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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nikkei: Nintendo NX to use Android OS

freebs2 on 01 June 2015
Mr.Playstation said:
walsufnir said:
Mr.Playstation said:
Soundwave said:


Not unless your other hardware devices use the same hardware components it won't. If the NX has a custom GPU for example from anything inside of a Galaxy phone for example, you can't just "port" Mario Kart 9 to it.

It's like saying someone could "hack" the XBox One and quickly run PC apps like Word, Office, on it because it does run Windows. Well yeah ... except the hardware is very different in actuality and the version of Windows the XB1 uses is heavily customized.

Or vice versa, someone should be able to "hack" a PC since it runs Windows just like the XB1 does to be able to run XB1 games on the PC ... it isn't that simple.

Modders can do anything and android is so open source unlike windows that porting over games from the NX to Android Devices will be easy as pie.


Huh? No. If Nintendo games rely on Nintendo hardware it won't work. Yes, you can hack everything but rewriting major parts of the code is not as easy as pie.

If you root an Android phone you can easily "Trick" your phone into thinking it has a different GPU ( especially common when Tegra 3 chips had games which where optimized for it). I'm sure modders can release some software which tricks Android phones into thinking they have that special Nintendo hardware and booom Nintendo NX games are playable any android phone!

It doesn't work that way even if you assume you can "trick" your phone to think it has a different GPU you can't run a game that require hardware resources that just aren't there. You'll still need to emulate the hardware in order to run the game.



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walsufnir on 01 June 2015
z101 said:
Android will be most likely only the base for the NX OS. I doubt it will be fully compatibel with android devices.

Nintendo use android because they don't want to create a new OS for NX from ground up. To build a full new OS would be very complicated and time wasting , because consoles OS are much more complex these days than two gens before.

So Nintendo use a free OS like android as the base and creates their own libraries (graphic system, input system) on top of this.


Still it would be good for the system if by day 1 all android games would be available for customers.



Soundwave on 01 June 2015
Mr.Playstation said:
walsufnir said:
Mr.Playstation said:
Soundwave said:


Not unless your other hardware devices use the same hardware components it won't. If the NX has a custom GPU for example from anything inside of a Galaxy phone for example, you can't just "port" Mario Kart 9 to it.

It's like saying someone could "hack" the XBox One and quickly run PC apps like Word, Office, on it because it does run Windows. Well yeah ... except the hardware is very different in actuality and the version of Windows the XB1 uses is heavily customized.

Or vice versa, someone should be able to "hack" a PC since it runs Windows just like the XB1 does to be able to run XB1 games on the PC ... it isn't that simple.

Modders can do anything and android is so open source unlike windows that porting over games from the NX to Android Devices will be easy as pie.


Huh? No. If Nintendo games rely on Nintendo hardware it won't work. Yes, you can hack everything but rewriting major parts of the code is not as easy as pie.

If you root an Android phone you can easily "Trick" your phone into thinking it has a different GPU ( especially common when Tegra 3 chips had games which where optimized for it). I'm sure modders can release some software which tricks Android phones into thinking they have that special Nintendo hardware and booom Nintendo NX games are playable any android phone!

Nope. It's not that simple, Tegra is common GPU used in several devices too not a heavily propietary component. 

Beyond that there's a fairly easy way Nintendo could stamp out this possibility -- embedded RAM. 

Nintendo loves their embedded RAM which allows for much higher bandwidth than regular RAM. Even the New 3DS has 10MB of eDRAM. 

You can't "trick" that, especially if the eDRAM has higher bandwidth than standard LPDDR4 RAM. Standard smartphone makers won't bother with emedded RAM in their products because really only video games need that type of higher bandwidth. 

An exotic memory layout though certainly would stamp out this possibility real quick. And Nintendo loves their exotic memory types. 



JRPGfan on 01 June 2015
Platina said:
It'd be great if you could post a recap for those who can't read Japanese...

..but from what the title says, this could be very interesting move if Nintendo actually makes their next handheld able to use Android OS. I was thinking this would be unlikely given how protective Nintendo is about their systems but this could definitely attract more casual gamers..


Google translates gives me:

 

the deep layers of the large brawl Nintendo · DeNA partnership Mario dive  


"Vagus or, or revival of one hand -. Nintendo Conclusion DeNA and (DeNA) a capital tie-up, is to enter the smart phone (smartphone) game. Brand, which is represented by "Mario" is, dive into the large brawl market Nintendo has been repellent. Iwata and Moriyasu, the bonds that secret of both companies top boosted the decision.

"OS is Android"


Minami-ku, Kyoto Kamitoba Nintendo headquarters nearby. Development building of chalk, which was completed last June is towering." - all google translate can see of the article.

 

also

"This article is members only. When you register to the electronic version you can read more"



JRPGfan on 01 June 2015
Keybladewielder said:

If true, is this good or bad? does it mean that the NX will be flooded with mobile games?


Probably be able to run android games yes.

It does sound like nintendo is trying to either make a smart phone or a tablet.... so up to you if you like that or not.



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walsufnir on 01 June 2015
Keybladewielder said:

If true, is this good or bad? does it mean that the NX will be flooded with mobile games?


I can already see it - NX has too many games.



Darwinianevolution on 01 June 2015

Would Microsoft allow Minecraft Pocket edition on an Android based Nintendo system?



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.

freebs2 on 01 June 2015
walsufnir said:
Keybladewielder said:

If true, is this good or bad? does it mean that the NX will be flooded with mobile games?


I can already see it - NX has too many games.

Imo Nintendo should keep the 2 channels separeted, give the opportunity for any developer to port their android games on NX but keep the eshop restricted to games designed to offer a console experience. A quality control system like Steam greenlight.



walsufnir on 01 June 2015
freebs2 said:
walsufnir said:


I can already see it - NX has too many games.

Imo Nintendo should keep the 2 channels separeted, give the opportunity for any developer to port their android games on NX but keep the eshop restricted to games designed to offer a console experience. A quality control system like Steam greenlight.


Yes, this should be clear to customers: you have the "nx"-channel and the "go wild"-channel which is a door to hell or heaven, depending on what you expect and/or want. Compatibility can be done through software and hardware for nx so that you can instantly play the games without devs porting games over.



Dulfite on 01 June 2015

http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/06/01/report-nintendos-codename-nx-platform-will-be-android-based

They have an article up too.