Earlier this year a small team of hackers showed off a work-in-progress version of Google Android running on the Nintendo Switch game console. At the time it was pretty buggy and didn’t seem like something you’d really want to use.
But the developers have made a lot of progress since then. Recent builds support hardware-accelerated graphics and developer Billy Laws (ByLaws) has posted videos showing the Switch running the NVIDIA Shield version of Portal for Android, as well as supporting NVIDIA GeForce Now game streaming.
Why wait for console ports? 😏 pic.twitter.com/efNeCJ0EAj
— switchroot (@switchroot_org) June 16, 2019
The software’s not available for download yet, and ByLaws isn’t ready to say when it will be. But it sounds like a bunch of items are getting checked off the to do list.
The latest builds support audio and WiFi as well as GPU acceleration for games and other apps (including the Google Chrome web browser and video players).
As for the ability to run NVIDIA Shield-exclusive titles, that’s probably because the Switch and Shield have similar hardware. But ByLaws notes that some Shield games (like Tomb Raider) probably won’t be playable, while others (like Half Life 2 and Borderlands) will — although GeForce Now streaming support means that you may be able to play some PC titles if you have a fast enough internet connection.
You can keep up on the latest developments in the Android for the Nintendo Switch project by following @switchroot_org on Twitter.
via xda-developers and Wololo
That’s pretty awesome. I’ll probably get back into running homebrew on this then.