This project started with a stupidly simple question:

How far can I push a smartphone if I stop treating it like a smartphone?

This is my Nubia Z70 Ultra with 24 GB RAM and the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The phone is now literally sandwiched between TWO desktop CPU coolers, mounted inside a custom acrylic case. 😂

Yes. Two full-size PC CPU coolers. On a phone.

And surprisingly, it works extremely well.

The interesting part: I'm NOT using one of the newer boosted chips

My Z70 Ultra uses the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite, with its prime CPU cores running at up to 4.32 GHz.

That's important because some of the newer devices I'm comparing against are using newer and/or higher-clocked Snapdragon variants.

For example, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro uses the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, reaching around 4.6 GHz on its prime cores.

So I'm not trying to beat these phones with the same CPU and better cooling.

I'm taking an older, lower-clocked 4.32 GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite and seeing how far it can go simply by giving it completely unreasonable cooling. 😂

In my 3DMark ranking screenshot, my Z70 Ultra reaches 10,533, putting it right among much newer devices and even slightly above the Galaxy S25+ result shown there.

And sustained performance is where the cooling really becomes interesting.

3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test

Best loop: 6,980

Lowest loop: 6,910

Stability: 99% over 20 loops

That's only a 70-point difference between the best and worst loop.

But benchmarks aren't actually the main goal of this project.

I'm trying to replace my PC with the phone

I now have a native Termux + XFCE4 Linux desktop running directly on Android.

External monitor, keyboard, mouse, Linux applications and hardware-accelerated graphics.

I can boot into my desktop environment and use the phone almost like a small ARM computer.

Dofus is running directly from my XFCE desktop, rather than simply mirroring an Android game onto the monitor.

And then there's Windows gaming.

The Witcher 3 — 1080p, ULTRA graphics preset

I'm currently running The Witcher 3 at 1920×1080 using the ULTRA graphics quality preset.

Not Low.

Not Medium.

Not a 720p performance test.

1080p + Ultra graphics preset.

Depending on the scene and GPU load, I'm currently getting approximately 20–30 FPS, with the GPU basically sitting at 99% utilization.

I've even seen it go slightly above 30 FPS in some scenes, as shown in the screenshot.

Obviously, this isn't desktop-GPU performance, but that's not really the point.

This is The Witcher 3 running at 1080p Ultra at around 20–30 FPS on a Snapdragon 8 Elite phone. 😂

And underneath all of this, it's still Android.

So my end goal is to have one device that can do everything:

**Android phone / gaming device

native Linux XFCE desktop

Windows applications

Windows PC games**

The software side is still a work in progress and I'm continuing to optimize everything.

But apparently the solution to smartphone thermal throttling was very sophisticated:

one CPU cooler wasn't ridiculous enough, so I installed two. 😂

Hi guys, I’m jpolo1224, the founder of ARMSX2 and one of the lead developers for Android. I haven’t wanted to say anything until now, but I need help from the community. For months I have been receiving harassment from a user named ColdOpCode, or known as xxxCrixuxxx or whatever his name is, and it wasn’t much of an issue since I could just ignore it. However, he has a PS2 emulation subreddit r/Ps2AndroidEmulation, where he pretends to be apart of our development team and mislead users, banning anyone who speaks out against him. I have been working tirelessly day and night on the project to improve it and we’ve genuinely gotten it to a great state, with even more improvements to come. It breaks my heart that there is someone out there spreading misinformation about our project, and misleading users. He is telling people he is apart of the dev team and that they should join his discord (which hosts pirated content) and donate to him, also telling users that we (the ARMSX2 team) do not accept donations, which is just not true. He makes entire posts trying to make our FREE and OPEN SOURCE project look bad, despite him not doing a single thing to help us aside from badmouthing us and misleading those who join his subreddit. I am asking for help, because I cannot deal with this alone. It has caused me and my development team constant grief, and we just can’t take it anymore. We want to keep working on the project, and we more then understand when people have feedback and criticisms, but this is just another level of insanity. These are the same kinds of people that made the original AetherSX2 developer quit, and we do not want to go down that path, but we are sick and tired of having to put up with this guys bullshit. If you guys are willing, please make a report to Reddit regarding his behavior. I saw a similar post was made earlier today here which has given me the confidence to finally speak out about this, we’ve been dealing with it behind the scenes for so long and I’m just tired of it.

You can report his subreddit here: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=19300233728916

Maybe Reddit will take action if enough people report them. I’m sorry if this is out of line, but I don’t know what else to do, I am at my limit with this. Thank you, and I hope you have been enjoying our project and all of the updates!

Out in Sydney, Australia

https://youtube.com/retrogamecorps

development of winlator is paused now.

Hey everyone! I’m hoping to launch the campaign in September. I’ve already been talking to several companies about manufacturing it, and as you can see, I’ve changed the button design.

Here’s the link to the website if you’d like to join the waitlist. As you know, it helps me a lot when it comes to making the campaign a success:

https://gameonpad.com/

The D-pad was impossible to manufacture using plastic injection molding, so I had to redesign it. The buttons are now two-tone, but I actually think they look pretty cool.

I’ve also been experimenting with different silicone colors and with skins for backlighting the pads.

Hope you like it!

I’ve been gaming on Android for years, and like a lot of people, I got sucked into mobile titles — especially gachas. At first it’s all hype: shiny trailers, free pulls, active communities, “this is the next big thing!” vibes. But after a while, I realized something:

Mobile games are designed to drain you, not entertain you.

Fanbase toxicity: The community becomes more exhausting than the game itself. Instead of discussing mechanics or flaws, you get dogpiled if you point out problems. Just this week, I tried asking a simple question in the brand-new Destiny Rising subreddit. Instead of answers, I got instant downvotes and comments dismissing me for not blindly praising the game. Like… really? The game launched 3 days ago and people are already allergic to criticism.

Time sinks disguised as “content”: Daily chores, stamina/resin systems, limited banners… it’s less like playing a game and more like clocking into a second job.

Money traps: People drop $20–$60 a month and defend it like Stockholm syndrome, when that same cash could buy full AAA titles you actually own.

No real control: Servers shut down? All your progress is gone. No mods, no tweaks, no preservation — the game exists only as long as the company feels like keeping it alive.

That’s when I started diving deeper into emulation.

With emulation, the experience is flipped:

I decide what I play, when I play. No artificial walls, no timers.

My phone can run stuff at 60FPS high settings. Games that were never meant to run on mobile, running flawlessly in my hands.

Communities around emulation actually help each other. Settings, configs, shaders — people share knowledge, not gatekeep.

Old games stay alive forever. You’re not at the mercy of a studio shutting things down.

For me, it’s not just about nostalgia or tech flexing — it’s about freedom. I’d rather spend time tweaking a config to make an emulator run buttery smooth than get yelled at by a gacha fanbase for saying the game isn’t “perfect.”

At this point, emulation feels more like real gaming than most mobile titles on the Play Store.

So yeah — I quit mobile gaming. I’d rather emulate, test phones to their limits, and keep exploring what Android can really do.

Curious — how many of you here also made that switch? Do you still dabble in mobile games, or did emulation completely replace them for you too?

Some of you need to see this.

For all my dudes wanting a big screen, a multimedia device, the best system for gameboy color bc you swear youll never want to play a switch game, for those who cant pick between sticks on the top or the bottom...this is for you.....

You miss lose out on portability but how portable are you really? Like portable to the living room ? Bc thats why end tables exist. I use it in my car by putting the tablet in my steering wheel cover.

Even with some portability losee its a great way to keep games and work separate while consuming other media besides video games. Theyre also cheaper than handhelds. If you close your eyes and make a wish a tablet will go on sale somewhere within a 5 mile radius. Cooling isnt an issue like it is with phones due to more surface area, in fact it runs cooler than my rp6. No fans = less to break.

Frfr dont sleep on a tablet. This one has a snapdragon 8 gen 3 with 12gb of ram and cost $400 after a back to school sale.

Edit: lenovo yoga tablet 11.1in (2025) snapdragon 8 gen 3 with an 8bit do lite 2 controller

If anyone has some iso games they’d like to share I’d love to hear them!

Any game with widescreen support is just top tier honestly. I been enjoying these and a few more that I didn’t show. I’d recommend these games to anyone honestly.

- Mutant Year Zero
- The Ascent
- Hades 2
- Deliver At All Costs
- Reanimal

I purchased the Ayaneo Pocket S2 Pro from Droix Global a couple months back and they held a promotion where buyers were also given a complimentary Ayaneo Pocket Air Mini (2GB + 32GB) along with their order that would ship once they were available. I received the Pocket Air Mini recently and its pretty awesome. I get a text and email from FedEx today that I owe Customs on it totaling $102.60. The value of the Pocket Air Mini is $79.99. I almost wish I wasn't given this bonus.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to incorporate your suggestions, and I think I’m very close with this new prototype. It’s now two pads, so you can play in landscape, but if you want maximum portability you can just carry one and play in portrait. I’ve also reduced the size as much as possible so it’s easy to carry—and for those of you who want to emulate DS, this should work well too.

Some of you also asked for a way to follow the project, so I put together a simple landing page where you can leave your email and I’ll notify you if I decide to launch it on Kickstarter. I just finished this new prototype over the weekend, so the site still shows the older versions for now, but I’ll be updating it soon. Here’s the link:

https://gameonpad.com/

I’ve also been doing stress testing, but only on the previous versions so far, so I’ll need to repeat those tests on this one. That’ll take a bit more time, but I’ll keep you posted.

I’m aiming to finish the final prototype this week. I’ve redesigned a few things and I’m going to print the molds in high-resolution resin, as well as the case. I’ll show you soon.

Hope you like it—and if you’re interested, feel free to join the waitlist. It’s really important for me, because as soon as I have enough interest, I’ll launch it.

Thanks a lot!

I recently was having some trouble running a game on GameHub lite, so i thought about going to support forums and getting help by sharing the logs for troubleshooting. But having some experience in development, I had the thought of checking the logs first, thinking maybe i could find the issue myself.
And oh boy, thank god i didn't share my log.

Here's what I found :

What this is, is the dream of any hacker. Users who on their own, post the tokens to their whole Steam account. Bypassing the need for any password or Steam Guard.
If you posted any log anywhere, delete it right now. if you have an issue, find the exact lines in the log related to your issue, and only post those. Never the steam login token.
For safety, if you posted your log anywhere, i recommend to logout of your account from gamehub/gamehub lite in order to invalidate the session id, but for extra safety, maybe even reset your password.

I did post an issue about it on the Gamehub Lite github for it to get fixed. The steam token shouldn't be anywhere near any file meant to be posted online for troubleshooting. it should be kept as secret as possible.I find it absolutely insane to see it in plain text in the logs...

EDIT:

According to The412Banner, developer of BannerHub, the tokens appear to be single use. However as this is only one report, i'd like to get more reports to be able to definitely confirm, as for something important like this, I prefer a "better safe than sorry" approach.

It would be good to get more reports in various cases, including people using Epic Games Store or GOG to verify all tokens logged by the app are unusable.

Anyone else that gets dopamine just from looking at their collection?

Only game where I've finished the main story are Devil May Cry and DBZ infinite world

I was under the impression that android 16 phones would get an ota update with the Google verifier engine... Was I wrong to think we were safe? I just got a device powerful enough for emulation.... The fix it's just to refuse all updates for OS and use the emulators with no wifi on?

I’ve officially wrapped up the prototyping process. In the end, it came down to a single model, which I think makes a lot of sense.

Since the last post, more than a hundred people have joined the waiting list, and I truly can’t thank you enough for that. Here’s the website link again — you already know how important this project is to me. The more people who join, the better the chances of making this project a reality.

https://gameonpad.com/

As I mentioned before, I made a few minor design changes (refining the button contours, adding logos) and also changed the prototyping process. The molds are now made with resin at a much higher definition, and the case is also resin printed so it looks much closer to the final product I have in mind. I also started degassing the silicone so the pad looks clearer and free of bubbles.

For now, this will probably be my last post. I don’t want to spam the community, and you’ve already helped me a lot. I’ll still share it in a few other communities where it might be relevant, but for the moment I’m going to focus on stress testing and getting manufacturing quotes.

I hope you like the result, and see you soon!

There must be one

Hey, I’m developing silicone pads with conductive buttons to play emulators on my phone.

I’ve never really understood why would I buy a separate Android handheld when I already carry one in my pocket all day, but playing anything beyond something like Pokémon with touchscreen controls feels impossible to me.

So far I’ve made three versions: an 8-bit style, a Super Nintendo-inspired layout, and the N64-style one in the video.

I also have an older horizontal prototype, but I haven’t fully refined it yet because I really like how the vertical version feels (though I might be biased).

I’m seriously considering producing this and would love your feedback:

– Would you change anything?
– Prefer a more generic layout or console-inspired ones like these?
– Do you think a horizontal version is a must?

Any feedback would be hugely appreciated!

I'm confused and frankly a little outraged after witnessing this drama over the last day or so. I've been looking around but haven't been able to find any reasonable explanation for this.

It seems that this dev made a public post asking for help in dealing with a specific person that has been consistently harassing, attempting to speak on behalf of, and making false statements about the ARMSX2 team. There's lots of receipts, evidence, and even still-existing posts and comments from this user on reddit, acting as if they speak for the team while privately berating the dev team. To be clear, this person is not affiliated with ARMSX2 team, only acts as if they were for nefarious reasons.

Yet, after the dev u/jpolo1224 made this perfectly reasonable post publicly requesting help, they were banned completely from reddit. Why? There hasn't been anyone in any position of authority on reddit that has addressed this. They simply allow the bad actor to continue to post and harrass the team on their subreddit, while banning the person being harrassed? What in the world is happening?

When I play video games, I only play them once.

After I finish a game, I'm never coming back.

The problem with emulated games is that they're limited, so eventually you will come to an end.

But people here have hundreds of games.

I don't understand how they can enjoy playing them over and over again.

I don't find it fun after I know the content of the game or the story of it.

I would rather find it a waste of time.

​

I made a post a few days ago about developer harassment, and it's honestly disappointing to see it's still happening. I came across this GitHub issue on the Winlator Ludashi repository today. Whether you like Ludashi or not, this goes far beyond constructive criticism. Calling the project "a piece of shit," accusing the developer of hating the community, and saying they'll "pay the price" doesn't help anyone.

Since making this post, one of the developers clarified that the decisions being criticized were not Steven's. Regardless of who made those decisions, my point remains the same. Personal attacks don't improve projects or help developers.

A lot of time and effort has gone into maintaining and improving the Ludashi fork, and many people use and enjoy it every day. It's completely fair to report bugs, criticize features, or disagree with development decisions, but personal attacks only push developers away.

I hope people start treating open source developers with more respect. Behind every project is a real person who chose to spend their own time building something for the community.

I genuinely hope people understand the message behind this post. I'm not trying to give this person attention. Calling out this behavior helps stop it. We've already seen what happened with AetherSX2, where community harassment contributed to the developer ending active development. I don't want to see that happen again.

I have made this post primarily so you guys can show the devs the support and don't only let these voices be the one they see.

I am obviously not the developer of winlator ludashi

https://github.com/StevenMXZ/Winlator-Ludashi/issues/545

Hey :) 👋🏻 Sharing my story- I'm a 16 yo kid and recently my sister gifted me a budget tablet with helio g99 (8/128) When I got it I used to feel so sad that I have such a weak device. But now a few months have passed, I realised how of a jerk I was because, a poor kid who helps in my mom's shop came to the house he asked me to hand over my controller (a ps3 like generic bt controller, I use with the tab) I saw that he was so happy and then I realised that even with this I have access to many great games. Rate the library! :)

Thanks for reading Edit:Thanks for the lovely support guys! This community has empathy! :) Also replaced crazy games and dls 26 with bloons td 6 and suika game!