Windows translator makes PC games run on Android — Fallout 4 demoed at 30 fps using Winlator app

Christopher Harper
·2 min read
ETA PRIME running his GOG copy of Fallout 4: GOTY Edition on his Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 (also tested on Android handhelds).
ETA PRIME running his GOG copy of Fallout 4: GOTY Edition on his Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 (also tested on Android handhelds).

As spectacular as PC is as a gaming platform, few can argue the sheer market penetration and hardware power of current-generation Android devices— but their Arm architecture and non-Windows OS mostly lock them into their own ecosystem outside of PC. Fortunately, this is starting to change, as highlighted by a Fallout 4 testing run and setup tutorial by the ever-intrepid ETA PRIME on YouTube. It seems that an existing open source solution called Winlator (a la 'Windows translator') already pushes us most of the way toward viable Windows gaming on Android devices.

But now that we've gotten the good news out of the way, we need to start digging into brass tacks and caveats. First up, you aren't going to be using Winlator with your Steam library or any other major Digital Rights Management (DRM)-focused storefronts. Any games or other Windows applications you attempt to run using Winlator need to be DRM-free, which currently means this is an avenue only available to pirates and GOG users.

Besides that, this process, of course, requires several more steps and minutes of setup than your typical gaming PC, Steam Deck, or other alternative handheld PCs. While the final result does indeed work, and we're able to see 30 FPS stable in Fallout 4 on current-generation Android hardware, ETA PRIME still needed to make graphics settings changes to an .ini configuration file to achieve desirable play.

So, while playing some Windows games on Android is now definitely viable through Winlator, you're pretty much sacrificing all of the accessibility that would normally come with Android gaming and introducing yet more complexity into the already sometimes frustrating PC gaming environment.

Progress on gaming solutions that help us move away from Windows is always nice to see, though. Valve's Proton for Steam Deck and Linux PCs has been fairly successful in that regard, and Winlator actually builds on existing FOSS (Free and Open Source) software like DVVK, Wine, Box86, and more to achieve its results on Android.