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ANDROID.md
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# ES-DE (EmulationStation Desktop Edition) v3.0 (development version) - Android documentation
This document contains information specific to the Android release, for more general ES-DE documentation refer to the [User guide](USERGUIDE-DEV.md).
Table of contents:
[[_TOC_]]
## Emulator installation and setup
This section does not cover all emulators that ES-DE supports, but rather the ones where there are special considerations or setup procedures.
In general emulation is not that mature on Android compared to other platforms, and emulator availability on the Google Play store leaves a lot to be desired. Many emulators are not there at all, or they are present but have been crippled or have not been updated for a very long time. You will need to sideload a lot of the emulators supported by ES-DE to have a good emulation setup, but thankfully this is not very difficult to do.
The exact producedure for how to install APKs manually is not covered here but there are many resources available online on how to accomplish this.
There is also the [F-Droid](https://f-droid.org/) app store as an alternative to Google Play, and this service contains a couple of emulators that are not present on the Play store, or that are present there but haven't been updated for a very long time.
Some emulators support the [FileProvider](https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/core/content/FileProvider) API which makes it possible for ES-DE to temporarily provide storage access to the game ROMs on launch. This means that no access permissions need to be setup in the emulator upfront. For those emulators which do not support the FileProvider API, you will generally need to manually provide scoped storage access to each game system directory. Note that it's not supported to give access to the root of the entire ROM directory for emulators that use scoped storage, it has to be for the specific system. For instance `/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/n64` rather than `/storage/emulated/0/ROMs`. But this is not the case for some emulators like RetroArch which may still be using an older storage access method.
The following emulators are configured for FileProvider access:
* 2600.emu
* C64.emu
* GBA.emu
* GBC.emu
* Lynx.emu
* MD.emu
* MAME4droid 2024
* MAME4droid
* NES.emu
* NGP.emu
* PCE.emu
* Play!
* Ruffle
* Saturn.emu
* Swan.emu
* Yuzu
Note that some of these emulators still require BIOS files, so not all of them will be completely free from manual configuration.
The following emulators have partial FileProvider access support but are currently not configured for that in ES-DE:
* Dolphin (the FileProvider interface is broken on Android 13 and later)
* M64Plus FZ (the FileProvider interface doesn't work reliably and game launching randomly fails when using it)
* PPSSPP (the FileProvider interface doesn't work with .chd files specifically)
### RetroArch
The RetroArch release in the Play Store is not very good and is therefore not recommended. To get access to all cores make sure to instead manually download and install the 64-bit/aarch64 APK from their website:
https://retroarch.com/
You could alternatively install the release on the F-Droid store.
### AetherSX2 / NetherSX2
Although the emulator entry is named AetherSX2 the recommended release of this emulator is actually the NetherSX2 version as the AetherSX2 release on the Google Play store doesn't work correctly and probably can't be used with ES-DE at all. You'll need to search for this APK online, the filename you'll want is `15210-v1.5-4248-noads.apk`
### Citra
The version of Citra on the Google Play store is very old and barely works. Instead download either the Canary or Nightly builds from the Citra website or use the Citra MMJ fork:
https://citra-emu.org/download/
https://github.com/weihuoya/citra/releases
### Dolphin
The Play store version is somehow up to date and could be used, otherwise the F-Droid store version is up to date, or you could download the latest release directly from their website:
https://dolphin-emu.org/
In the past there were multiple unofficial ports, but these are not really recommended any longer as most of them don't seem to have been updated in a long time and are likely to have been surpassed by the official Dolphin release.
### EKA2L1
This emulator can be downloaded from their GitHub page:
https://github.com/EKA2L1/EKA2L1
There does not seem to be a way to launch individual EKA2L1 games from a frontend application on Android, instead ES-DE will simply launch the EKA2L1 user interface and you'll have to manually start your game from there.
### EX Plus Alpha
These set of emulators also known as the "Robert Broglia" emulators consist of 2600.emu, C64.emu, GBA.emu, GBC.emu, Lynx.emu, NEO.emu, NES.emu, NGP.emu, MD.emu, MSX.emu, PCE.emu, Snes9x EX+, Saturn.emu and Swan.emu
You can install them via Google Play (as paid apps) or download them from their GitHub automatic build system:
https://github.com/Rakashazi/emu-ex-plus-alpha/actions
### Fake-08
This RetroArch core is a good port of the official PICO-8 game engine which does not exist on Android. It's not shipped with RetroArch by default though so you need to manaully install it. After download you'll need to place it inside's RetroArch's downloads directory and then install it from the RetroArch app. Details on how to accomplish this can be found on the Internet:
https://github.com/jtothebell/fake-08
### Flycast
Flycast is not available on the Play store or the F-Droid store, but it can be downloaded from their GitHub site:
https://github.com/flyinghead/flycast/releases
### melonDS
This emulator can be installed from the Play store but it's quite buggy. Every time you add a new game to the ROM directory you need to start the emulator and manually refresh the game list or you won't be able to launch the game from ES-DE. Filenames containing parentheses also don't work and need to be renamed or they can't be launched from ES-DE. The same is probably true for a number of additional characters.
### OpenBOR
Although OpenBOR is working fine on Android it's not possible to properly integrate it with a frontend, you'll instead need to install your game PAKs into the `/sdcard/OpenBOR/Paks` directory and create dummy .openbor files for your games in `ROMs/openbor` and after launching a game from ES-DE you need to manually start it from inside the OpenBOR GUI. You can download the latest APK from here:
https://github.com/DCurrent/openbor/releases
The version named _OpenBOR v3.0 Build 6391_ has for example been proven to work well.
### Play!
This PlayStation 2 emulator can be downloaded from here:
https://www.purei.org/downloads.php
### Real3DOPlayer
This 3DO Interactive Multiplayer emulator can be downloaded from here:
http://www.arts-union.ru/node/23
### Redream
Redream is available on the Play store but is as of writing this not usable on Android 13 and later due to Intent filter changes introduced by Google. An emulator update is required before Redream becomes usable again.
### Vita3K
This PlayStation Vita emulator can be downloaded from their GitHub site:
https://github.com/Vita3K/Vita3K-Android
## Supported game systems
All emulators are RetroArch cores unless marked as **(Standalone)**
The **@** symbol indicates that the emulator is _deprecated_ and will be removed in a future ES-DE release.
@ -113,11 +249,11 @@ The **@** symbol indicates that the emulator is _deprecated_ and will be removed
| neogeocd | SNK Neo Geo CD | NeoCD | FinalBurn Neo | Yes | |
| neogeocdjp | SNK Neo Geo CD [Japan] | NeoCD | FinalBurn Neo | Yes | |
| nes | Nintendo Entertainment System | Mesen | Nestopia UE,<br>FCEUmm,<br>QuickNES,<br>NES.emu **(Standalone)** | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| ngage | Nokia N-Gage | _Placeholder_ | | | |
| ngage | Nokia N-Gage | EKA2L1 **(Standalone)** | | Yes | See the specific _Symbian and Nokia N-Gage_ section in the User guide |
| ngp | SNK Neo Geo Pocket | Beetle NeoPop | RACE,<br>NGP.emu **(Standalone)** | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| ngpc | SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color | Beetle NeoPop | RACE,<br>NGP.emu **(Standalone)** | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| odyssey2 | Magnavox Odyssey 2 | O2EM | | Yes | Single archive or ROM file |
| openbor | OpenBOR Game Engine | OpenBOR **(Standalone)** | | No | .openbor dummy file |
| openbor | OpenBOR Game Engine | OpenBOR **(Standalone)** | | No | See the specific _OpenBOR_ section in the User guide |
| oric | Tangerine Computer Systems Oric | _Placeholder_ | | | |
| palm | Palm OS | Mu | | | |
| pc | IBM PC | DOSBox-Pure | DOSBox-Core,<br>DOSBox-SVN | No | |
@ -127,7 +263,7 @@ The **@** symbol indicates that the emulator is _deprecated_ and will be removed
| pcengine | NEC PC Engine | Beetle PCE | Beetle PCE FAST,<br>PCE.emu **(Standalone)** | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| pcenginecd | NEC PC Engine CD | Beetle PCE | Beetle PCE FAST,<br>PCE.emu **(Standalone)** | Yes | |
| pcfx | NEC PC-FX | Beetle PC-FX | | Yes | |
| pico8 | PICO-8 Fantasy Console | Fake-08 | Retro8 | No | Single .p8 file |
| pico8 | PICO-8 Fantasy Console | Fake-08 | Retro8 | No | See the specific _PICO-8_ section in the User guide |
| plus4 | Commodore Plus/4 | VICE xplus4 | | No | Single archive or image file for tape, cartridge or single-diskette games, .m3u playlist for multi-diskette games |
| pokemini | Nintendo Pokémon Mini | PokeMini | | No | |
| ports | Ports | ECWolf (Wolfenstein 3D) | NXEngine (Cave Story),<br>OpenLara (Tomb Raider),<br>Super Bros War | Yes for ECWolf | |
@ -135,7 +271,7 @@ The **@** symbol indicates that the emulator is _deprecated_ and will be removed
| ps3 | Sony PlayStation 3 | _Placeholder_ | | | |
| ps4 | Sony PlayStation 4 | _Placeholder_ | | | |
| psp | Sony PlayStation Portable | PPSSPP | PPSSPP **(Standalone)** | No | Single disc image file |
| psvita | Sony PlayStation Vita | Vita3K **(Standalone)** | | Yes | |
| psvita | Sony PlayStation Vita | Vita3K **(Standalone)** | | Yes | See the specific _Sony PlayStation Vita_ section in the User guide |
| psx | Sony PlayStation | Beetle PSX | Beetle PSX HW,<br>PCSX ReARMed,<br>SwanStation,<br>DuckStation **(Standalone)** | Yes | .chd file for single-disc games, .m3u playlist for multi-disc games |
| pv1000 | Casio PV-1000 | _Placeholder_ | | | |
| quake | Quake | TyrQuake | vitaQuake 2,<br>vitaQuake 2 [Rogue],<br>vitaQuake 2 [Xatrix],<br>vitaQuake 2 [Zaero] | No | |
@ -163,7 +299,7 @@ The **@** symbol indicates that the emulator is _deprecated_ and will be removed
| supervision | Watara Supervision | Potator | | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| supracan | Funtech Super A'Can | _Placeholder_ | | | |
| switch | Nintendo Switch | Yuzu **(Standalone)** | | Yes | |
| symbian | Symbian | _Placeholder_ | | | |
| symbian | Symbian | EKA2L1 **(Standalone)** | | Yes | See the specific _Symbian and Nokia N-Gage_ section in the User guide |
| tanodragon | Tano Dragon | _Placeholder_ | | | |
| tg16 | NEC TurboGrafx-16 | Beetle PCE | Beetle PCE FAST,<br>PCE.emu **(Standalone)** | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| tg-cd | NEC TurboGrafx-CD | Beetle PCE | Beetle PCE FAST,<br>PCE.emu **(Standalone)** | Yes | |

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USERGUIDE-DEV.md
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@ -2149,10 +2149,21 @@ Starting ES-DE should now show the _Super Mario 3D World_ entry for the Wii U sy
### OpenBOR
The Open Beats of Rage (OpenBOR) game engine is available on Windows and Linux. Unfortunately the macOS ports seems to have been abandoned.
The Open Beats of Rage (OpenBOR) game engine is available on Android, Windows and Linux. Unfortunately the macOS port seems to have been abandoned.
These games are often but not always distributed together with the game engine as specific engine versions may be required for some games. The setup is slightly different between Windows and Linux so they are described separately here.
**Android**
Unfortunately there does not seem to be a way to launch individual OpenBOR games from ES-DE on Android, instead the OpenBOR user interface will open on game launch and you need to manually start your game from there. This means games need to be installed upfront in OpenBOR and .openbor dummy files should be added to the `ROMs/openbor` directory. These will then appear as individual games inside ES-DE and you can add metadata to them, scrape them etc. Refer to the OpenBOR documentation on how to add your game PAKs.
Here's an example setup:
```
/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/openbor/D&D - K&D - The Endless Quest LNS.openbor
/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/openbor/He-Man.openbor
```
**Windows:**
There are two different OpenBOR setup methods supported on Windows, either to place the game directories directly inside the ROMs\openbor directory or to place the games somewhere else on the filesystems and create .lnk shortcuts and place these inside the ROMs\openbor directory.
@ -2225,6 +2236,8 @@ Doing this will make the game show up as if it was a single file inside ES-DE an
PICO-8 Fantasy Console is a game engine developed by [Lexaloffle Games](https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php) that you need to buy a license to use. Doing so will provide you with download links to releases for Linux, macOS and Windows. Make sure to use the 64-bit release as the 32-bit release reportedly has some technical issues. On macOS and Windows the installation is straightforward, but on Linux you need to place PICO-8 in a location recognized by ES-DE. See the [Using manually downloaded emulators on Linux](USERGUIDE-DEV.md#using-manually-downloaded-emulators-on-linux) section of this guide for more details.
On Android it's recommended to use the Fake-08 RetroArch core, although this needs to be manually downloaded. How that is done is covered briefly in the [ANDROID.md](ANDROID.md#fake-08) document.
After the emulator has been installed you are ready to add some games. There are two ways to play games using PICO-8, either to add them to ES-DE as for any other system, or using the built-in Splore tool to explore and run games all through the PICO-8 user interface.
For the first approach you can download games from the [PICO-8 forum](https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?cat=7) and these are quite uniquely distributed as .png images. You just download these and place them inside the ~/ROMs/pico8 directory, for example:
@ -2244,16 +2257,17 @@ This is what the complete setup could look like:
~/ROMs/pico8/xzero-3.p8.png
```
**Using the Retro8 RetroArch core**
**Using the Fake-08 and Retro8 RetroArch cores**
On Android the Fake-08 core provides a good alternative to the official PICO-8 engine which is not available on this operating system. ES-DE also includes support for the Retro8 RetroArch core across all platforms, but it's borderline unusable and does not seem to be actively developed any longer.
Neither Fake-08 nor Retro8 support the .png file extension, so in order to use these cores you need to remove that extension from your game files and only keep the .p8 extension, such as this:
ES-DE also includes support for the Retro8 RetroArch core but it's borderline unusable and does not seem to be actively developed any longer. If you still want to use it, then you first need to rename your game files by removing _.png_ from the end of the filenames, like this:
```
~/ROMs/pico8/c_e_l_e_s_t_e-0.p8
~/ROMs/pico8/xzero-3.p8
```
Following this just select the _Retro8_ alternative emulator and the games will (somehow) work.
### Ports and desktop applications
_The emulators system is essentially a clone of the desktop system so it's not discussed specifically in this section._
@ -2413,7 +2427,7 @@ When using this setup method you need to set the alternative emulator to _RPCS3
Support for the PS Vita is currently experimental due to the early stages of development for the Vita3K emulator. While there's a growing list of games that are playable, integration with ES-DE is a bit rough at the moment. Hopefully this will improve as Vita3K evolves.
On Windows the Vita3K installation is straightforward, but on Linux you may need to place the emulator in a location recognized by ES-DE. See the [Using manually downloaded emulators on Linux](USERGUIDE-DEV.md#using-manually-downloaded-emulators-on-linux) section of this guide for more details. If using a Linux distribution that provides Vita3K via the repository (such as the AUR on Arch/Manjaro) then you can skip this step and install the emulator using your OS package manager.
On Android and Windows the Vita3K installation is straightforward, but on Linux you may need to place the emulator in a location recognized by ES-DE. See the [Using manually downloaded emulators on Linux](USERGUIDE-DEV.md#using-manually-downloaded-emulators-on-linux) section of this guide for more details. If using a Linux distribution that provides Vita3K via the repository (such as the AUR on Arch/Manjaro) then you can skip this step and install the emulator using your OS package manager.
Although a macOS release of Vita3K seems to be in the works this does not seem to be readily available for download so there is currently no macOS support for this system in ES-DE.
@ -2467,6 +2481,19 @@ On macOS the shortcuts come with the .app extension and are actually directories
As the Nokia N-Gage was running Symbian it may seem like the _ngage_ and _symbian_ systems would be identical. There is however a difference in that N-Gage games were shipped on MMC memory cards while regular Symbian games were packaged as _Software Installation Script_ files with the .sis or .sisx extension. Although the EKA2L1 emulator is used for both systems the setup is quite different, as detailed below.
**Android**
Unfortunately there does not seem to be a way to launch individual games from ES-DE on Android specifically, so instead the EKA2L1 user interface will open on game launch and you need to manually start your game from inside the emulator. As games need to be installed upfront in the emulator as described below it's probably a good idea to just setup dummy game files with the .symbian or .ngage file extensions inside the ES-DE ROMs directory tree. These will then appear as indvidual games inside ES-DE and you can add metadata to them, scrape them etc.
Here's an example setup:
```
/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/ngage/Asphalt 2.ngage
/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/ngage/Bomberman.ngage
/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/ngage/CallofDuty.ngage
/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/symbian/Animal Farm.symbian
/storage/emulated/0/ROMs/symbian/AnotherWorld.symbian
```
**General setup**
The EKA2L1 installation should be fairly straightforward, for Linux there is an official AppImage, for macOS there is a DMG installer and for Windows a zip archive release. Just be aware that the AppImage has the very generic name `ubuntu-latest.AppImage` and needs to be renamed and moved to `~/Applications/EKA2L1.AppImage` in order for ES-DE to find it.