Some Good, full speed Android emulator for playing games?

Arras

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The only Android emulator I know is Bluestacks, but I'm not sure whether that's fast enough to play games.
 

SifJar

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Well, there's the emulator included in the Android SDK, which always has the latest version of Android available, but might not be quite as optimised as other solutions for games, seeing as it is designed for testing apps quickly without deploying to hardware every time, not really designed for games.

Something like BlueStacks is specifically designed for playing Android games on a PC (at least, according to the marketing material I have seen). Presumably "Genymotion" is in a similar vein, although I haven't heard of or used it before. (I have used BlueStacks briefly, it seemed OK, although based on old Android so not all games will work probably).

Another alternative is to download a build of Android x86 (the x86 port of Android) and run it in a virtual machine (e.g. VirtualBox, VMWare Player). The downside of that is I'm guessing that probably wouldn't work for native code (which would be compiled for ARM, not x86), which many games use heavily. Any pure Java apps/games should work though, and I think I've read that performance is a bit better than the SDK emulator.
 

Super.Nova

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Best choice for Android gaming in my opinion is the OUYA since it's relatively a console and can do emulation of many other consoles even the DS.
Price is well within reach and it'd be awesome if you got it rooted!

EDIT: I've personally tested many of the available Android emulators but they all suck for lack of GPU support.
All were totally useless!
 

Duo8

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Well, there's the emulator included in the Android SDK, which always has the latest version of Android available, but might not be quite as optimised as other solutions for games, seeing as it is designed for testing apps quickly without deploying to hardware every time, not really designed for games.
But it's too slow.

Something like BlueStacks is specifically designed for playing Android games on a PC (at least, according to the marketing material I have seen). Presumably "Genymotion" is in a similar vein, although I haven't heard of or used it before. (I have used BlueStacks briefly, it seemed OK, although based on old Android so not all games will work probably).
Geny is designed for app testing.

Another alternative is to download a build of Android x86 (the x86 port of Android) and run it in a virtual machine (e.g. VirtualBox, VMWare Player).
Exactly what Geny does.

The downside of that is I'm guessing that probably wouldn't work for native code (which would be compiled for ARM, not x86), which many games use heavily. Any pure Java apps/games should work though, and I think I've read that performance is a bit better than the SDK emulator.
A whole lot better. Though it won't run audio mods. :(
 

Wisenheimer

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Sorry, I am a little confused by the title. Do you want game emulators that run on android or android emulators that run on something else? If so, which system(s).
 

raulpica

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Another alternative is to download a build of Android x86 (the x86 port of Android) and run it in a virtual machine (e.g. VirtualBox, VMWare Player). The downside of that is I'm guessing that probably wouldn't work for native code (which would be compiled for ARM, not x86), which many games use heavily. Any pure Java apps/games should work though, and I think I've read that performance is a bit better than the SDK emulator.
IIRC, Google Play imposes target for compilation for x86 too now, so pretty much every app released after a certain date in early 2013 (end 2012?) should be fully Android x86 compatible.
 

Wisenheimer

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I want to play Android Games on my PC.

You can install x86 Android to dual-boot or as a VM, although you probably need a touchscreen to use it well and I am not sure how many games come with an x86 compiled version.

http://www.android-x86.org/download

The Android SDK, as others mentioned, can let you run Android programs on your PC with most common OSs, but due to it being emulated, I am not sure how much success you will have with playing games at full speed.

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
 

Wisenheimer

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But i'm curious nobody made an Android emulator just for playing games... like you hawe all these console emulators but no Android..strange.

I mean there are, but non of them are just plug and play..so to say

Well, most PC emulators are not "just for playing games" although they usually support that feature. They usually are for emulating the entire PC. And, android phones/tablets are not deprecated hardware, which means they are primarily being used for development.
 

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I'm still waiting for one to come along, so I can give the recent Final Fantasy titles a try. Anything past the port of FF1/2 don't play, and even those titles are pretty shoddy on Bluestacks :/

Especially waiting, as my disabled brother can't control any Android device. It'd be nice for him to get to play some of the newer remakes or titles on his computer, which he controls via a special controller.
 

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