Silverfleet Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 Anyone else using a Sony Xperia Play smartphone as an emulation machine? I got one of these years ago, and while it sucked as a phone, it's not a bad little emulation device. Only gripes I have with it is that the onboard memory is tiny compared to modern devices, battery life is a little weak, and the screen is a little small. I have an 8gb card in it with NES, SNES, 2600, Colecovision, and TG16 emulators installed, and they work well. Has anyone successfully rooted one of these? I was thinking of trying to do that to get the bloatware off the phone and to make it run even smoother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akator Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 I used an Xperia Play for handheld emulation for a while. I haven't used it recently because I shifted back to PC emulation. When Sony discontinued the Xperia Play they offered tools to unlock it. The official Sony pages with their unlocking codes and software seem to have disappeared, but there are some videos that may help (like this one). After my phone was rooted I installed Cyanogen Mod. All of this was about 4 years ago so I don't remember enough to help further, but the YouTube video should fill in the details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 I've "always" wanted one of those, I like the way it resembles the PSP Go. I never found one super cheap though, and there are other (newer, better) handhelds that do everything it can do. Cool to see it again though -- and being used for the proper purpose! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Tyler Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 I used to have one of those but it died on me. What are some good alternatives? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 I used to have one of those but it died on me. What are some good alternatives?GPD XD is the current favorite for me. Looks like a 3DS but plays all the Android apps, including emulators. The controls are nicer than those on the Nvidia Shield, which would be the more powerful choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Tyler Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 How much does that run for generally? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 About $150. You can probably find a used one from a USA seller on eBay. I got mine from China when it came out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverfleet Posted March 12, 2019 Author Share Posted March 12, 2019 Ha, revisiting this thread since I now have a hour long train ride to and from work every day since my job moved offices. I dug out the Xperia Play and I'm trying to make it better at playing games and worse at being a phone. I haven't used it in a few years, and it was running like crap, so I did a factory reset. I also just rooted it and now I'm looking at trying to install Android 4.0 on it to get better compatibility with emulators (it's running 2.3.3 right now). Man, Android devices have changed since 2011! It won't even let me sign into my Google account on it no matter what I do right now. I had to download a shady 3rd party "marketplace" app to get emulators back on the device. Hopefully I can get it working well enough to be a viable emulation machine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Stamos Mullet Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 I have a Sony Xperia X tablet rooted that I use for this, running retroarch, and blue tooth tied to a PS3 controller. It's pretty awesome. It's got enough juice to run everything up to PS1 games smoothly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 Good news: you don't need to run Android phones from 2011 to have a good time with portable emulation. https://obscurehandhelds.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Stamos Mullet Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 Good news: you don't need to run Android phones from 2011 to have a good time with portable emulation. https://obscurehandhelds.com/ I have a PSP with custom firmware, so I don't need a crappy knockoff gameboy, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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