While everyone’s ranting and raving about amazing next-generation games like the new Grand Theft Auto, let’s not forget that these creations wouldn’t be around were it not for the pioneers of the console market such as the NES and Sega Master System. I can’t wait to try out GTA IV but I still intend to stay true to my gaming roots by playing 8-bit console classics on my mobile phone.
There’s a lot of emulation software around that lets you play old-school console games on your mobile phone. One of the most popular is vNES, which emulates the original Nintendo machine on your Symbian phone. This little app supports thousands of roms, and allows you to customize the controls for each game. One of the great things about the program is that it uses very little system memory so you shouldn’t notice any major performance problems.
Back in the day, your choice of 8-bit console said a lot about you as a person, and I was strictly a Master System man (well, boy). The best emulator for the Sega platform is probably MasterGear, which is compatible with all Nokia Series 60 3rd edition phones. The program will run SEGA Master System, GameGear, and SG1000 cartridge files with .sms, .sms.gz, .gg, .gg.gz, .sg, and .sg.gz extensions. Place your files into E:\Others\MG directory and you’re away!
If 8-bit games are just a bit too retro for you then you may want to try out Snes9x. This mobile app lets you play Super Nintendo roms, and comes with a number of neat features. You can choose to auto-pause games when you get a phone call, define frameskips and configure the keys and the touchpad.
