# Unofficial Android port shown running on a Nintendo Switch



## Essasetic (Feb 24, 2019)

LineageOS. That's literally all I can think about.


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## Giodude (Feb 24, 2019)

Holy guacamole. Excited to see what this thing can do, and I wonder if the android version is a joke or an insider build?


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## Beerus (Feb 24, 2019)

would be cool if you can switch between switch os and android os


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## BlastedGuy9905 (Feb 24, 2019)

holy shit.


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## Shrike (Feb 24, 2019)

RPGMaker MV Game Support !!! 

(The real rpgmaker MV.. not the shitty console version coming out soon)


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## altorn (Feb 24, 2019)

get MonoNX running in there so we have a switch emulator running in our switch!


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## Rabbid4240 (Feb 24, 2019)

Ok this is epic


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## Zumoly (Feb 24, 2019)

I was wondering when this would show up on the frontpage!


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## Deleted User (Feb 24, 2019)

I'd like to see that bluetooth feature on CFW to use wireless headphones c:


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## leonmagnus99 (Feb 24, 2019)

that looks really cool, but vvery Laggy for now


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## the_randomizer (Feb 24, 2019)

Maybe this could be an alternative method to loading up emulators. If so, I'd be excited to use it.


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## The Catboy (Feb 24, 2019)

leonmagnus99 said:


> that looks really cool, but vvery Laggy for now


But at least it's finally happening!


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## the_randomizer (Feb 24, 2019)

Lilith Valentine said:


> But at least it's finally happening!



Here's to hoping the method to run it won't be a huge PITA.


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## mustafag32g (Feb 24, 2019)

this is amazing! We will be able to run android APK when this gets up and running with proper GPU drivers


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## Zumoly (Feb 24, 2019)

Emulators are supposedly better on android.  So here's hoping gpu drivers get complete soon.


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## nWo (Feb 24, 2019)

"I'm interested in this."


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## Ericzander (Feb 24, 2019)

Wow, what a time to be alive.


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## osaka35 (Feb 24, 2019)

if only it had gps so i could play pokemon go on a nintendo device.


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## chocoboss (Feb 24, 2019)

They will probably make some change to NVIDIA shield driver then it will be fully usable


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## pasc (Feb 24, 2019)

I already saw the Switch as "just an android device" eitherhow..

Which is the reason why I don 't feel like shelling out the roalty for this one (as most games that are of interest for me are not on Ninty anymore...)


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## FAST6191 (Feb 24, 2019)

Wonder where all the "why would you want to do that" crowd went.


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## Hielkenator2 (Feb 24, 2019)

Shrike said:


> RPGMaker MV Game Support !!!
> 
> (The real rpgmaker MV.. not the shitty console version coming out soon)


That has been out for a while now...and yup, better stay on PC or Mac for that one...


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## THYPLEX (Feb 24, 2019)

SWITCH INCEPTION


altorn said:


> get MonoNX running in there so we have a switch emulator running in our switch!


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## lordelan (Feb 24, 2019)

osaka35 said:


> if only it had gps so i could play pokemon go on a nintendo device.


If it's rooted, you can spoof.


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## osaka35 (Feb 24, 2019)

lordelan said:


> If it's rooted, you can spoof.


I've tried spoofing on devices without it, but I've always run into problems. Figured it had to do with lack of hardware, so there wasn't anything to spoof. I should look into it more than not at all lol. 

But pokemon go on the switch would be hilarious.


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## TheZander (Feb 24, 2019)

i wonder how that new android switch emulator works on it


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## Andalitez (Feb 24, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> Wonder where all the "why would you want to do that" crowd went.


Part of the crowd right here xD


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## Giodude (Feb 24, 2019)

TheZander said:


> i wonder how that new android switch emulator works on it


No, stop. Don't get us into a loop.


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## gianm93 (Feb 24, 2019)

Why should I use android on my switch? I can't think to a reason, except for media center


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## FAST6191 (Feb 24, 2019)

Andalitez said:


> Part of the crowd right here xD


OK then. Do you have a reason why this sort of thing is either a waste of time or otherwise likely to negatively impact Switch homebrew?


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## Rob Blou (Feb 24, 2019)

Dreamcast emu works well on Android


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## pedro702 (Feb 24, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> OK then. Do you have a reason why this sort of thing is either a waste of time or otherwise likely to negatively impact Switch homebrew?


easy, people wont develop  emulators for switch os with better performance becuase they  are made for it because you can run them on android os, retroarch basicaly already killed specialy designed emulators for consoles too, i miss original xbox and wii days where people made emulators that fit the system and runned much better than standard ported ones.


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## Foxi4 (Feb 24, 2019)

pedro702 said:


> easy, people wont develop  emulators for switch os with better performance becuase they  are made for it because you can run them on android os, retroarch basicaly already killed specialy designed emulators for consoles too, i miss original xbox and wii days where people made emulators that fit the system and runned much better than standard ported ones.


That's not what happens though - nearly every hacked modern console ran some flavour of Linux, including the Wii and Xbox, and that didn't stop development on the native OS.


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## pedro702 (Feb 24, 2019)

Foxi4 said:


> That's not what happens though - nearly every hacked modern console ran some flavour of Linux, including the Wii and Xbox, and that didn't stop development on the native OS.


linux was never a usefull thing specialy on wii or wiiu.

if people say you can run a  emulator version using another os then they wont have any interest in developing one that runs better, which could run with better framerate and such.

retroarch was the reason no one  ever developed anything for wiiu, people were like retroarch runs why bother and that was the issue, that is the reason wiiu didnt even get a full speed ps1 emulator while wii had one that run several games full speed even if lower compat.


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## FAST6191 (Feb 24, 2019)

pedro702 said:


> easy, people wont develop  emulators for switch os with better performance becuase they  are made for it because you can run them on android os, retroarch basicaly already killed specialy designed emulators for consoles too, i miss original xbox and wii days where people made emulators that fit the system and runned much better than standard ported ones.


The PSP was largely ports, and it pretty much still carries the distinction of best portable emulator device that isn't a PC.

Similarly I would not say the Wii was not all ports -- those days died with the rise of IOS and android during the DS era.

I might even go further and say I would much rather have something like android so I can do my convoluted custom setup that nobody else cares about as far as backup and transfer of my saves and ROMs from my own internal network.


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## pedro702 (Feb 24, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> The PSP was largely ports, and it pretty much still carries the distinction of best portable emulator device that isn't a PC.
> 
> Similarly I would not say the Wii was not all ports -- those days died with the rise of IOS and android during the DS era.
> 
> I might even go further and say I would much rather have something like android so I can do my convoluted custom setup that nobody else cares about as far as backup and transfer of my saves and ROMs from my own internal network.


nothing against porting emulators and adapting them to the hardware, but just porting an os and then running them on said os will always be worse, than running them on default os.


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## FAST6191 (Feb 24, 2019)

pedro702 said:


> nothing against porting emulators and adapting them to the hardware, but just porting an os and then running them on said os will always be worse, than running them on default os.


How much overhead are you expecting here? Is it going to be that much more than the generally poorly optimised code we are otherwise likely to see on the Switch?


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## Foxi4 (Feb 24, 2019)

pedro702 said:


> linux was never a usefull thing specialy on wii or wiiu.
> 
> if people say you can run a  emulator version using another os then they wont have any interest in developing one that runs better, which could run with better framerate and such.
> 
> retroarch was the reason no one  ever developed anything for wiiu, people were like retroarch runs why bother and that was the issue, that is the reason wiiu didnt even get a full speed ps1 emulator while wii had one that run several games full speed even if lower compat.


You do realise that Retroarch is just a front end, right? You still have to port the entire libretro library to do anything with it on a desired platform. It doesn't work "significantly slower" (however you choose to define that) than a comparable emulator running without the front end, it's just more convenient. It's also completely untrue that Linux was not useful on older consoles - it was extremely useful, particularly on the Xbox. There is a much more obvious reason as to why nobody cared to develop anything substantial for the Wii U - it's a weak system with outdated internals and relatively low overall sales, the console wasn't popular enough to make the homebrew accessible to the masses. The Switch is a much more promising platform.


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## Sakitoshi (Feb 24, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> How much overhead are you expecting here? Is it going to be that much more than the generally poorly optimised code we are otherwise likely to see on the Switch?


raspi 3 owner here, libretro emus run worse than standalone ones.
how much worse?? I don't know exactly, the best example I have is the dreamcast emulator, reicast. the standalone one runs many games full speed while the libretro version struggles and only achieves around 80% the intended speed.
it's similar with n64, but as n64 emulation is a little less demanding you can achieve acceptable speeds (acceptable being 95%) with the libretro mupen64plus, some games can run at 100% speed with some stutters here then there (mario kart 64 is one of those).

TL;DR retroarch introduces enough overhead to make things unplayable on low power devices.


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## FAST6191 (Feb 24, 2019)

Sakitoshi said:


> raspi 3 owner here, libretro emus run worse than standalone ones.
> how much worse?? I don't know exactly, the best example I have is the dreamcast emulator, reicast. the standalone one runs many games full speed while the libretro version struggles and only achieves around 80% the intended speed.
> it's similar with n64, but as n64 emulation is a little less demanding you can achieve acceptable speeds (acceptable being 95%) with the libretro mupen64plus, some games can run at 100% speed with some stutters here then there (mario kart 64 is one of those).
> 
> TL;DR retroarch introduces enough overhead to make things unplayable on low power devices.



I was mainly thinking about android overhead -- I have never been fond of the multiple emulator frontends like this and the libretro people have not acquitted themselves well in conversations and actions I have seen about the place (to say nothing of their awful licensing).
Still if the overhead is going to be comparable then that could be fun.


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## Foxi4 (Feb 24, 2019)

Sakitoshi said:


> raspi 3 owner here, libretro emus run worse than standalone ones.
> how much worse?? I don't know exactly, the best example I have is the dreamcast emulator, reicast. the standalone one runs many games full speed while the libretro version struggles and only achieves around 80% the intended speed.
> it's similar with n64, but as n64 emulation is a little less demanding you can achieve acceptable speeds (acceptable being 95%) with the libretro mupen64plus, some games can run at 100% speed with some stutters here then there (mario kart 64 is one of those).
> 
> TL;DR retroarch introduces enough overhead to make things unplayable on low power devices.


It's a RPi3, I'm not sure what you're expecting here. It's a miracle that it runs DC and N64 emulation at all. We're talking about an orders of magnitude more powerful machine, shrink that "20%" to "imperceptible". I am also leaning towards "bad optimisation" as opposed to "overhead" here since you're libretro-dependant, any code that affects the library affects the end result.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Feb 24, 2019)

Meh. Can't say I'd be interested in this at all myself, I already have more than enough devices that could run whatever on Android, don't really need another.

I would be more interested if they could get the Shield TVs particular flavor of Android running though, mainly because I think it'd be neat to see how the official Wii emulated games would run on the same hardware that's been gimped vs the Linux port (or even the Android Dolphin build). I don't think anyone's gotten usable dumps of the games from the Chinese store (publicly, at least) so that'd be kinda the only way to do it.


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## Medveitsi (Feb 24, 2019)

gianm93 said:


> Why should I use android on my switch? I can't think to a reason, except for media center


games, emulators web browser etc etc


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## pedro702 (Feb 24, 2019)

Foxi4 said:


> You do realise that Retroarch is just a front end, right? You still have to port the entire libretro library to do anything with it on a desired platform. It doesn't work any "slower" than a comparable emulator running without the front end, it's just more convenient. It's also completely untrue that Linux was not useful on older consoles - it was extremely useful, particularly on the Xbox. There is a much more obvious reason as to why nobody cared to develop anything substantial for the Wii U - it's a weak system with outdated internals and relatively low overall sales, the console wasn't popular enough to make the homebrew accessible to the masses. The Switch is a much more promising platform.


liberetro emulators are ported but they are general use emulators without any optimization for anything so they dont run well on lower end devices that is why wiiu and switch will never have decent emulators becuase people wont take the time to optimize emulators for a single device becuase you can kinda of run then some other way so people wont work on them.

retroarch versions of emulators are always by far slower than standalone versions optimized for each hardware.


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## Foxi4 (Feb 24, 2019)

pedro702 said:


> liberetro emulators are ported but they are general use emulators without any optimization for anything so they dont run well on lower end devices that is why wiiu and switch will never have decent emulators becuase people wont take the time to optimize emulators for a single device becuase you can kinda of run then some other way so people wont work on them.
> 
> retroarch versions of emulators are always by far slower than standalone versions optimized for each hardware.


That's obviously the case on all platforms when you have an overarching library and fronted, native emulators always have some edge, but the benefits are minor compared to the benefits of an all in one solution. I corrected the post to specify that though since, obviously, the front end doesn't "weigh nothing" and the library does restrict some optimisation, so you have a point.


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## Sakitoshi (Feb 24, 2019)

FAST6191 said:


> I was mainly thinking about android overhead -- I have never been fond of the multiple emulator frontends like this and the libretro people have not acquitted themselves well in conversations and actions I have seen about the place (to say nothing of their awful licensing).
> Still if the overhead is going to be comparable then that could be fun.


your os of choice will always impact performance, the game os of any console is well optimized to take away as little resources as posible and make the games able to use the resources, some go as far as dedicating a cpu core the the os so the remaining cores can handle the game without interfering. android, on the other hand, is an os that isn't suited to that task and has many background tasks that can (and will) take resources away, sure, things like priorities exist but lets say a relatively heavy background task wants to do something and takes away 20% of the resources, the other 80% is still available for the game to use, it looks good on paper but maybe the game needs 90% to run fluidly and is dropping frames because it only has 80% available right now.
older consoles ran everything on baremetal and that's why it could achieve such amazing things, because devs could use 100% of the resources without restrictions and assign specific parts of the hardware to do certain tasks, something that you can't do when running on top of an os.



Foxi4 said:


> It's a RPi3, I'm not sure what you're expecting here. It's a miracle that it runs DC and N64 emulation at all. We're talking about an orders of magnitude more powerful machine, shrink that "20%" to "imperceptible". I am also leaning towards "bad optimisation" as opposed to "overhead" here since you're libretro-dependant here.


even if is just a raspi 3, if it can run dreamcast 100% speed with the standalone emulator it should be able to do the same with the libretro version right??
and if you are going to play the "bad optimisation" card then do your homework, libretro reicast is well optimized, more than the standalone version at least, so if is a case of bad optimisation the libretro version should run better.

the explanation I have for that is that libretro is an api, and using api's, on top of the os api's just adds overhead for how api's work.
of course the switch is more powerful than a raspi, but if you are careless and start adding layers of overhead because "lol, it doesn't matter, it's powerful" you are gonna be disappointed by the result.


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## Foxi4 (Feb 24, 2019)

Sakitoshi said:


> your os of choice will always impact performance, the game os of any console is well optimized to take away as little resources as posible and make the games able to use the resources, some go as far as dedicating a cpu core the the os so the remaining cores can handle the game without interfering. android, on the other hand, is an os that isn't suited to that task and has many background tasks that can (and will) take resources away, sure, things like priorities exist but lets say a relatively heavy background task wants to do something and takes away 20% of the resources, the other 80% is still available for the game to use, it looks good on paper but maybe the game needs 90% to run fluidly and is dropping frames because it only has 80% available right now.
> older consoles ran everything on baremetal and that's why it could achieve such amazing things, because devs could use 100% of the resources without restrictions and assign specific parts of the hardware to do certain tasks, something that you can't do when running on top of an os.
> 
> 
> ...


You have to consider the pros and cons. Nothing is stopping you from coding an application that runs natively on the hardware itself with no API's whatsoever - many old PC games used to launch natively from a floppy because running them through the OS would've caused hardware issues, most notably memory issues, memory being precious at that time. If using an API or a fronted accelerates development to such an extent that not using it would just hinder you with no appreciable benefits, I think the choice is clear.

As for the prospect of using Android on the Switch, dual booting the OS opens the doors to many new applications that would never show up on the Switch otherwise. Many android users will be happy with a new gaming device with proper controls and relatively good specs compared to the usual "android console", I definitely see this as an opportunity.


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## Sakitoshi (Feb 24, 2019)

Foxi4 said:


> You have to consider the pros and cons. Nothing is stopping you from coding an application that runs natively on the hardware itself with no API's whatsoever - many old PC games used to launch natively from a floppy because running them through the OS would've caused hardware issues, most notably memory issues, memory being precious at that time. If using an API or a fronted accelerates development to such an extent that not using it would just hinder you with no appreciable benefits, I think the choice is clear.
> 
> As for the prospect of using Android on the Switch, dual booting the OS opens the doors to many new applications that would never show up on the Switch otherwise. Many android users will be happy with a new gaming device with proper controls and relatively good specs compared to the usual "android console", I definitely see this as an opportunity.


oh yeah, of course you can do that and get rid of all those pesky api's.
but that's kind of moving the goalpost since the discussion was about devs losing interest for developing standalone emulators thanks to retroarch.
I'm not saying that retroarch is bad or anything like that, it's great and use it all the time. but devs don't bother anymore even if certain machines would benefit from standalone emulators.

and I feel that the same will happen with android, devs will say "nah, it's already on android, why bother?" when lets say a ps2 emulator could be developed for switch os that could run 2 times better and allow for higher resolutions.


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## Foxi4 (Feb 24, 2019)

Sakitoshi said:


> oh yeah, of course you can do that and get rid of all those pesky api's.
> but that's kind of moving the goalpost since the discussion was about devs losing interest for developing standalone emulators thanks to retroarch.
> I'm not saying that retroarch is bad or anything like that, it's great and use it all the time. but devs don't bother anymore even if certain machines would benefit from standalone emulators.
> 
> and I fell that the same will happen with android, devs will say "nah, it's already on android, why bother?" when lets say a ps2 emulator could be developed for switch os that could run 2 times better and allow for higher resolutions.


This might happen with certain smaller applications, sure, but emulators are particularly taxing, especially in the case of the resource hungry ones. I don't think the desire to port them will diminish - people do it for fun and eFame, those aspects aren't affected by Android running on the platform. The way I see it, more is better - you could run a slew of games that would never be ported to the Switch otherwise, especially ones with a closed source from major developers.


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## pedro702 (Feb 24, 2019)

Sakitoshi said:


> oh yeah, of course you can do that and get rid of all those pesky api's.
> but that's kind of moving the goalpost since the discussion was about devs losing interest for developing standalone emulators thanks to retroarch.
> I'm not saying that retroarch is bad or anything like that, it's great and use it all the time. but devs don't bother anymore even if certain machines would benefit from standalone emulators.
> 
> and I fell that the same will happen with android, devs will say "nah, it's already on android, why bother?" when lets say a ps2 emulator could be developed for switch os that could run 2 times better and allow for higher resolutions.


yeah devs are like why make a year of work when retroarch can be ported in a week and you get alot of emulators even so if they dont run fullspeed.


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## Foxi4 (Feb 24, 2019)

pedro702 said:


> yeah devs are like why make a year of work when retroarch can be ported in a week and you get alot of emulators even so if they dont run fullspeed.


If you're looking for a reason "why", it's the performance ceiling. People always want their software to run well, or we'll enough. If it's not viable on retroarch, they will inevitably optimise and branch out. It didn't happen on the Wii U because the system was dead, not because of retroarch.


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## Sonansune (Feb 24, 2019)

can we run the android version switch emulator on switch android port?


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## Silent_Gunner (Feb 24, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> Maybe this could be an alternative method to loading up emulators. If so, I'd be excited to use it.



But hopefully with all of the features that us users take for granted like wireless controller support, dock support, built-in speaker support, etc..


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## Foxi4 (Feb 24, 2019)

Ericjwg said:


> can we run the android version switch emulator on switch android port?


Switchception!


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## the_randomizer (Feb 24, 2019)

Silent_Gunner said:


> But hopefully with all of the features that us users take for granted like wireless controller support, dock support, built-in speaker support, etc..



Given the Switch uses Bluetooth, that shouldn't be an issue. I'm more worried about having to use some dongle BS and then have to enter RCM every damn time I want to use it.


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## Silent_Gunner (Feb 24, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> Given the Switch uses Bluetooth, that shouldn't be an issue. I'm more worried about having to use some dongle BS and then have to enter RCM every damn time I want to use it.



I was referring to the state that Lakka is still in last I checked out to see where it was at. As for the dongle part, there must have been some big update or something to Atmosphere or Kosmos or Hekate or one of these CFW solutions that, if your Switch crashes, all you have to do is hit the volume up button and it'll put your Switch into RCM mode so you don't have to keep using the jig and a laptop or phone with an OTG adapter to keep using CFW. It's made me more willing to try things on my hacked Switch than before, that's for sure!


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## barnhilltrckn (Feb 24, 2019)

I'm excited to use Moonlight for properly being able to stream my pc if he is able to get gpu drivers working. I for one am very excited to see what comes from this, it opens alot of doors.


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## the_randomizer (Feb 24, 2019)

Silent_Gunner said:


> I was referring to the state that Lakka is still in last I checked out to see where it was at. As for the dongle part, there must have been some big update or something to Atmosphere or Kosmos or Hekate or one of these CFW solutions that, if your Switch crashes, all you have to do is hit the volume up button and it'll put your Switch into RCM mode so you don't have to keep using the jig and a laptop or phone with an OTG adapter to keep using CFW. It's made me more willing to try things on my hacked Switch than before, that's for sure!



I'm just waiting for the day where there will be a complete softmod method, no dongle or pin altering needed. Sadly, IDK if that'll ever happen.


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## fst312 (Feb 24, 2019)

I would definitely consider this if it can be loaded from switch menu and load back to switch home menu without out rebooting my switch.


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## eyeliner (Feb 24, 2019)

I'd totally loose my grip if it runs at least VLC decently.


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## Kioku_Dreams (Feb 24, 2019)

fst312 said:


> I would definitely consider this if it can be loaded from switch menu and load back to switch home menu without out rebooting my switch.


Can't do it with Linux.. Why would this be feasible?


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## landysmods (Feb 25, 2019)

barnhilltrckn said:


> I'm excited to use Moonlight for properly being able to stream my pc if he is able to get gpu drivers working. I for one am very excited to see what comes from this, it opens alot of doors.



Yes that was my thought immediately after seeing this post.  Moonlight works very well on Android.  Ps4 remoteplay would be awesome too!


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## andeers (Feb 25, 2019)

Can't wait to use it with Hearthstone and Pokemon TCGO!

(OK, I'll buy a tablet)


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## CORE (Feb 25, 2019)

Hmm a reason to own a Switch.


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## bungboi (Feb 25, 2019)

I was genuinely surprised to see this was a current version of Android after seeing that search bar at the top


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## Vhestal (Feb 25, 2019)

There it is, the true dualboot. Lets see how Google will ban you from the store now.


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## jeffyTheHomebrewer (Feb 25, 2019)

how in the fuck did they do this black magic


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## blahblah (Feb 25, 2019)

jeffyTheHomebrewer said:


> how in the fuck did they do this black magic



We have the level of control over the Switch to run whatever we want as far as code goes.


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## Deleted User (Feb 25, 2019)

jeffyTheHomebrewer said:


> how in the fuck did they do this black magic



With a Bootrom exploit, that allows us to access anything on the Device, because at that time, the Switch OS is not booted and so there are no restrictions on the Hardware. How thay booted Android? I don't know but i guess thay used some Special loader, that loads a Kernel image from the Sdcard and the Kernel then loads the Android image from the Sdcard.


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## Axido (Feb 25, 2019)

Finally, Super Mario RUN and Pokémon GO will come to a Nintendo console... so to speak.


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## fst312 (Feb 25, 2019)

Memoir said:


> Can't do it with Linux.. Why would this be feasible?


Might not be, but it would be cool to load this from the home menu. That would make the switch a even more must have system. I know people already may have an android phone or tablet but if this can somehow be a channel, I’m sure most people will get it, I know I would.


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## Psionic Roshambo (Feb 25, 2019)

Hmm time to buy a hacked Switch now lol


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## DRAGONBALLVINTAGE (Feb 25, 2019)

ANDROID MASTER RACE!


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## plushifoxed (Feb 25, 2019)

It might be time to hack my Switch. Not gonna do any piracy because I actually enjoy playing online and don't wanna get superbanned, but I'd love to have an Android device again, especially if something like OS2SD is possible so I don't have to mess with my eMMC partitions.


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## CORE (Feb 25, 2019)

@DRAGONBALLVINTAGE  Ssssssh.  Not until CELL is ready.


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## jeffyTheHomebrewer (Feb 25, 2019)

saltyCake said:


> With a Bootrom exploit, that allows us to access anything on the Device, because at that time, the Switch OS is not booted and so there are no restrictions on the Hardware. How thay booted Android? I don't know but i guess thay used some Special loader, that loads a Kernel image from the Sdcard and the Kernel then loads the Android image from the Sdcard.


huh. I mean, it is fitting to see Android on a switch, seeing as how Horizon OS (The internal name of the Switch OS) uses some things from android.


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## Deleted User (Feb 25, 2019)

jeffyTheHomebrewer said:


> huh. I mean, it is fitting to see Android on a switch, seeing as how Horizon OS (The internal name of the Switch OS) uses some things from android.



I hope it will get soon stable. The Switch would then be the Ultimate Handheld device with Linux, Android and Horizon OS.


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## anhminh (Feb 25, 2019)

Imagine all the shitty gacha game I can play with this.


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## AlbusGellert (Feb 25, 2019)

It's kind of weird for Switch, i think, maybe that's because I'm weird


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## TotalJustice (Feb 25, 2019)

This is amazing.

Android can make for a great media center and also has the best ds emulator called Drastic.

Can't wait for the first release!


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## wiewiec (Feb 25, 2019)

I am thinking if Dolphin Emulator work on current state


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## darrysmi (Feb 25, 2019)

woop!  Now i can play flappy bird on my switch


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## Scarlet (Feb 25, 2019)

anhminh said:


> Imagine all the shitty gacha game I can play with this.


I dream of a world I can play FEH on my Switch. Honestly been hoping for an official port since Pokémon Quest launched on the eShop ;_;


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## xBleedingSoulx (Feb 25, 2019)

If it could still play Switch games, I'd be interested. If not, why would I need another android device?


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## Cyan (Feb 25, 2019)

I wonder if it's an emulator (like bochs, launched as nro), or a payload (like Lakka).
checking the sources wasn't conclusive. Time will tell us.
It's nice to see people working on projects like this and not caring about others saying it's useless.


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## The Real Jdbye (Feb 25, 2019)

Looking forward to this. It should be safe to use without risking a banned Switch. I'd still use my phone for most things since it's just more convenient, but I'd use the Switch for video watching, emulators, maybe some Android gaming, and the occasional web browsing. All things that benefit from the larger screen and physical controls.


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## Mythical (Feb 25, 2019)

Love me some old android apps. Couldn't get some older ones to run on bluestacks (probably an update in how the android os works). Hopefully I'll be able to on this later on 
Also Dark Meadow: The Pact is a great free horror game for anyone interested. I've played it several times and it's still so good


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## Deleted User (Feb 25, 2019)

Cyan said:


> I wonder if it's an emulator (like bochs, launched as nro), or a payload (like Lakka).
> checking the sources wasn't conclusive. Time will tell us.
> It's nice to see people working on projects like this and not caring about others saying it's useless.



I guess it will be a Payload, because if it would be a Emulator, it would not be that responsive (without KVM, because it would emulate a Complete Hardware with a ARM processor and that means, that it would behave like a new Hardware, where the CPU needs to be emulated <and that would be slow> because the Emulator can't normaly use the <actual> Processor of the Switch without KVM, which would be a complicated feature to add). Emulation would only be neccessery, if it is not Programmed for the same Architecture (like for x86), because it would be needed to translate the CPU instructions to ARM and that would be slow (from my experince). But that would not be neccessery for Android, because it was Programmed for ARM processors and that means, that the Nintendo Switch would run it natively (from what i think).


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## scionae (Feb 25, 2019)

Finally I can farm my gachas on 3 devices. Nice.


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## chocoboss (Feb 25, 2019)

PPSSPP *-*


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## Owenge (Feb 25, 2019)

I’m going to be honest, if you want emulators just stick with the ones being developed and optimized for the switch, but if you want to run apks and low demanding apk games then android on the switch is great and I personally want to see how this all plays out and the devopements that could be done to optimize its performance


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## Pleng (Feb 25, 2019)

Vhestal said:


> There it is, the true dualboot. Lets see how Google will ban you from the store now.



Why on earth do you think that they would they do that???


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## Vhestal (Feb 25, 2019)

Pleng said:


> Why on earth do you think that they would they do that???



Was meant as a satire, as every chance Nintendo sees you doing something out-of-the blue in the Switch all heck breaks loose. Sorry if it didn't look that way.


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## wiewiec (Feb 25, 2019)

chocoboss said:


> PPSSPP *-*


Or Dolphin Emu


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## lordelan (Feb 25, 2019)

xBleedingSoulx said:


> If it could still play Switch games, I'd be interested. If not, why would I need another android device?


Of course you can. It's just another OS on your SD you boot into, just like Painless Linux and Ubuntu. It won't even touch/modify anything Horizon related.


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## Dvdxploitr (Feb 25, 2019)

Glad to see this is being worked on.  It makes sense that the Switch can run Android since it's using the same architecture as the Shield TV...I'm sure there are some Android games that could really benefit from physical controls as well.


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## MK73DS (Feb 25, 2019)

Owenge said:


> I’m going to be honest, if you want emulators just stick with the ones being developed and optimized for the switch



How on Earth the emulators on the Switch are more optimized than the Android ones ?


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## Owenge (Feb 25, 2019)

MK73DS said:


> How on Earth the emulators on the Switch are more optimized than the Android ones ?


If they are running android over the current OS of the switch, then there's more to go though. If it runs like linuxon the switch, then the drivers are not optimized.


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## lordelan (Feb 25, 2019)

MK73DS said:


> How on Earth the emulators on the Switch are more optimized than the Android ones ?


I can tell you. They are optimized to the specific hardware of the Switch while Android emulators have to run on multiple completely different Android devices.


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## Idaho (Feb 25, 2019)

I hope this will go somewhere and that drivers to support the hardware will be made, if not maybe us the community should set bounties on it, I'd really love to use either Linux or Android on my Switch, in the end it'd be far more beneficial for the users to have a 100% functional Android and/or Linux on their switch rather than homebrews, even though homebrews are nice they just can not compete with the already existing HUGE collection of already existing Android apps, if I could have linux or android on my switch, i'd totally sell my laptop away...


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## Xabring (Feb 25, 2019)

Foxi4 said:


> As for the prospect of using Android on the Switch, dual booting the OS opens the doors to many new applications that would never show up on the Switch otherwise.


or in this case, use apps like netflix before Nintendoes it.
The hackers beat them to the punch yet again!


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## Shrike (Feb 25, 2019)

Finally being able to play Tinder with joycons


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## landysmods (Feb 26, 2019)

xBleedingSoulx said:


> If it could still play Switch games, I'd be interested. If not, why would I need another android device?



It would probably be used like Lakka, just having to reboot to a different exploit. 
Could use one SD card for Atmosphere, and one for Android


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## ferret7463 (Feb 26, 2019)

so after reading this.... before i'd personally would buy this over priced tablet that Nintendo slaped their logo on. I think "IF" i wanted something like the Switch. I'd just buy a good Tablet with a blue tooth controller and install a Switch emulator when they refine it.


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## Deleted User (Feb 26, 2019)

ferret7463 said:


> so after reading this.... before i'd personally would buy this over priced tablet that Nintendo slaped their logo on. I think "IF" i wanted something like the Switch. I'd just buy a good Tablet with a blue tooth controller and install a Switch emulator when they refine it.



Then you will need a Tablet with a Nvidia Tegra X1 or better processor. I personally don't think, that there would be a real Nintendo Switch Emulator for Android (except MonoNX, which doesn't have Graphics support and i don't think that it would ever support Games). And even if it would support Games, you would need a very powerfull Device to get 3-9FPS)



			
				The Description of the App said:
			
		

> Play Nintendo Switch homebrew (and possibly games) on any Android device! (assuming you have an ARM64 or 64-bit x86 processor)


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## milkydude12 (Feb 26, 2019)

Looking at this "https://gitlab.com/ByLaws/android_device_nintendo_switch" I'm curious as to weather anyone here could possibly compile it and maybe make a tutorial on how to get it working XD.  I've given it a go, and can't get it working for the life of me :S


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## Shrike (Feb 26, 2019)

milkydude12 said:


> Looking at this "https://gitlab.com/ByLaws/android_device_nintendo_switch" I'm curious as to weather anyone here could possibly compile it and maybe make a tutorial on how to get it working XD. I've given it a go, and can't get it working for the life of me :S



I don't get why devs don't use automatic builds like with dozer.
I mean come on we all have the same hardware anyways... there is no point in each compiling their own payload.
Just build one and upload it for the "normal" user to use. 

But yeah.. If there is a pre-build payload to download and/or a tutorial how to do it, I'm definitely in.


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## RattletraPM (Feb 26, 2019)

milkydude12 said:


> Looking at this "https://gitlab.com/ByLaws/android_device_nintendo_switch" I'm curious as to weather anyone here could possibly compile it and maybe make a tutorial on how to get it working XD.  I've given it a go, and can't get it working for the life of me :S


That's a device tree, aka a list of configs, settings, metadata and whatnot used by the kernel to work properly. It's one of the most important things to make when porting Android (or an AOSP-based ROM) to a target system but it's not enough alone to boot it.



Shrike said:


> I don't get why devs don't use automatic builds like with dozer.
> I mean come on we all have the same hardware anyways... there is no point in each compiling their own payload.
> Just build one and upload it for the "normal" user to use.
> 
> But yeah.. If there is a pre-build payload to download and/or a tutorial how to do it, I'm definitely in.


They may be thinking the build is not stable yet so they are waiting a bit more to iron issues out. We've already seen the pretty obvious GPU driver issue but they may be more under the hood that weren't shown in the video. Speculation, I know, but hey - the dev said the OS wasn't able to get past the boot animation not even a week ago and this is the first time we've seen it doing so properly, there are bound to be weird issues and bugs. Once it's stable enough we'll be able to sink our teeth into it and maybe we'll also get unstable/nightly builds.

In a nutshell: patience, patience!


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## MK73DS (Feb 26, 2019)

lordelan said:


> I can tell you. They are optimized to the specific hardware of the Switch while Android emulators have to run on multiple completely different Android devices.



I can play DS games on a single core 1GHz Android device at full speed. Show me one DS emulator fo the Switch able to run games at full speed !

The emulators on Android are more optimized because they were developed for a longer time and with lower-end devices in mind. Of course, in a perfect world everything would work better on the Switch because it will be specific to its hardware, but we don't live in a perfect world and all I can see is that emulators on Android are far better than everything we have on the Switch.

That being said, this does mean nothing if great GPU drivers can't be implemented on the Switch :/


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## stick267 (Feb 26, 2019)

lordelan said:


> I can tell you. They are optimized to the specific hardware of the Switch while Android emulators have to run on multiple completely different Android devices.


If we're talking Retroarch, is this true? I don't think those emulators are developed specifically for the Switch. They're ported from other versions that were designed to work on multiple hardware/software setups.


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## lordelan (Feb 26, 2019)

stick267 said:


> If we're talking Retroarch, is this true? I don't think those emulators are developed specifically for the Switch. They're ported from other versions that were designed to work on multiple hardware/software setups.


Obviously m4xw *does* adjustments to optimize it for the Switch.



MK73DS said:


> I can play DS games on a single core 1GHz Android device at full speed. Show me one DS emulator fo the Switch able to run games at full speed !
> 
> The emulators on Android are more optimized because they were developed for a longer time and with lower-end devices in mind. Of course, in a perfect world everything would work better on the Switch because it will be specific to its hardware, but we don't live in a perfect world and all I can see is that emulators on Android are far better than everything we have on the Switch.
> 
> That being said, this does mean nothing if great GPU drivers can't be implemented on the Switch :/


This has nothing to do with Android being so great. DS emulators didn't run at "full speed" when they were released on Android you know? It takes time.


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## MK73DS (Feb 26, 2019)

lordelan said:


> This has nothing to do with Android being so great. DS emulators didn't run at "full speed" when they were released on Android you know? It takes time.



Android is so great because there are already plenty of emulators, not because it's Android. Furthermore, none of the current DS emulators for the Switch will be as fast as Drastic, because Drastic is made from scratch with the ARM architecture in mind. This is a very huge amout of work, and I'm sure nobody will make that for the Switch (that's partially why Drastic is paid app). The emulators are there, why do you want laggy ones ?


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## lordelan (Feb 26, 2019)

MK73DS said:


> Android is so great because there are already plenty of emulators, not because it's Android. Furthermore, none of the current DS emulators for the Switch will be as fast as Drastic, because Drastic is made from scratch with the ARM architecture in mind. This is a very huge amout of work, and I'm sure nobody will make that for the Switch (that's partially why Drastic is paid app). The emulators are there, why do you want laggy ones ?


I don't know how this turned out being me _against_ Android on the Switch (always loved the idea) but to answer your question:
It's still "cooler" to have everything in one place and since you'll never be able to play the Switch games on Android (don't point me to MonoNX please), Horizon is the place to be.

In other words: Why would I want to reboot my console, to boot Android, when I can have DS emulation in Horizion as well? And this is already being worked on (look for melonDS core in the RetroArch thread).
Sure, Drastic is super and I spent many hours using it on my smartphone but I'm *pretty* sure we will see full speed DS emulation on the Switch soon™.


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## MK73DS (Feb 26, 2019)

lordelan said:


> I don't know how this turned out being me _against_ Android on the Switch (always loved the idea) but to answer your question:
> It's still "cooler" to have everything in one place and since you'll never be able to play the Switch games on Android (don't point me to MonoNX please), Horizon is the place to be.



I agree, I don't want to replace my Switch with an Android tablet. I want to have both. In fact, I want my Switch to be able to do as many things as I want, and replacing an Android tablet is a very big thing 
Imagine, you just have to switch your SD card to be able to have a full-fledged android device, while still keeping all of your Switch library on the other one.

I understand your point, I like to have everything in one place too, but that's precisely why I want Android on the Switch : I won't need my Android tablet anymore, I'll have my Switch and my tablet in one single device


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## lordelan (Feb 26, 2019)

MK73DS said:


> I agree, I don't want to replace my Switch with an Android tablet. I want to have both. In fact, I want my Switch to be able to do as many things as I want, and replacing an Android tablet is a very big thing
> Imagine, you just have to switch your SD card to be able to have a full-fledged android device, while still keeping all of your Switch library on the other one.
> 
> I understand your point, I like to have everything in one place too, but that's precisely why I want Android on the Switch : I won't need my Android tablet anymore, I'll have my Switch and my tablet in one single device


Well I'm with you with this. I'd like to have everything on my Switch as well and there's no need to replace my 4 years old Android tablet now that the Switch might receive a decent port in the future.
But I don't think you need to swap cards (except you want to). With Painless Linux, Ubuntu and Lakka for example you can have a _small_ Linux partition on your SD card while keeping the rest in FAT32 for Horizon.
This way you can even use the directory settings in RetroArch Horizon and those in Lakka (which in fact *is* RetroArch as well) to point both to the same folders on your FAT32 partition.
This way you can enjoy your roms, savegames, thumbnails and so on from both operating systems while having them only once on your SD card.
I don't use Lakka but it's possible.


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## Grand-Master (Feb 26, 2019)

RattletraPM said:


> View attachment 158796​
> The possibility of running Android on a Nintendo Switch has always been a source of discussion in the scene since its early days. Some are favourable to the idea, pointing to the Tegra X1 SoC at the heart of the console which is already found in other Android devices (not taking into account the customizations commissioned by Nintendo) and how such a port would both expand the console's capabilities and its software library. Others reject it, citing how many other devices would be able to do the same job in a better way without requiring any software modifications. Nevertheless, so far all those arguments have been the product of speculation, however it seems things may change soon as the developer Max Keller, also known as "langer hans", has shown a video of an unofficial Android port running on a Switch.
> 
> While we've already been teased with small details of such a port in the past, for example see this tweet made by @natinusala not too long ago, it's indeed the first time we're able to see a sneak peek of it in action. The video is linked down below and it showcases the OS's home screen, a couple applications including a WebKit browser test, switching between portrait and landscape mode and working WiFi & Bluetooth. Still, the GPU drivers don't behave properly at the moment which causes stuttering during operation.
> ...


This is such great new man!, i think this will open much more possibilities on how the hardware of the switch can be used in favor for better things in homebrew to come as the Custom chip Tegra X1 GPU is based on Android, there could be better things to come! Hope someday it get its release!


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## Deleted User (Feb 26, 2019)

MK73DS said:


> I agree, I don't want to replace my Switch with an Android tablet. I want to have both. In fact, I want my Switch to be able to do as many things as I want, and replacing an Android tablet is a very big thing
> Imagine, you just have to switch your SD card to be able to have a full-fledged android device, while still keeping all of your Switch library on the other one.
> 
> I understand your point, I like to have everything in one place too, but that's precisely why I want Android on the Switch : I won't need my Android tablet anymore, I'll have my Switch and my tablet in one single device



With Android you can turn the Switch into a Multimedia Device and with Linux you can use the Switch as a portable Linux Workstation. With all these possibilitys, the Switch would be the Ultimate Homebrew Mashine. The Hackers are really fast! First Linux and now Android. Impressive how one Misstake from Nvidia can lead to so many possibilitys.


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## milkydude12 (Feb 27, 2019)

RattletraPM said:


> That's a device tree, aka a list of configs, settings, metadata and whatnot used by the kernel to work properly. It's one of the most important things to make when porting Android (or an AOSP-based ROM) to a target system but it's not enough alone to boot it.
> 
> 
> They may be thinking the build is not stable yet so they are waiting a bit more to iron issues out. We've already seen the pretty obvious GPU driver issue but they may be more under the hood that weren't shown in the video. Speculation, I know, but hey - the dev said the OS wasn't able to get past the boot animation not even a week ago and this is the first time we've seen it doing so properly, there are bound to be weird issues and bugs. Once it's stable enough we'll be able to sink our teeth into it and maybe we'll also get unstable/nightly builds.
> ...



Thanks for the explanation!  Sorry I wasn't aware that it was just a device tree..... I thought it was files that could be compiled to boot android.


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## IncredulousP (Feb 27, 2019)

This is cool and all, but why though? What good reasons are there for this? It seems like such a pain for limited performance when there are much cheaper and better alternatives.


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## MK73DS (Feb 27, 2019)

IncredulousP said:


> This is cool and all, but why though? What good reasons are there for this? It seems like such a pain for limited performance when there are much cheaper and better alternatives.



Because 1) It's fun 2) If acceptable performance is achievable it will be very practical 3) Android is a very good handheld OS


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## IncredulousP (Feb 27, 2019)

MK73DS said:


> Because 1) It's fun 2) If acceptable performance is achievable it will be very practical 3) Android is a very good handheld OS


Fair enough. Personally, I would just stick to a raspberry pi unless significant emulation is developed that runs on Android switch.


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## MK73DS (Feb 27, 2019)

IncredulousP said:


> Fair enough. Personally, I would just stick to a raspberry pi unless significant emulation is developed that runs on Android switch.



I agree with you, I strongly hope decent GPU driver will be available to the Switch. If so, this will be the truly ultimate gaming console, being able to play everything from the NES to the Swtich (except the Wii U but all Wii U games are ported to the Switch sooo ... :3)


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## FAST6191 (Feb 27, 2019)

IncredulousP said:


> This is cool and all, but why though? What good reasons are there for this? It seems like such a pain for limited performance when there are much cheaper and better alternatives.


To simply run android, sure. To benefit from all android has to offer? That is a different story.

For all its problems and annoyances android is a years developed OS with a lot of functionality, functionality few homebrew authors are likely to want to include*, and thus capable of odd setups that do cool things for people.

*assuming someone gets bored enough to port... a dreamcast VMU emulator to the Switch. Are then then going to want to also include a network library so I can FTP the save back into my FTP server (naturally one with a super complicated setup) to pick up on my PC later? Is it also going to be able to grab the new ROMs I stick there? Are they bollocks.
With android... about 5 minutes to set up a FTP copy task, 7 if I have to do it twice.

Also this is not the early-mid DS and PSP any more (or xbox or wii). Android and such exist and thus have reduced the need/desire/viability/provided alternative incentives for would be homebrew devs -- the GBA, DS, PSP, xbox and to a slightly lesser extent the Wii all represented top tier, and often very cheap, portable computing or "plug into my TV" computing options at the time, said time also not featuring much in the way of what you would call open devices, much less ones at that kind of processing power (you had the likes of pogoplug/sheevaplug, maybe the GP32 as well, Europe had a few sort of open ish phones but the US was still in the dark ages here... whoo).


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## Pleng (Feb 28, 2019)

IncredulousP said:


> Fair enough. Personally, I would just stick to a raspberry pi unless significant emulation is developed that runs on Android switch.



Well firstly, my Pi is not portable. Secondly; I don't have a Pi!

And I don't understand what you mean about "significant emulation is developed that runs on Android switch"? - Every emulator that currently runs on Android will _automatically_ run on Android Switch - there's no additional development needed for individual games, app, or emulators.


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## IncredulousP (Feb 28, 2019)

Pleng said:


> Well firstly, my Pi is not portable. Secondly; I don't have a Pi!
> 
> And I don't understand what you mean about "significant emulation is developed that runs on Android switch"? - Every emulator that currently runs on Android will _automatically_ run on Android Switch - there's no additional development needed for individual games, app, or emulators.


A pi is absolutely portable. That's like, it's thing. I highly recommend investing in one.
Emulation programs already developed may run on Android switch, but there's no guarantee they will run well without being optimized specifically for the switch hardware. To assume they will work flawlessly simply because of an operating system is wishful thinking at best, ignorance at worst.


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## Pleng (Feb 28, 2019)

IncredulousP said:


> A pi is absolutely portable. That's like, it's thing.



Ugh... Honestly. A Pi is *not* portable in the sense that I can't take it on a flight or road trip with me and get any reasonable use out of it. Once you start geeking out adding screens and batteries you then start to add weight and cost and then OH LOOK! Yet _another_ device to lug around with phone and Switch... Great!



> I highly recommend investing in one.



No thanks



> Emulation programs already developed may run on Android switch, but there's no guarantee they will run well without being optimized specifically for the switch hardware. To assume they will work flawlessly simply because of an operating system is wishful thinking at best, ignorance at worst.



It's not a good idea to accuse people of ignorance whilst talking out of your ass. The only think that will need optimising will be the Android build itself (especially drivers for GFX and controls). Do you see hundreds of people complaining that their favourite apps and games stop working when they've upgraded to a new phone? No.... because that's not how it works. That's before you even consider the fact that the hardware is basically just a Shield which everything all runs just fine on.


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## IncredulousP (Feb 28, 2019)

Pleng said:


> Ugh... Honestly. A Pi is *not* portable in the sense that I can't take it on a flight or road trip with me and get any reasonable use out of it. Once you start geeking out adding screens and batteries you then start to add weight and cost and then OH LOOK! Yet _another_ device to lug around with phone and Switch... Great!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Cool it, broski. You don't have to buy a pi. You can also totally ignore that "geeking out" and adding a screen plus mobile battery source all enclosed in a small plastic case with some buttons with long battery life and light weight is somehow much less economical than a $300 brick. Since you're such an expert on hardware, I assumed you would be interested in the scalability, economy, and portability of a pi.
Have a good one, dude.


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## MK73DS (Feb 28, 2019)

Even if it is the most portable device in the world, I, and probably Pleng too, want to carry only one single device which is able to do everything the Pi can do (at least game wise). 
A portable Pi is better than a not portable one, sure. But having to bring nothing but the Switch is better.


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## Daniel_Jackson (Feb 28, 2019)

This is something I'm very interested in. When it comes to Switch hacking, there's just one thing I want: classic emulators, without any risk to the real system itself. If this launches as a payload, it might just be the exact thing I'm looking for.


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