MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: MAME x Android

> NOTE: I'm not doing a request here, I just want to better understand the situation.
>
> Since MAME aims to be a multi-platform emulator and having a Linux port, how hard
> would it be to make an Android port? Does it require way too much source code
> changes? What is the bottleneck here?
>
> In the past, it was an obvious answer, since the most part of Android devices didn't
> have a fraction of the power needed to run MAME at a decent speed. Nowadays, things
> are starting to change and we now have portable devices and other kind of Android
> devices which are much more powerful, and these devices are being improved everyday,
> so as Android. And it's visible that Android won't die soon. So, what is needed to
> compile an Android port?

afaik you can compile the current source for Android but it's very bare bones so unless you have an android device that's basically a PC, not very usable.

haven't tried it myself tho.

even with advances most Android based systems aren't really great MAME platforms tho, haven't seen MAME on an Android platform without very noticeable input lag (to the point I wonder if it's a limitation of the platform) and even with advances in CPUs they're not that great for emulation compared to proper desktop CPUs, plus something like MAME really pushes them to the max so eats up the battery faster than the vast majority of apps that seem a lot more complex - most mobile devices are really made for things that need full CPU power in short bursts, not all the time.

so I'm sure you can understand why it's not exactly a priority, furthermore I can't see anybody doing MAME development on an Android platform, and it's a development focused emulator, the targets that do exist and are actively maintained are mostly because somebody is developing on that platform. Look at MAMEUI, even on Windows, because it's a target that isn't actually used for development it has simply rotted and not been properly maintained and that's less work than Android.