The important thing is that they are not “addictive” or have (a lot of) ads. I can recommend GCompris, SuperTuxKart and TowerJumper.

  • AdmiralDoohickey [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    4 days ago

    I tried to list everything I have played that can be emulated on an android platform, excluding very hard games or games with scary/adult elements.

    1. Easy-tier
    • Pokemon Fire Red / Leaf Green (GBA)
    • Pokemon Emerald (GBA)
    • Pokemon Platinum (DS)
    • Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue team (GBA)
    • Chrono Trigger (SNES or DS)
    1. Mid-tier
    • The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap (GBA)
    1. Hard-tier
    • Mega Man X / X2 (SNES)

    You can get most of the roms from Vimm’s Lair or CDRomance

    • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      vimms lair has been cracked down by nintendo and other companies so you can’t get much. cdromance too i think. i don’t remember.

      i highly recommend using myrient.erista.me (or an easier to use search-type tool via https://myrient.mahou.one/). for some advanced systems like the wii or ps3 you sadly need to convert the isos or roms into usable mediums.

      more cool shit at fmhy.net

  • tombruzzo [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    6·
    4 days ago

    If you download an app store like f-driod you can get good apps from there.

    My kids like this Libre Memory game which is Memory and nothing else. You can also download apps for them to draw and other games

    • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      6·
      4 days ago

      but that’s addicting person name dead :(

      i spent many hours on pixel dungeon and shattered pixel dungeon. it’s genuinely a solid roguelike but god damn it’ll become crack cocaine for some

  • PapaEmeritusIII [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    Balatro clown

    I guess it’s kinda addictive, but only because it’s really good. It doesn’t feel like it was cynically designed to be addictive, if that makes sense. No ads or microtransactions!

    • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      balatro’s a very high quality roguelike game but don’t make any kid get addicted to gambling please

      would uno be good? there’s this which is just souped up uno known as “hot death uno” based on an ibm pc game. updated in 2022

        • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          i know… but parents might not like it.

          my inlaws are very religious and if they saw balatro they may call it satanic especially cause of tarot cards

          that’s why i acted like this, some parents may not want their kid to play that game. it depends

      • Red_sun_in_the_sky [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        Oooh didn’t know this. I wanna play all over again. I was only familiar with the retroarch one.

        Yeah I have lost count of how many times I played it. But yeah I always end up giving up fighting the doctor.

        • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          2·
          4 days ago

          the closest i got to beating the game was when i was messing around on flashpoint and found the flash port of the freeware game

          i got to the core fight at the time lol

          • Red_sun_in_the_sky [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
            3·
            4 days ago

            Oh yeah. I’ve been meaning to dig into flashpoint. I tried old kewlbox games in it. Core fight is easy with machine gun but I would say not as hard as later fights. The aftermath of the core fight is sad af.

            • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
              2·
              4 days ago

              only had polar star, i let curly keep the machine gun

              would be cool if i mod the game for some reason but idk what i’d add lmao

              • Red_sun_in_the_sky [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
                3·
                4 days ago

                That’s fine too albeit harder. I have never seen mods but yeah it would be nice. To my knowledge there is only a save editor which can edit the stats and items.

  • MaoTheLawn [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    Morrowind android port

    no but on a real there’s a lot of android ports of old games that aren’t addictive, and all you have to do usually is click install on an apk file.

    Here’s one that requires a bit more setup than that if you’re techy - https://www.reddit.com/r/TrackMania/s/QDNYzg499o

    If that seems too tricky, I still highly recommend the original Trackmania Forever game if you’ve got ANY laptop. Super simple arcadey racing game - completely free - smooth as butter, lots of replayability, runs on anything, you can play against each other, has a track creator mode that’s easy to use, customisable cars - and on, and on. I used to play it when I was about 8-9 years old, then recently when I was babysitting I taught my cousin to play it - he was only 6 years old and loved it. Absolutely brilliant - I used to spend hours playing against my dad back in the day.

    • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      my toddlers can barely play minecraft or supertux, they’re used to those weird dress up games with ads and stuff. i can’t imagine them play morrowind.

      i know what i said about them playing minetest. they can’t build properly there

      have you tried rvgl? re-volt in general. cool game tbh

      • Meltyheartlove [love/loves, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        4·
        3 days ago

        I remember playing revolt that as a kid (split screen with my brother) and being somewhat amazed at the graphics. It was fun, I would recommend that for a kid. Kids easily get drawn to racing games and it never feels that addictive.

        • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          4·
          3 days ago

          also good clean fun, they’re just rc toy cars, not considered violence

          and genuinely fun tbh

        • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          3·
          3 days ago

          i was blinded by my attempt at playing the game where i freed slaves and got stuck fighting a banshee ghost or whatever and couldnt play anymore. oh and my inlaw and sister just made them watch tiktoks on their phones and i can’t get them off of the youtube shorts so i sadly can’t get them in the garden much. they DO do stuff in the garden but i can’t do shit about the slop

          ngl trackmania’s cool as fuck, but winlator requires the beefiest of hardware. i don’t know if the op has like super strong android tablets or like me, degoogled android 5 e-waste that i tried very hard to revive.

          rvgl is a goofy physics based racing game with toy cars, tar, bowling balls and firecrackers and has a native android port. check it out!

          • MaoTheLawn [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
            3·
            3 days ago

            Yeah I think the best way to play Trackmania is just to get an old laptop/desktop. It’s such low software requirements you could probably get one for £40

            Revolt is also a classic yeah, I remember lots of RC car type games around that time. There was a great one the Lego technic racers webpage of all places.

  • lelkins@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    61·
    3 days ago

    don’t forget luanti. kids love that minecraft stuff. so many options there. spin up a server if you’re into that and know how to port forward and stuff, champloo

    supertux too. my nieces play supertux sometimes along with luanti but on some dogshit android 5 tablets that can’t even get “new games”. they pester me but hey they play that foss stuff lol

    (now please help me disable youtube shorts on tvs i am getting sick and tired help)

    ((edit: i got so used to the old name of luanti sorry))

      • prole [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        Idk I was a weird kid who got into civ when I was ~10, but you’re right that it might be too complicated for some children. There’s another old game (like 30 years old) called Slay that looks a lot like this Feudal Tactics game, but I don’t think it’s foss. I’m actually kinda wondering if this is a foss version of it

  • hello_hello [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    6·
    4 days ago

    If you want just a game that’s realistically super fun and kids can sink time into and engage with you can try the PvZ2 Altervz mod.

    It has daily challenges but there are no microtransactions, ads, or any other malicious feature. Setup is a little tricky depending on which OEM you have (involves moving a file into a directory that might be hidden by default), but this is probably one of the best options.

  • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    4 days ago

    Monument valley? The problem is it actually ends, eventually.

    Or idk, old GBA games on an emulator? I spent way too much time on Pokémon blue growing up.

    Oh definitely have them play old Zelda games. A link to the past is my fav.

    • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      Yeah, if I had kids, I’d give them emulated Gameboy games and lock the internet to avoid them getting ads or microtransactions or anything like that.

      Kids would still enjoy those Mario, Pokémon, and Mega Man games, right?

      Also, they’d be free and you could probably add hundreds.