GoKawiilRobert Triggs / Android Authority
In a bid to relive a bit of my youth, I’ve been enjoying some retro games for the past month or so (I’m currently a good way through Wind Waker), but have been confined to playing on my couch. While I could install a bunch of games on my daily driver, that is a distraction I’d rather not carry around all the time. Thankfully, I have a few aging handsets around to use instead, so I picked up my Pixel 7 Pro and set about converting it into an Android gaming handheld.
While the Pixel 7 Pro is far from a powerhouse handset by today’s standards, emulation often doesn’t require as much horsepower as you think, especially for 16-bit consoles. Not to mention that you can often get away with 720p on a small phone screen for more demanding 3D consoles. In any case, I was curious to see how an aging model would fare.
Setting up an emulation station
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Before booting up any games, I first needed to choose the right software. There’s a healthy selection of emulators for various consoles out there, but for a dedicated gaming device, I don’t want to have to dig through app icons and drawers to find what I want to play. An aggregator or combined front-end is what I need.
I’ve previously had success using RetroAssembly to host games on my NAS and share them with any device on my network. However, this is less ideal when using my phone outside my home, and it doesn’t support some of the more demanding emulators. RetroArch is the gold standard for supporting a wide range of emulators under one roof. Its UI isn’t the prettiest, but you can pair it up with front-ends like LaunchBox or Daijisho if that’s really a problem.
RetroArch UI Daijisho UI
Daijisho's UI paired with RetroArch's power is a match made in emulation heaven.
After a bit of trial and error, I decided on a combination of RetroArch as the core and Daijisho as the front end. I couldn’t get comfortable with RetroArch’s UI and deep settings menus on a small phone screen, whereas Daijisho is built for controller navigation. It requires a little bit of back-and-forth configuration, but Daijisho is smart enough to automatically recognise installed RetroArch cores and boot straight into the app to launch the game. Likewise, RetroArch is robust enough to automatically detect and configure my ASUS ROG Tessen game controller, saving me from painstaking manual mapping.
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