Recently, we shared news of a WIP port of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to the PS Vita by TheFlow based on its Android version. Apparently, it was not the only game that TheFlow was working to port on the Vita, as together with modder fgsfdsfgs and others, he released a way to get the Android version of Remedy's classic title Max Payne to work on PlayStation's handheld. Their method uses a wrapper to load the original game binary, patches it and then runs it.

While the game is playable on the Vita, there are some known issues. These include the following, as per the latest GitHub release:

• The game takes a while to start and load levels.
• There is a memory leak somewhere, which means that after enough level loads the game will die with a black screen. It usually happens after loading 2/3 of the levels in the entire game, so you might not encounter this during normal gameplay.
• Key binding menu does not display button names correctly.
• Intro movies don't play, since the player is not implemented.

To get it to run, you will need to first install two plugins, namely kubridge and fdfix, and then proceed with the VPK installation. You will, of course, need to supply your own copy of Max Payne's APK (version 1.7) and OBB (version 1.6 or 1.7) files.

fgsfdsfgs released a complete step-by-step guide along with a link to the corresponding VPK file over on their GitHub page linked below.

Since this is TheFlow's second big Android port to the Vita, it seems like more could be in the works. Which Android game would you like to see run on the PS Vita next?

GitHub Release
GitHub README

 

[slaphappygamer]

Hitman: Sniper
Zombieville
Bioshock

 

[Rich8606]

Holy crap!

 

[Silent_Gunner]

So, how many of these old PS2/OGXBOX classics got ports to mobile devices? Is it just games published by Rockstar? Or does there exist, say, an Android port of Deus Ex 1, UT99, any of the Hitman games, Far Cry 1, etc.?

 

[masagrator]

So, how many of these old PS2/OGXBOX classics got ports to mobile devices? Is it just games published by Rockstar? Or does there exist, say, an Android port of Deus Ex 1, UT99, any of the Hitman games, Far Cry 1, etc.?

Not much, but we have f.e. Bully, KoToR, some D&D games.

 

[Rich8606]

What about Half Life 2 and Portal? They're on Android.

And 2D games? Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap and The World Ends with You?

 

[Cacacea]

what about indigo prophecy / fahrenheit also on android?

 

[Azael_inf]

Well shit, don't mind if I do.

 

[Prans]

What about Half Life 2 and Portal? They're on Android.

These were playable on the Nvidia Shield AFAIK and getting them to work on other Android devices wasn't really successful since last I checked (years ago) but I might be wrong.

There's also Resident Evil 5 for the Shield TV, which would be nice to have on other Android devices as well.

 

[masagrator]

These were playable on the Nvidia Shield AFAIK and getting them to work on other Android devices wasn't really successful since last I checked (years ago) but I might be wrong.

There's also Resident Evil 5 for the Shield TV, which would be nice to have on other Android devices as well.

Issue is they are using OpenGL which is not natively supported by most android phones (they are using OpenGL ES variant). It could be possible to run it on Vita theoretically, but performance will not be satisfying.

 

[Deleted member 514389]

So like, has the Vita got some Android core, or where do these ports come from ?
Wonder if that Portal Android port could...

Personally I see having those on atmo/switch as a grand idea, but I don't know if that can work w.o. switchroot.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

These were playable on the Nvidia Shield AFAIK and getting them to work on other Android devices wasn't really successful since last I checked (years ago) but I might be wrong.

There's also Resident Evil 5 for the Shield TV, which would be nice to have on other Android devices as well.

According to what I read, if you use "GLTools" you can get at least Portal to run on most Android devices.
Haven't tried it yet.
YT has some guides

 

[masagrator]

So like, has the Vita got some Android core, or where do these ports come from ?

Personally I see having those on atmo/switch as a grand idea, but I don't know if that can work w.o. switchroot.

No. This is like with Super Mario Galaxy on Switch. It runs native CPU code in the way that makes it possible to run via Vita (it needs to manage unsupported calls in the way that will not break game). Dunno if shaders are converted or emulated.

 

[tpax]

Woah, my most favorite game. Now I'm gonna purchase a used Vita just to test it.

 

[Deleted User]

Somebody decompilate Skies of Arcadia Legends. Being able to port that to pc would be fucking incredible.

 

[mathew77]

Nice! Want that port on a Switch, too..

 

[Spider_Man]

be nice to see these completed and a solid version released for easy install.

wonder how many other ps2/pc games can be ported over.

looks like someone will be able to give the vita some love, better than sony did

 

[guisadop]

theflow is a monster, the guy can't stop churning out good ports of good games. what the fuck.

 

[Deleted User]

please port to the Switch, thanks.

 

[godreborn]

These were playable on the Nvidia Shield AFAIK and getting them to work on other Android devices wasn't really successful since last I checked (years ago) but I might be wrong.

There's also Resident Evil 5 for the Shield TV, which would be nice to have on other Android devices as well.

Speaking of the shield, it just got an update to use dualsense or Xbox series s/x with the machine

 

[Coto]

My advise to TheFlow would be to port a C++ test suite and test memory allocation routines. These detect memory leaks
pretty good.

Use Valgrind or a static analyzer tool on the game itself (remember PC games got around garbage collectors and the Translation Look-aside Buffer hardware, which can trash userland memory and re-use it without software acknowledgement).

Also caches may cause corruption. (ARM Cores require a DrainWriteBuffer -> Invalidate Cache operation before reading or writing from/to source/destination memory), may be absolutely obvious, but sometimes it's not. This takes extra consideration when running into ARM multicores.

For these cases ARM opcodes supporting semaphore opcodes
(compare and exchange) would be ideal, because AHB bus changes must be acknowledged before doing local coherent cache operations.