Android Gets Saturn Support on RetroArch With New Beetle Saturn Update

Over the weekend, Libretro updated the Beetle Saturn core for its RetroArch emulation platform, bringing with it support for running Saturn games on Android devices.

Good news – not only has the updated Beetle Saturn core been rolled out right now on the buildbot, but for the first time ever it also runs on Android now! Pics taken from an S22 Ultra #RetroArch #BeetleSaturn #Android pic.twitter.com/WsKbIRt6OJ

— libretro (@libretro) May 28, 2022

Beetle Saturn is the Mednafen emulator ported to RetroArch’s Libretro platform, which runs a variety of retro console emulators within its framework.

The new update ports the latest version of Mednafen, version 1.29, to Beetle Saturn.

It’s the first major update in years — Beetle Saturn had been using Mednafen 1.22.2, which originally released in April 2019. You can read the litany of updates from 1.22.2 to 1.29 on this Pastebin page.

Libretro said the APK for the Android version of RetroArch needs to be downloaded directly from their website because the version on the Google Play store is outdated, having run into rules compliance roadblocks.

The release has at least one prominent issue — Saturn games in the CHD format won’t run on Android. Time will tell if that gets fixed in a future update.