While unfortunate, it's not difficult to still run AetherSX2 or its successor, NetherSX2. There was some drama around the Play Store version of AetherSX2 anyway. The Play Store version had ads.

If you want to run an older version of AetherSX2, I recommend v1.5-3668. I believe that is the last version before ads were added. It is missing some performance improvements though. At this point you would have to find an APK of it to install manually.

What I really recommend is to use NetherSX2, which is the successor to AetherSX2. There are two versions, Classic and Modern. Classic is generally the better performer unless you want to run certain games - specifically snowblind engine games (Baldur's Gate, Champions of Norrath). You just download the patcher from github, download an APK of AetherSX2, run the patcher, and copy/install the resulting APK file.

[–] Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

I’ve just stuck with AetherSx that came on my Retroid, though I’ve heard of Nethersx also. When you say Modern can run the Snowblind engine games, does that mean that fire doesn’t tank the frame rate on that version? You can’t have both classic and modern installed at the same time, can you?

[–] Tier1BuildABear@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You're right about 3668, and the play store version also has worse performance. The classic is like a "reskinned" 3668 and the modern is a "reskinned" play store version that removes ads and fixes issues.

I haven't tried nether yet, only aether 3668, how's it compare?

[–] jecht360@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

I haven't noticed a huge difference between NetherSX2 classic and 3668, but the only thing I've been playing is FFX International. Both play it just fine on my device (Moto One 5G Ace running LineageOS).