Retro / Dual-Screen Emulation on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (Wide): Initial Impressions
*Disclosure: The Fold 8 is on loan from Samsung.*
When the aspect ratio of the fold 8 inner screen being 4:3 got leaked a few months ago. I immediately thought about retro consoles like GameCube and PS2 and dual screen consoles like the 3DS and Wii U. I decided to do a quick test to see how each console aspect ratio is on the inner screen.
Test Setup
* Emulators Used:
* GameCube: Dolphin
* PlayStation 2: ARMSX2
* 3DS: Azahar
* Wii U: Cemu (Did not work)
* Games Tested:
* GameCube: Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
* PlayStation 2: Persona 4
* 3DS: Mario Kart 7
* Wii U: Nintendo Land, LEGO City Undercover, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Did not work)
* Controller: GameSir G8 Plus MFi
Note: I’m not testing raw performance here. The Fold8 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 elite , the hardware easily handles 60 FPS on these older consoles
GameCube:
One interesting realization during testing was that the transition to widescreen (16:9) actually began in the 6th generation rather than the 7th. In games like Resident Evil 4, the gameplay is in a 16:9 in a 4:3 container with black bars. Cutscenes across all tested games remained widescreen for a more cinematic presentation
Using the Dolphin emulator was interesting. It’s a mature emulator and shouldn’t have a lot of bugs. But when playing Re4 it seemed to glitch out in the intro cuts screens and added a green color that didn’t exist. Another example was when playing Metroid Prime, the game freaked out and warped the polygons on screen during an early section of the tutorial for a few seconds. Dolphin also didn’t automatic map/detect my controller either and I had to manually map it
[Resident Evil 4 glitched out during the intro cutscene, swapping the original colors for green](
https://preview.redd.it/1kypz8x1pzfh1.jpg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9245a343caa05f58b65a9858e86d58466786822)
[Gameplay being in 16 by 9 even with a forced 4:3 aspect ratio](
https://preview.redd.it/z09bcwpepzfh1.jpg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c5892d57ca6b0566fb72bb2bf8da984221d72ea)
[Metroid prime running in 4:3 during gameplay](
https://preview.redd.it/6t4yq8ghpzfh1.jpg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5c8c3f6965d82c2601357e66802863e77b1d65c6)
[Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes wider aspect ratio cut scene with subtitles](
https://preview.redd.it/h4f7y6hjpzfh1.jpg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=969887ab2f7d968a20f2c5c6e6bd6eb937ebb880)
PlayStation 2:
For PlayStation 2 I used the ARMSX2 emulator. For it being the newest emulators, it felt the most refined. I had no issues playing Persona 4, it mapped my controller and everything worked.
[Persona 4 title screen](
https://preview.redd.it/sw21l82ppzfh1.jpg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0e11a90473e3527d1b8edc430c6c6e07a93e93f9)
[I never understood\/forgot why the velvet room was a car in Persona 4](
https://preview.redd.it/i7z9bkrqpzfh1.jpg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=83adad450460c424ed2c3f53837188fd3b9f4170)
[First fight: fighting the fog](
https://preview.redd.it/03sfchotpzfh1.jpg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a93a21984711ce48b356c9568ff4fe4496eadc7)
3DS:
I used Azahar which is a Citra fork. Had no issues like ARMSX2 emulator. What I did differently is playing it in portrait. This solved two issues; one fixed the directions where the speakers were playing, second playing in the correct orientation. With the 3DS screens they are both 5:3. But it’s still able to fit on the fold8 since the bottom screen scaled to fit the width of the top screen.
[Cursed 2DS](
https://preview.redd.it/dupa13wvpzfh1.jpg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12846ceee023b4de524bf27e5c5e8b1bc703efe0)
Wii U:
This is where I failed. I spent the last 3 to 4 days trying to get Cemu working. With my own ROMs. It did not matter if the ROM was encrypted or not. I could not get it working. This is probably my fault. It’s not that bad since most Wii U games have been ported to the switch and you
