emulators for phone

[FakeFBI]

idk if this counts as piracy, but how i do have some questions about game emulators

 

basically i want to play some old gameboy/ds games on my phone and i read about emulators

i kinda need this to be explained, i read something about roms and stuff, so basically everything is confusing

here's some top questions you can add on answers to help me 

1. How do i setup these (like download games, download rom, or just play, etc)

2. what are my limits, do these emulators have only specific games?

3. Is it even worth it or sould i just buy a gameboy and a nintendo ds

[Radium_Angel]

49 minutes ago, FakeFBI said:

3. Is it even worth it or sould i just buy a gameboy and a nintendo ds

Given how cheap these are, and that you will be running on actual hardware, that's the best way to go. ROMs are a legal grey area, and are best avoided.

[FakeFBI]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Given how cheap these are, and that you will be running on actual hardware, that's the best way to go. ROMs are a legal grey area, and are best avoided.

what are roms, like files, like a console apk?

some emulators are free

and thank you for replying i've been waiting a hour

 

[Nayr438]

1. You would need to obtain roms via manual dumping or from a third party, which is a bit of a grey area.
   1. For an Emulator, RetroArch (RetroArch Plus on Android) is a good platform that offers a variety of different emulation cores. It can be difficult to get used to, but can provide probably the best experience in the end. Otherwise you could probably just search for "console" emulator and find something simpler but less configurable.
2. This comes down to compatibility, so it just varies. Generally the older the console that's being emulated, the better compatibility is. This can however widely vary between emulators.
3. That's something only you can decide.  Consoles will always offer guaranteed compatibility and a vanilla experience.

 

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, FakeFBI said:

what are roms, like files, like a console apk?

some emulators are free

and thank you for replying i've been waiting a hour

 

Yes, a ROM is a file that includes all the game files/etc that the emulator can well..emulate and run.

Many emulators are indeed free. MAME being a prime example (and probably the most famous)

But many of the ROMs, despite their age, are still claimed under copyright and *can* get you into trouble, Nintendo is rather famous for vigorously enforcing their IP/copyright rights, so yeah...

[FakeFBI]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Yes, a ROM is a file that includes all the game files/etc that the emulator can well..emulate and run.

Many emulators are indeed free. MAME being a prime example (and probably the most famous)

But many of the ROMs, despite their age, are still claimed under copyright and *can* get you into trouble, Nintendo is rather famous for vigorously enforcing their IP/copyright rights, so yeah...

do the game files come with the emulators? or do they come in outside apk files or something

 

1 minute ago, Nayr438 said:

1. You would need to obtain roms via manual dumping or from a third party, which is a bit of a grey area.
   1. For an Emulator, RetroArch (RetroArch Plus on Android) is a good platform that offers a variety of different emulation cores. It can be difficult to get used to, but can provide probably the best experience in the end. Otherwise you could probably just search for "console" emulator and find something simpler but less configurable.
2. This comes down to compatibility, so it just varies. Generally the older the console that's being emulated, the better compatibility is. This can however widely vary between emulators.
3. That's something only you can decide.  Consoles will always offer guaranteed compatibility and a vanilla experience.

 

thank you for the input

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, FakeFBI said:

or do they come in outside apk files or something

Outside, you have to track them down.

Many of them are hidden behind paywalls, sketchy sites, malware triggers, etc. It's unfortunate but since ROMs are a legal grey area, a lot of people take advantage of this. It's sort of like hunting for warez, it's ultimately easier to buy legit stuff than try to snake it for free

[SansVarnic]

ROMs can lead to piracy so be aware of this.

I am not saying emulating is piracy just that it can lead to piracy.

I have emulators but for games I already own that I play on my pc.

[FakeFBI]

3 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

ROMs can lead to piracy so be aware of this.

I am not saying emulating is piracy just that it can lead to piracy.

I have emulators but for games I already own that I play on my pc.

ok now i'm informed, thanks and btw nice pfp

[Dragonwinged]

Here's a few tipsa out downloading ROMs.

 

If it asksyou for money, don't pay them anything.

 

If it comes as an .exe, don't use it. Here's some of the ROM files that i've seen

 

.a26 for atari 2600

.sfc or .smc for super nintendo

.gb for og gameboy

.gbc for gameboy color

.gba for gameboy advance

.nds for nintendo ds

.3ds for 3ds

.z64 for nintendo 64

.iso for any cd game console, may also come as .bin/.cue files

.gcz for gamecube and wii games (sometimes. You can also find them in The cd formats.)

I've also seen .mdf and .mds files on some dreamcast games, as well as .gdi in place of .cue files.

Most older sega console roms will come as .bin files.

 

If the rom site redirects you to some random ad site, it's probably a bad place to get roms.

 

Try downloading roms from a linux distro or directly from your phone. You'll be able to avoid catching the viruses that usually target Windows. But you should probably still use an antivirus and a VPN when pirating roms.

 

Most roms for older games are incredibly small in size. You could probably store the entirety of console games from the first generation to the fourth on a single 500gb hard drive, and still have plenty of space. From experience, the roms for Kingdom hearts on the ds (re:coded and 358/2 days) are the largest ds roms i've encountered at 200MB. Gamecube .isos will all be exactly 1.4GB, regardless of the game, which is why I switched all my Gamecube roms to .gcz format. .isos are almost always the disc's maximum storage capacity, which wastes a lot of space.

 

You'll hear a lotof disavowing of piracy on many forums and social media, along with all those anti-piracy commercials, bit with how little most law enforcement seems to care a out it, combined with it's massive support in the area of games preservation, it doesn't really carry all that much fear of retribution, unless Nintendo finds out. They're brutal with copyright enforcement. Just compare Nintendo vs Emuparadise to Sony vs the guy selling modded ps1 classics. Sony sued for 200k, Nintendo sued an elderly couple collecting ad revenue for 12 million.