ClassicBoy series apps are powerful emulator front-ends coming with multiple emulator cores (also called as 'plugins' in app) that simulate dozens of retro video game consoles. Most cores have been merged into the app but some of them need to be downloaded and installed manually due to their big sizes or special licenses. Unlike other emulators front-end, ClassicBoy uses a special architecture that puts user events in native buffer and provides a general interface for all cores to work with. By this means, After the game starts, ClassicBoy works in 'passive' mode, the core decodes ROM data and polls user events to generate video and audio data and then requests the native engine to render, because the entire process is completed in native layer, higher performance and smoother video and audio effects can be achieved.

ClassicBoy leads gestures mapping into game controller, it’s very useful for game controlling on smartphone or tablet with touchscreen. When switches to gestures controller, left side on screen for directions and right side for actions mapping, there are 8 swipe directions can be detected on each side of screen and each one can be mapped to a game button. Besides gestures controller, accelerometer sensor (depends on hardware) is supported to simulate D-pad and calibration console is also provided for fine adjustment of tilt parameters.

The gestures/sensor controller and state resume functions are only supported in premium version, but traditional input means such as on-screen buttons and gamepad mapping are supported as base functions in the free version. All these game controllers can be switched at runtime. For on-screen buttons, a powerful layout editor can be used to define the position and size for each button. Maximum 4 players can be added to map to external gamepad.

ClassicBoy series includes 2 apps: ClassicBoy Lite and ClassicBoy Pro. The Lite version with green theme focuses on emulating the classic retro games that are well known in the world, it has a lightweight UI theme to launch core menu and import/export games. The Pro version with purple theme focuses on user convenience by supporting games search and identification, it also extended to emulate more games by supporting external plugins installation.

Enjoy the apps and read the 'Help' or 'About' page in app if you want to learn more. There are many settings about front-end and core, but game should be run well without changing any settings.

ClassicBoy Pro

Powerful All-in-One retro games emulator with ROMs scanner and games database

ClassicBoy-Pro is a powerful and easy-to-use video games emulator that let you play the retro and video games on your Android devices. Users can conveniently find and identify their games by the ROMs scanner and games database.

ClassicBoy-Pro supports about twenty emulation cores that emulate following video game consoles/handhelds:

  • PlayStation 1 ( PS1 )

  • Nintendo 64 ( N64 )

  • Nintendo GBA/GBC/SGB/GB

  • Nintendo NES/Famicom

  • Nintendo Super NES

  • Sega Genesis/MD, Sega CD, Game Gear and Master System

  • FB Alpha romset that includes kinds of arcade games, such as Neo-Geo and Capcom DPS-1/2/3.

  • Atari 2600 VCS

By downloading and installing external plugins, the app also supports Nintendo DS, MAME 2003 (0.78 romset), MAME 2010 (0.139 romset), Sega Saturn, Sega 32X, NeoGeo CD, Bandai WonderSwan, PC Engine/CD, Nintendo Pokemon Mini, etc. More consoles/handhelds emulation will be added in the future.

Note:

  • This app only request permissions that are necessary, although it need external storage reading/writing permission to read and save game data, any of user's private information including photos and media files will NOT be accessed, collected, or uploaded.

ClassicBoy Lite

An accurate and fast emulator that emulates many retro/classic video game consoles on Android devices

ClassicBoy-Lite has eight built-in emulation cores that emulate following video game consoles/handhelds:

  • PlayStation 1 ( PS1 )

  • Nintendo 64 ( N64 )

  • Nintendo GBA/GBC/SGB/GB

  • Nintendo NES/Famicom

  • Nintendo Super NES

  • Sega Genesis/MD, Sega CD, Game Gear and Master System

  • FB Alpha

  • Atari 2600 VCS

Currently the ClassicBoy-Lite does not support external plugins download and installation.

Note:

  • This app only request permissions that are necessary, although it need external storage access permission to read game data below Android 10, any of user's private information including photos and media files will NOT be accessed, collected, or uploaded.

  • If users want to remove the app but keep all games states, please enter the app settings and export the game data to a safe location before the uninstallation.

  • The Classicboy-Lite has upgraded to 64-bits in Google Play since Aug 2021, the old 32-bits version has been deprecated and many old games states are not supported in new 64-bits emulation cores. But users still have some ways to resume their 32-bits game states in new 64-bits version:

(1) For PlayStation games that have compatible game state format, user can directly load the game state by 'Load state from file' option in context menu during game running. Press 'Parent directory' until you see 'classicboy' directory in the root of external storage, then select the *.sta file in folder of 'auto/slots/manual' under directory of 'classicboy/ PlayStation/ saves /' .

(2) For PlayStation games that support memory card saving, users can try to import the memory card file to new 64-bits core in 'Memory cards' settings under core menu. The 32-bits memory card files should be found as 'classicboy/PlayStation/saves/internal/card1(2).mcd'.

(3) For some games that support battery-SRAM backup such as GBA, SNES, Sega MD, please enter 'Game settings' menu and try to import the backup memory files (*.sav or *.srm) in directory of 'classicboy/PlayStation/saves/internal'.

If users want to downgrade to the deprecated 32-bits app and continue the games they have played in this old version, uninstall the new 64-bits app firstly and then download and install the old one here:

ClassicBoyLite_32bit (v3.0.0) (for all Android version)

ClassicBoyLite_32bit (v2.0.3) (for Android 8 or before))