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There are already plenty of emulators for Android that will allow you to play classic games from yesteryear. One hacker has gone a step further, though, modifying an old Super Nintendo controller so he could stick it in his Dell Streak and use it to play SNES games.
Using the Dell Streak’s PDMI port, the Streaks’s USB cable, a USB microcontroller board and an old SNES controller, geektastic gamer Collin Meyer managed to get the Streak to recognise the gamepad as a USB keyboard.
Check out the video below. As you can see, Meyer can navigate Android’s menus and play a quick game of Super Mario World. And he does it all while holding the Streak the wrong way round. Skills.
Click here to see the modding instructions. As Meyer warns, modifying hardware so you can connect it to your Dell Streak may damage your devices. Also, note that you can’t use the SNES controller’s shoulder buttons. That’s not a problem for all games, but it will be an issue with some — you won’t be able to use all the punch and kick buttons in Street Fighter 2 for instance.
There’s a range of emulators that you can use to play SNES games on your Android device. SuperGNES is one example. You can download it from the Android Market and use it even on locked phones. It offers a multi-touch onscreen controller for those who reckon connecting a real joypad is just too much effort.
You may have a problem when it comes to acquiring ROMs, game files that are pulled from a game cartridge and made into a computer system file for use with an emulator. You’ll need a real, physical copy of each game you play on the emulator, otherwise you’ll be technically breaking the law, which isn’t anything approaching cricket.
Image credit: Streak Smart
