There are currently a number of video game emulator apps on the market for Android smartphones and tablets, including PPSSPP and RetroArch.
Another new game emulator, dubbed Dolphin, is currently in the works that will allow users to run titles from both the Nintendo Wii and GameCube on Android devices.
As you may recall, there was a time when a full PC or Mac with halfway decent specs would be required to run Nintendo Wii or GameCube video games.
Nevertheless, the developer of the game emulator is currently working on bringing it to the Android platform. As expected, the emulator is currently a work in progress, but people who want to get their hands on the actual source can download the code here and compile it themselves for an early build.
The developer does note that not only is he still working on software, but a lot of the Android hardware on the market isn’t up to running Nintendo Wii or GameCube games at this point. Indeed, Dolphin’s dev says that the problem with performance can be attributed to a GPU bottleneck rather than the CPU. Nevertheless, next-gen hardware is in the pipeline that will significantly improve GPU performance on Android devices.
Hardware highlighted in the video hails from several manufacturers, including QUALCOMM’s Adreno 330, ARM Mali T758 and T678, as well as Nvidia’s Tegra 4. However, even high-end hardware such as the Exynos 5250 processor inside the Samsung Chromebook is reportedly to weak to run games in anything other than slideshow-like frame rates.
So if you are interested in snagging a game emulator for your Android device that is capable of working on existing hardware now, you might want to check out RetroArch.
