For some of us, upgrading a mobile phone can be a yearly event. For most people, however, upgrades are irregular, often with years passing before we purchase a new device. In most ways, this is fine, with base uses like online browsing and light video playback seeing no issues on ageing systems. Unfortunately, when it comes to interactive entertainment, being able to get involved on older or less powerful devices is not quite so simple.
Luckily, all is not lost. We’ve reached a point now where the interactive entertainment ecosystem on mobiles has evolved to a point where nobody has to miss out. Taking a look at a few of the most popular and least demanding options for older (and also modern) systems, we want to investigate what possibilities are available.
Emulating Older Platforms
One of the best things about gaming is that titles rarely age into unavailability. While original platforms might die out due to hardware degradation, the games are preserved digitally, and available to play with the right emulator program. This is where systems like RetroArch come in, as frameworks for many different emulated systems.
With RetroArch, it can be possible for users to enjoy libraries of thousands of games, from systems so simple by today’s standards that performance is never an issue. Of course, the simplicity of systems in no way reflects the quality of games, with titles like Chrono Trigger on the SNES and Sonic 2 on the Mega Drive (or the Genesis for our American readers) being just as fun as they always were.
Playing Online Casino Games
For a long time, online casino games were tied to platforms like Flash. This system was popular at the time, but often performed poorly and offered lacking compatibility. Today, with the move towards HTML5, these early issues have effectively been mitigated or eliminated. Understanding this, the majority of online casino games today perform perfectly even on older or less powerful devices.
Players of online bingo UK games can see this in anything the modern digital bingo market presents. Here, titles like Value Bingo and Rainbow Riches scale easily, have low hardware demands and require only small amounts of bandwidth to play properly. This same concept applies to the websites themselves, so searching and browsing is similarly efficient.
Screen Mirroring
This last one is a little more complicated to set up, but it can also offer some of the best experiences possible. For screen mirroring games you’re going to need a good PC, access to a home network, and the Parsec software. This is a program that is custom-designed for mirroring games over the internet and home networks, so it can open the broadest range of options.
Experiences through this route are only really limited to what your PC can handle, and what controls your mobile can allow. Essentially this means the above options like emulators and casinos work as a base, but so too can cutting edge titles like Red Dead Redemption 2. Just be sure that you have a wireless controller available if you go this route, as touch controls for more complex games can be a deal-breaker.
Though these are only a few of the different ways players can get involved with interactive entertainment on mobiles, they do offer a solid illustration of the options available. For users of older or less powerful devices, you can get some use out of them yet, so consider trying these paths before putting down for a more modern model.
