Emulation How to play old 2d WinXP games on Android tablet?

[Nikokaro]

 Hello everyone, buddies, here yours truly.
Is there anyone who wants to help me? I would like to play some old 2d Windows games on Android tablet, mostly early Visual Novels (Just, Hirameki, Mangagamer novels) and some non-3d strategy games.
I know it is possible to do this via Wine, Exagear Strategies, Winlator and other similar softwares: which one do you recommend?

I would like the easiest to install, the least cumbersome, that can run 32bit 2d games originally for Win98 or WinXP, nothing more: absolutely no 64bit Windows games!

For example, I know that there is online a version of Exagear (which is now out of business) modified, updated and maintained by some fans and very effective, but I could not find it: could someone provide me with a still active link?

Otherwise, would you like to recommend some other android software that I am not familiar with?
My tablet is a mediocre octa-core 1800Mhz 32bit, Android 12. Thank you for your attention.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

You know I'm not knowledgeable in Android software topics – "apps" (despite constantly fighting with these devices for some weeks now). This is a general answer:

This is one of the "please let me emulate something reasonably complex on weak hardware"-topics. Android devices run on ARM-based CPUs. At least the vast majority. Win32 runs on x86 based CPUs. You will need an emulator because of that. A re-implementation of Win-APIs (Wine) is not enough.

Any emulator will probably overheat the poor ARM CPU in a mediocre tablet demoting Windows games to a slideshow. Do you want to fry eggs on the tablet?

Spoiler

 

[Nikokaro]

Nah, you don't know enough about this subject. My tablet is more than enough to use Exagear + 2d games for winXP. Years ago I used to play it with a much weaker tablet, but that version of Exagear is too old and now inadequate. Visual Novels are mostly a succession of static images + bgms + voice acting (not always present): not demanding at all.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Nah, you don't know enough about this subject.

Pretty cruel to answer with "" when seeing somebody is obviously sad and frustrated. Just tell me if you don't want any replies from me anymore.

but that version of Exagear is too old and now inadequate

Why? Can't install? Crashes? Old doesn't mean useless.

Visual Novels are mostly a succession of static images + bgms + voice acting (not always present): not demanding at all.

That sadly means nothing. A current game's title screen image is bigger than a complete SNES game keeping one busy 40 hours. Software bloat may make things demand two orders of magnitude in CPU/GPU/RAM more than needed.
I've played/read Doki Doki Literature Club a few years ago on my weak, now broken, Windows 10 tablet. Technically that application did not do anything a computer from 1996 couldn't do well. In practice the 2018 low-end tablet became warm. WTF? Ren'py doesn't seem to be efficient. And that was *not* using emulation, but running Win32 program on Win32 system (okay, Python interpreter, but meh, it should not get warm from music and static images).

Talking about *old* visual novels gives a hint the demand can't be really high as contemporary computers from when the games came out must have been able to deal with them.
My personal rule of the thumb for arbitrary emulation: Device running the emulator more than 10 times stronger than the old device it wants to emulate.

Is this the case for the minimal requirements of your software? Windows XP era lasted from 2002 to 2014 and my current Windows XP desktop PC is probably more powerful than your tablet. Read: There is a lot of Windows XP compatible software, which will not run on your tab no matter what and I have no chance of knowing if it is the case for some visual novel or not.

I will not even bring in disc based DRM at this point. Imagine trying to get StarForce "protection" (rather rootkit) working.





=============================================
Just searched in a German Android forum. A thread with the question for running Windows applications on Android didn't get many replies and the mentioning of the same stuff you already said: Exagear, Winlator. Furthermore the unhelpful advise to just use similar Android apps replacing the desired Windows programs.

 

[Nikokaro]

"" was simply referring to your final sentence. Anyway let's see if anyone else can give me some less pessimistic suggestions.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

if anyone else can give me some less pessimistic suggestions

Hey, I was trying my best and even looked in the Android forum (which was suggesting itself).
Unfortunately you get more attention there by bragging with the latest Samsung S24 Ultra smartphone and lamenting about micro-scratches that showed up after a week of using (visible with a digital microscope only).

Complicated and specialized questions rarely get many answers. XDA is probably also not the right address for this question.