- Runs on Android 12
- Supports, at the very least, GB, GBA, NES, SNES, Genesis, and Game Gear
- Takes input from physical buttons
- Lets you hide on-screen buttons
I have a Sidephone with the Mini Controller keypad and I want to play games on it. There’s a bespoke (unofficial) emulator for the phone called SideRetro, but it only supports GB, GBA, NES, and Genesis, and it’s vibe-coded, so I’d rather use something else. Tried Lemuroid but it doesn’t take input from the physical buttons and can’t hide the on-screen buttons.
Edit: It’s been tough finding a good selection of apps that recognize my physical buttons, let me hide the on-screen buttons, and play what I want. RetroArch seemed to do the trick, but if I hide the on-screen buttons there’s also no way to open the RetroArch menu that I can find.
For now it looks like I’m sticking with SideRetro for the games it can play – even if the dev uses AI to code it, I don’t think it can actually harm my phone, and it’s not like I’m paying for it. Nostalgia GG works great for Game Gear (it has ads, but thankfully only on the launcher) and an option no one mentioned yet for SNES, Snes9x, which turned out to be perfect.
Second Edit: Too many weird bugs in SideRetro, which isn’t a surprise. I’m going with the Nostalgia apps for GG, GB, GBA, and NES, sticking with Snes9x for SNES, and found MDemu for Genesis.
Thanks for all the input, everyone!
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Why not separate apps?
If I have to use separate apps, I’ll settle for that.
You didn’t mention RetroArch, have you had any issues with that one? I know people have opinions on it, but it’s always worked for me.
As long as they don’t go above N64/PS1. I would say that RetroArch is great. Get some core recommendations, some are better than others.
On the SoC in their phone, even N64 through Retroarch is a stretch for many games. PS1 will generally be OK, but I’d still recommend a stand-alone emulator for that, too. Everything earlier than that generation should be fine, though.
I have a retroid 4 pro and it plays PS2 fine. The Qualcomm chips in many phones are more powerful than it’s MediaTek Dimensity.
I have Opinions about RetroArch, but I’ve downloaded it now and it seems to work fine.
I used to really dislike Retroarch, but ever since they started defaulting to the ozone UI, I have less complaints about the usability of it. Still prefer standalones because their performance is usually better, personally, but it isnt as bad as it used to be IMO.
Tried Lemuroid but it doesn’t take input from the physical buttons and can’t hide the on-screen buttons.
You can definitely hide the on-screen buttons, and I’m fairly sure it has controller support as well but you may need to mess around in the settings for it to work. Your other option is probably RetroArch but don’t get it from Google Play because that one is outdated, get it from the official site.
If separate aren’t a deal breaker, I’ve been using Nostalgia emulators for a while. They work great with my 8bitdo controllers. NES, GBA, GG and GB/C versions are available. No SNES or Genesis, unfortunately.
Not FOSS and not free for the Pro versions, but free versions are available to see if they work for you.
