This video is a written overview of the video I uploaded to TikTok a few months ago. I keep referencing that video because I keep forgetting how to do this, and if I can’t remember the method after making the video, it seems unfair to expect other people to remember from just watching it.
Installing RetroArch
If you’re using one of the trendy Android flip phones that runs Android 4 or 5, you will probably need the 32-bit apk. You can download that from here and install it with adb.
Setting Up Inputs
The first time you run RetroArch, none of the controls will work because they are not mapped properly. It may also not be possible to use touch control alternatives like the Touch Cruiser on Sharp phones. Therefore, the easiest way to set up controls is to use scrcpy, which you can download here (check Releases for the latest version).
Adding Cores Without Wifi
Some of these older flip phones don’t connect to wifi at all (at the time they were released, people were still transitioning from feature phones where wifi was usually not available and everything was done over the network. Therefore, the regular cores downloading feature will not work. Cores must be added manually.
For the phones I have, I found that armeabi-v7a versions of cores work best. You can download those here. You will need to copy the .so file with the “_android” portion removed along with the core’s matching .info file. I get these .info files from the version of RetroArch installed on my PC and copy them over.
After copying the .so and .info files to the phone, go to Settings/Cores/Manage Cores and select “Install or Restore a Core.” Go to the folder where you uploaded your core files and select it.
Loading Games
So far, I have been using RetroArch’s own file browser to select game files to play. There may be cleaner Android front ends for emulation, but I am still searching for one that is compatible with 32-bit Android. If you find something like this, please let me know!