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Play PC games on Android... WUT?!

Posted: Wed May 15, 2024 6:30 am
by Jedilink
So I found this Android app today that allows you to install Windows based PC titles on your phone and play them directly. I saw a video of a dude playing Fallout 4 on a Samsung tablet with it and had to know all of the details immediately. My phone likely wouldn't play a game like that very well, but I can get other stuff to work.

The app is called Winlator. Here's a link.

https://github.com/brunodev85/winlator

Keep in mind you CANNOT use PC games you got through Steam. You have to use DRM-Free games. It cannot require a launcher to play, so unfortunately K7 is out. But if you get PC games from GOG, or Zoom Platform, or itch.io, then you can download the installer to your phone, and use the Winlator app to install those games to your phone. Then just start it up in the Winlator app, and you're playing a PC game on your phone, like Postal 2 here, for instance.
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I was just playing Brutal Legend, although performance wasn't great, but I'll mess with it a bit more to see if I can improve that. I pulled up the new Tomb Raider 1-3 remaster and that was blazing fast on my phone at 60fps with no issues.

Re: Play PC games on Android... WUT?!

Posted: Wed May 15, 2024 6:32 am
by Jedilink
In case you're wondering what's going on, it takes x86/x64 PC commands and interprets them to work for ARM processors like you'd have for your phone. You don't HAVE to play games with the app as it should be able to use all sorts of other normal applications with it, but it's a fun bonus to expand the quality of your gaming library for your phone.

Re: Play PC games on Android... WUT?!

Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 12:14 pm
by Iwazaru
I knew about emulating DOS on Android, but this is new for me. Thx for share.

Re: Play PC games on Android... WUT?!

Posted: Sun May 19, 2024 8:33 pm
by Jedilink
It's still pretty early, so don't expect great compatibility. I've been experimenting with it more since I posted and it's pretty hit or miss. Many games don't load at all, likely due to some PC exclusive stuff that your phone doesn't have.

But I did get the new Tomb Raider remaster to work perfectly. The remaster of Forsaken works great. I got Stubbs the Zombie going but I haven't really spent time with it. The first few minutes seemed ok though. I was hoping Postal 2 would have better performance, but it was all over the place. My phone is on its third year now, so I'm sure a newer flagship device would play it much better.

I'm trying to pick stuff that will run with controller support (since you basically MUST have it in order to play these games on your phone at all) while also being low powered enough that my phone will run them pretty well. It's a bit tricky. Also, like I said you MUST use DRM-Free installers. It's not going to work with Steam or Epic Games Store or whatever running in the background. The app is still pretty early so I know compatibility will greatly increase as time goes on and they improve the translation layer of the app.