PES games on retro handhelds

B

buczer

Non-League
Joined
3 March 2024
Hi, I created this thread so we can share our experiences running PES on handheld consoles. I couldn't find anything like this on the forum, so… here we go. As we all know, this market has grown a lot in recent years, and many of us now have Steam Decks or other PC/Linux or Android handhelds.

To kick things off properly, I'd like to show you what I managed to do on a low-end Android console called the Mangmi Air X. I got it as an early-bird unit for 80 dollars (it's probably 10–15 dollars more now). Here are the specs:

Mangmi Air X
Android 14
CPU: Snapdragon 662
GPU: Adreno 610
RAM: 4 GB

With the current state of Android emulators, this little console can easily run PSX, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and PSP games. Some GameCube titles work too, though most PS2 games don't run well. It's a budget device after all; if you really want smooth PS2, you pretty much need to spend an extra 100 dollars on something like the Retroid Pocket 5.

But… PC emulation is still an option thanks to apps like Winlator, GameHub, and GameHub Lite. They aren’t exactly plug-and-play, but they’re surprisingly optimized. And if your Snapdragon device can load Turnip drivers, it might pull off things you wouldn’t normally expect.

Below you can see a video I recorded of PES 2013 (PC) running on this thing. It’s smooth as butter. Honestly, it blows my mind that you can carry PES 2013 in your pocket on an 80-dollar device. Maybe that just means I’m getting old.



Also, here you can find my recommended GameHub Lite settings for PES 2013 on the Mangmi Air X
https://www.emuready.com/listings/98b453e3-daef-411e-9d33-3d3009e12f98


Feel free to share your experiences with other handhelds!
 
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Been considering doing something like this for PES6. Or even just starting with Goalstorm and putting as many PES's on one as it can handle. I'm surprised how well it's handling '13 in your video!
 
Badger Mushroom said:
Realised most of my gaming these days is retro games, mainly Gamecube with a bit of arcade thrown in. After much mulling about getting a handheld device (almost got both a Switch Lite and SteamDeck at various points over the past year) I finally put a pre-order in for a Retroid Pocket 6.

One of the issues I've had is justifying the cost, haven't really wanted to splash out massive sums on something I've never really had before (with the exception of Gameboy Advance SP and DS Lite). I've gone for the 16-bit colourway with 12Gb of RAM, SD8Gen2 and stick on top (same as the top model below). All in it's cost around 220 quid, but doesn't ship til the New Year.

Retroid-Pocket-6-redesigns-kv.jpg
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Posted the above in another thread, currently got a Xiaomi pad 5 to play PES6 PS2 version. Runs pretty flawlessly considering the slightly older hardware
 
I made short instruction how to prepare/install/run PES 2013 on Android devices via GameHub Lite, maybe it helps someone some day.

Installation instructions for PES 2013 (PC) with PESedit v.3.8 on GameHub Lite 5.1.3 (Android)​


I assume that you already have PES 2013 and the PESedit 3.8 patch installed on your computer.


1. First, you need to copy the entire main folder of the game to your Android device or SD card (the one that contains files like pes2013.exe, settings.exe, and the img folder).

Let’s assume the game is installed on your PC at:
C:\Program Files\PES2013
Copy the whole folder to the SD card, for example to:
\windows_games\PES2013

Additionally, you must copy the folder that stores the so-called Option File, saves, etc. This folder is located at:
C:\Users\<your user name>\Documents\KONAMI
Copy the entire folder to your SD card as well, for example to:
/windows_games/KONAMI


2. On your Android device, in GameHub Lite, create a new container for the game using “Import PC games”.
In the top bar, select your SD card and locate the .exe file — in this example it would be at:
/windows_games/PES2013/pes2013.exe

After this process, a PES 2013 game icon will appear in GameHub Lite, but the game will not run yet.


3. In the next step, we will add a registry entry to the emulated Windows environment in order to “trick” it into thinking that the game has been properly installed.

First, we need to prepare a registry file for PES 2013 on the PC. This website will be helpful:
https://www.regfiles.net/registry/pro-evolution-soccer-2013-registry

It will generate the registry file for us. We need to provide the game’s CD-key and the installation path of the game inside the GameHub Lite container.

Important:
You must first check, inside the container desktop of the game (enter it in GameHub Lite via “Enter Container Desktop”) using the file browser, which drive letter your virtual disk has.
In my case, the SD card is always drive F:\, so the PES 2013 path would be:
F:\windows_games\PES2013\pes2013.exe

You can also specify the game version — I’m not sure if it really matters, but the last official version is 1.04.

After entering the data on the website, download the generated .reg file and copy it to your SD card, for example as:
/windows_games/pes13.reg

Next, on your Android device, enter the container desktop of the game in GameHub.
On the bottom bar of the desktop, click “Apps”, then “Registry Editor”, and use “Import Registry File…” to select your .reg file from the SD card

.
At this point, the game should start launching* but… squads will not be correct.

* assuming your device is powerful enough and GameHub Lite is configured correctly - here you can find community reports on what settings works on different devices, you can share there your own as well : https://www.emuready.com/listings?search=Pro+Evolution+Soccer+2013 )

To fully use patches with correct squads, you also need to copy the Option Files (KONAMI folder) to the proper Documents folder inside the container— and unfortunately, this is not that easy.

As far as I know, it is not possible to simply copy files in the container desktop file explorer like in Windows (at least it doesn’t work for me). If someone knows how to do this, please share.
Additionally, internal container folders are not easily accessible from the device using standard apps or even when connecting it to a PC. The next steps explain how to do this.


4. Download the “Files” app by “Marc apps & software” from the Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.marc.files


5. In GameHub Lite, check the local ID of your game — we will need it to find the Documents folder for the PES 2013 container.
Hover over the game icon, enter “View Details”, and at the top you will see a long string like:
local_95e56a776...
(The ID will be different for you.)
Remember it — not the entire string, just the first few characters (in my case: 95e56).


6. Open the previously downloaded Files app.
Find your KONAMI folder containing the PES 2013 Option File on SD card (in this example: /windows_games/KONAMI).
Select it, tap the three-dots icon (top right), choose “Copy to…”, then in the top-left dropdown menu scroll down and select GameHub Lite icon.

You will now see more folders. Navigate to:
data/files/usr/home/virtual_containers/<your local game ID from step 5.>/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents

Paste the entire KONAMI folder there.

After this process, the patch should work fully — kits and squads should be correct.


7. (Optional)
I’m not sure if this is strictly necessary, but it may be better to install the mono component in the container settings in GameHub Lite.
Go to “PC Game Settings” → “Component” → “Install Component” and select “mono” from the list.

I mention this because, as far as I know, the patch uses .NET, and mono is the component that emulates it.
This is probably required if you want to run PESEDIT.exe to customize the patch — for example, changing leagues (e.g. Bundesliga to the Argentine league, or 2. Bundesliga to the Spanish or English second division).

I did not test the customization options, so I can’t help much here. It’s possible that besides using PESEDIT.exe, you also need to replace the Option File — you would need to read the patch instructions.
I personally play with the default patch and didn’t experiment further.

BTW:
I also managed to run RealPatch26 for PES 2013 (season 25/26) in GameHub Lite. You can create a separate container for it and use a similar method as above.

On my low-end device (Mangmi Air X, Snapdragon 662), it runs slower than PESedit, so I gave up on it. It probably uses higher-quality textures.


Other options:

The installation process of PES2013 and PESedit v.3.8 is doable directly on Android devices inside the GameHub container. I passed through this process a few times both on internal and SD card and the time is not so dramatic - 30-45 min ?

Just install the vanilla game inside the container desktop, and then PESedit patch via exe installator on your device. Installation process on internal storage is always much faster than on SD card, but it is harder to pinpoint exe for shortcuts in Gamehub Lite (it's doable but you need to do something like this : https://discord.com/channels/1439701320490553357/1441751269575364628).

Basically I recommend installing games on SD card, the installation process is slower but you can easily choose exe for shortcuts.

But… PESEdit 3.8 is a relatively small patch (1-2 GB ?) developed in the time when the game was released (~2012-2013). Newer/recent patches usually are much bigger because of better textures etc. so installation of such patches directly on android could be really tough.
 
Badger Mushroom said:
Managed to get PES 2017 up and running on my Retroid Pocket 6. Very playable at just over 50fps, crazy you can do this nowadays

View attachment 404612
Click to expand...
May be cool, but playing in big TV or monitor and powerful PC still better and more comfortable.
I am also reading news, where Doom 3 launching on "microwave chip" (sarcasm), but still do not understand this trend.

Certainly, mobility is most cool, when you can have list of all your favourite games as a pack in "such small game platform", but on big TV and with close friends all emotions much brigher and smallest details of gameplay much more visible.

P.S. Simple my opinion, everyone for myself decides where to play and what comfortable for him.
 
@Sany023 that's fair, and at one point I would 100% have agreed with you. Now my wife dominates the TV, and I just wanted something where I could still sit on the sofa with my wife and get my gaming fix :)

The other thing I forgot to mention is the handheld I've got does display out. I've got a usb-c dongle that basically means I've got a console on the go. I've got to work away for a week soon, so can plug this in to a TV, connect a bluetooth controller and can play anywhere :)
 
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Handhelds are great and I've owned quite a few over the years. To me, it feels like a more personal experince, especially when the headphones are in, the world is blocked out and the only focus is the game. Plus, as mentioned, it's very convenient.
I've currently got a switch lite (collecting dust), Odin 2, Steam Deck oled and my new favourite the Anbernic RG477M which is a 4:3 emulation beast, and it's the one I'm currently using to play all my PS1 & PS2 WE/PES on.
 
PES4eva said:
Handhelds are great and I've owned quite a few over the years. To me, it feels like a more personal experince, especially when the headphones are in, the world is blocked out and the only focus is the game. Plus, as mentioned, it's very convenient.
I've currently got a switch lite (collecting dust), Odin 2, Steam Deck oled and my new favourite the Anbernic RG477M which is a 4:3 emulation beast, and it's the one I'm currently using to play all my PS1 & PS2 WE/PES on.
Click to expand...
As a "tech geek" partially, i am exactly understanding how cool can be own experiences with using "handhelds", simply note, that "it's a pleasure of little bit different kind".
 
Sany023 said:
As a "tech geek" partially, i am exactly understanding how cool can be own experiences with using "handhelds", simply note, that "it's a pleasure of little bit different kind".
Click to expand...
Yeah its a different experience than playing on a TV or monitor.
In my opinion gaming on a TV or monitor feels more like a deliberate event, where as playing on a handheld becomes more impromptu.
It's pretty chilled!
 
Vaporwave said:
How is the performance with WE9 and WE10 games?
Click to expand...
Top. I play all the WE/PES games upscaled to 1344p/FHD+
You may encounter the odd stutter at first but the more you play, the more the shader cache builds up (this will be the same for any android device using PS2 emulator) and then they all run fantastic upscaled. I use Nethersx2 Classic with Vulkan Render and X3 upscale. All other settings are default and they all run buttery smooth once shader cache is built up.
The one I've got is the 12gb Ram version but I don't think having the lower 8gb ram version will make a difference to PS2 emulation since the emulator doesn't even use 8gb of the ram anyway.
Also this device gives you a 120hz refresh rate which makes navigation etc amazingly smooth. The 120hz refresh rate is completely unique to a 4:3 handheld I think.
I got the chocolate bronze version but you can get it in Silver too if you prefer.
Id definitely recommend it if you're a D-pad player and you like 4:3 since that's the main focus of this system.
 
imdakine1 said:
Is this pc version using gamehub lite? I have RPG2 and want to try.
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Yeah, on G2 you can run pc versions of PES 2013 and 2017 for sure. Maybe PES 2021 on low graphics. Regarding PES 2017 even my low-end Mangmi Air X with snapdragon 662 can run it in nearly playable way in 30 FPS with disabled crowd. Based on my expirience you can achive the best performance of PES2017 emulation via latest winlator 10.1 developed by brunodev85, but G2 is much more powerful so you need to try.
 
buczer said:
Yeah, on G2 you can run pc versions of PES 2013 and 2017 for sure. Maybe PES 2021 on low graphics. Regarding PES 2017 even my low-end Mangmi Air X with snapdragon 662 can run it in nearly playable way in 30 FPS with disabled crowd. Based on my expirience you can achive the best performance of PES2017 emulation via latest winlator 10.1 developed by brunodev85, but G2 is much more powerful so you need to try.
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I saw that system on YouTube a while ago. I think they must be the new kid on the block because id never heard of them until I saw the video. Looks like a decent system. I'd say AYN, Retroid and Anbernic are leading the race on retro handheld though and of course the fellas at Ayaneo who went for the iPhone business model... Put the the price as high as possible to make people think it's the best product 😄
 
buczer said:
Hi, I created this thread so we can share our experiences running PES on handheld consoles. I couldn't find anything like this on the forum, so… here we go. As we all know, this market has grown a lot in recent years, and many of us now have Steam Decks or other PC/Linux or Android handhelds.

To kick things off properly, I'd like to show you what I managed to do on a low-end Android console called the Mangmi Air X. I got it as an early-bird unit for 80 dollars (it's probably 10–15 dollars more now). Here are the specs:

Mangmi Air X
Android 14
CPU: Snapdragon 662
GPU: Adreno 610
RAM: 4 GB

With the current state of Android emulators, this little console can easily run PSX, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and PSP games. Some GameCube titles work too, though most PS2 games don't run well. It's a budget device after all; if you really want smooth PS2, you pretty much need to spend an extra 100 dollars on something like the Retroid Pocket 5.

But… PC emulation is still an option thanks to apps like Winlator, GameHub, and GameHub Lite. They aren’t exactly plug-and-play, but they’re surprisingly optimized. And if your Snapdragon device can load Turnip drivers, it might pull off things you wouldn’t normally expect.

Below you can see a video I recorded of PES 2013 (PC) running on this thing. It’s smooth as butter. Honestly, it blows my mind that you can carry PES 2013 in your pocket on an 80-dollar device. Maybe that just means I’m getting old.



Also, here you can find my recommended GameHub Lite settings for PES 2013 on the Mangmi Air X
https://www.emuready.com/listings/98b453e3-daef-411e-9d33-3d3009e12f98


Feel free to share your experiences with other handhelds!
Click to expand...


Since PES 2013 seems to work perfectly, would PES 6 PC modded work also flawlessly ? (With GameHub Lite)
 
fmicablues7 said:
Since PES 2013 seems to work perfectly, would PES 6 PC modded work also flawlessly ? (With GameHub Lite)
Click to expand...
I tested the PC versions of PES 5 and PES 6 on the Mangmi Air X using several emulation solutions, including GameHub Lite and Winlator. I used patched Original Season builds from Sany’s installers. Unfortunately, the games are not playable — they suffer from severe and constant stuttering. I also experimented with various workarounds such as dgVoodoo and similar tools, which provided only minor improvements and did not fully resolve the issue. It is possible that some emulator parameters were not configured optimally by me, although I tried many different settings... Maybe also it's more a matter of these games being older and, for some reason, the emulators can't handle them (?)
 
buczer said:
I tested the PC versions of PES 5 and PES 6 on the Mangmi Air X using several emulation solutions, including GameHub Lite and Winlator. I used patched Original Season builds from Sany’s installers. Unfortunately, the games are not playable — they suffer from severe and constant stuttering. I also experimented with various workarounds such as dgVoodoo and similar tools, which provided only minor improvements and did not fully resolve the issue. It is possible that some emulator parameters were not configured optimally by me, although I tried many different settings... Maybe also it's more a matter of these games being older and, for some reason, the emulators can't handle them (?)
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Did you try implementing the stutter fix? You can find it on page 1 on Fabris PES 6 Original season patch.
Also, there's many forks of Winlator with varying per game degrees of performance. Eg Did you try Winlator Frost?
Also, the graphics driver may be important for performance too. Eg some games will perform better with Vulkan while other perform better with open GL. It may just be a case of finding the best Winlator version and best driver for that specific game. Some older versions of eg Vulkan can cause a playable game to become stuttery so newest isn't always best when it comes to emulation.
 
@fmicablues7 and @PES4eva you motivated me to take another look at emulating PC versions of PES games from the golden era on a budget Android device.
Basically, I tested on a low-end Mangmi Air X (CPU: Snapdragon 662, costing around ~$100):
  • PES 5 Original Season
  • PES 6 Original Season
  • WE9LE Geezer 05–06
I made some discoveries:

1. I tried to run these games on several emulators, namely GameHub 5.3.3, GameHub Lite 5.1.3, Winlator 10.1, and GameNative 0.7.9, and by far all the games run best on Winlator Cmod v13.1 — the difference is significant, on the order of 20 FPS or more.

2. Processor Affinity is important parameter to set - the games works better on 4 threads than 8.

3. Kitserver and its components (high-resolution graphics) make the game not very playable overall on this device — matches load slowly, but once you wait it out, the gameplay itself is fine. I’d say it’s smooth and looks good, around 30–40 FPS. I tried to turn off some kitserver single modules in kload.cfg to keep only kits, ball and faces but did not improve a lot, I suppose that stadiums are the biggest problem but even If I turn off stadium server it did not change nothing stadiums still were patched.

4. After detaching whole Kitserver, the game runs much more smoothly and becomes much more playable — so I think that if someone wanted to play the vanilla version of the game, it’s definitely doable on this budget handheld. I ran the games at medium resolution in qHD. They perform much better than PS2 emulation, and the image is noticeably sharper.

That’s it for the most important results. I can record how it looks if anyone is interested.
As for some questions — maybe someone here will know: are there any lightweight patches for these games that don’t use Kitserver? Or maybe ones with lower-resolution graphics? I could test them. Honestly, I don’t recall anything like that off the top of my head…

The funny thing is that PC versions of PES 2011 and PES 2013 works perfect on this device with 55-60 FPS in HD on Low details.

BTW, I’ve ordered an Ayn Thor Pro, so I’ll be testing how PES games run on a more powerful Android device with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (~$300 USD). It should arrive around April/May, so stay tuned 😉
 
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buczer said:
@fmicablues7 and @PES4eva you motivated me to take another look at emulating PC versions of PES games from the golden era on a budget Android device.
Basically, I tested on a low-end Mangmi Air X (CPU: Snapdragon 662, costing around ~$100):
  • PES 5 Original Season
  • PES 6 Original Season
  • WE9LE Geezer 05–06
I made some discoveries:

1. I tried to run these games on several emulators, namely GameHub 5.3.3, GameHub Lite 5.1.3, Winlator 10.1, and GameNative 0.7.9, and by far all the games run best on Winlator Cmod v13.1 — the difference is significant, on the order of 20 FPS or more.

2. Processor Affinity is important parameter to set - the games works better on 4 threads than 8.

3. Kitserver and its components (high-resolution graphics) make the game not very playable overall on this device — matches load slowly, but once you wait it out, the gameplay itself is fine. I’d say it’s smooth and looks good, around 30–40 FPS. I tried to turn off some kitserver single modules in kload.cfg to keep only kits, ball and faces but did not improve a lot, I suppose that stadiums are the biggest problem but even If I turn off stadium server it did not change nothing stadiums still were patched.

4. After detaching whole Kitserver, the game runs much more smoothly and becomes much more playable — so I think that if someone wanted to play the vanilla version of the game, it’s definitely doable on this budget handheld. I ran the games at medium resolution in qHD. They perform much better than PS2 emulation, and the image is noticeably sharper.

That’s it for the most important results. I can record how it looks if anyone is interested.
As for some questions — maybe someone here will know: are there any lightweight patches for these games that don’t use Kitserver? Or maybe ones with lower-resolution graphics? I could test them. Honestly, I don’t recall anything like that off the top of my head…

The funny thing is that PC versions of PES 2011 and PES 2013 works perfect on this device with 55-60 FPS in HD on Low details.

BTW, I’ve ordered an Ayn Thor Pro, so I’ll be testing how PES games run on a more powerful Android device with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (~$300 USD). It should arrive around April/May, so stay tuned 😉
Click to expand...
Nice.
I emulate PS2 most of the time on my handhelds purely because the PS2 has an epic variety of WE/PES. The Thor will easily emulate any PS2 WE/PES title upscaled to 1080p. Simply because the chip is superior to what you already have. Eg the PS2 emulator it's self doesn't actually use that much RAM.
As far as using a Winlator fork goes this might not mean you will see any performance boost in emulating PC games because it's going to be dependent on the state of Winlator and Winlator fork development. Although, that's come on leaps and bounds over the last year so I can't imagine it taking much longer to get almost perfect play on a lot of PC games.
 
Is this game released only on ps2 or is there a version for pc ? (I'm talking about winning eleven 7 international not pro evolution soccer )
PES4eva said:
View attachment 404814

This is my Anbernic RG477M playing WE7i in classic 4:3
Surprisingly comfortable handheld and the best Dpad I've ever used besides a Vita or Sega Dpad.
Click to expand...
 
buczer said:
@fmicablues7 and @PES4eva you motivated me to take another look at emulating PC versions of PES games from the golden era on a budget Android device.
Basically, I tested on a low-end Mangmi Air X (CPU: Snapdragon 662, costing around ~$100):
  • PES 5 Original Season
  • PES 6 Original Season
  • WE9LE Geezer 05–06
I made some discoveries:

1. I tried to run these games on several emulators, namely GameHub 5.3.3, GameHub Lite 5.1.3, Winlator 10.1, and GameNative 0.7.9, and by far all the games run best on Winlator Cmod v13.1 — the difference is significant, on the order of 20 FPS or more.

2. Processor Affinity is important parameter to set - the games works better on 4 threads than 8.

3. Kitserver and its components (high-resolution graphics) make the game not very playable overall on this device — matches load slowly, but once you wait it out, the gameplay itself is fine. I’d say it’s smooth and looks good, around 30–40 FPS. I tried to turn off some kitserver single modules in kload.cfg to keep only kits, ball and faces but did not improve a lot, I suppose that stadiums are the biggest problem but even If I turn off stadium server it did not change nothing stadiums still were patched.

4. After detaching whole Kitserver, the game runs much more smoothly and becomes much more playable — so I think that if someone wanted to play the vanilla version of the game, it’s definitely doable on this budget handheld. I ran the games at medium resolution in qHD. They perform much better than PS2 emulation, and the image is noticeably sharper.

That’s it for the most important results. I can record how it looks if anyone is interested.
As for some questions — maybe someone here will know: are there any lightweight patches for these games that don’t use Kitserver? Or maybe ones with lower-resolution graphics? I could test them. Honestly, I don’t recall anything like that off the top of my head…

The funny thing is that PC versions of PES 2011 and PES 2013 works perfect on this device with 55-60 FPS in HD on Low details.

BTW, I’ve ordered an Ayn Thor Pro, so I’ll be testing how PES games run on a more powerful Android device with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (~$300 USD). It should arrive around April/May, so stay tuned 😉
Click to expand...
The one thing I've found with PC emulation is it absolutely burns through battery life. You may be better considering the PS2 versions for more retro PES titles, can get a few hours of play at a time
 
Badger Mushroom said:
The one thing I've found with PC emulation is it absolutely burns through battery life. You may be better considering the PS2 versions for more retro PES titles, can get a few hours of play at a time
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For sure is more demanding than ps2 emulation, but battery consumption depends on emulator, settings and game you play. I.e. I can play PES2013 in gamehub about 4 hours which is totally ok for me, ps2 probably will be a little bit longer. Number of cores used/processor affinity is important setting here I suppose. I always tried to set it as minimum as possible for the game.
 
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