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Pokémon Fulldex for Android — Hotfix (2 November 2026)

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@mamesj mamesj released this 30 Oct 20:01
· 37 commits to main since this release
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Hotfix - 2 November 2026

Source: 2 November hotfix / regional beta.

Regional DS support - BETA

Language Added game profiles
French (revision 0) Black, White, Black 2, White 2, SoulSilver, HeartGold, Platinum
Spanish White, Platinum, SoulSilver, HeartGold
Italian HeartGold
Experimental English Diamond/Pearl and Spanish Diamond

Regional games have separate save names, such as heartgold-fr.sav, heartgold-es.sav and heartgold-it.sav. Not every language, ROM revision or full playthrough is verified. GBA regional compatibility is unchanged. The interface offers English, Spanish and Italian; French profiles do not include French menus. Adapted from PRs #41, #18 and #9.

Android controls, layout and startup

  • Customisable touch controls: move and resize DS/GBA controls; SAVE, CANCEL and RESET; separate profiles for each system and orientation. DS: pause menu > CONTROLS > TOUCH CONTROLS. GBA: pause menu > TOUCH CONTROLS.
  • Launcher defaults to landscape when auto-rotate is off and allows portrait/landscape when auto-rotate is on. Gameplay remains landscape.
  • Larger launcher settings in both orientations; long values wrap. FPS counters sit inward from rounded corners/camera cutouts.
  • Fix native startup on 16 KB Android: the old public APK crashed before drawing the launcher on our 16 KB emulator. This build loads and displays the launcher there. All four native libraries are checked for 16 KB alignment. This is not yet physical Odin 3 confirmation.
  • Recreate launcher textures after surface resets, record early native loading in startup.log, and fall back to software drawing when accelerated drawing reports an error. The normal launcher renderer remains OpenGL ES; Vulkan was not forced.

Checked: Android arm64/x86_64 builds, Pixel 4 KB startup/portrait/resume, emulator rotation/menu/FPS checks, and 16 KB emulator startup. Final physical cutout/Odin verification remains pending.

The previously published cave crash/black-screen transition fixes and updated Pokédex screens remain included. No ROMs or saves are bundled. Existing public asset names are retained for update checks; see SHA256SUMS.txt.

Major fixes: cave black screens and updated Pokédex

  • FIXED: BLACK SCREENS IN DARK CAVES (HeartGold / SoulSilver). Before using Flash, the visible circle of light is restored on PC and Switch instead of the cave turning completely black.
  • FIXED: CAVE / DOOR TRANSITIONS GETTING STUCK ON THE WRONG SCREEN (SoulSilver). The overworld stays visible through the fade instead of leaving the X menu or touch screen on display. The white cave-entrance flash now fills the widescreen view, without black side bars.
  • UPDATED POKÉDEX (HeartGold / SoulSilver): the cover fills the wide screen, slides across its full width and no longer appears twice. Touch-screen swipes open and close it.
  • UPDATED POKÉDEX (Platinum): the list sits beside SEARCH, SWITCH and CHECK; controller button prompts match the connected pad.
  • UPDATED POKÉDEX (Black / White / Black 2 / White 2): the opening Poké Ball cover fills the widescreen view.

Hotfix (1 November, late evening)

  • The familiar centred launcher is back; the unfinished launcher redesign is excluded.
  • CHECK FOR UPDATES is in SETTINGS > HELP. The launcher checks once on opening and offers INSTALL / LATER. Downloads are verified against SHA256SUMS.txt and the previous program is retained.
  • Update checks now compare the actual binary build, so a quick hotfix is not hidden by a 12-hour delay.
  • CHEATS has SEARCH across names, folders and descriptions, full scrollable details, and DATABASE INFO. Type or use the controller/touch letter chooser. Select a code for details; left/right switches it directly.
  • DS SAVE BACKUPS lists dated backups. RESTORE AND RESTART asks for confirmation and preserves the current save. Quick-state loading explains the risk of saving older progress in-game.
  • Includes GBA RetroAchievements and ARM64 Linux downloads. Windows uses the proven renderer/frame clock after testing found a slowdown in the experimental display-pacing path on a 240 Hz display; the corrected path measured about 59.8 FPS in two repeat tests.
  • Windows, Linux x86_64/ARM64, Switch and Android libraries compiled. Offline updater checks, cheat/search tests and isolated real-menu save-restoration tests passed. These builds have not been play-tested on every device.
  • Existing installations need this download installed manually once to gain the new updater.
  • Mac and iOS downloads remain unchanged. Source for tonight's hotfix is tagged hotfix-2026-11-01.

Pokémon Fulldex for Android: all seven DS games (Black 2, White 2, Black, White, SoulSilver, HeartGold, Platinum) and the GBA games (Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Ultra Violet) in one app, as one widescreen picture at 60 fps.

The same program as the Switch and PC downloads, for an Android phone: start it and pick the game from a list. Nothing of the games is in it: you bring your own ROMs.

Hotfix (1 November, evening)

  • The in-game clock catches up after the phone sleeps. Pokégear no longer stays hours behind overnight with the app still open.
  • LOAD STATE no longer replaces your in-game save with the older one inside the save state.
  • Backups of your saves: the last 8 versions of each, in a backups folder beside your saves.
  • The sparkles on the water no longer strobe (Black and White, with 60 FPS on).
  • No more white lines across the widescreen view in the snow (HeartGold and SoulSilver). Snow, rain and sand now fall in the sides of the wide view as well.
  • Moves that cross the battle stay in one piece (Flamethrower and the like).
  • No dark dot on the Fight button.
  • Cheats are listed in their folders. CHEATS opens the folders; ON NOW lists the codes that are on.
  • A move with a gap in its name (Rock Polish) can be chosen with the D-pad.
  • Fast forward no longer rushes the music.
  • SELECT and START sit at the top, beside MENU, so they no longer cover the game's buttons along the bottom.

Update (30 October)

  • A new name: Pokémon Fulldex, now that it plays GBA games as well as DS ones. Nothing moves: your ROMs, saves, settings and the download's file names are where and what they were.
  • New: GBA games. Pokémon Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen and Ultra Violet in the same list, in widescreen at 60 fps. Put the ROMs in the same ROM folder (FireRed and LeafGreen 1.0 or 1.1; Ultra Violet's .gba, or its .ips with a FireRed 1.0 ROM beside it). Other GBA games play too, without widescreen.
  • New: RetroAchievements. RETROACHIEVEMENTS in the pause menu: turn it on, LOG IN with your RetroAchievements account, and unlocks pop up as you play (casual mode: save states, fast forward and cheats still work). ACHIEVEMENTS lists the game's achievements; A on one shows what it asks for, when you unlocked it and how rare it is. You can also log in before playing: SETTINGS > RETROACHIEVEMENTS in the game list.
  • New: SOUND > VOLUME, in the pause menu and the game list's settings: a slider from off to 100%.
  • Fast forward on the touch controls: hold the >> button beside R at the top of the screen (up to 4x). R stays the DS's R.
  • The game list in tabs: ALL (a heading per console), DS, GBA and 3DS. Tap a tab to change it. Pokémon Omega Ruby is in the 3DS tab, COMING SOON.
  • New: the game list's look. SETTINGS > GAME LIST: COLOUR (red, blue, green, purple, gold, pink or teal) for the game list and the pause menu, and BACKGROUND: a picture of yours behind the games (background.jpg or .png in your ROM folder; best at 1920 x 1080).
  • New: no version exclusives. OTHER VERSION POKEMON in the pause menu (SoulSilver, HeartGold, Black, White, Black 2, White 2): where the two versions' wild Pokémon differ, each encounter can be either version's.
  • SoulSilver, HeartGold and Platinum: the European English copies work too.
  • Widescreen fixes (Black, White, Black 2, White 2): no more flicker at the sides as you walk (the ground, a tree and the rail on the stairs up to Aspertia's lookout); from the lookout, the sky and mountains reach both edges without stretching or cut-offs; rocks and lamp posts no longer vanish before they leave the screen.

Earlier: 29 October

  • New: change any controller button. CONTROLS > KEYS AND BUTTONS in the pause menu: give any DS button, the pause menu, fast forward or swapping the screens another button (triggers too). Giving one a button another one had swaps the two; RESET ALL puts them back.
  • Button prompts match your controller: the PlayStation symbols on a PS4 or PS5 pad, A / B / ZL / ZR on a Switch-style controller, Xbox names on others.
  • The pause menu in groups: RESUME, SAVE STATE, LOAD STATE and FAST FORWARD up top, then DISPLAY, GRAPHICS and CONTROLS, each a page of its own. The settings page in the game list opens on the same groups.
  • Game list: any gamepad works in it now.
  • Change buttons from the game list too: SETTINGS > CONTROLS > KEYS AND BUTTONS, before you start a game.
  • New: cheats (Action Replay codes). Put usrcheat.dat (the R4 / DeSmuME cheat database) or your own codes in a cheats folder inside your ROMs folder (beside saves), then turn them on with CHEATS in the pause menu. The README explains the files.
  • SoulSilver and HeartGold: Running Shoes from the X menu. The touch screen's button for them is out of view, so with the X menu open, Y (or a tap on RUN ON / OFF beside the menu) turns them on and off.
  • SoulSilver and HeartGold: the title screen and the opening film fill the view, with both of the DS's screens in it instead of one.

Download

  • pokemon-ds-wide-android.apk (Android 7.0 or newer, 64-bit phones)

Install

  1. Download the APK on your phone and open it. The first time, Android asks you to allow installing apps from your browser or Files app: allow it, then install.
  2. Put your ROMs in a folder on the phone (any names), for example ROMs in its internal storage.
    • Black 2, White 2, Black, White: any English copy (US or Europe).
    • SoulSilver, HeartGold, Platinum: any English copy (US or Europe).
    • Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Ultra Violet: in the same folder (see Update above).
  3. Start Pokémon Fulldex, tap the screen, allow access to files, and pick that folder. Tap a game twice (or press A on a controller) to play.

New builds install over this one and keep your saves and settings.

Controls

  • Touch: on-screen buttons (D-pad, A, B, X, Y, L, R, START, SELECT, and MENU at the top for the pause menu). Tap the picture itself to touch the DS's touch screen.
  • Controller (Bluetooth or USB: Xbox, PlayStation, Backbone, Razer Kishi and others): plays as a DS and hides the on-screen buttons. Start opens the pause menu, the right trigger fast forwards.
  • Settings: SETTINGS at the top right of the game list (or Y): every option in the pause menu, each explained.

Use your own save

Carry on from your own save: from another emulator, a flash cart or your real cartridge. Copy it into the saves folder inside your ROMs folder (made for you on the first start) under the game's name.

Game Save name
Black 2 / White 2 black2.sav / white2.sav
Black / White black.sav / white.sav
SoulSilver / HeartGold soulsilver.sav / heartgold.sav
Platinum platinum.sav
  • Which files work: a plain .sav, as melonDS, DeSmuME (Export Backup Memory), flash carts (TWiLight Menu++, R4 and the like) and cartridge dump tools (Checkpoint, JKSM, GodMode9) make it. A DraStic .dsv first goes through tools/bw2/convert_save.py.
  • Check it worked: the game list shows SAVE FOUND under the game (NEW GAME: not found).
  • Back up first: a save copied in replaces the one there under that name.

How fast a phone?

The 3D world is drawn by the processor, at 720P to start (3D RESOLUTION in the settings; turn on LOWER RES WHEN BUSY, off to start, to drop it for a moment instead of slowing down). Tested on a Pixel 9 Pro XL, where it runs at full speed. Other phones are not timed yet: please tell us how yours runs in a bug report, with your phone's model and the game.log from Android/data/io.github.mamesj.pokemonds/files.

Known limits

  • Tested on one phone so far (a Pixel 9 Pro XL) and Android's emulator.
  • Platinum: the Pokétch (the watch on the touch screen) isn't shown during normal play.
  • SoulSilver and HeartGold: at map borders (e.g. Route 29 / New Bark Town), parts of the neighbouring map pop in and out at the sides of the wide view.

Also on iPhone and iPad, Nintendo Switch and PC, Mac, Steam Deck and handhelds.

Enjoying it? Tips are welcome but never expected: buy me a coffee or PayPal.

Free software under the GNU GPL version 3, built on melonDS. A fork of ClickingMaster/ssrecomp. Pokémon is a trademark of Nintendo, Creatures and GAME FREAK; this project is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

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