Turn Your Old Phone Into a Handheld Emulation Gaming Console

[@TakiUdon]

I hope this helps 🎮

[@real_omega9511]

It does!

[@levioliveiradosreis1084]

Can you use P2 " headphones" with that usb C controller?

[@modus8256]

I kinda want a full Flydigi Apex 2 review now

[@ryanpranske4036]

You rock thanks Taki

[@rohanleander]

It really does.

[@jellyfish5764]

Now this is what you call STEP BY STEP. This will help people out there who don't know how to set up just like me. This content is spoon feeding.

[@cloudstrife8940]

how did you get the games though? Did you download them individually from an Emulator site? Then transfer them to the SD card, and insert the SD card to the phone? It is not a thorough STEP BY STEP video I don't think. I got lost at 8.28. There is no "n64 folder" in my phone. Do I have to create it first? But how and where?

[@aymodaslacker8852]

@@cloudstrife8940 this is definitely late af but yes, for emulation you usually will have to download the game file first. Make sure the format is correct, create a folder(usually anywhere works) and as long as the file format is right it should run.

[@Mascovipi]

@@aymodaslacker8852 bro, I think he was joking

[@Mr.Helper.]

Do you format the os on the phone ?

[@justinw7323]

Patrick Duffy. You said "Step By Step" 😂

[@spider2MW]

The GameSir X2 - especially the new one with the better D-PAD - is awesome. With a good phone, no Retro or Android Handheld can touch this!

[@ronaldkincaid9972]

Oh yeah. Just got mine and I love it. A bit weird using Nintendo button layout system wide especially on some apps that don’t allow remapping. Luckily the only system I emulated that isn’t Nintendo allows remapping

[@storm8216]

@@ronaldkincaid9972 It's literally 1:27 AM so if i say somethign dumb sorry. I think in gamesir app u can change the nintendo sw... layout to xbox layout. *I don't know if this helps xd* oh and a question: Is the d-pad feels good? :D Going to get my hands on a x2 usb-c in a week

[@ronaldkincaid9972]

@@storm8216 @Storm yeah I finally downloaded it and you can but I got used to nintendo lol. But yes the connected D-pad does feel good. I never pick up my thumb when using the D-pad and just slide my finger across it so it's feels right. Can't speak on the separated updownleftright they have on the 2020 version but it's similar to original switch Joy cons which is weird and doesn't make since if you can't use half the controller as one lol

[@storm8216]

@@ronaldkincaid9972 :D

[@storm8216]

@@ronaldkincaid9972 Ordered one 2 days ago. Mine is coming today (it's 12:43 AM here)

[@the_weird_scientist]

I've been trying to figure ALL this out since I discovered emulators on pc back in 2014! Finally been able to get back into gaming and this is the best solution after selling all my consoles and games over the tough years. THANKS A MILLION!!!

[@DACatface]

basically a God tier video for people looking to emulate on the go! so good!

[@jorgenApew]

I did a bit of research and found several good things about the Poco X3 PRO. Then I found it on the used market for 120USD. After that I ended up on this video, and I'm glad to see that you use this device! Im an iPhone user, So I bought the Poco X3 PRO for emulation alone and I'm incredibly satisfied with the performance!

[@ryangalvatron4451]

A useful tip: If you are using stand alone emulators along with DIG front end, it will not be a seamless integration. For example: if you load a Dreamcast game through DIG and are using the Redream emulator it will just load you into the library screen in Redream. If you load an N64 game and are using M64 FZ, it will load you into the library menu of M64 and give you a "failed to read rom" error. So in short what I am trying to say is either use standalone's and get ATV launcher (or any other android launcher you like to make the interface look better) and just treat each standalone as it's own system. If you choose to use DIG front end or even something like launchbox, it will only be semaless if your backend is RetroArch cores.

[@omegadecisive]

Razer Kishi broke within 6 months of owning, and the Gamesir X2 feels incredibly cheap and is very awkward and uncomfortable to use. Just FYI for anyone reading. Currently I use an a Xbox controller (my preference with big old hands) with a Moga clip and a very short cable to reduce latency. It's a bit unbalanced compared to split controllers, but it's by far the best set-up for me so far.

[@srvuk]

Fantastic, as was the previous one on the subject. Usually follow people like ETA Prime and Retro Game Corp but this beats both, You are the first that I have seen to ever mention phone refresh rates and showing the pros and cons of types of controller, including a very cheap and affordable one for anybody shows that you think of all users and pockets.

[@KC-nr3ou]

You’re the man. Thanks for helping so many people and making cool shit.

[@TakiUdon]

Thank you for the support!

[@CharlieWestGaming]

This video is exactly what I have been looking for and so helpful with the emulation settings! I've used my Samsung S10+ in the past for gamepads streaming with the Xbox controller and clip. Now that I have upgrade from the S22 Ultra, I plan to setup my backup phone as a dedicated emulation/streaming device. Was also looking at a telescopic controller device to try.

[@adrian_veidt]

I've been using emulators on mobile since 2009. I began on Symbian with Vbag, picodrive, Vnes, Vsun and VGBC. I like how the steps now are more streamline and easier.

[@zaaaga9328]

exactly like me with my nokia 5300 xpress music!

[@ginkid7006]

This is so helpful for a newbie like me. Thank you Taki

[@MrBrandonbarlow]

One thing I've been considering is picking up a pixel 2. One of the last phones at 16x9 aspect ratio with a modern snapdragon and current version, and is quite a bit smaller. Pair it with the new gamesir x2 with the new dpad on it or with a kishi and we have a winner

[@HowToGameDifferently]

This is so helpful thank you. I've been trying to get something similar on my phone and been struggling with some of the emulators. Hopefully after some tinkering it will work out from using this guide.

[@mugenspiral]

Great step by step video. Gonna send this to my friends that keep saying setting up emulators is too hard

[@danlethal]

That was probably the simplest overview of ppsspp I've seen... Thanks Taki!

[@therunawaykid6523]

How do I download the roms?

[@ColtonSimmonsPhotography]

Oh sick! Great Video man.

[@ten-dimension9390]

I play a lot of emulator games. N64, ppsspp and normal android games. These settings that you described are really help ful. Few months ago I spent a lot of time to configure all my settings of ppsspp and to understand them. The remaining options I will be able to configure now thanks to you. But I was going to upgrade my phone. My current phone is android 10. The next Will most likely be android 11. I hope that won't cause any trouble.

[@jasonong7049]

Nice!!! This won't be possible for me to play the phone emulators without you. Thank you very much and I really appreciate it Sir! 😊

[@Access.Denied]

Holy hell this is absolutely perfect! Thanx man!

[@Apo458]

If you're using a Bluetooth controller, in order to reduce latency turn off the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth scanning. I noticed a huge input lag when playing New Super Mario Bros 2 on citra, but after disabling the function the experience was way more satisfying

[@bikesbeansandbuilds]

For people wanting to buy Gamesir X2 or using IOS theres 3 versions, one in this video, Gamesir X2 2021 version which has dpad and has larger phone support and the Bluetooth Version for IOS

[@Denacity0]

The Razer Kishi is a really nice controller, I was using it for PSP Emulation over the weekend.

[@SOUL_ZOMBIE]

this helps a lot. gonna see how much of this video i can use for my gpd win max too. thanks

[@SOUL_ZOMBIE]

outside of just using bluestacks to do so lol

[@codylester9081]

I was shopping the Odin, and I may get one after it has actually released but I decided to try this route instead and got a LG G8 with a Kishi controller on Amazon for $150 total. Not bad for as card support and a snapdragon 855

[@PS2GAMER100]

I have that same phone which runs my PS2 games smoothly

[@tking2199]

The ppsspp cpu clock is a God send, I did this to my retroid pocket and can now play GoW. Also now got way better performance for gamecube games on phone. Thank you.

[@sudhirpawar8525]

This video is super detailed and helpful. Thanks ☺️☺️

[@filipe9916]

This is a really complete video!!! Thanks

[@B2099-b2h]

I appreciate this video my guy.. This is a very good video

[@athermahmood1065]

Excellent resource for android emulation. Cheers Taki, really helpful stuff bro👍🏻

[@TakiUdon]

Happy to help

[@AlexBGamesONLINE]

Taki with another great video👏

[@kevinkev1530]

Thx man, I wanna try this one day

[@Bustos0719]

Honestly this helped alot. I've been troubleshooting and trying to have my phone play some PSP games for nostalgia but I couldn't figure out how to do it properly. Thank you for this

[@UnknownUnitW10]

It took me awhile to get use to touch controls since I game from consols. However I'd never go back now. I love the portability of mobile gaming.

[@tongoso]

Simply Amazing work

[@theunreal_TOEBEANS]

This is absolutely AWESOME! THANK YOU!! I have a request: could you make a video about how to use Octopus properly? I can't find one anywhere on youtube. THIS VIDEO WAS SUUUPER HELPFUL!

[@zuko9085]

One of those videos where I decrease the speed, particularly in the Retroarch section. Nice to avoid a bunch of fluff and just get helpful information though!

[@soreyJr]

Great tutorial man

[@TakiUdon]

Appreciate it!

[@BlackCanvasAudio]

TAKI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you! This helps tremendously! I just switched from IOS to Android with the Galaxy S21 Plus. I'm in emulation heaven! lol

[@TakiUdon]

Thank you!

[@bevinbell6600]

Lemroid works great on android in 2024. Great video by the way.

[@TheFrogInYourClosetWatchingYou]

heck my s20+ is an amazing psp emulator and can run the vast majority of games at 6x native resolution or higher. I have around 75 psp games on my phone I just need some joycons now. Im not really in a rush I have a switch now but it'd be nice to get a pair eventually I just don't want to spend 100 dollars on it. Surprisingly the on screen controls actually work pretty well with the psp emulator especially with a fairly decent sized screen. Some games just don't work well because they require use of the triggers a lot and I'm not a fan of using the claw method.

[@N3DArtworks]

Been looking for a guide to do this with my rusty old s7. Awesome screen and screen res is gr8. Hardware is not that bad and should work fine' just for tinkering and messing around. Plus I'm sure you'd be able to squeeze a bit more performance out of it with some oc's. Not affraid to open the phone and do some diy cooling addons.

[@ViruxFN.23luvu]

Definitely he knows Faze Flea good video bro love it

[@danivalentine1280]

I know this video is a little old, but my retroarch cores failed to download. I tried every one of them. Everything else is working top notch though, thank you :D

[@danivalentine1280]

jk, I didn't have my wifi on and forgot it was a spare phone that didn't have service. lol

[@somethingpurpul]

Good tutorial is good!

[@alcr1680]

love it! thanks!!

[@wisewords8972]

The S21 plus is honestly a emulating beast that has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. It pretty can run all dreamcast games smoothly at the highest HD settings. It can pretty much handle anything. Except GameCube and wii lol but it's crazy that it can still run those systems as well.

[@KallutoZoldyck]

My nexus 9 back in like 2015 could do the same, nothing special about being able to run wii/gc in the first place.

[@akifrivaldo]

Really love this tut ❤️👌

[@tacticalgrape2658]

Great guide :)

[@MartellThaCool]

Will try this out to improve my gaming experiences on my Samsung Galaxy S8 and S10e 😁

[@fabiobezerra9569]

Great vídeo, thank you very much! ✌️😁

[@MajorKie]

Thank you so much for this video! Was really struggling to get things to run well on my Exynos S21 ultra but it's running most things like a dream using your settings as a base and adjusting from there.

[@TakiUdon]

You are welcome!

[@andika.a.k.]

This is the best, thanks bro.

[@ftcv]

I wanted to solve a problem I have with smartphones as emulator devices, is that I can't get the good feeling of playing a console, the notification messages, I don't know, there's too much to distract from the game, there's not that clean feeling of turning on and just play and that's it, do you guys feel that too? PS: I love your video Taki Udon! I am a brazilian subscriber who watch every video that you post!

[@LightSilver7]

May the gamers live on!!

[@mrbutchee1]

Hey Taki, thanks for showing this. I've been having trouble. Messing with settings getting frustrated. Deleting and starting fresh, over and over.

[@oscarrod96]

I. FREAKING. LOVE. YOU. I recently got back into emulating again and couldn't find a good Dolphin emulator walkthrough. Thank you so much

[@hongkaiyuan]

Awesome guide. Hoping that you would do a similar video for Retropie on Raspberry 4B.

[@josephl3602]

Very nice video. I have already done the GameCube and Wii/Wii-U emulation handheld with my old Realme X2 Pro. Cheap phone with amazing emulation ability. Only down side to this phone is its lack of SD support. I have the 128gb version but even at that storage level, it gets used up fast.

[@isbebanta6514]

I have realme XT and your right realme phones are really good and cheap for emulation

[@josephl3602]

Some realme phones are good. But the good ones are in fact, good for emulation of higher end systems. That SD855+ is amazing chip.

[@isbebanta6514]

@@josephl3602 the xt has a 712 but I have emulated Wii,GameCube,some ps2, psp and N64 pretty cheap phone and it manages to play that it's crazy

[@mauryj.3415]

The razer junglecat controller is also a good option, you can even get switch games emulation.

[@lukejohnson9720]

This will randomly show up in our recommendations in a few years

[@tranquility6789]

You can make a diy switch using the LG g8 and a razer kishi or gamesir x2 for under the price of a switch and its more powerful, can do infinitely more, and actually decent online. And of course emulation. My oneplus 7t can emulate sonic colors at 1440p and fzero gx at 720p.

[@creativememer7822]

Not enough view for this video my man! that's why I liked your video with my own three seperate acc

[@damienbreslin6204]

I did this to my phone, but now I have a PS VITA too👌. Best thing ever!!

[@worstperson2ask]

He said he has a PS Vita.

[@PALNDOE]

Cool video that's exactly what I'm gonna do but with a tablet I don't wanna play on a little phone screen

[@modus8256]

I kinda want a full Flydigi 2 review now

[@flintfrommother3gaming]

I am going to use my J1 when I get a little, newer one. emulation on J1 is perfectly capable of emulating upto N64 games which is the threshold I was looking for. Higher-end emulation will be on my PC such as RPCS3 etc.

[@martinm4725]

Didn't know that X2 existed, bought a RG351P, screen died after less than a week, bought a Vita and with a CFW i can't say i'm not happy... that X2 tho... looks nice

[@TakiUdon]

Did they offer a screen replacement?

[@cross_lair]

I think PPSSPP has changed some configuration stuff in the newer updates and added more upscaling options

[@IraJavier]

Seriously considering this. My cellphone provider is offering me an Galaxy S20 FE for $4/month, and considering taking it as a dedicated emulation/streaming device.

[@Mrluvshack]

Hey Taki, would you be able to do a review of the LG wing using the dual screen for emulation? I would be really curious what the best controller to pair with it. I think it would be a fun project/video because the wing can have the screen swing out, and it would really look cool as a handheld.

[@Fuyu_Arashi99]

I don't think that'll happen unless more people make apps that make use of the second screen.

[@therunawaykid6523]

The only emulators I've got to work are: mupen 64, drastic ds emulator, fpse ps1 emulator, classicboy, gba emulators. I'm hoping with my steam deck I will be able to emulate ps2 games and use the dolphin emulator to emulate gamecube games 🙄 a very good guide video this should help when I get the deck

[@radry100]

CRT Shader is a must for most emulations except handelds, for which a LCD shader is best.

[@Unjustified_Bot]

The flydigi apex 2 is a powerful controller. It's the best. I use a razer kishi 2 for convenience, but favor the apex 2.

[@eddyplyz]

I actually want to turn my LG G3 phone into a Handheld Consule because of this video Unfortunately, the LG falied to install the psp emulation app. I hope other emulator apps don't have the same problem as well

[@Zoggard]

You are a God amongst mortals

[@ToyKeeper]

Instead of an old phone, some phone carriers do promos where you get a free phone with sign-up, even without a contract, so it's the price of only one month. They're really cheap and do emulation better than most dedicated handhelds. Like, the price of a low-end Anbernic with the performance of a decent Retroid, and a better screen than either one.

[@RowleyBQC]

Would love to see a performance optimisation video like this for the latest Chromecast or does most of this apply?

[@patrick2041]

Great video

[@Montisaquadeis]

I will say this Drastic has NOT been updated for Android 11 so yes you are forced to run your games off the internal storage for that one. Also you can Enable "Disable mapped keys in overlay" to disable the onscreen controls for buttons you have physically mapped to a controller instead of doing it via the edit screens and virtual pad section

[@PwpapkdfkfjdowowPapaaposodkffj]

Keep it takes a good compatible phone to run most of these emulators however yes they definitely work and are amazing with Bluetooth❤

[@jwill7998]

The Razer Kishi is all over Mercari and OfferUp at decent prices. I wish the USB-C pass-through was capable of data transfer/video output.

[@sergestar4536]

Do more like this

[@yubinator7455]

you can do this with a much cheaper telescopic(BSP-D3) nowadays but don't expect too much from that controller since it is a cheap controller

[@Matt.Willoughby]

Snapdragon is a cpu, they usually pair with adreno on Android devices

[@nate6862]

It looks like the new/more expensive X2 version has a D-Pad instead of buttons. I think the makers of it never thought about why the Switch had those as buttons and not a D-Pad in the first place, doesn't really make any sense for a phone holder controller.

[@mardenkarden]

Doesn’t Duckstation run with better performance than ReArmed and with better compatibility and less glitches?

[@TakiUdon]

Not on low-powered devices.

[@mardenkarden]

@@TakiUdon Ah, I see. So it doesn't scale down well to yesteryear's lower end tiers even? Didn't know that. I haven't tried it on anything lower than an SD 845. PS. Love your content, man 👍🏽 You've got a good mix of broader appeal, as well as deeper going, analytical, enthusiast pull. I enjoy both your stuff and ETA Prime's; even though there's a lot of similar draws, there's most definitely room for both, as you have differing approaches in crossing niches.

[@faustinuskaryadi6610]

Duck Station have some issue like freeze in Chrono Cross alternate ending, or slow down on Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest/Warrior VII when dialogue box appear if you set resolution to more than 1x.

[@frenzyf0k148]

Great!!

[@KuroNoShadow]

Octopus has to "duplicate" the games for the mapping process and that may cause a ban on certain games like COD or genshin I use mantis gamepad pro, it's on the play store, but it had to be "activated" first, you can do that with a PC or another phone, if you have a rooted phone it activates with no PC or another phone. I have been using it for 2 months for Genshin Impact and don't have any ban

[@Wutse]

i actually bought myself one of those Xiaomi Pad5's with the same processor in it as the Poco i think , snapdragon 860 & 6gb of ram just for emulation purposes

[@bayfinest1938]

I'm playing 3ds on my phone

[@crvoincr]

How bout I turn my current phone into one

[@ongpongtv]

Jeanne d arc my fav game

[@RyAn-xw5kl]

I would but all my old phones are broken or have problems but I'll try it someday

[@maxvanraden129]

Nice tutorial! Hey, whatever happened to that $199 snapdragon emulator you teased a couple months ago? Is it still coming?

[@EmulationDojo]

I've been trying to snag one of these for emulation testing also, along with an F3 and they don't ship to the US. Only eBayer's charging $450-$500 seem to be an option, it's a bummer. :(

[@blakes9308]

Check out the LG V60!

[@NatureBoundNomads]

Does seperate phone for emulation make any difference

[@justinr9784]

Got a couple of old phones I'm wanting to turn into something for myself and friends to whip out impromptu and get Mario Kart or Smash or something going. With the addition of a few bluetooth controllers it could be amazing. Also once you're into emulation you're in it for life. I've got so many friends I just wanna shake them and tell them to stop buying shit they can get for free!

[@budgetking2591]

Was looking into buying the Anbernic or Miyoo portable gaming device, but that seems stupid if you already have a spare phone laying arround!

[@rmc_hyde]

What about Android 17 and 18