Goodbye, Ridiculous Fishing: How Android’s 32-bit purge erased my favorite classic games

Android has come a great distance since its inception, and it’s delivered a ton of options I can’t do with out. From the easy notification shade and permissions system to autofill and notification historical past, there are such a lot of additions which might be merely indispensable in my each day life.

Sadly, Google has additionally made some disappointing modifications to Android through the years. This consists of the Scoped Storage saga, which noticed Google limiting storage entry for apps, breaking many apps within the course of, in addition to a crackdown on calling and texting permissions. Nonetheless, there’s one deprecated characteristic I actually miss on current Android telephones, and that’s 32-bit app help.

What’s 32-bit help, and why was it killed?

Android began as a 32-bit working system. This has many ramifications, however an important one for you and me is that it might solely tackle a most of 4GB of RAM. Google adopted in Apple’s footsteps by including 64-bit help in 2015, enabling help for extra RAM in addition to higher efficiency. However 32-bit help didn’t go anyplace on the time.

Sadly, Google’s Pixel 7 sequence shipped with out 32-bit help again in late 2022. Google and high-end chipmakers then determined to kill it completely the next 12 months, with Android 14 usually missing this characteristic. There have been some advantages to ditching 32-bit help, similar to liberating up system assets, higher safety, and bettering efficiency usually. That is additionally a boon for chipmakers as they’ve freed up silicon that was beforehand dedicated to 32-bit help.

Regardless of all these advantages, I’ve causes to dislike this transformation in spite of everything this time. The largest is that I’ve amassed over 130 games by way of Humble Bundles through the years, and I can not play lots of them. These pay-what-you-want offers for Android games have been my favorite option to get new premium Android games, together with hits such because the Steel Slug sequence, the King of Fighters franchise, and This Battle of Mine.

A few of these games nonetheless work, however many titles have been 32-bit-only, or their Humble Bundle variations by no means acquired 64-bit upgrades. I’ve a great deal of classics in my library that I’d like to play as soon as once more, together with classic cell platformer Mikey Boots, retro puzzler Chu Chu Rocket, early cell hit Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Doodle God, and extra.

Ridiculous Fishing is definitely my favorite Humble Bundle title I can not play on newer Android telephones. Critically, I tweeted about it a number of occasions through the years. It’s a whacky premise that has you initially avoiding fish as your reel plumbs the ocean depths, then attempting to gather as many fish as potential as you reel in your line. It doesn’t cease there, as you then hurl your catches into the air and shoot them earlier than they hit the water. Ridiculous. There was an ideal gameplay loop right here as you can spend money on higher weapons, an extended reel, a chainsaw lure (what), and different upgrades. It acquired me by many flights, and it’s an actual disgrace it hasn’t acquired a 64-bit port. A minimum of I can hearth up an previous LG V60 and play it, full with mildly disagreeable letterboxing, as seen beneath.

It’s not simply my intensive assortment of Humble Bundle Android games that haven’t acquired 64-bit ports. A great deal of previous Android games on the Play Retailer didn’t get up to date to 64-bit variations, which is a large disappointment as I’m huge into online game preservation. This consists of big-hitters like Flappy Chook, the landmark Chaos Rings sequence of Sq.-Enix RPGs, the Zenonia games, the Diablo-like Dungeon Hunter sequence, and the unique Geometry Sprint.

This legacy help can be necessary to me as these early games have been usually one-time purchases versus at present’s ad-heavy games or pay-to-win affairs. Actually, there are a great deal of 32-bit-only and/or deserted console ports and diversifications I’d like to play. These embrace Lifeless Area Cell, Joe Hazard, Mass Impact Infiltrator, Deus Ex: The Fall, Resident Evil 4 (a port of the unique 2005 title), Jade Empire, and extra. These have been native ports within the case of Resident Evil 4 and Jade Empire, which suggests extra polish, much less fiddling, and extra optimized controls than utilizing an emulator.

One other of my favorite lacking games is Wayward Souls, a top-down hack-and-slasher with some roguelike components. Sadly, the sport merely exhibits a white display upon startup. My beloved late 2000s and early 2010s NOVA sequence of Halo-like first-person shooters haven’t been up to date with 64-bit variations both.

I’ve a couple of choices to maintain enjoying 32-bit-only games in 2025. The simplest means is to make use of a telephone with Android 13, as these units usually nonetheless help 32-bit apps. However after all, you won’t wish to maintain an previous telephone purely for this objective. And there’s additionally merely no assure that some games will really run in your system. Moreover, this selection turns into extra of a problem down the road as these older units break down.

It’s additionally price noting that Xiaomi’s flagship telephones, just like the Xiaomi 15, retained a framework to run 32-bit apps on 64-bit-only telephones. Sadly for me and others in the identical predicament, Xiaomi restricted this framework and help to the Chinese language market. What a disappointment. I actually want Xiaomi and different OEMs introduced this framework to international customers. Some customers on-line have additionally really useful a digital machine (VM) working an older model of Android to play 32-bit games. However this answer hasn’t labored for me, probably because of the intrinsic {hardware} limitations right here.

Both means, dropping 32-bit app help has been a essential evil. I’d wish to suppose we’ve benefited from noticeable efficiency and safety good points in consequence. Nonetheless, it doesn’t change the truth that I can’t play one other spherical of Ridiculous Fishing on my Pixel 7 Professional whereas ready for a flight.