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.

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[PrincessLillie]

Finally, for $100 I can play my Switch games on the go! Such a technological advancement!

 

[LightBeam]

Technically he's right, nothing is being stolen since the Yuzu team doesn't lose their code. At most it's a license violation.

Yeah, and licence violation = theft, simple as that. Copying something that you do not own doesn't mean it's not stealing because "oh yeah but the guy I took it from still got it, so I'm not stealing", doesn't work like that. The example about those AOL CDs is also misleading, it's not because it's free that you do own the right to do anything you want with it.
When you use an open source software, you do agree to use it within the terms of it's licence.
GNU is a copyleft licence, so if you take code from a copyleft licence software, you'll need to release the source code that you took from a GNU licence even if you modified it (tho I believe you still can keep the code you totally made yourselves or took from somewhere else if I'm not mistaken)
The example with the AOL CDs is misleading because you obviously didn't had the right to sell those or publish them under your name and make people think it's yours. That is theft.

So if they are in fact, using some Yuzu code. which is published under a GNU licence. they do need to publish the code they modified to make it run on Android (I guess they can keep their proprietary code) and give credit to the original authors, until then, it's theft.
It wouldn't be a problem if it was under a BSD licence. but it's not. but we are on the Internet and I believe GameSir is a chinese company so no wonder they don't give a flying fuck about stealing intellectual property.

 

[almmiron]

You need a 300+ buck phone to run games, +100 buck phone controller to play and a legit switch costs only 200.

Why?

Why not?

 

[Obveron]

I'd like to see switch games run natively on Nvidia Shield. Its the same chipset, so the potential would be full speed and perfect compatibility.

 

[ZachyCatGames]

I'd like to see switch games run natively on Nvidia Shield. Its the same chipset, so the potential would be full speed and perfect compatibility.

The SoC is practically the only thing they have in common + the Shield TV has 1gb of ram less than the Switch, so even if you did somehow get HOS running, you'd be limited to the few titles that don't use ~2gb or less.

 

[munnimann]

Yeah, and licence violation = theft, simple as that. Copying something that you do not own doesn't mean it's not stealing because "oh yeah but the guy I took it from still got it, so I'm not stealing", doesn't work like that.

Well, no, it's not as simple as that and there are many who seek to reform copyright law of digital content exactly because copying (i.e. pirating) digital content is not the same as theft and therefore shouldn't be treated as such. The important distinction is that theft leaves the one being stolen from without the property that was stolen. Piracy leaves the property in tact. The damage that both cause are of different nature and different scale.
Let's take for example, the Merriam-Webster definition of theft:

a : the act of stealing specifically : the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it
b : an unlawful taking (as by embezzlement or burglary) of property

English Law has the following (and some other things) to say:

A person is guilty of theft, if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and "thief" and "steal" shall be construed accordingly.

Now, other law texts and other dictionaries may have different definitions, but you can see that the idea that the act of theft requires the property to be removed from the owner's possession is not completely obscure.

 

[moto4mods]

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.

Phones run ARM 3DS does not. ARM11/7/9 WHATEVER those are, differ greatly from ARM for android nvidia switch etc. Hence android apps won't ever run on a 3ds. Its powerful enough to run the calculator app for android, but you'd port code to do so, as its not ARM the way we all know and love ARM.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Phones run ARM 3DS does not. ARM11/7/9 WHATEVER those are, differ greatly from ARM for android nvidia switch etc. Hence android apps won't ever run on a 3ds. Its powerful enough to run the calculator app for android, but you'd port code to do so, as its not ARM the way we all know and love ARM.

Go back and read that post again. Nobody said the 3DS runs ARM.

 

[moto4mods]

Go back and read that post again. Nobody said the 3DS runs ARM.

Read my post again. I wasn't accusing you, in was explaining why switch (with same architecture of CPU) MAY perform better in android, than 3ds, even though the switch has higher clocks and more power to emulate, its closer to native than EMU, when comparing switch for droid, to 3ds (or even DS) for droid.

Edit: debunking the shocking effect with real world knowledge basically. Don't be shocked be educated.

 

[Impossible_Igntiz]

You know Nintendo Japan is blowing a fuse over this right now as we're speaking lol we'll wait to see what happens once they find out, I already know certain YouTubers under them are gonna snitch

 

[Silent_Gunner]

It's not laziness, they're forcing you to buy their controller so they can make money.

So, not only do they want you to register to use this emulator, but they also want you to buy their controller to use the emulator.

Not shady at all, especially considering the country of origin! /s

 

[Impossible_Igntiz]

Probably is stolen code. But then again, PCSX2 didn't give a crap about smartphone users in the first place. They just want the respect for something they did a long time ago, and don't really want anyone to move it any further.

It's exactly why they're lazy and gets angry when someone does the job for them when they could be doing it themselves

 

[ZachyCatGames]

Phones run ARM 3DS does not. ARM11/7/9 WHATEVER those are, differ greatly from ARM for android nvidia switch etc. Hence android apps won't ever run on a 3ds. Its powerful enough to run the calculator app for android, but you'd port code to do so, as its not ARM the way we all know and love ARM.

3ds is ARMv6, most modern devices are ARMv8.
I dunno if I'd say they greatly differ, their general designs seem to be fairly similar.

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It's exactly why they're lazy and gets angry when someone does the job for them when they could be doing it themselves

The Yuzu devs aren't lazy, they have higher priorities.

 

[Impossible_Igntiz]

The Yuzu devs aren't lazy, they have higher priorities.

I was referring to the PCSX2 team

 

[ZachyCatGames]

I was referring to the PCSX2 team

Ah, ok.

 

[zniel0]

I dont agree with emulation being used for current gen systems,this is the reason why so many systems implement online DRM. If this was last gen its okay, but current hardware being emulated is just off putting.

 

[cashboxz01]

I dont agree with emulation being used for current gen systems,this is the reason why so many systems implement online DRM. If this was last gen its okay, but current hardware being emulated is just off putting.

Emulation for current generations systems is awesome. I remember during GBC/GBA era, I played the pokemon games from Japan with patches in English...on my PC. Friends thought it was nuts.

 

[enigma85]

Someone needs to make it work with any controller. My Rog Phone 2 with my Kunai controllers (Switch controllers) want to try out some switch games. lol

 

[phreaksho]

Can't wait to run this on my switch using Android switch root to play games I could normally play at full speed even slower... yup..

 

[Deleted User]

I'll say this as many times as I need to, until it's as clear as purified water:

You can't "steal" code if it's open-source. That's like stealing those AOL CDs that grocery stores gave out for free. Or stealing the newspapers that say "free, take one."

probably the same people that pirated ppsspp gold