LeapDroid is a well-known Android emulator, and now the people behind its creation are joining Google. This isn’t an acquisition per se, but rather just a couple guys who have decided to ditch their own project and move to the Mountain View company to work on bigger things…
We often read of programmers finding ways to get their favorite old game titles running on modern devices. Whether it be playing Mario on an Android Wear watch, or building emulators to run other classic games, it’s been done. The most recent attempt involves Counter-Strike 1.6; a graphically demanding multiplayer.
We’ve seen a slew of emulators — everything from Macintosh II to Game Boy Color — running on Android Wear devices before, but the latest entries from Hacking Jules might be the most absurd yet. In these videos, we can see that popular PSP emulator PPSSPP and an unnamed Nintendo 64 emulator are both — albeit barely — capable of running on the LG G Watch…
It goes without saying that this is definitely a case of “why not,” rather than any kind of practical use case. Both emulators are barely chugging along (despite how impressive it is that they’re working at all). As you can see, frame rates are definitely in the realm of unplayable, and a screen of this size just doesn’t really work as a controller either.
Here are the videos:
We told you almost a year ago that one developer had managed to get Game Boy Color games running on Android Wear, but now someone has managed to do one better. In a recently-uploaded video shared by “Hacking Jules“, we can see Game Boy Advance games running on an LG G Watch — the oldest of the Android Wear. As usual, we in the Android community don’t need rhyme or reason for our tinkering…
As we can see in the below video, the emulator that this one particular user got running on his or her Android Wear watch is “My Boy!”, which can be found on the Play Store for just about $5. It’s pretty hilarious seeing the old Mario Kart for GBA played on a watch with a screen as tiny as this. For all intents and purposes, it’s completely unplayable. The controls completely cover the screen, and your finger would cover it more.
Nonetheless, check out the video below:
It seems crazy that this didn’t exist before, but today Google released Desktop Head Unit (DHU), a testing tool which emulates the Android Auto in-car experience on desktop computer hardware.
Once installed, you can connect your phone to your computer over USB and the companion app will behave as if it’s connected to a car which has Android Auto installed, while the emulator will display the Auto app you’re testing just like it would in a car with Android Auto.
Here’s my favorite part of the post, emphasis mine:
Now you can test pre-released versions of your app in a production-like environment, without having to work from your car. With the release of the DHU, the previous simulators are deprecated, but will be supported for a short period prior to being officially removed.
Auto developers who want to go back to working at their desks can head over to the blog post on the official Android Developers Blog to see all the details on how to get started with DHU.
Valve is known for many games, but perhaps none as well as Half-Life. And if for some reason you have an intense itch to stir up some nostalgia and run the game on your new Android Wear smartwatch… well, there’s a guide for that. But if you’re like me and understand that there’s really no reason to waste time doing this if someone else has already done it for you, then check out the below video…
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We’ve seen just about anything running on Android Wear at this point—from Minecraft: Pocket Edition, to Flappy Bird, to Windows 95. Today, Corbin Davenport is back with another video, this time showing off another ancient operating system running on the miniature Samsung Gear Live wrist computer. This time, he’s running the Macintosh II’s System 6 (and the emulator he’s using—Mini VMAC II—supports up to version 7.5.5)…
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Last week we got a peek at an old Windows operating system running on Android Wear, but the guy behind that all-too useless piece of software has now used his skill to make something markedly more interesting. As of now, it looks like owners of Android Wear devices can play some of the favorite Game Boy Color classics on Google’s wearable computer.
After letting us know last month that it was getting ready to release a toolkit to let developers easily bring their Chrome web apps to iOS and Android, today Google released a developer preview of the tool. In its blog post, Google explains the tool is based on open-source framework Apache Cordova, which allows devs to build native apps for iOS and Android using CSS, HTML, and Javascript. It’s also making a lot of its own core Chrome APIs available to developers through the preview. It essentially means devs will be able to bring their Chrome web apps to the App Store and Google Play, but it will also let them build new cross platform apps in CSS, HTML, and Javascript. Google explained how it works:
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Ever wished you could run your favorite iOS app on your Mac? What about your Windows machine or Android device? If creators of new Kickstarter project iEmu reach their funding goals, it may be possible sooner than you think.
iEmu is a new project based on the open-source QEMU emulator, currently accepting donations through Kickstarter, that aims to emulate the S5L8930 chipset used in iPhone 4 and first-gen iPads. It will support a number of platforms including “Linux, Windows, Mac, mobile platforms such as Android, and even on iOS itself”.
The goals of iEmu? Well the end goal is an emulator capable of running “most iPad/iPhone apps” that even supports peripherals like the compass, accelerometer, and GPS. It would also “be extended with plugins for custom iOS exploration” and able to be reflashed in iTunes.
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