Got the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play - loving it for the emaulators

deadl0ck

Just got the Xperia Play a week ago and I'm loving it for retro gaming.

In the middle of Metroid Zero on the GBA Emulator - full hardware button support - it's fantastic.

I highly recommend the phone if you're into a spot of retro gaming on the move.

There's a nice emulation guide for it here

CiDeRmAn

Sounds good, although wouldn't a PSP be..
1- Cheaper
2- Have a bigger screen
3- Have more emu's available
4- Said emus are easier to install to the PSP
5- You can play PSP games as well!

Plus, if I'm buying a high end Android Phone I'll be aiming at the cutting edge, Galaxy SII, not a ho-hum 6 month old tech spec like the PS Phone, heck, even their best phone, the Arc, is trotting behind the Galaxy SII....

Pyongyang

Plus by buying a PSP you won't have a 478,000 month contract, well unless you bought a Pay As You Grovel version.

CiDeRmAn

Even the DS is a cut above the likes of the PS phone, although it's not built to run PS games it will run mostly everything you've ever cared to try and loads more you've never heard of and most are actively supported and easy as cake to use.
And you can get the best of them, the DSlite for around 50 euro, so happy days!

deadl0ck

Yes - I hear what you are all saying.
I already have a PSP.

The point is that I don't carry a PSP or DS Lite around with me all the time.
I do, however, always have my phone with me.

pasta-solo

I've tried SNES emulators on both a DS Lite and PSP, and found both ran slow with some major issues running many games - was I just doing something wrong?

Dr Bob

I got one last week as well, its a decent enough phone and yeah the emulation is excellent .Get the FPSCE , the play station emulator its about 3 quid but excellent.
Been playing tekken 3 /legacy of Kain and starflight on the meg (genesis AD emulator for that).
The meg/MAME emulators have some netplay stuff as well so must check that out.
To be honest the main draw is that I can play emulators on a phone without having to use virtual buttons, (the controls are excellent).And it means I dont have to carry another console/handheld as well.

Dr Bob

To be honest the DS emulators are a bit hit and miss. Nintendo stuff isnt bad , but the Meg/SMS have this horrible issue where the screen isn't shrunk down , so you have to use the shoulderbuttons to scroll the screen. C64 uses frodo (the most over-rated c64 emu ever) which would only seem to load a few disk images out of the load I tried.Most of the emulators are a few years old and havent been updated in years)
I'm guessing the PSP is better , but I've never been able to get a cheap one(they're out there , but I keep missing them!).
Btw having had a DS as my main portable emulation device the last few years I can say the Play is way WAY better.
Hang on...how are PSP's easier to install emulators on?? on the play you go to android market , download it (its free most times).Connect the Phone to your pc by cable and copy the roms across ..done! It doesnt have to be modded, fiddled with and you dont have to hope someone sticks a game into it that overwrites the firmware and you have to mod it again! (as happened to a mate of mine!)


Its all about whether you want to carry around and maintain 2 devices for phone/emulation. If you do , yeah the SII is grand for apps , and is a great phone (the missus has one and its lovely) , but good luck playing with on screen buttons.If you want an all in one device then the Play is perfect as its a decent (if not overpowered) phone and the controls are perfect for any games I've thrown at it so far.

CiDeRmAn

I'm afraid I am very anti-convergence.
That is to say, I don't like having all my devices merge into one, always resulting in compromises.
The Iphone is a great example..
An ok phone.
A decent web browser,
An expensive MP3 player
A small screened media player
A machine that, as long as it's not jailbroken, has limited access to emus and suffers crap onscreen controls.

The above goes for every smartphone, IOS, Android, Windows 7 whatever.

On the other hand,
I can buy a great phone, heck even an Iphone or a HTC Desire like mine, that lets me make calls and browse.
I can get my MP3's onto a massive capacity Classic iPod, not costing the earth.
I can get my games on several great consoles, all portable with pretty good emu support.
I can, if I want, watch movies and tv on any number of larger format devices but then, I own a car, when the feck do I have the time?

So, I can have devices that excel in each field, that do a great job and to hell with one device that does everything but is, ultimately, doomed to compromise in every department.
Typically I have about 2 devices on my person, a DS lite or 3DS and my HTC Desire.
I have a laptop bag that I carry my stuff around with me and that contains, perhaps a PSP or, these days, a Nomad!
This time next year I expect a Kindle to be in there instead....

So, to hell with convergence!
Love your gadgets!

deadl0ck

I agree that dedicate devices are best.
I have a PSP and 3DS for portable gaming and I use them, but I am finding it very handy to have emu support with actual hardware buttons on my phone.

It's not like I do a huge amount of gaming as I don't really have the time, but it handy to have a decent option on the phone.

Just earlier today, my daughter (almost 2) fell asleep on me and I had my phone beside me - I was able to play a few games without having to move anywhere or disturb her
Basically I can get in a spot of retro gaming where it wasn't possible before - unless I sat down with her, with all my other devices in reach.
She would then want to have a nosey at everything and probably drop something.
She's used to seeing me with the phone so it's no big deal and she leave it alone

batari

Pretty much what deadlock said, great to have a phone handy when the young lad falls asleep, and I can have a quick go of ghouls & Ghosts, or load up my save state on tomb raider and carry on. I actually love having as much technology in one machine as possible, sitting on the bus, listening to some tunes, playing a game, text comes thru, reply, and back to the game. Perfect.

CiDeRmAn

Well, on that we'll have to disagree, I don't like it, plus phones are updated every year/18 months, what then?
Nah, I'll stick to my myriad of devices thanks, nothing screams dedicated gamer like being down in Starbucks and whipping out a Nomad with Sonic 2, together with the screen and battery mods in full effect, sweeet!

deadl0ck

Horses for courses I guess !

deadl0ck

I suppose - on another note....

What games would you recommend for the GBA (Apart from Metroid and Advance Wars which I'm currently playing) ?

batari

So far on the Play for GBA, I've played through:

Banjo Pilot
Boulder Dash Ex
Bubble Bobble
Crash Nitro
Drill Dozer - Still on this one, thanx Retr0!
Duke Nukem Advance, very impressive
F-Zero
Mario Kart - Super Circuit. Better than I expected, coming from Supermariokart. The awkward second album and all that.
Metal Slug Advance
Metroids
Super Marios
Wario Land 4

And that's it on the GBA front for me. Again, great machine to be able to pick up and start from where ya left off, when ya get a chance to. But obviously not to everyones taste.

Deadl0ck/Luas, have ya thrown on the N64 emu yet? I can't get a decent mapping for the controls for it.

deadl0ck

have ya thrown on the N64 emu yet? I can't get a decent mapping for the controls for it.

No - haven't got round to the N64 yet. It's on the list though....

batari

Mario Kart 64 and Super mario 64 play really well, but I couldn't get a decent control mapping for the likes of Turok.

Fpse is really really impressive, one tip, put the L1/L2 and R1/R2 buttons on the screen, in the bottom left and bottom right. Map the L1 and R1 buttons to the shoulder buttons.
You'll have the L2 and R2 handy on the screen for when ya need them in fps games and the like. Works brilliantly for me.

Dr Bob

batari wrote: »

So far on the Play for GBA, I've played through:

Banjo Pilot
Boulder Dash Ex
Bubble Bobble
Crash Nitro
Drill Dozer - Still on this one, thanx Retr0!
Duke Nukem Advance, very impressive
F-Zero
Mario Kart - Super Circuit. Better than I expected, coming from Supermariokart. The awkward second album and all that.
Metal Slug Advance
Metroids
Super Marios
Wario Land 4

And that's it on the GBA front for me. Again, great machine to be able to pick up and start from where ya left off, when ya get a chance to. But obviously not to everyones taste.

Deadl0ck/Luas, have ya thrown on the N64 emu yet? I can't get a decent mapping for the controls for it.

ah nope currently playing through the psx stuff at the mo!

Dr Bob

batari wrote: »

Mario Kart 64 and Super mario 64 play really well, but I couldn't get a decent control mapping for the likes of Turok.

Fpse is really really impressive, one tip, put the L1/L2 and R1/R2 buttons on the screen, in the bottom left and bottom right. Map the L1 and R1 buttons to the shoulder buttons.
You'll have the L2 and R2 handy on the screen for when ya need them in fps games and the like. Works brilliantly for me.

I mapped L2 & R2 to the volume keys and it worked out pretty well!

pah

this phone emulates SNES, NES, GBA and Mega Drive better than anything else DS or PSP that I have tried. it's faultless no lag or skipping. also running Tekken 3 and Metal Gear Solid on FPSE like a dream.

It might be a high end smartphone but it doesnt have a high end price

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75613006

rommy

The best android emu set up imo is samsung galaxy s2 hooked up to a ps3 bluetooth pad its class and runs all emus perfect snes n64 gba mame

martineatworld

rommy wrote: »

The best android emu set up imo is samsung galaxy s2 hooked up to a ps3 bluetooth pad its class and runs all emus perfect snes n64 gba mame

That's not exactly the handiest for the commute though is it!?

CiDeRmAn

Yeah, I see those Xperia Play phones have just gotten very very cheap.

I wonder what the battery life is like running emus?

Can I convert and play my own extensive PS collection on one or am I limited to whatever the folks at Sony Ericsson have decided I should play?

If there is a way to play my stuff, flawlessly, then I may pick one up.

martineatworld

You can buy the games from the sony marketplace (they've a very poor selection, only a handful of games), or you can use one of the many PS emulators to play your own games.
I think there is also some kind of semi hack which allows you to use your own ripped games on the emulator that the games you buy on the marketplace uses, that doesn't invalidate your warranty.

Ah linky.

http://www.slashgear.com/xperia-play-ps1-emulator-hacked-for-custom-isos-10170812/

I've only played a handful of PS games through FPSe but it's been perfect so far. I mainly use it for GBA games which run like a dream.

As my first actual smartphone, I'm really liking it, and would recommend it.

Dr Bob

martineatworld wrote: »

You can buy the games from the sony marketplace (they've a very poor selection, only a handful of games), or you can use one of the many PS emulators to play your own games.
I think there is also some kind of semi hack which allows you to use your own ripped games on the emulator that the games you buy on the marketplace uses, that doesn't invalidate your warranty.

Ah linky.

http://www.slashgear.com/xperia-play-ps1-emulator-hacked-for-custom-isos-10170812/

I've only played a handful of PS games through FPSe but it's been perfect so far. I mainly use it for GBA games which run like a dream.

As my first actual smartphone, I'm really liking it, and would recommend it.

FPSe is perfect on most of the games I've thrown at it (bar some wobbly sound in "Gauntlet Legends", and I've ripped copies of a few of my PS1 games with no issues.Only problem is that the analogs are still not implemented yet.Well the onscreen ones are but the analogs built into the xperia arent working yet.Apparantly the author of the Emu has them working but wont implement them into any live builds for some odd reason!!!!
MADNESS!

CiDeRmAn

I tells ya, if they can get the two touchpads working the phone will be worth the price of entry for the PS alone, to me at least.
Some of my favourite gaming memories were had on that system and the idea of having Wipeout 2097, F1'97 or Need For Speed Road Challenge on the go would be awesome!

nitromaster

Only problem i've had with PSX emulation so far on it is jerky sound for Tony Hawk's 2
(and the tony hawks soundtracks = so good!)

Got a DS + 3DS.

Keeping anything i can play legally on my 3DS eventually for that. (kinda weird but yeah :P ) So mostly using the playstation emulator (i don't have a PS3)

Decent phone as well.

CiDeRmAn

Yeah, the phone seems ok, on par with 2010's HTC Desire, not really up there with the Galaxy SII's of this world.
But then, while those phones are traded in, gone to silicon heaven, the Xperia Play will still be in regular use by retrogamers.
Is it the new PSP then, as far as emu is concerned?
I mean, no one is seriously playing sh1te like Angry Birds when they can play Alien Resurrection are they?