe some CAVE goodness..there are many CAVE bullet hell/manic shooters,main problem is:they are mostly vertical/TATE shooter and this is unfortanetly too small on xperia plays screen,you simply can`t concentrate on the ships hitbox(except Progear no Arashi which was made together with Capcom and is a horizontal shooter)
but if you want some really manic shooting i strongly recommend to fire up a pc mame emulator,for instance there is a extra lagless SHMUPMAME version,you can grab it on SHMUPS.COM,turn your monitor to vertical and try
-Donpachi(classic)
-Dodonpachi(my favourite till today,beautiful drawn sprites,great soundtrack,big explosions,supernice bulletpatterns)
-Dodonpachi Daioujou(ruthless one,you will throw your controller/stick onto the wall .-)
-E.S.P.rade(first in the "ESP" series)
-Espgaluda 1("easiest" Cave Shooter)
-Ketsui(Hardcore!)
-Guwange(probably the most stylish one if you are into japanese settings and oh boy the music in stage 3..)
-Dangun Feveron/Fever SOS(THE Disco Shooter,fast and frenzy.-)
all of them are great on their own! there are also numerous ports of the newer CAVE games on xbox 360(Mushihimesama Futari,Espgaluda 2,Dodonpachi Resurrection,DeathSmiles 1+2,Pink Sweets/MuchiMuchiPork are the ones that come to my mind).simply put CAVE are the masters of bullet hell shooting .-) i`ve got an old CRT monitor standing vertical with a arcade stick just for all the vertical shooters .-)
and for Blazing Star:yeah i totally forgot that one,really great shooter!
i`m personally really enjoying Mars Matrix and Giga Wing on the Xperia Play cause they have some sort of full screen vertical,which i didnt like on the big screen but for the Xperia Play its perfect,from the ps one games its Gradius Gaiden and the Salamander Deluxe Pack which i like the most.

Painkiller: Purgatory

Found this and wanted to share... looks awesome. It doesnt appear to be Xperia PLAY optimized but I have contacted the developer Machineworks Northwest LLC, will et ya'll know if i here anything back and I do hope they add support for our devices game controls and Games laucmher.. I told them I would buy the game in a heartbeat if they made this happen.....
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.machineworksnorthwest.painkillerp

I cannot believe ! Best Polish FPS on Android ??? Wow. I playd in this game years ago and i can say - I like it much more then any quake game (except quake 1). Famtastic news and I wait for replay from developer .

Just got this and playing it on my Xperia S for now. But will be really nice with Play controls as very good looking and only small size 30mb. Runs better then the Quake or Doom port's Nice find!!

This would be amazing to play with Xperia PLAY's controls.
The 30MB is also extremely modest. Gameloft needs to take notes from that.

It somewhat works with our controls, I can move with the d-pad. I use the touchscreen for aiming and firing, but good god, this is one boring game. So dissapointing....

Emulators: no-fuss options for Nexus Player

I'll maintain this thread so long as there's interest. In order for an emulator to be listed here, it needs to meet the following criteria
-must be able to open the app with the OFFICIAL Nexus Player gamepad (NPGP)
-must be able to exit the app with the official NPGP
-Must be able to configure all in-app options, to include gamepad button assignments, with the NPGP.
-Must be installable from the Nexus Player (waivable if installable from Play Store on PC)
-Must have a leanback launcher shortcut
Basically, if the emulator requires root, ADB, third party peripherals (for use or configuration), sideloading, etc., it won't be on this list.
NES:
NES.emu ($3.99)
Open the Play Store on your Nexus Player, and scroll up to search. Type or speak "Nintendo" or "emulator" and this will be one of the options that comes up. Alternatively, you can purchased and push install from the web-based Play Store. Open installation and first run, you should go to the settings and configure the gamepad for in-game actions (specifically, to exit the app).
SNES:
Snes9x EX+ (FREE)
Same as above (same developer and menu system).
I'd advise using the SNES emu first (as it's free) to learn how his menu/control setup works, then move on to his other paid emulators. You can see his other emulators at this page here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Robert Broglia&hl=en
Alternatively, you can open the Play Store on the Nexus Player, scroll up to search, and type/speak "emulator." Pretty much all of those are his. As I purchase his other emulators I'll add them to the above list when confirmed. If others wants to try them and report back, I'll also update the list based on that. If you find other emulators that meet the above criteria, please share.

Won't they get removed from the store soon? Emulators are banned quickly on Google Play, aren't they?

Magnesus said:
Won't they get removed from the store soon? Emulators are banned quickly on Google Play, aren't they?
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Most emulators on Google Play have been there for years. Nesoid and the other emulators made by that developer were removed for a specific violation. Here's a good article on the subject.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...nded-are-emulators-soon-to-be-banned-content/
Also, I'm going to go out on limb here. It's normally bad form to distribute links of ROM distribution website (and I won't post it here unless a moderator explicitly tells me that it's ok). However, there's one website that is actually legal (and as such, don't expect to find the best games here). Basically, the ESA has set up a way of protecting the rights of gaming companies and their work, while also offering some ROMs to gamers. Read more on the ESA here:
http://www.theesa.com/ (NOTE: Not a ROM distribution site)
Due to this, one website is completely ESA compliant and has, at the request of Nintendo (and other parties) intentionally set up dead links that will usually be at or near the top of Google results. If you search for a specific ROM on a Nintendo platform, and you click on the link for this specific website, all you get is a link that says "This page has been removed due to copyrights." What few ROMs are available on this website are legally freely distributed. Have at it.

The only problem I have with console emulators has always been the controller lag. This has been true even on my gaming PCs. Playing Super Mario 3 for example, on my SNES (bought one just for this game - lol) it's smooth and does what I expect it to. On my PCs, ADT-1, etc., there's always a minor lag that's just enough to throw timing off.
Mame for the most part on the PC has worked very well for fighting games. Chankast with MvsC2 was damn smooth for me. I'd love to see Android get to this level of emulation.

Mi|enko said:
The only problem I have with console emulators has always been the controller lag. This has been true even on my gaming PCs. Playing Super Mario 3 for example, on my SNES (bought one just for this game - lol) it's smooth and does what I expect it to. On my PCs, ADT-1, etc., there's always a minor lag that's just enough to throw timing off.
Mame for the most part on the PC has worked very well for fighting games. Chankast with MvsC2 was damn smooth for me. I'd love to see Android get to this level of emulation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two types of lag that you'll have to deal with here: system timing and input lag.
System timing - Each emulator developer takes their own approach to this. For the SNES, for example, SNES9X and ZSNES took two different approaches. ZSNES made the system timing more consistent, while SNES9X attempts to emulate the system timing of the SNES to a fault. As a result, playing a game on SNES9X will more closely mirror the actual SNES than ZSNES will. Basically, if you're playing a game that requires timing, you'll have to completely relearn your timing on ZSNES, whereas SNES9X will require less (if any) adjustment.
As for Sega 8/16-bit systems and the 32X, you should ONLY be using Kega Fusion on the desktop. This emulator is made by the same guy who has been hired by Sega numerous times to help them port their "Ages" collections to various platforms. He has inside knowledge of the hardware which is why his emulation is so spot on. There should be no noticeable difference in timing between an actual SMS/Genesis/SegaCD/32X and Kega Fusion. Unfortunately, the emulators available for Android aren't based on Fusion.
Input lag - All monitors/HDTVs have a degree of input lag. If you're gaming at 60fps, you want input lag to be <16.67ms, or 1 frame. This ensure that your button response is never more than 1 frame off. NOTE: This has NOTHING to do with pixel response time advertised by LCD manufacturers. Do NOT confuse these two specs. Here's a database of PC monitors and their associated input lag - http://www.displaylag.com/display-database/
HDTVs have an inherently high input lag due to all of the processing that they attempt to do. If you're going to game on these HDTVs, you want to disable as much as possible by using any built-in game mode that the HDTV has. For example, I use a Samsung L46A650. I bought this HDTV in 2008 because, at the time, it had the best input lag control. To date, no HDTV has bested it, so I'm keeping it until it dies. If I use HDMI input 2, set the source to 1080p (possible with Xbox 360, not with PS3), and set it at PC mode, it acts as a PC monitor. Input lag is <16.67 ms in this mode. For other inputs, enabling game mode has an input lag of 16.67ms to 33.33ms (1-2 frames). VGA (Dreamcast) is <16.67ms. If you dare use standard or movie mode, input lag is 3-4 frames. And if you have component hookups (like my PS2) and forget to enable game mode, it's a horrid 4-6 frames worth of delay. Here's an AVS thread on it - http://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-l...-results-your-lcd-display-here-reference.html
Bottom line is that you can greatly reduce the timing issues that you're having by ensuring that you're using the optimal emulator, and properly configuring your display.

^Thanks for all the detail man! I'm using a Samsung TV as well and had been using game mode for my ADT-1 input. Switching it from Game to PC, I saw a significant improvement in the input lag; however, I do see occasional screen hiccups (just a quick flash while navigating). The SNES games (Mario 3 in this case, for comparative purposes) plays almost flawless and as smooth as my SNES. Not perfect, but a helluva lot better than in game mode. It's comparable to my PC at this point, from the quick 10 minutes of testing I did.

Mi|enko said:
^Thanks for all the detail man! I'm using a Samsung TV as well and had been using game mode for my ADT-1 input. Switching it from Game to PC, I saw a significant improvement in the input lag; however, I do see occasional screen hiccups (just a quick flash while navigating). The SNES games (Mario 3 in this case, for comparative purposes) plays almost flawless and as smooth as my SNES. Not perfect, but a helluva lot better than in game mode. It's comparable to my PC at this point, from the quick 10 minutes of testing I did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad that you found it useful. I want to clarify something from my prior post that I was misleading on.
There are essentially 3 classes of "modern" emulators for the SNES, and there are many that fall in around or between these classes. For this example, I'm going to refer to Higan (formerly BSNES), SNES9X, and ZSNES.
Emulation is tricky. The more accurate you attempt to be, the higher the system specs that you need. Due to this, Higan stands alone as the most accurate emulator. It won't do any graphics filters. It won't speed up games. If a game had a scene with horrendous slowdown on a physical SNES, it will have the same horrendous slowdown on this emulator in the same spot. If you want to perfectly emulate an SNES, don't care about modernizing the graphics, and have the specs to run it (quad-core 3ghz+ Intel Core series CPU), then go for Higan. Note: There's no equivalent for Android, nor could there be at this point.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is ZNES (and there are far worse emulators, but I'm picking on them). Like all emulators not named Higan, this program takes shortcuts to mimic functionality. More shortcuts means better speed and lower system requirements, but also more compatibility issues. Try playing Earthworm Jim 2 and you won't hear most of the sound effects.
SNES9X is a compromise. It is far more accurate than ZSNES and therefore has higher system requirements. It takes more of a 95/5 approach. It won't have the accuracy as Higan, but it also won't have the slowdown found in Starefox to the degree that a real SNES or Higan would. It also allows you to enhance the graphics with filters and such. It's also ported to damn near every platform (including the Android TV app mentioned in the OP). It won't be exactly like playing on an actual SNES, but it will be closer than most emulators while offering enhancements, and consistency across multiple platforms.

I have installed these emulators and these are superb.