Retro / Dual-Screen Emulation on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (Wide): Initial Impressions
 |
Disclosure: The Fold 8 is on loan from Samsung. When the aspect ratio of the fold 8 inner screen being 4:3 got leaked a few months ago. I immediately thought about retro consoles like GameCube and PS2 and dual screen consoles like the 3DS and Wii U. I decided to do a quick test to see how each console aspect ratio is on the inner screen. Test Setup
Note: I’m not testing raw performance here. The Fold8 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 elite , the hardware easily handles 60 FPS on these older consoles GameCube: One interesting realization during testing was that the transition to widescreen (16:9) actually began in the 6th generation rather than the 7th. In games like Resident Evil 4, the gameplay is in a 16:9 in a 4:3 container with black bars. Cutscenes across all tested games remained widescreen for a more cinematic presentation Using the Dolphin emulator was interesting. It’s a mature emulator and shouldn’t have a lot of bugs. But when playing Re4 it seemed to glitch out in the intro cuts screens and added a green color that didn’t exist. Another example was when playing Metroid Prime, the game freaked out and warped the polygons on screen during an early section of the tutorial for a few seconds. Dolphin also didn’t automatic map/detect my controller either and I had to manually map it Resident Evil 4 glitched out during the intro cutscene, swapping the original colors for green Gameplay being in 16 by 9 even with a forced 4:3 aspect ratio Metroid prime running in 4:3 during gameplay Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes wider aspect ratio cut scene with subtitles PlayStation 2: For PlayStation 2 I used the ARMSX2 emulator. For it being the newest emulators, it felt the most refined. I had no issues playing Persona 4, it mapped my controller and everything worked. I never understood/forgot why the velvet room was a car in Persona 4 3DS: I used Azahar which is a Citra fork. Had no issues like ARMSX2 emulator. What I did differently is playing it in portrait. This solved two issues; one fixed the directions where the speakers were playing, second playing in the correct orientation. With the 3DS screens they are both 5:3. But it’s still able to fit on the fold8 since the bottom screen scaled to fit the width of the top screen. Wii U: This is where I failed. I spent the last 3 to 4 days trying to get Cemu working. With my own ROMs. It did not matter if the ROM was encrypted or not. I could not get it working. This is probably my fault. It’s not that bad since most Wii U games have been ported to the switch and you can emulate that. It just sucks that with certain games the gamepad was important like in Nintendo Land, Lego City Under Cover, and Captain Toad Treasure Tracker. Fold8: I can’t comment on the durability of the inner screen yet since I had it for a week only. It’s hard to see the crease with the anti-reflective display unless you look at it on an extreme angle. I don’t think most people will notice it either. It didn't affect me while I was gaming. Controller: I used the GameSir G8 Plus MFi for this test thinking it would be the most optimal for 3DS and Wii U games. The Fold8 would not fit flush to the controller even with the case off. If you want to use a telescopic controller like I did. I would recommend looking for a controller that is Bluetooth only like the G8+ or one where the telescopic bridge is skinner or doesn’t hit the camera bump like the backbone one. TDLR: the fold8 is looking like it will be a great all in one phone for retro emulation and dual screen gaming outside of my issues with Cemu. The massive downside is the price and if you don’t care about foldables, you can get an android console like AYANEO Pocket or the AYN Thor for your dual screen gaming fix. submitted by /u/welp_im_damned |
