GoKawiilC. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR CHD files let emulators save space by compressing disc images.
Existing tools for creating CHD files have largely been PC-based.
CHDroid offers a native Android solution for creating and managing CHD files.
Whether you’re using your phone itself, pairing it with a controller grip, or even picked up a full-on dedicated handheld console, Android is powering some of the best mobile game emulation experiences out there. Today’s emulators can handle some of the best retro titles to ever launch, and while it’s a lot of fun to have access to mountains of PlayStation or Saturn games right in your pocket, all those disc images can start eating up your storage, fast. Thankfully, there’s a new tool leaving beta that’s ready to help do something about that.
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When games expanded from ROMs to optical storage, file sizes went though the roof, and while you may not bat an eye at a single CD ISO image taking up 700MB, that quickly becomes a different story when you want a library of dozens of games at your disposal. Luckily, the emulation community has an ace up its sleeve: the CHD file format. And this week marks the arrival of CHDroid v1.1.0.
CHD files got started back with arcade emulators, when they were used to compress hard drive rips from arcade titles. Remember the classic lightgun shooter Area 51? That’s basically an Atari Jaguar with a hard drive storing all the video footage, and anyone emulating it would need a CHD copy of game data.
Nick Fernandez / Android Authority
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