Earlier this year, Citra, the 3DS emulator, was officially released for Android devices. If you thought that this was the biggest emulator news for Android this year, then you thought wrong. Enter Egg NS: a working Nintendo Switch emulator for Android.

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While it was made publicly available a few days ago, Egg NS was developed over a period of two years by the NXTeam Studios according to the official website. The website also claims that the team is based in the U.S. but that remains to be confirmed especially considering the typos and Chinese texts on the website. The video above is one of the few that are available at the time of writing and have been posted on the official website but GBAtemp member @mattyxarope noted that YouTuber Taki Udon confirmed the existence of Egg NS on Discord (under #android-devices) and shared additional videos (some of which you can see here, here and here). Another YouTuber, ETA Prime, also said that it's a "a legit Switch emulator for Android" and shared a picture of the emulator running Hollow Knight with a video planned for a later release.

GBAtemp member @bylaws who worked on getting Android to run on the Switch noted that Egg NS "uses stolen code from yuzu for the GPU emulation".

According to the official website, Egg NS works on Snapdragon 855, 855+ and 865 phones, with a list of compatible phones available on their website. The catch is that the emulator works specifically with the $100 GameSir X2 controller which is available for preorder, since it apparently provides a code required to run the app. Upon closer look, the Egg NS logo bears some similarity to GameSir's Happy Chick app (the chick inside a cracked egg) which itself runs a number of emulators.

NXTeam Studios has also shared a games compatibility list, detailing the performance of each game they tested. Understandably, less graphically-demanding games like Cuphead and Enter The Gungeon seem to run better in Egg NS, with the exception of Pokemon Sword & Shield which is said to have a "perfect" compatibility.

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Given that Egg NS is an emulator, not all games will run as well as on the native console. You might be better off with a Switch for now but it does show the potential of mobile phones and with time, Egg NS might improve and similar emulators with better performance might even pop up.

@mathew77 already started a discussion thread linked as the source material below. As for Egg NS' website and download links, you can find it from the YouTube videos but aren't shared in this post as they contain links to illegally-shared files.

SOURCE

 

[ganons]

Cool of true, but I don't count on it running games at playable speed.

Some games are playable right now.

 

[Chary]

Attempt on the Huawei failed. It notices the game, it tries to play it. but then it crashes back to the menu after playing it for 0fps.

 

[mituzora]

I'd love to see this thing in action. Please for the love though, remove that controller requirement and release any and all Yuzu source code they used and modified, per the GPLv2 License (yes it is stealing if they don't publish the source code, and it will hold up in court)

Edit: a little insight: GPL was essentially (and I am summarizing heavily and using past knowledge, so please feel free to chime in and/or correct any misinformation) created to protect open source code. Making it a requirement to publicly release any source code used/modified from an existing GPLv2 licensed project. That way any proprietary software developers didn't steal the code, modify it and profit off of it without giving the proper ownership, etc.

 

[gudenau]

Currently downloading the emulator to see how it works. Only Android devices I have are a Huawei Mate 10 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S8+ tho :/ neither of which are the right snapdragon

The past few days I've just been using the Gamesir as a nice Drastic controller lol

I've got a Pixel 4 XL, would that work?

 

[mattyxarope]

(yes it is stealing if they don't publish the source code, and it will hold up in court)

Lol

Good luck suing a Chinese company for that

 

[Chary]

I've got a Pixel 4 XL, would that work?

It would. Anything Snapdragon 855 or higher, supposedly.

 

[mituzora]

Lol

Good luck suing a Chinese company for that

Fair point, but hopefully, if they choose to not release the code that Yuzu takes action, nonetheless.

 

[Deleted User]

100 bucks for a controller to use an emulator, when for about 100 more you can have the full thing?

Hard pill to swallow that one.

 

[ZachyCatGames]

Exactly, there's really not much difference in ARM architecture so I'm not shocked that the Switch is reasonably easy to emulate on a powerful phone. What DOES shock me is how bad Citra performs on the same powerful phone. (Galaxy S10+ with Snapdragon 855)

For a phone that powerful, 3DS emulation should be a breeze. The 3DS hardware (even the New 3DS) is super old outdated, and very slow low-end stuff... So it's shocking to see it run like dogshit. The February build somehow runs pokemon ultra sun even worse than the Chinese JIT built I had before it.

It is far from being that simple.

 

[Mikitok]

FAKE

 

[gudenau]

It would. Anything Snapdragon 855 or higher, supposedly.

I could test stuff if you'd want.

 

[leon315]

GUYS, do you know what game is this?

 

[mattyxarope]

Fair point, but hopefully, if they choose to not release the code that Yuzu takes action, nonetheless.

They won't. It takes a lot of resources and effort to sue internationally - they're not going to do that, especially over open source software for an emulator.

FAKE

Confirmed real by multiple sources.

 

[DAZA]

That is a nice turn up for the books having a functioning emulator on a smaller device especially the newer and more powerful mobiles/tablets on the market!

but on the flip side.. i cant help but feel sad for nintendo as they were in trouble before the switch release and regaining their composure and finances back to a healthy level and since then having a lot of data dumps of their old consoles/game codes and now with the latest 3 iterations of console being soft/hard modded & reproduced in code... must be a kick in the teeth

 

[RedBlueGreen]

FAKE

Nope. The Switch is easier to emulate with ARM chips because the Switch uses an ARM CPU, so both the phone and Switch use the same instruction set. The Switch is basically a glorified Nvidia Shield. That's also why running Android on Switch isn't total ass. Of course it still requires a more powerful device than the Switch because it's emulation.

It would. Anything Snapdragon 855 or higher, supposedly.

The real question is if it's a legitimate hardware requirement (can't imagine that's the case, it would probably just run stuff like crap if the CPU is too slow) or it uses a whitelist so it only works on certain hardware.

 

[Asia81]

Well, most people already have a new-ish smartphone, but the controller requirement is definitely nonsense even at half that price. As for why people would want an Android Switch emulator, that part should be obvious: to play pirated Switch games on portable hardware.

But... the switch is already a portable hardware

 

[DSoryu]

Ok, now that is being confirmed by multiple sources as being real I will sit down and watch how this turns out. I will try this out once someone manages to bypass the controller requirement and/or Nintendo/Yuzu team decide to take action so maybe the source is released.

 

[WiiHomebrew+Snes]

Very interesting, sleazyness and shadyness put aside.

On switch emulation, what has a more powerful ARM processor then phones? Maybe when the new apple computers with their own ARM chips release they will be able to run switch emulation reasonably well.

 

[Jayro]

You can still steal it. If there isn't a license then you can't take anything, if there's a license you need to follow it's terms.

Nah, those never hold up in court.

 

[Xzi]

But... the switch is already a portable hardware

Right, it's implied that you wouldn't need to buy a $200 - $300 Switch or any its games for $60 each...assuming you already have a a 2019-2020 model smartphone used for other purposes. If anyone is seriously considering buying a $600+ smartphone and a $100 game controller solely for the purpose of emulating Switch at half speed, they definitely need a bit of sense smacked into them.