Dolphin, the best-known GameCube and Wii emulator, appears to run like a dream on the Samsung Galaxy S8, the smartphone that’s in line to be the next great Android device.
A video from GuruAidTechSupport — apparently captured in a store using a display model for the Galaxy S8 — shows Dolphin running on the unreleased smartphone. The person tried three different GameCube titles: Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Mario Sunshine and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It seems like the on-screen GameCube controller would be tough to actually play with, but the games themselves look great and run cleanly, with very few drops in the frame rate.
The Galaxy S8 offers a marked upgrade in performance for Dolphin over Samsung’s previous flagship smartphone models, last year’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, according to GuruAidTechSupport. “It’s so much better than the Galaxy S7, I don’t even know where to even start,” the YouTuber said. “It doesn’t even compare.”
Dolphin is an open-source emulator for GameCube and Wii games that is available on Android, Linux, Mac and Windows PC. The GameCube might be 16 years old, but it’s still no small feat to run its games in software emulation — especially on a device like a smartphone.
The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will be available April 21 in the U.S. Of course, video game emulation is of questionable legality, so maybe don’t go around installing Dolphin on Galaxy S8 display models at your local electronics stores.
