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Getting Started with NX Redux Mobile

Coming soon

NX Redux Mobile is not released yet. These pages describe the app as it is today.

NX Redux Mobile brings the NX Redux look, folder layout and in-game features to Android phones, tablets, foldables and Android handhelds. It runs retro systems through emulators bundled in the app, with nothing extra to download. On your phone, the app's icon and title read NX Redux.

NX Redux Mobile on the Home tab, on the cover screen of a folded Galaxy Z Fold

New to NX Redux? See About NX Redux first.

What's different from the handheld

  • Emulators: Sega Dreamcast, NAOMI and Atomiswave are included. Nintendo DS runs melonDS DS (DraStic is not available). See Emulators and Sega Dreamcast.
  • Library: besides the home folder, the app can scan extra folders in place. See Library & ROM folders.
  • Controls: an on-screen pad, or any Android controller. See Controls.
  • Artwork: the app downloads box art and screenshots for your games. See Artwork.
  • Home screen: the app can be your phone's home screen, and list your Android games and apps. See Launcher Mode & Android Games.
  • Foldables: on a half-folded phone, Flex mode puts the game above the hinge and the pad below it. See Foldables & Large Screens.
  • In a later release: Netplay, Device Sync, local multiplayer for 2 to 4 players on their own controllers, and more systems, such as Nintendo 3DS and home computers (Amiga, C64 and so on).
  • Not available: RetroAchievements hardcore mode, the same as on the handheld.
  • Left to Android: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth management, the on-screen display, the music player, PortMaster and firmware updates are not part of the app.

Install

When it's released, the APK is listed on the Download page.

Choose a home folder

On first start the app asks you to Pick a home folder. Press A Pick folder to open Android's folder picker.

Pick a home folder

The app creates the NX Redux layout inside the folder you pick:

Folder What goes there
Roms/<Display Name (TAG)>/ Games, one folder per system
Bios/<TAG>/ BIOS files for systems that need them
Saves/<TAG>/ Battery saves, mirrored from the app
Collections/ Your game collections, once you make one

The folders are visible to file managers, so you can copy games in from a computer. The home folder can sit on an SD card.

If your games already follow the NX Redux layout from a handheld, the same folder names and Bios/<TAG>/ files work unchanged.

Pick a folder, not a root

The picker can't use the storage root, the SD card root or the Download folder. Pick or create a folder inside one of them, such as NXRedux.

Add a ROMs folder

Right after you pick the home folder, the app asks Add a ROMs folder?

Add a ROMs folder?

  • If you already keep games somewhere else on the phone, press A Add folder and pick that folder. It is scanned in place and nothing is moved.
  • Press B Skip to go on without one.

You can add more folders later in Tools → Settings → Library → ROM folders → Add ROM folder. See Library & ROM folders.

Android games

When the app finds games installed on your phone, the last step asks Add N Android games to Consoles? and lists them.

The Android games question

  • Press A Yes to add them. They show up as an Android console on the Consoles tab.
  • Press B Not now to leave them out.

The question is asked once. On an install that already has a library, it can show once as a dialog over the main menu instead. Change the list any time in Tools → Settings → Launcher → Android games. See Launcher Mode & Android Games.

Next steps