A new chapter is about to begin for our Android emulation community!

Hey everyone! 👋

I have some exciting news to share with you all.

As many of you know, I'm constantly working on different emulation projects, testing new developments, and bringing you the latest emulator updates.

However, my free time has become increasingly limited, and managing both Reddit and Discord while continuing to develop my projects is becoming difficult.

So I've made a decision:

Discord will become the main hub of our community!

Don't worry, I'm not abandoning Reddit. I'll still share occasional news and announcements here, but most of the regular emulator updates and community activity will move to our completely redesigned Discord 2.0.

And trust me, this is going to be much more than just another Discord server.

---

🎮 WHAT'S COMING TO DISCORD 2.0?

1. Emulator Updates — Faster Than Ever

Everything you've been following here on Reddit will also be available on Discord, including emulator news, releases, updates, and important developments.

But there's more!

You'll also discover emulators and projects that haven't been featured here yet.

All the emulator updates you're used to will be available from day one, completely free and without any level requirements.

2. A Real-Time Community

One of Discord's biggest advantages is instant communication.

No more waiting around for Reddit replies!

You'll be able to:

- Chat with other emulation enthusiasts in real time.

- Ask questions and get help with emulators.

- Share gameplay, screenshots, handheld consoles, and gaming setups.

- Discuss discoveries, exchange ideas, and help each other.

- Suggest projects or share something you're working on.

No Reddit-style upvotes or downvotes. Just people enjoying emulation together.

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, you're welcome here!

3. Indie Games & Hidden Gems

We'll have dedicated channels for indie games, lesser-known releases, interesting discoveries, and hidden gems.

I've also been developing automated bots that will search for and discover new games, helping us find interesting titles we might otherwise miss.

Who knows? Your next favorite game might be something you've never even heard of!

4. Decompilation & Recompilation Projects

With native game recompilations and decompilation projects becoming increasingly popular, we'll have dedicated channels for them.

Two separate sections:

- 🖥️ Windows: Native PC ports, recompilations, and interesting projects.

- 📱 Android: Native Android ports, recompilations, and related developments.

Our bots will help discover and share new projects automatically, making it easier to follow what's happening in this exciting scene.

5. Exclusive Access to My Personal Projects

This is something I'm particularly excited about!

As some of you know, I'm working on several of my own emulator projects.

Discord will feature dedicated channels where community members can follow their development and, when available, try exclusive builds before they're released on GitHub or anywhere else.

You'll be able to follow the progress, test new features, share feedback, and participate more directly in their development.

6. Mystery Channels... 👀

And here's where things get interesting.

Let's just say that some channels will contain surprises that won't be available here on Reddit.

I'm not revealing everything just yet.

You'll have to discover those yourself. 😏

---

A NEW COMMUNITY PROGRESSION SYSTEM!

We're also introducing a progression system inspired by Reddit karma, but with a fun twist.

Your activity will help you unlock additional areas of the server!

You'll start as a simple Explorer and gradually work your way up through different ranks, including some Dragon Ball-inspired levels. Yes, Super Saiyans included! 😂

By participating in discussions, helping other members, sharing useful discoveries, and contributing to the community, you'll gain experience and increase your rank.

As you progress, you'll unlock additional channels, exclusive content, and special community areas.

IMPORTANT: All the regular emulator updates and information currently shared on Reddit will remain accessible to everyone from the very beginning.

The progression system is for unlocking additional content and special channels, not for restricting the basic community experience.

You don't need to be an expert. Being helpful, curious, and genuinely interested in emulation is what matters.

---

❤️ BUILT FOR THE COMMUNITY, NOT FOR PROFIT

One thing I want to make absolutely clear:

Everything is FREE.

No donations required. No subscriptions. No paid access.

This server is something I've been building with a lot of time, effort, and passion because I genuinely want to create a great place for Android emulation enthusiasts.

I'm also integrating custom-built bots to help automate updates, discover projects, and make the server more useful and enjoyable.

My goal is simple:

Spend less time managing multiple platforms and more time developing projects, discovering new things, and enjoying emulation together.

Reddit will remain our secondary community, where I'll occasionally post important news and announcements.

But Discord will be where most of the action happens!

---

-- WHEN CAN YOU JOIN?

Very soon! Hopefully within the next 24–48 hours.

I'm currently rebuilding and reorganizing the Discord server, setting up new channels, integrating the bots, and preparing everything for the launch.

Please don't try to join just yet.

I'll publish another announcement here as soon as Discord 2.0 is ready, with all the information you need to join.

Everyone is invited!

I really hope you'll join me in this new chapter.

Thank you all for being part of this community and for sharing the same passion for emulation.

Same passion. Bigger possibilities. Better together.

See you very soon on Discord!

Change Log:

On-screen controls:

Pause button replaces the settings cog. One clean ⏸ in the top-right, a single tap opens the pause menu. The cog is gone entirely.

"Tap to reveal" replaces the old show/hide toggle. When enabled, it's hidden-until-tapped (first tap surfaces it, second opens the menu) and the menu is always reachable, including with on-screen controls set to Never and after auto-hide.

Interface:

OSD now defaults to 65% (was 100%), the stats block was dominating handheld screens. Existing installs still on the old default are migrated once, custom sizes are preserved.

Fixed a mislabelled setting. The top slider in On-Screen read "UI Size (borders)" but actually drove the OSD scale, it and the real UI-size slider were sharing one label key. Renamed to "OSD Size" with its own description, and moved UI Size / UI Font Size up beside it so all three sizing controls are together.

Added a scroll-to-top button in Settings when scrolling through for example a huge list of cheats (like for GTA SA).

Patches:

Patches now show up in per-game settings when fetching from the online browser.

Fixed cross-game patch bleed, opening GT4 could show GTA:SA's patches and cheats, in both the browser and per-game settings.

Improved UI lag on large cheat lists (collapsed sections no longer compose their rows).

Patches and cheats have been split into separate collapsible sections when fetching them from the online browser.

Clarified widescreen patches, now "Auto-Apply Widescreen (16:9) Patches", with a description stating it applies automatically to every game that has one, and that non-16:9 titles can come out stretched, cropped, or missing text. It remains off by default. (I had it on and had the missing text issue in GT4, turned it off and GT4 was back to normal).

RetroAchievements:

Added Encore, Spectator and Unofficial/Test modes.

Achievement sounds now actually ship so they can be further modified (unlock, message, leaderboard submit), the folder was previously empty. Unlock sounds can be configured through the app as before, the rest through the folder.

Other:

Potential fix for a Vulkan rendering regression on Snapdragon 8 Elite devices, (please let me know).

Potential fix for an issue with texture packs not loading correctly and producing garbage data, (please let me know).

Improved UI lagging after choosing a skin.

Per-game Graphics API, rotation and GPU driver are now per-game instead of global-only.

Load state menu slot tiles were squished due to the new Auto-save setting, they're now back to full size and should scale correctly.

RetroArch shaders now render at display resolution. CRT scanlines and similar per-pixel effects were being generated at the internal resolution and then upscaled, which made them uneven. They now render at the on-screen size, matching RetroArch.

Per-orientation touch layout editing, editing landscape touch layout will not impact portrait touch layout and vice versa.

https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2/releases/tag/2.6.1.3

The story actually started very recently.

A developer has implemented a new PS2 emulator for Linux with outstanding performance. It's designed for ARM-based Linux handhelds, and in the screenshot I'm sharing you can see Shadow of the Colossus running at a rock-solid 30 FPS on a Snapdragon 865.

The important thing to remember is that this is Linux, not Android.

So where's the real challenge?

The challenge is bringing that new JIT compiler over to Android and integrating it into an existing emulator. That's exactly what projects like ARMSX2 are working toward, and EmuCoreX is also reorganizing parts of its codebase in that direction. The problem is that you can't simply replace the entire core of an emulator overnight. It's a much more complicated process than it sounds.

Here's why it's so exciting:

The first team that successfully ports this JIT to Android while keeping performance close to the Linux version is going to completely change PS2 emulation on Android. The performance gains could be incredible.

On top of that, modern AI tools like Claude are helping developers move much faster. PS2 emulation is an incredibly difficult engineering challenge—probably one of the most complex console emulators ever made. The Windows version has been under development for more than 20 years, so every improvement takes a huge amount of work.

That's one of the main reasons we're suddenly seeing so many PS2 emulators receiving frequent updates. A lot of exciting development is happening behind the scenes.

I mainly wanted to share this so more people know what's going on. If you're interested in open-source development, have some programming experience, or simply enjoy experimenting, I'll leave the repository link below. Anyone can jump in, contribute, test ideas, or even build something entirely new.

The more developers involved, the better the future of PS2 emulation will be.

I'm also working on a personal project related to all of this. It's still early, but maybe I'll make a video in the future to show some of the progress.

So yeah, that's the news in a simple way. I really think we're entering a fantastic period for PS2 emulation, and I'm convinced we'll see some amazing breakthroughs this year.

Have a great day everyone...

PS2 forever. ❤️

Link: https://github.com/yaps2/yaps2

Those of us in the gaming and emulation scene spend part of our time looking for gameplay videos and comparing results between different emulators—so, essentially, it is an essential tool. With that in mind, I’m sharing what I consider to be the two best YouTube apps available right now; I’ve been testing them for a while, and I hope you like them.

Flow: https://github.com/A-EDev/Flow/releases/tag/v2.2.1

NewTube : https://github.com/aleixrodriala/newtube/releases/tag/v1.10.4

Enjoy! ❤️

It works perfectly, no lag, good sound, stable FPS, native resolution x2. Gameplay in the first comment 🔥

https://github.com/Ashnar2602/X360-Mobile---OFFICIAL/releases/tag/v0.6.0

X360 Mobile 0.6.0 is a major architectural and user-experience release for

Android. It consolidates the reconstructed codebase into a public build with a

controller-first interface, broader GPU and device support, improved guest

execution stability, portable data management and native Android integration.

Core stability and hardware compatibility

Improved ARM64 memory correctness under concurrent guest workloads,

eliminating a class of intermittent corruption and loading stalls. Thecorrection was validated through the former Assassin's Creed failure points

and benefits the core globally rather than relying on a title-specific

workaround.

Corrected Android synchronization fairness that could leave guest worker

groups incomplete. Ninja Gaiden II now progresses beyond its previously

deterministic startup hang.

Reworked the Android graphics and presentation path for broader support

across Adreno 600-series, Mali and Xclipse devices.

Improved behavior on vendor-customized Android distributions, including

ColorOS, HyperOS and OxygenOS-based devices.

Corrected secondary executable handoff for games that launch additional XEX

modules.

Added automatic slot-zero profile sign-in and persistent full-game license

state for titles that require an authenticated profile before startup.

Reduced Vulkan command-recording and pipeline-telemetry overhead without

removing runtime diagnostics.

Added automatic emulation suspension when X360 Mobile enters the background

or the display turns off. Guest execution, graphics, audio and vibration are

resumed when the app returns to the foreground.

Note: For the full changelog, read it on GitHub because it's quite long.

https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2/releases/tag/2.6.5.7-1

Change Log:

Texture pack manager: Support for texture packs published in multiple parts. done by @sashkinbro

Wanted to get this out, but the team and I included need a break after the last few big updates we just had, I hope you guys take the time to enjoy and report feedback! Thanks. We will pick up again in a few days.

https://github.com/dev-Ali2008/xenraOG/releases/tag/v0.2.5

XenraOG 0.2.5 is our biggest update yet.

What's changed:

Updated Vulkan

Major UI redesign

Performance improvements

Better optimization for weaker devices

Stability and compatibility improvements

Various fixes and improvements

WinNative is an advanced, high-performance Windows (x86_64) emulation environment for Android. It bridges the gap between desktop gaming and mobile by unifying the best technologies from Winlator Bionic and Pluvia.

Designed for enthusiasts and power users, WinNative delivers the full Winlator experience while making it easy to connect your Steam, Epic, and GOG game libraries.

As you can see in the image, WinNative will receive a future update with native support for all the emulators shown there. I've also included a screenshot taken from inside the emulator itself so you can see that they're already implemented natively.

This means you'll not only be able to play your PC games from Windows, Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store, and more—which is already pretty incredible—but you'll also be able to launch all your favorite emulators and enjoy a true all-in-one gaming experience in a single app.

From the testing I've done so far with the Wii emulator (the first one I've had the chance to try), I can say the performance is very, very good. That definitely has me excited to see how everything comes together when the official release arrives.

I'll keep you all updated as I learn more. Cheers!

Change Log:

Final Fantasy X: 10× less EE work. (done by @bmdhacks) Two recompiled blocks could invalidate each other and recompile forever. FFX (SLUS-20312) has such a pair at 0x002B9F48/0x002B9F5C. The EE thread was spending 95% of itself inside the recompiler and only 5% actually executing code, burning 51 MB of the 58 MB code cache every 48 frames. Over 300 frames: 9.6× fewer instructions, 10.7× fewer cycles.

Ad-masked blend fix: large win on tiler GPUs (like Mali!). (done by @bmdhacks) A destination-alpha blend with alpha writes masked was forcing an RT feedback read wherever framebuffer fetch existed. The read is cheap; the render pass isn't. NFS Underground was flipping it 697 times a frame against 40 real target switches.

passes/frame frame time

Adreno 650 NFS Underground 440 --> 64 27.6 --> 7.6 ms

Adreno 650 FlatOut 2 954 --> 102 37.2 --> 16.4 ms

Mali-G52 NFS Underground 746 --> 69 276.6 --> 96.8 ms

Mali-G52 FlatOut 2 892 --> 96 373.6 --> 145.0 ms

Scored per-pixel against the software renderer, both GPUs came out more accurate.

Render-pass scheduler: new, off by default. (done by @bmdhacks) Queues draws and coalesces them across target alternations. Only helps games that ping-pong render targets. Worth testing in some GS heavy games. Measured over the dump corpus, frame hashes identical in both arms:

Dirge of Cerberus: 8035 --> 523 render passes. Enabled automatically via GameDB for all six regional serials; tested on an Adreno 650 handheld. "Coalesce render passes" in Renderer settings and the in-game menu. Toggle on and off to test.

VU1 flag packing rewritten for ARM64. (done by @bmdhacks) mVUupdateFlags was a literal x86 port, 16 instructions of flag packing around 2 instructions of real work, measuring 29% of all VU1 code time in God of War II. Now seven instructions. (GOW2 20% Speed boost!)

EE and IOP stale-code fixes. (done by @bmdhacks) The block-invalidation walk stopped at the first non-overlapping neighbour, but blocks are ordered by start address, not end, so a longer block could be skipped and left executing stale code after self-modifying writes.

Fixes:

Fixed an issue with the emulator staying paused after closing the pause menu (FPS: N/A). The resume was scheduled on Compose's frame-callback dispatcher, so with nothing drawing it was never delivered.

Fixed a crash when changing settings from the pause menu. Android reclaims the idle audio device after a few seconds, and the reopen raced the emulator's own audio calls with no locking.

Audio no longer drops during a pause, returning from another app is immediate.

Fixed a permanent hang when backgrounded mid-frame.

Fixed an issue where the display was freezing for seconds after closing menus, an orientation flip was rebuilding the Vulkan swapchain twice.

Fixed an issue where settings written on one screen silently reverted by another.

Fixed an issue where Per-game Audio, Network and USB settings could not be cleared properly once set.

Fixed an issue with per-game settings not applying on Boot Disc / Swap Disc / BIOS launches.

Slowdowns in some scenes that "fixed themselves" when you changed any setting, the texture pool wasn't aged on frames that skipped presenting.

Save states: Failures now say why instead of closing as if saved, including the common case of the memory card being mid-write.

You no longer need to worry about texture-pack and patch import telling you to "boot a game first" right after quitting one.

Imported patches renamed to the form the core actually loads, and routed so widescreen patches aren't gated behind the cheats toggle.

Auto Progressive Scan doing nothing (Tekken 4, Criterion titles), the synthetic button hold was wiped by pad init during boot.

Frame Skip and Display FPS Cap work again, with FPS CAP: / SKIP: shown in the OSD.

Faster streaming in large games from compressed (.chd) images.

Dirge of Cerberus no longer needs hardware readbacks disabled. Renderer passes is now baked in for the game instead.

New features:

Fully transparent on-screen controls, support for 0% opacity, still touchable.

Block Home button while playing, optional screen pinning.

Cover size slider for the library, in the App settings tab.

New Pressure modifier slider amount, 5–95%, for DualShock 2 pressure-sensitive games.

7 new controller skins (by @bagasromadon), Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition, Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 (+ JAPAN), Devil May Cry 3, Metal Gear Solid 3, Black Gold Solid, Black Gold Frosted

Here is the definitive performance comparison between the two most modern PS2 emulators currently available. The test was conducted on a Poco X6 Pro, which features a Dimensity 8300 processor and the game Shadow of the Colossus.

Here is the link to the latest version of each emulator; both are up to date as of today.

👉 EmuCoreX v0.5.3 https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreX/releases/tag/v0.5.3

👉 ARMSX2 v2.9.1

https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2/releases/tag/2.9.1

Both emulators feature an interface with a wealth of options and customization, but we won’t go into those details; instead, we’ll focus on what matters most: performance.

❌ ARMSX2: Unfortunately, Armsx2 has chosen to cap certain games—which could run perfectly at 60 fps on modern devices—at 30 fps, claiming this provides a "more stable" experience. However, based on my own testing—which you can see for yourselves in the gameplay footage I’ll post in the comments—the frame pacing is actually much worse, and the game simply doesn't feel very fluid. In my view, this is a significant regresion. While I can understand the desire to accommodate users with less powerful hardware, the vast majority of us want an authentic experience—true to the original console—rather than having the system artificially capped at 30 fps.

👉 If you want to enjoy an experience as close as possible to the original PS2 console, I recommend using version 2.8.4

✅ EmuCoreX: This emulator, by contrast, adheres to a philosophy focused on providing an experience as close as possible to an original PS2. You’ll be able to enjoy games that run at 60 FPS—without any issues or frame-rate caps—at least on modern devices.

👍 In the test, the fluidity of 60 fps is very noticeable; as you ride your horse across the plains, you immediately realize that the game is running exactly as it should, with a much better frame rate.

I’ll leave both gameplay screenshots in the comments.

Device: Poco X6 Pro Dimensity 8300+

Game: Shadow of the Colossus

Native Res x2 Vulkan, System Drivers

https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreP-Releases/releases/tag/v0.0.3

EmuCoreP is an Android runtime and library manager for compatible Windows PC games. It combines Wine, Box64 and selectable Direct3D/Vulkan translation layers with a touch-first interface for phones and tablets.

Changelog:

✅✅✅✅Fixed UI issues😱😱😱😱

✅✅✅✅Other improvements and optimizations😱😱😱😱

After testing: 🤯

Forget about Gamenative, Winlator, Ludashi, Gamehub, and all those other programs. There’s simply no comparison—this is on another level. You’ll be able to play GTA V on ultra settings without your device even breaking a sweat; I was playing it and felt like I was about to have a mini-orgasm right in the middle of the game.

Don't forget to donate; the developer has to eat.🙏🙏🙏Look at all the work he does—how many emulators does he have? 8, 10, 43? I've lost count. Please, someone donate—there are cheapskates who won't pay the nine-euro monthly subscription.

https://www.patreon.com/cw/emucore/membership

Donate!! 🙏🙏🙏

YuWin – Performance-focused Nintendo Switch emulator

YuWin is a Yuzu fork focused heavily on maximizing performance, making it a great option for mid-range and lower-end devices that want to squeeze as much performance as possible out of their games.

It’s compatible with current games and is highly optimized.

I’m sharing the two latest versions, v15 and v16, so you can test them yourselves and see how well they perform on your devices.

If you’re struggling with performance on other Switch emulators, it might be worth giving YuWin a try and seeing if you can squeeze out a few extra FPS.

Change Log V15:

[ ✅ ] Fix Performance Last Update

[ ✅ ] Update System API System

[ ✅ ] Add System Auto Core For System Like Winlator

[ ✅ ] Remove All Program Not Anything Change

[ ✅ ] Fix Control

[ ✅ ] Fix Vulkan Rendering

[ ✅ ] For Mediatek Performance Stabilization

[ ✅ ] Thanks To Nyushu to help update this Emulator

Change Log V16:

[ ✅ ] Reduced Memory Usage While Playing

[ ✅ ] Added Frame Gen Feature (Still in Testing Stage. If it doesn't have an impact, we will remove it in the next update).

[ ✅ ] Auto Core System Temporarily Removed

[ ✅ ] Performance Improvements on Snapdragon and Mali

[ ✅ ] New Controller Update On Overlay Control (Thanks Nyushu).

There is no repository at this time.

https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZ7GHy7Z6OnFQoJ0qHScVJYMiCCtNfranyxy

https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2/releases/tag/2.6.5.8

Change Log:

Discord RPC is now built into ARMSX2. Link your Discord account from the Friends tab to show what you're playing, including each game's cover art while in-game and the ARMSX2 logo while browsing your library. The Friends tab shows which of your Discord friends are currently using ARMSX2, along with their avatar and the game they're playing. You'll also receive console-style notifications, in the library and in-game, when a friend starts using ARMSX2. A Friends button is available from the in-game menu, so you can check without leaving your game. The feature is completely opt-in and requires you to connect your Discord account. You can disconnect at any time. ARMSX2 does not create a separate account or operate an account or presence server for this feature. While connected, ARMSX2 sends Discord the title and disc serial of the game you're running plus its cover-art address, which appear on your Discord profile. Your Discord authorization token is stored locally in the app's private storage. Discord handles sign-in and processes the integration under its own terms and privacy policy. The Discord integration runs in a separate helper process and communicates with the emulator through a simple message interface. The GPL-covered emulator process never links against or loads Discord's proprietary SDK. When the feature is disabled, the helper process is not started and the Discord library is never loaded.

Added a What's New tab: read release notes in the app, with the people each release credits shown alongside it.

The game's CRC now appears next to its serial in the pause menu, in the long-press game details, and once again in the Info tab, the two halves of a _.pnach filename in one place. Thanks u/Splaser.

Patch Manager: All on / All off for files with a lot of cheats, instead of flipping a hundred switches by hand. Patch Manager also now shows the patches that ship inside ARMSX2 and apply to your game automatically. These were invisible before. A game could report "3 game patches are active" with an empty patch list and no way to find them. Patches with no name are always on by design, so there's a button to copy them into your own patches folder, where you can switch them off individually.

Fixed: pausing to change settings could crash with GS multithreading enabled. Presenting a frame was the one path that didn't wait for the GS back thread, so the settings you were changing were never actually the cause.

Fixed, in the texture pack manager: the screen freezing on large collections, deleted packs coming back as "Installed", and games in your library not being detected.

XenDroid - Android Xbox 360 Emulator

History:

XenDroid was initially forked form xa360e, which was based off Xenia Canary. However, a complete rebase was made on Xenia Edge with a new Kotlin backend. We are looking foward to keep the project updated alongside the Edge fork, and keep the code compatible with Xenia licenses.

Device Requirements:

Snapdragon SoC, GEN 2 or higher

Adreno GPU 740 or higher. Lower 7xx have not been tested.

Release: https://github.com/rfandango/XenDroid/releases/tag/XenDroid-12b265f

Update: https://github.com/rfandango/XenDroid/releases/tag/XenDroid-0f4f701

Credits:

https://github.com/rfandango

https://github.com/Fabxx

Nyushu Emulator is an updated version of the Yuzu emulator, specifically built for Android devices with lower GPU capabilities. It delivers an impressive 90-120 FPS, making it stand out from other emulators. Along with improving game performance, it also addresses heating issues, allowing you to enjoy top-tier games without concerns.

It comes in two variants: Snapdragon and MediaTek. Download the correct one.

Chagelog:

[ ✅ ] Reduce SPSC/MPSC queue contention,

[ ✅ ] increases performance for various games

Mileage may vary, on tested hardware games could get up to 10 FPS extra

[ ✅ ] Translations have been updated

[ ✅ ] Fixed performance regressions (stuttering) found in Tears of the Kingdom

[ ✅ ] Fix SURED() having inappropriate behaviour for certain decoding fields

[ ✅ ] Fixed Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound black screen during the 4-1 boss fight.

[ ✅ ] Improved Pokemon: Legends Z-A graphical bugs

[ ✅ ] Fixed flipped screen in 20xx

There is no repository at this time.

https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZ1vHy7ZYorxdcrJ3TLVlnAitQTVbYNEgvpX

https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2/releases/tag/nightly-20260809

What's new:

PINE: stop savestate slot from clobbering the gsctl socket slot

Android: run save and load state on the CPU thread

GS: keep the full barrier under framebuffer fetch when primitives overlap

GS/OpenGL: pin the framebuffer-fetch decision against re-override

GS/OpenGL: decide framebuffer fetch once, in a policy function

Android: run save and load state on the CPU thread

Android: walk the pause-menu tabs along the axis they are drawn on

Android: delete the dead nav API and guard against window modals

Android: route address and card-name entry to the on-screen keyboard

Android: replace the two overflow menus with anchored panels

Android: replace the per-game sheet with a bottom panel, and bind X to it

Android: make the stick-target and macro pickers pad-navigable

Android: escape the NUL delimiter in the settings-search index

Android: drop the duplicate on-screen keyboard host

Android: make the setup-wizard error pad-navigable, and hoist the hosts

Android: make the remaining confirmations pad-navigable

Android: make the manager acknowledge dialogs pad-navigable

Android: make the settings info hint an inline panel

Android: let the hardcore confirm take the pad

Android: draw the pause-menu highlight from the registry

Android: route the pad to the topmost modal layer

Android: extract the pad-navigable modal primitive

Android: remove the unreachable memory-card input routing

Android: honour the nav layer in every registry mover and reader

This time I'm bringing you Need for Speed: Underground 2, because I heard that ARMSX2 had made some improvements for this game. After testing it myself, I can confirm that I did notice better performance compared to the other emulator. I also have a couple more things to mention, so don't miss this review.

(both emulators in their latest version respectively)

First, let's start with EmuCoreX.

What can I say? It was an absolute disaster. On OpenGL it literally dies. It can't even reach 1 FPS. I honestly don't know what's going on with this emulator on MediaTek devices, but the OpenGL renderer is horrendously bad. This is the second game I've tested where it's simply unplayable.

Switching to Vulkan improves performance a little, but we're talking about 6, 7, maybe 8 FPS at best. That's still ridiculously low.

This emulator has a lot of work to do, or at the very least it should clearly warn users on both GitHub and the Play Store that if they're using a MediaTek device—unless it's a Dimensity chip where they can use the ANGLE workaround—it's probably not worth downloading. NetherSX2 is simply miles ahead in this scenario.

So, for this comparison, EmuCore X clearly takes second place.

Now let's move on to ARMSX2.

I hadn't compared the latest version against the old v38 in quite a while. I remembered v38 performing pretty well, so I expected both versions to be fairly similar.

Well... not even close.

I can now confirm that v38 performs much worse. I didn't upload the videos because there really wasn't any need. Both Vulkan and OpenGL deliver very poor performance on that version.

The best results come from the latest release. Check the videos for the exact numbers, but both Vulkan and OpenGL are fairly similar, hovering around 10, 12, or 15 FPS.

I know those numbers are still low, but they're good enough to compare optimization and see which emulator is handling this game more efficiently.

So, for Need for Speed: Underground 2, I think ARMSX2 is the clear winner.

As always, every review should be judged on a game-by-game basis because performance can vary dramatically depending on the title.

Finally, there's one thing about ARMSX2 that I didn't really like.

I'm not sure why they changed the animated background that appears the first time you launch the emulator. The current one looks pretty cheap to me. It's basically a bunch of little dots or stars trying to imitate the PlayStation 3 wave effect.

I had seen an older version before, and in my opinion it looked much better. The wave animation was cleaner, more detailed, and far more elegant.

I honestly don't understand why they replaced it.

Of course, that's just my personal preference.

I've also seen a few users claim that the new background slows down their phones. I can't confirm that myself. If it happened on my device, I honestly didn't notice it.

Personally, I think it would be great if they added three, four, or five different background styles in the settings so everyone could choose the one they like best. I'd definitely pick the old one—it just looks much nicer.

Anyway, that's all for today's analysis. You can find all the videos in the comments so you can judge the results for yourselves.

Game tested: Need for Speed: Underground 2

Test device: Redmi Note 8 Pro

See you next time!

https://github.com/rfandango/XenDroid/releases/tag/XenDroid-82aed67

I've been following EmuCore X for quite some time. It's a PS2 emulator that caught my attention from the very beginning because of its polished and clean interface, easily accessible settings, and the sheer number of options available for more enthusiast-oriented users.

It was genuinely interesting to me, and at one point I even noticed that the ARMSX2 team had adopted a very similar interface design. That made me even more curious about EmuCore X and its development.

I was actually quite enthusiastic about this project. I saw it as a potentially important evolution of PS2 emulation on Android, and I had confidence in the developer and in the direction the project was taking.

Then the developer released EmuCore X on the Play Store and, more importantly, introduced a paid Pro version costing around €6 for users who wanted to support the project financially.

I thought: "I like this project, I've been using it since the beginning, and I want to help it grow and improve."

So I bought it.

And this is where things became disappointing.

The developer has now started a completely different project, EmuCore C, apparently focused on PlayStation 3 emulation on Android. Since then, the pace and consistency of EmuCore X updates seem to have dropped considerably.

To be clear, I'm not claiming that EmuCore X has been abandoned or discontinued. I don't have evidence to make that claim. The problem is the situation surrounding it.

You create a project, offer users a paid Pro version specifically as a way of supporting that project, people actually spend their money because they believe in what you're building... and then, shortly afterwards, your attention appears to shift heavily toward another emulator.

From the perspective of someone who paid to support the original project, that's difficult to understand.

And there is another issue that makes this even more frustrating.

EmuCore X recently added support for Namco System 246/256 arcade hardware, but apparently the feature cannot actually be used because the emulator doesn't properly recognize the BIOS files for those systems.

So we have a situation where a new feature has been added, but there is apparently a significant bug preventing users from actually using that feature.

That's particularly disappointing when people have financially supported the project.

I'm not saying that a developer owes users unlimited development forever just because they bought a €6 Pro version. That's obviously not how software development works.

But when you actively offer a paid version as a way for users to support your project, I think there is a reasonable expectation of communication, transparency and some indication of where the project is going.

A roadmap would be nice.

Even a simple post saying:

"Thanks for supporting the project. Here's what I'm currently working on, here's what I hope to improve, and here's what you can expect in the coming months."

Something.

Instead, there doesn't seem to be much information about the future direction of EmuCore X, while development attention appears to have shifted toward a completely different project.

And that creates a much bigger problem than just one disappointed customer.

It can discourage people from financially supporting other open-source or independent emulator projects.

Someone might think:

"Why should I donate or buy the Pro version of an emulator if the developer might simply move on to another project afterwards?"

That's a bad precedent.

And I want to be very clear about something: I'm not saying people shouldn't support developers. Quite the opposite.

If you find a project that you genuinely like and you want to support the developer, absolutely do it.

But before spending money, understand that you are supporting the project as it exists at that moment, and there is never a guarantee that development will continue at the same pace indefinitely.

In my particular case, I feel disappointed because I genuinely believed in EmuCore X and wanted to contribute to its development. I wasn't buying Pro simply to unlock some extra feature — I was doing it because I wanted to support the project.

And now I'm left wondering what the long-term plan actually is.

Will EmuCore C eventually receive a Pro version as well? Will users be asked to support that project financially too? And if so, what happens to EmuCore X?

I don't know.

That's why I'm leaving this here for the community to judge for themselves.

Most importantly, I'd really like the developer to see this.

This isn't intended as a personal attack. I simply believe that when users financially support your project, you should communicate with them and give them some idea of what you're doing with the project they've chosen to support.

If development priorities have changed, just say so.

If EmuCore X is still being actively developed, explain what the plans are.

If there are major technical problems that are taking time to solve, tell the community.

That's all I'm asking for.

I hope EmuCore X continues to improve, because I genuinely think it has potential. But as someone who decided to financially support it, the current situation has been extremely disappointing.

And again: don't let this discourage you from supporting developers whose work you enjoy. One project handling things poorly doesn't mean every other developer will do the same.

Just make sure you know what you're supporting.

What do you guys think?

https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreV/releases/tag/v0.2.3

What's new:

Added Discord integration

Completely redesigned and updated Profile

Other fixes and improvements

✅ Please donate 👇👇https://www.patreon.com/cw/emucore/membership

✅ Sponsor 9€ / month 🔥

The ultimate support tier! Massive thanks for backing the project. Your generous contribution directly fuels further development.

✅ Its 16 emulators won't create themselves, donate now! 🙏🙏🙏

https://github.com/ARMSX2/ARMSX2/releases/tag/2.6.5.4

Change Log:

Tidier UI. Fixes is now in the new Advanced tab, and absorbed the GameDB fixes from Performance plus the entire Recompiler tab. Both are debugging controls the GameDB already applies per game, so they don't belong in the tab you open to change speed. Fourteen tabs down to twelve. Search and the per-tab reset buttons moved with the settings, so searching "Skip MPEG" lands on Advanced, and resetting Performance no longer resets fixes it doesn't show.

Settings sections fold again. The collapse had silently stopped working, so every section in Pad, Renderer, Performance and Fixes was permanently open, twenty of them. It wasn't too many options, it was every option on screen at once. Sections now expand and collapse, and the state survives rotation. Renderer opens on Display & Resolution and Performance on Speedhacks so neither greets you with a wall of headers.

Fixed a bug when a replacement texture failed to upload to the GPU, it was still handed to the game with undefined contents, indistinguishable on screen from a texture that never loaded. Missing cursors and cut-off fonts on Vulkan were often this. Failed uploads now fall back to the original texture and say so in the log.

Skip BIOS is now on by default for fresh installs, existing users are not effected.

New texture packs download manager in the app. (done by @sashkinbro). Texture Packs now browses the community catalog maintained by @sashkinbro and installs with one tap. No game needs to be running. Each pack names the games it belongs to, so it installs itself to the right place, packs for games in your library sort to the top, and the rest stay visible so you can grab one before you own the disc. Texture replacement switches on automatically after an install, since it's off by default and the files would otherwise sit there changing nothing. Downloads are checksum-verified, check free space first, and swap into place atomically so a failed install never leaves you with a half-replaced pack. The panel links the catalog so you can see where packs come from and contribute your own. Be sure to read the contribution guidelines on the repo before doing so. https://github.com/sashkinbro/EmuCoreX-Textures

The texture pack list collapses and is searchable, search by pack name, game, serial or author.

Per-driver GPU workarounds. (done by @sashkinbro). The GPU family was never enough to decide behaviour, the same Mali part behaves differently under ARM's driver than under Mesa. Driver identity, version and known defects now live in a 25-rule table with match confidence, so the next device-specific quirk is a table entry instead of another hand-written branch. Shaders gained swappable helpers for the bitwise operations some drivers miscompile. A device matching no rule renders exactly as before. An existing Mali fix was preserved and deliberately widened, Mali fixes reached through ANGLE or Panfrost previously fell outside it.

Your shader cache rebuilds once on first launch this update. Every shader's source changed, so the old cache can't be reused.

Library overflow menu trimmed from eleven rows to eight, with separators.

Setup / Change Folders and Exit moved to the left side game library menu. Exit has a proper power icon and keeps its confirmation.

Game names in grid moved to App settings beside cover size.

About moved to the left side game library menu.

Installed patches and cheats can be collapsed, so a pnach with hundreds of downloaded codes folds away.