Having spent the bulk of my handheld gaming time with the Steam Deck, it was a bit of a shock last year to discover that PC gaming isn’t just possible on Android phones and retro handhelds, it’s powering on in leaps and bounds.

I’ve seen so many different games running beautifully, from older AAA titles like Tomb Raider and Prey (2017), all the way to more demanding ones like RDR2 and even Cyberpunk 2077 (no surprise that the last one is still an imperfect experience, as things stand…but it is possible!).

GameNative lets you play all manner of PC games on Android from GOG, Epic, and Steam.

I reached out to my friend Utkarsh, who is the lead developer of GameNative to ask if he wanted to share his story and let me interview him.

His background in development and gaming through to how GameNative started and is built, all the way to what the future might bring for his program. This is an interview on what I think might be at least part of the future of handheld gaming, and I hope you find this interesting:

https://gardinerbryant.com/i-genuinely-feel-gamenative-could-replace-handheld-pcs/

  • vortexal@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    I don’t know about that. I’ve tried multiple games with it and none of them are working. I can get them working in Winlator, which GameNative is based on, but not GameNative itself. It’s possible that I could be using it wrong even though I’m using the same settings in both apps but I wouldn’t know because there’s no documentation for either of them.

    The best I was able to achieve in GameNative was with a game made in a very old version of Ren’Py. I was able to get in game but I wasn’t able to actually play it because mouse inputs aren’t working and the controller inputs only work on the main menu. I know that the GameNative’s virtual mouse should be working because it works perfectly fine for closing error messages, it’s just not working in game for some reason.

    It’s actually quite a shame that I can’t get GameNative working because it does have more options available than Winlator. This means that if I could get it working, then there might be some games that would better in GameNative than Winlator.

    • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      Have a look at my friend’s site:

      https://www.emuready.com/

      It is a space where community members upload their experiences and ideal settings for the devices and games. I might be biased because he is a friend, but I can also say that objectively it is a wonderful space to double-check how you’re approaching things.

      Filter your search by your device, and then on the far-right, click on each result’s ‘eye’ to see what the person’s recommendations are in there (I do hope this helps!)

      • vortexal@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        I can try that website out. There aren’t that many entries for my device (Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE) and none of them are for games I’d want to play on android but I’ll try what they say and see if any of it helps.

          • vortexal@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            1·
            1 day ago

            I’m still not getting anywhere with the games I’m trying to play. None of them are listed, even for other devices, and I still can’t get any games working properly in GameNative regardless of whether I use the some of the configurations mentioned for other games on my device or the same settings I use in Winlator.

            Also, that website seems pretty cool though. I’m not sure how much I’d be able to add because I’m limited to just Winlator for PC games on android until I can get a game working properly in either GameNative or GameHub but does EmuReady allow adult/NSFW games? I didn’t see any adult/NSFW games listed but I’m also not seeing anything about them either. Also, do they allow adding other emulators? There are several emulators and emulator-adjacent apps I’m aware of but aren’t listed.