Sometimes, the emulation scene can be described as the scene that keeps on giving and at times, some unexpected things come out of it. This time, we’re going to focus on these unexpected things as Android just got an experimental Nintendo Switch emulator and DaedalusX64 (the PSP’s N64 emulator) is apparently being ported to the PSVita!
MonoNX Switch emulator lands on Android
MonoNX is still in pretty early stages so for now, you can only stare at console ouptut of some basic homebrew
As recently mentioned on this website, Nintendo Switch emulation is seeing some great progress on the PC especially with Yuzu but to get playable framerates in a few titles, you need a pretty high-end modern computer.
However, this didn’t stop GBATemp user ‘ctrninja’ from creating a Switch emulator for Android smartphones/tablets which are obviously not even close to being powerful enough to emulate a current generation console (albeit with a SoC used in some higher-end Android equipment like the Shield TV).
This Switch emulator for Android is called MonoNX (GBATemp Thread) and it’s based on Ryujinx which can be though of as a competitor to Yuzu although it’s not seeing as much development time being spent on it lately. Currently, there’s no support for graphics in MonoNX so you’re stuck with console output ONLY and it can only run some very early homebrew such as the first libtransistor tests.
If you have a modern enough phone that runs a 64-bit version of Android, you can give it a go by getting it off the Google Play Store. To see whether it works, a test ROM can be download from the GBATemp thread linked above.
DaedalusX64 being ported to the PSVita
The PSP and the PSVita have a decent amount of homebrew in common such as Tyrian, Super Mario War, Minicraft and others. However, there’s one homebrew that few expected anyone would try to port to the Vita and that is DaedalusX64, the PSP’s Nintendo 64 emulator which only works somewhat well because the N64 and PSP share the same CPU architecture (MIPS).
Nintendo 64 emulation on the PSP/Vita isn’t perfect but it can hold its own in some games like Mario Kart 64 and some other titles!
DaedalusX64does a pretty admirable job at emulating the N64 considering the hardware it’s working on and can actually deliver playable framerates on titles like Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64. Recently, there’s been some work to improve its performance, stability and compatibility with some titles by z2442 and others; updated versions resulting from this work can be downloaded from here.
As of right now, the folks behind this porting effort haven’t been able to compile/build it for the Vita but this might change in the near future although it’s unlikely that it would perform too well. From some comments on the Reddit thread about this port, TheMrIron2 (who contributed to the aforementioned updated DaedalusX64 builds) states that there may be an attempt to access the PSP hardware found inside the Vita’s SoC to improve emulation performance although this idea has never been employed in any homebrew in the past and it’s unknown whether it’d work.
For more information about the matter, you can check out this Reddit thread and get on the PSP Homebrew Server Discord channel as that’s where TheMrIron2 and other people behind this port seem to be discussing stuff.
Conclusion
The emulators mentioned in this article are somewhat ambitious and may not lead to anywhere but work done on them might prove beneficial to similar undertakings in the future. As usual, you shouldn’t bother the developers of these emulators for ETAs and unfortunately, you shouldn’t hold your breath on the Vita getting a fully working native N64 emulator anytime soon!
For now, we PSVita fans have to stick with Adrenaline and the handful of games that run well on DaedalusX64 when it comes to Nintendo 64 emulation.
The post Emulation on the go: Android gets MonoNX, an experimental Nintendo Switch emulator; and DaedalusX64 (Nintendo 64) is apparently being ported to the PSVita! appeared first on Wololo.net.