New developers bring Nintendo emulators back to Windows Phone 8

Nintendo emulators return to Windows Phone 8 from Duc Le

Equally November and American Thanksgiving drew to a close, Windows Phone classic gaming fans experienced a bit of a daze. Indie developer M.k'due south three Nintendo console emulators SNES8x, VBA8, and VGBC8 all disappeared from the Store. Naturally Windows Phone Central stepped in to reveal why the emulators had been delisted. It turns out that Yard.m had passed development duties on to a new programmer, who would soon be relisting the emulators.

Less than two weeks later on, all 3 emulators are now back on the Store (yeah, nosotros're a tad late on this). The new developer has big plans for these Nintendo emulators. Larn about them (and a competing GameBoy Advance emulator chosen GBA8) after the interruption!

A new programmer enters the fray

SNES8x for Windows Phone 8
SNES8x

SNES8x, VBA8, and VGBC8 all return to Windows Phone viii nether the care of an private named Duc Le. Duc (who goes by illidanx in our forums) appears to be relatively new to Windows Phone development. He first published a financial management app called Loan Book+ last calendar month.

The three emulators, which previously existed every bit paid apps with free trials, now come simply every bit complimentary versions. In order to support development, the apps display advertisements during menu screens. Luckily the ads don't appear during gameplay. Paid versions of the emulators volition likewise come in the future.

Emulators evolved

SNES8x for Windows Phone Turtles in Time
Turtles in Time on SNES8x

Duc hasn't just brought the popular emulators back from the grave; he also plans to continue advancing their development. Likewise the introduction of banner ads, here are the changes he'southward fabricated to all three apps and so far:

No more oversized header.
No more rotation anywhere except inside the game.
Add tilt effect when taping and holding a ROM

The reduction in header size is a welcome alter. The emulator UIs tin can now display more than games on-screen than they did during 1000.k's run. And they particularly show fashion more game titles than Andre Botelho'due south emulators. Hopefully Andre follows Duc'southward example and makes some UI improvements to EmiPSX and EmiGens Plus in the near time to come.

What advancements can we expect from Duc in the future? Why, MOGA Pro Controller support of course! He actually bought a MOGA controller for testing, which is more than whatsoever other emulator programmer for Windows Phone has done. Anytime soon we'll be able to bask Super Nintendo, GameBoy Accelerate, and GameBoy Color games on our phones with the condolement of physical buttons!

Other planned improvements include proper support for importing ROMs from email attachments and support for importing ROMs from SD cards. I'm crossing my fingers for prettier and more authentic on-screen controls, too.

SNES8x – Windows Phone eight – 1 MB – Gratuitous – Store Link
VBA8 – Windows Phone viii – 1 MB – Gratuitous – Shop Link
VGBC8 – Windows Phone 8 – i MB – Complimentary – Store Link

QR: SNES 8x QR: VBA8

QR: VGBC8

Competing emulators

GBA8 and VBA8 for Windows Phone 8

Curiously, when 1000.k stepped abroad from Windows Phone development for skillful he too released the source code for his emulators. That means other enterprising Windows Phone developers can stride in and release competing versions of SNES8x, VBA8, and VGBC8 as well.

Another developer named MobWi (who has published a couple of little aquarium apps) has done just that, releasing a new version of VBA8 called GBA8. MobWi's version comes in paid and ad-supported varieties. Other than that (and the too-high $2.99 price), it'south identical to Thou.k'due south terminal VBA8 release and lacks Duc Le's improvements.

On the other mitt, MobWi has some improvement plans of his own (text and errors quoted from Shop page):

Re-layout the UI
Fix the bug that games in non-English language language crash when catching pets.
Disable the lock screen when downloading games
Add in-app searching for games to download game from web(granted that yous already purchased the game before)

Disabling the lock screen is something Andre Botelho needs to work into his emulators. But what'south this crashing when catching pets nonsense?