NES emulator for mobile phones

by Blake Snow { Feb 17th 2006 at 3:00AM }

Who needs a Game Boy when the vNes emulator by Vampent lets you run classic NES roms right from your mobile phone? From the official site: "vNes is a NES emulator for mobiles. It lets you play Nintendo 8-bits games on your mobile. You can put games from thousands of roms in your pocket, play them anytime and anywhere, with the memories and joys of old time."

The emulator is available on both the J2ME and Symbian mobile platforms for approximately $10. Your phone will need 246k RAM with a zippy CPU to run the roms. Nice!

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Johnny Malkavian @ Feb 17th 2006 3:44AM

The java version of this emulator crashed my phone (w550i) and i had to send it back to get it exchanged for a new one. Be careful with this one.

Marc Butler @ Feb 17th 2006 3:44AM

I'm sorry to hate, but OLD. Real old. First off Vampent hasn't updated their GB/NES emu's in quite a while. Second, the GB emu has a major bug where if the game contains a battery backup and it "saves" you can not replay the game unless you delete the saved game file. And to do that you either have to have a 3rd party file manager or put your memory card in your computer and delete the files that way. Second the NES emulator is slow and makes anything that's worth playing not fun. Plus the frame limiter does not reset itself so once it dips too low it stays low until you bring up the menu and close it again which resets it. I've bought both of these emus for my phone (N-Gage QD), and honestly they are not worth it.

Foppe @ Feb 17th 2006 3:59AM

Maybe you should try it on a mobile that�s listed in the "J2ME version Fully Supported Devices (with FPS>=30)"-list next time before you complain?

Vav00m @ Feb 17th 2006 4:46AM

I have both these on my Nokia 6620 and LOVE them. Well, more-so the GBC emulator because it doesnt have to be altered to fit the aspect ratio of my screen like the NES.

$10 well spent.

Ian @ Feb 17th 2006 5:06AM

Great programs (Nes and Snes), only problem is the controls are awkward on 6620. I'm sure also on most other phones. There are some Bluetooth gamepads you can get for cell phones, I wonder if they're worth it.

One review I read listed quite a few problems with the only bluetooth pad I could find such as having to set up the keys EVERY time you started it up, for each individual games. I wonder if anyone here has any experience with a gamepad for cell phone?

soupbun @ Feb 17th 2006 5:09AM

eh? Are you talking about vBoy?

I have the GB emu, it plays Pokemon and Mario Golf just fine, without any save bugs or otherwise on my Nokia 6630. Which version are you using?

supersocialist @ Feb 17th 2006 9:05AM

Don't hate on the old stories, people--not everybody has everything. I've been looking for a decent emulator for my Treo 600 for ages, and I'm looking forward to trying this one. Even the native apps that I paid for (like NesEm) run painfully on a 600, and this puppy claims to run decently even when scaling down. Thanks for the link, guys.

Joseph @ Feb 17th 2006 9:22AM

Hmmm, kind of a dangerous thing to charge money for, considering Nintendo has an actual patent on "any emulator to run Nintendo hardware on a portable device".

dtrain @ Feb 17th 2006 9:26AM

Supersocialist,

Try Littlejohnpalm for the Treo -- it's head and shoulders above NESem, and as far as I could tell when shopping around, everything else. Emulates NES, SNES< Genesis, TG16, Game Boy/Color, Sega Master System, Game Gear, WonderSwan (!), NeoGeo Pocket -- even Atari VCS. Oh, and it's free. http://tinnus.gp32z.com/ljp/

Phyer @ Feb 17th 2006 9:45AM

Just tried it on my Sony Ericsson s710a and I'm sad to say that I'm disappointed. I tried Contra and Castlevania, both were horribly slow and had no sound at all. I realize it's in the "untested" phones list, but I really thought this phone could handle better.