How to Transform an Old Phone into Gaming Console

Revive Your Old Phone as a Gaming Console with Just Two Apps.

If you have an old phone lying around that you’re not using for anything, take it out of the drawer, dust it off, and charge its battery. Your smartphone still has a lot to offer, just not in the way you might expect. In this article, we’ll discuss how you can turn your phone into almost any gaming console with just two applications.

We discovered this neat trick and applied it to a 2016 Android tablet running version 8.1 of the operating system.

This implies two things: first, you can do the same with your device, and second, it doesn’t matter if it’s quite old, as the tablet used by this user is 7 years old and runs the program flawlessly.

We recommend resetting the device to factory settings to remove any files and optimize it solely for this purpose. However, remember to download the latest available Android version for your phone.

Turn Your Phone into a Portable Gaming Console

Once you’ve found that old phone lying around your house and charged it to 100%, it’s time to learn the process to transform your phone into a PSP, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, or any other console, with the exception of the most powerful ones on the market.

This is possible thanks to two completely free apps you can download from the Google Play Store: RetroArch and Dig. The procedure is not complicated at all, so keep reading to carefully follow the necessary steps.

Download RetroArch

First, download and install RetroArch on your smartphone. This app is a compilation of emulators that you can run on your device with ease. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Open RetroArch on your Android device.
2. Select the “Online Updater” option and then “Core Downloader.”
3. Here, you can install a wide variety of emulators. Simply tap on any of them to start the installation process. Once completed, a gamepad icon will appear to the right of the platform.

Now, it would be ideal to connect a game controller for comfortable gameplay and perfect control. You can use a PlayStation, Xbox, or PC controller. Follow these steps for clarity:

1. Enable Bluetooth on your Android phone and connect the controller.
2. Open RetroArch and access the gear settings.
3. Select the “Input” section and scroll down to find the “Port 1 Controls” section.
4. Here, you can configure the controller buttons and check if they are recognized.

Start Playing Your Favorite Games

You’re almost ready. Once the previous steps are completed, it’s time to start playing. To do this, download Dig. Upon opening the app, it will ask for a series of permissions that you can accept without issue, so don’t hesitate. Afterward, it will perform a preliminary setup and scan for ROMs that you need to download to your smartphone. For this, we recommend having a high-capacity SD card to install many games without any problem.

Download Dig – Emulador Front-end

Select the folders to be analyzed, and Dig will sort them perfectly, making it easy to access your game library. Once the process is finished, you can select the platform and then the game title you want to launch. When inside, use the controller you previously connected to navigate and enjoy gaming like never before, anywhere you go.