Posted: 5/22/2014 1:34 PM
Post subject: Free android games without spyware?
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Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Hello, I'm in desperate need for some entertainment on my new daily commute, so I tried to turn to mobile games. Unfortunately, almost anything I can find on google play wants full access to network, contacts, personal data, maybe the ability to initiate calls and send SMS, and this one game even asked for my mother's phone number. My faith in humanity was badly hurt when I noticed how many people had gladly installed such obvious malware. So.. who can help me find the pearls in the giant pile? I'm currently busy with lazors https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.pyrosphere.lazors The version I have installed is quite old, completely free, didn't even ask for network access. Not sure about the current version; I cannot upgrade because it's not compatible with my device for an unspecified reason. Any other suggestions? Emulators are obviously acceptable, open source preferred. I've only found a bunch of commercial ports or "free" demos without quicksaving, are there any others?
m00
Posted: 5/22/2014 1:36 PM
Post subject: Re: Free android games without spyware?
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Ilari
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1129)
Joined: 5/1/2010
Posts: 1217
Rookie of 2010 New systems TASer of 2010 New systems TAS of 2010
Tub wrote:
Any other suggestions? Emulators are obviously acceptable, open source preferred. I've only found a bunch of commercial ports or "free" demos without quicksaving, are there any others?
Maybe too obvious (and thus already checked), but Retroarch?
Posted: 5/22/2014 1:56 PM
Post subject: Re: Free android games without spyware?
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RGamma
Joined: 2/3/2013
Posts: 320
Location: Germany
Tub wrote:
... Any other suggestions? Emulators are obviously acceptable, open source preferred. I've only found a bunch of commercial ports or "free" demos without quicksaving, are there any others?
There are ScummVM and PPSSPP for Android (both free/libre software and can be supported by donations or by buying PPSSPP Gold).
All syllogisms have three parts, therefore this is not a syllogism.
Posted: 5/22/2014 2:16 PM
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Warp
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Free mobile gaming is mostly a lost cause. If there are only three different trackers (ie. a library that records things you do and sends it to some third-party server) in the game, that's surprisingly few. If you get only occasionally a small ad banner, you are lucky (the worst I have seen was a game where full-screen advertisements were disguised as part of the game, they would pop up constantly, and it was unclear how to close them and continue with the game.) If the game doesn't show ads when it's not being run, you are also lucky. If you can actually play the game in a sensible manner without microtransactions, consider yourself extra lucky. I have long ago completely lost any hope of mobile gaming having any kind of sense or rationality.
Posted: 5/22/2014 11:50 PM
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Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4045
My suggestions for Android gaming (and I'm biased towards skill games, so <.<) are: Rhythm games: jubeat plus (the iPad version is better, if you ever get a chance. BTW, I think this is only in the japanese google play store, so you might need to fiddle with stuff) Cytus and Deemo (Rayark isn't the best at rhythm games, but - they're playable, they come with a ton of songs for free, so I am obliged to recommend nonetheless) Beats (Stepmania for Android) Shmups: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=43212 All the ones he lists are good. There are (or should be) Lite versions for all of them, so you can see if they feel and play right before shelling out money. I've been enjoying Espgaluda II lately. I also hear there is MAME for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seleuco.mame4all I have no idea how well it works, but if it's good, that will open up a huge amount of games available.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Posted: 5/23/2014 1:35 AM
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hegyak
Editor
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 1466
Location: Not playing Puyo Tetris
I have been enjoying Puyo Puyo Quest. I had to get creative in downloading it (due to Japan exclusivity) but it's fun if you like Puyo Puyo. It's got a little bit of RPG elements.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Posted: 5/23/2014 2:11 AM
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Ji-chan
Joined: 7/30/2013
Posts: 79
PvZ 2 is pretty fun but you'll have to download 300+MB to the sdcard. I also 100%'d all Cut The Ropes except 2, they're pretty cool (better than Angry Birds). iRunner is fun but it gets kinda boring after you beat. And if you want to waste a bunch of time, there Pou, lol. On ads/etc, since I always root my phone asap I can just use an adblocker (at first it was only intended to browsing put then noticed it also blocks most apps' ads too!). Otherwise there's Lucky Patcher (which also needs root) that can forcefully remove them and even generate modified APKs with them removed (the program is an AP remover too so I won't link it here).
(◕‿◕)
Posted: 5/23/2014 7:59 AM
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Warp
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Ji-chan wrote:
I always root my phone asap
There's a huge cognitive dissonance in my mind about the concept of "rooting" an open-source OS. It's a big like saying "you can download a pirated version of Linux for free here!" Duh...
Posted: 5/23/2014 8:38 AM
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Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4045
Warp wrote:
Ji-chan wrote:
I always root my phone asap
There's a huge cognitive dissonance in my mind about the concept of "rooting" an open-source OS. It's a big like saying "you can download a pirated version of Linux for free here!" Duh...
Android is open source, but getting a phone with android on it, not so much, because the phone manufacturers control the specific distribution you're getting and what you can do with it.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Posted: 5/23/2014 1:24 PM
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Warp
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Patashu wrote:
Android is open source, but getting a phone with android on it, not so much, because the phone manufacturers control the specific distribution you're getting and what you can do with it.
Given that the OS open source, they can't restrict what you can do with it. Besides, it's not like Android devices are locked or anything. You can boot to the system recovery menu and do whatever you want there. You can replace the system with whatever you want (even moreso with the Android SDK). "Rooting" and Android system still sounds like "rooting" eg. OpenSuse.
Posted: 5/23/2014 7:29 PM
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Hoe
Joined: 7/31/2004
Posts: 183
Location: USA
Warp wrote:
Patashu wrote:
Android is open source, but getting a phone with android on it, not so much, because the phone manufacturers control the specific distribution you're getting and what you can do with it.
Given that the OS open source, they can't restrict what you can do with it. Besides, it's not like Android devices are locked or anything. You can boot to the system recovery menu and do whatever you want there. You can replace the system with whatever you want (even moreso with the Android SDK). "Rooting" and Android system still sounds like "rooting" eg. OpenSuse.
"Rooting" doesn't need to be quoted here, it's a real term. You don't run most of your software as root in OpenSuse, nor do you in Android. There's a real issue in user operating systems with making root available via a yes/no dialog. To most users, "yes" may very well be automatically selected. So root access is not something that the Android operating system (normally) allows software to get, because any amount of hurdles will be jumped over to see, as Raymond Chen once described them, the dancing bunnies. The issues come in with closed source hardware drivers and manufacturer/carriers that lock you out from the ways you should be able to access your device. So you can't enable root access, nor can you flash a proper copy of Android to your device. Don't support those companies. Plain and simple.
Posted: 5/23/2014 7:38 PM
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Warp
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Hoe wrote:
"Rooting" doesn't need to be quoted here, it's a real term. You don't run most of your software as root in OpenSuse, nor do you in Android.
I suppose that if you define it like that, it makes more sense. I was more thinking of the term as meaning to hack the system so that you can run whatever software you want. (The iPhone would be the quintessential example, as it's a completely locked and closed system where you can only install and run approved software that's run in a tight sandbox environment. You can't install a different OS, you can't modify the OS, you can't even downgrade the existing OS, and you can't run whichever program you want.)
Posted: 5/24/2014 9:36 PM
Post subject: Re: Free android games without spyware?
Quote
Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Ilari wrote:
Maybe too obvious (and thus already checked), but Retroarch?
RGamma wrote:
There are ScummVM and PPSSPP for Android (both free/libre software and can be supported by donations or by buying PPSSPP Gold).
Patashu wrote:
I also hear there is MAME for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seleuco.mame4all
Good suggestions, thanks. When trying to install them, most just claimed to be "not compatible with my device", though neither said why. My android version is above the claimed minimum, and no other requirements were displayed. ScummVM then allowed me to click on "install", but that failed with a very arcane message. The internet suggests this happens every time google updates their play store, and I should just clear all caches, remove my google account, restart the phone and reinitialize everything - that should fix the problem. Though when I try to remove the account, my phone says I cannot do that and I should just reset the phone to factory settings. Because google updated the play store. Right. Seems sensible. I'm starting to wonder whether I accidentally bought a windows phone. In any case, it seems like I cannot install apps any more, so I guess I'll have to start reading books :( Thanks for your suggestions, anyway. I didn't know about PPSSPP before, and will certainly try it on my non-android computers.
m00