Comparison between Dingoo and Xperia Play for emulation

I wanted to talk today about the Dingoo Digital A320 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play in terms of emulation (which is the main thing that I am interested in readers). Can the young pretender conquer the old foe? Or will the older machine win the day.. read on to find out..

Atari Lynx emulation
No contest here - No Atari Lynx emulators are currently available for Android - get on it emulator writers!

Winner - Dingoo

CPS1 Games (Capcom Play System 1 - Final Fight, Street Fighter 2 etc)
Both systems play CPS 1 games magnificently - this has always been a strong point with the Dingoo, the Android machine comes on strong with the Tiger Arcade emulator (Mame). The only thing is, you have to pay to save states with the Android emulator - seriously? So despite the arcade games looking lovely on the Xperia Play's 4" screen, I would have to award this one to the Dingoo.

Winner: Dingoo

CPS2 Games (Capcom Play System 2 - Super Street Fighter 2 etc)
Have yet to play.

Neogeo Games
Have yet to play.

Nintendo Gameboy
Ahh yes, the absolute classic console from Nintendo, I remember standing in a shop in Carrickfergus on a rainy Sunday playing Tetris, that was just about the only interesting thing in Carrickfergus for an 8 year old on a rainy Sunday. I never actually got one (my parents didn't like those new fangled console things) but now I can play all the games on the go. Speaking of which, Super Mario Land, absolute classic, took me 20 years to complete it (on my Sony Ericsson W880i via a Java Gameboy emulator using save states). Oh yes, where was I? The Dingoo and Xperia Play both play Gameboy games to perfection (with save states free on both emulators), so I call this a draw.

Winner - DRAW

Gameboy Advance
Another classic console from Nintendo, dark non-backlight screen and all, which I never actually owned. But I'm making up for now via emulation (the final battle on Advance Wars is almost impossible without save states). The Dingoo emulation for this console is a bit wonky on some
games but perfect on others (Doom 2 plays at about 3 frames per second, other games actually hang the Dingoo). Everything that I have tried on the Xperia Play works perfectly though, so the winner is the Xperia Play for this one.

Winnner - Xperia Play

Nintendo Entertainment System
I never had one of these either, I was a Speccy boy, but I used to try out Mario in the shops in Ballymena (hey). Both systems emulate the NES perfectly, but I'm just not interested in playing it (I would rather play Super Mario All Stars on the SNES than on the original NES, I'm a sucker for the prettier colors). Sorry all you NES fans.

Winner - DRAW

Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Speaking of the SNES, what an awesome system that was, all the classics were on it, Secret of Mana, Mario Kart, Super Mario World, it was brilliant. Who doesn't have fond memories of multi-player Mario Kart, that is the epitome of multi-player perfection (do I sound like an old fart yet?). Anyhoo, both systems emulate the SNES perfectly for the non-enhanced roms, it's nice playing it on the larger screen of the Xperia Play, but for some reason I just prefer the joypad on the  Dingoo (I thought the cross shape was out of patent now - why didn't Sony just use that instead?).

Winner - Dingoo (for the joypad)

...unless you are using a rom which contains an extra DSP chip, which the Dingoo will emulate slowly or not at all (Mario Kart, Starfox).. in which case the Xperia Play wins, it plays those titles perfectly.

Sega Master System
This system was popular in the UK, much more so than in the USA, I played on one a few times, mainly the built in Master System game (Alex Kidd in Miracle World). Both the Dingoo and the Xperia Play emulate this system perfectly.

Winner:DRAW

Sega Genesis/Megadrive
The big black entertainment system of the mid-90s, the Megadrive was the cool cousin to the nerdy grey SNES (Sega does what Nintendon't, the Sega Pirate channel etc..). Both systems play this console perfectly. What a joy to play Streets of Rage 2 on the go.

Winner: DRAW

Sony Playstation
Wow, now we're talking, the late 90's 3D powerhouse, that revolutionized gaming with it's home 3D graphics, that made gaming cool (or at least, the Chemical Brothers soundtrack to Wipeout did). I remember sitting in rapt amazement in 1994 looking at the preview screens of Riiiiiiiiidge Racer, thinking wow, just wow. Never actually owned one but played on plenty at friends houses. Now, I can play it in the palm of my hand. The PSX emulator for the Dingoo is, well, a good effort, but requires huge frameskip (3/5 for Tekken 3) to be playable, forget about having sound as well. However, PSX emulation is the reason d'etre for the Xperia Play (that and Android games as well of course). The supplied copy of Crash Bandicoot works perfectly, allowing your state to be saved at any time to answer a phone call, look up a webpage etc. I also tried running Tekken 3 on the supplied emulator, and the results are impressive (see the YouTube video below). Overall, the comparative slowness of the Dingoo's CPU (400Mhz vs 1Ghz) shows through, the Xperia Play blows the Dingoo out of the water for PSX emulation. And that rocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6KliH3czMo

Winner: Xperia Play

N64
Wow, just wow, not only do we have the Playstation working on the Xperia Play, but also the N64. We still need an update to get the dual analogue pads working with the N64 control pad, but it is there, and working! Wave Race works great (a little choppy at times but definitely playable), Mario 64 works great, sadly I couldn't get Goldeneye to work, but I heard it's playable with a different version of the emulator. The Dingoo has never, and probably never will, get a N64 emulator, so the Xperia Play wins this one.

A video of Wave Race 64 is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVSwFioRZRo

Winner: Xperia Play

Nintendo DS
Well, if I had one word for this, it would be S-L-O-W, but it does work, it's just painfully slow. No chance of ever getting a NDS emulator for the Dingoo (no touch screen for a start). So, ummm, a win for the Xperia Play then.

Winner: Xperia Play

Atari 2600
A basic console from the early 80's, notable for having a wood grain trim and the world's worst joystick (honestly, it was terrible, you had to wrench it around to get it to do anything). Both machines emulate this system well.

Winner: DRAW

Atari ST
Much loved by those that used it, sneered at by us Amiga owners (you can keep your MIDI port, we have better graphics), the Atari ST is emulated well on the Dingoo. There is no version for the Xperia Play, must be because the Atari ST is a poor relation to the Amiga, and nobody really cares about it ;o)

Winner: Dingoo

Amstrad CPC
Horrible green screened 8-bit computer (with a surprisingly good version of Golden Axe) sold by Suur Alan's company Amstrad in the late 80's. The Spectrum was waaaaayyyy better (I know, I know, it was sold by Amstrad too). Amusing because of the console version of it, released around the same time as the Megadrive, dropped without a trace a few months after release. The Dingoo emulates this machine well, as does the Xperia Play. I'll give this round to the Xperia Play due to the larger screen.

Winner: Xperia Play

MSX
8-bit Microsoft backed computer of the early 80's, famous for having a version of Metal Gear Solid before anything else (even the NES). I have never played this on Android, because the emulator is $8, yes, $8! The two versions on the Dingoo are free though, so the Dingoo wins.

Winner: Dingoo

ZX Spectrum
Sir Clive Sinclair's wonder machine (had a +2 myself), emulated perfectly on both machines. I actually prefer playing the games on the Dingoo because of the great joypad, and the emulator has a much easier way of entering letters than on Android.

Winner: Dingoo

Coleco Vision
I really have no interest in this console, but there are free emulators for both Android and the Dingoo, so the Xperia Play wins, due to the larger screen.

Winner: Xperia Play

NEC PC 98
Japanese computer about which I know nothing (only that it has lots of dating games), but there is an emulator for it for the Dingoo. No Android emulator for it exists, as far as I'm aware, so the Dingoo wins.

Update: One of my commenters let me know about a PC-98 emulator for Android. I don't know how well it runs (save states, slowness etc) so I will call this one a draw. Let us know in the comments section if you have tried it.

Winner: TO BE DECIDED

Commodore 64
Why would you want to emulate this machine when you have a Speccy emulator to run instead (just kidding, C64 fans). I was a Spectrum owner so I never actually got the chance to play it growing up, but there are multiple emulators for the Dingoo and the Xperia Play, all of which work great. The
Dingoo also has a VIC 20 and CBM Plus 4 emulators, which are not available on the Xperia Play.

Winner: Dingoo

Texas Instruments TI 99
I never used this computer as a kid (bit before my time). There is a fully featured (save states etc) emulator for it on the Dingoo, but none are currently available on Android, so the Dingoo wins.

Winner: Dingoo

Java
Java??? Really?? Yes, you can in fact play mobile phone java games on the Dingoo. The controls are a bit of a pain to configure but it does work. It is also posssible to run them on Android, but you have to root the phone first, then flash the package onto a recovery rom (e.g. Clockworkmod) so it's a bit of a pain to get working.

Winner: Dingoo (just about)

Doom PC port
Works great on the Dingoo, is a paid app on the Android market, so the Dingoo wins this one

Winner: Dingoo

Duke Nukem 3D
Classic 3D shooter from the early 90's. Works great on the Dingoo, doesn't work at all on the Android phone, so the Dingoo wins this one.

Winner: Dingoo

Heretic/Hexen/Rise of the Triad/
All these classic 3D shooters work great on the Dingoo, with great controls too courtesy of the great joypad, but don't work on the Xperia Play at all.

Winner: Dingoo

Spear of Destiny/Wolfenstein 3D
Works great on the Dingoo, but you have to pay to get them on the Xperia Play, so the Dingoo wins.

Winner: Dingoo

Quake
There is a great version on the Dingoo, but you have to pay to play on the Android device, so the Dingoo wins this one.

Winner: Dingoo

ScummVM
Both systems run this interpreter really well, the Android phone wins out in this case though due to the touchscreen mouse controls and the size of the screen, which helps in picking out small fiddly objects onscreen.

Winner: Xperia Play

Amiga
Ahhh yes, the absolute classic computer from back in the day. I had two of them, a A500 Cartoon Classics pack (with Lemmings, Captain Planet, Bart's Nightmare, and Deluxe Paint 4) and an A1200 (I want one again, you can aparently buy them refurbished with a SD drive built into them now, how exicting). For now, both systems emulate the Amiga well. The Xperia Play has the edge though because of the nice large screen, the really loud speaker, and the great gamepad (the Amiga games play great with it, probably because you're not doing the semi-circles from the arcade fighters from SNK and Capcom, in which case the Dingoo's joypad is much preferable). Anyway, thumbs up to both systems for allowing us to play Sensible Soccer, Gods, Turrican, and Magic Pockets on the go.

Winner: Xperia Play

Other Games
The Dingoo has some other games built into it when you buy it, including a surprisingly good drifting game (I'm still shocked that it is actually good), a rubbish Resident Evil clone, and various GBA type games that are fun for about 5 seconds. If you install Dingux you can play a few free Linux games, of which Spout is the best (infuriating, but fun at the same time - there is a version of Spout for Android, but I couldn't get it to work on the Xperia Play). However, the Play does have lots of cool Android games to play. I tried the bundled Bruce Lee game, Bruce himself looks a little weird, but apart from the that the graphics are lovely, especially for a mobile phone. Pity it plays terribly though. Not quite as bad as WWE Aftershock for the N-Gage (hehe) but still pretty bad. I haven't tried the other bundled games yet (waiting for a bigger memory card to arrive), but when I do, I'll put up a review of them.

Other functionality
Well, the Dingoo has a radio (which is actually pretty cool), plus the ability to record the radio (retro top-40 taping ahoy), which is great fun. It also has a text reader, can play most DIVX/XVID video files, can play MP3s, and can play flash animation (not flash games unfortunately). The Xperia Play has all that functionality except for the FM radio (but you can download an app to listen to radio stations from all around the world). It also has all the functionality of the Android Market, with hundreds of thousands of apps. It also has a decent camera, not Nokia N8 quality (but what is), but decent enough.

Conclusion
So, which is the best device for emulation. Shockingly, I have to say the Dingoo. Yes, it has a 400hz CPU, yes it has a smaller screen, yes it doesn't have wifi, a camera, and all the other gubbins that the Xperia Play has, but when you just want to get a quick game in, you can switch it on, load the menu, load the emulator, choose the game, and be playing the game in about 30 seconds. It's also much more compact, so it is really easy to carry in your pocket. Compare that to the Xperia Play, which is, well, huge (compared to other smartphones), takes about 2 minutes to start up, then takes longer to get into a game, so it's just not as quick to use some of the emulators. Don't get me wrong, I love the Xperia Play (the battery life is great on it too), but so far, it is not the replacement device for the Dingoo that I thought it would be. It is however, a worthy successor to the N-Gage QD, which was awesome for it's time (it just never got updated, stuck on a 107Mhz CPU, it was never going to be able to play Genesis games at full speed with sound). I might do a comparison between the two phones for a laugh
someday!

Comments are welcome!

Gordon