Favorite Android (Google Play hosted) games -- premium & IAP

[noiseredux]

I'm fairly certain Google Play can be easily sideloaded on this. So I guess I just want to know that it would handle the usual games. Like say Fire Emblem Heroes as an example. That'd work fine on this?

[Exhuminator]

GooglePlay sideloaded

Yes



As to whether Heroes will play on it, I have no idea. I would advise to just buy a real Android tablet honestly.

[noiseredux]

it does

[fastbilly1]

If you're wondering why board games, it's because both my wife and I enjoy them. We've got a large Android tablet kept in the bed drawer full of games like this, and we tend to play them at night just before she goes to sleep. I really appreciate all the virtual board games on Android, as they are quick to initiate (compared to setting up a physical board game) and support suspend mode to continue game sessions. I'm thinking about creating a thread just about Android versions of board games actually.

1. I fully support a thread about that, being that android boardgames are my most played android games.
2. What kind of tablet do you use?

My issue with Horus Heresy are the same as with modern GW games - Rules should never be deep in blocks of flavor text.

[noiseredux]

1. I fully support a thread about that, being that android boardgames are my most played android games.

I'd support that as well.

[marurun]

Middle device is the Fire you inquired about.

https://developer.amazon.com/public/sol ... nt-devices

Yup, Amazon actually makes available all the specs. I know in the Android space what can run what isn't always super clear, but this should help.

[Exhuminator]

2. What kind of tablet do you use?

We've been using this:



I'll see if I can't get that Android board game thread started sooner rather than later.

[fastbilly1]

2. What kind of tablet do you use?

We've been using this:



I'll see if I can't get that Android board game thread started sooner rather than later.

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... =6&t=51090
I may have gotten tired of waiting.

[noiseredux]

NOTE: this will probably be tl;dr, but please skip down to the bottom in case you can answer my question...


Ok, so Amazon was running a Kindle sale this week. My wife needed a new one. I did not need a new tablet. ("Don't you already have a lot of tablets?" -my wife). But I do love a bargain. And these things have gotten some impressive reviews for the price, so I watched some vids to confirm they could run things like Fire Emblem Heroes (yup!) and grabbed the Valentine's Day bundle which included a blue Kindle and a pink Kindle.

So here's some thoughts about gaming on a super cheap Kindle so far...

The first things I did was side-load the Play Store and popped in a 128GB microSD card that I had around. This was smooth sailing. And I had no issues installing Fire Emblem Heroes and Tiles & Tales. I had to manually move them to the SD card, but both games loaded up quickly and played great on this thing. No sluggishness or anything. Although the wifi is only a single band 2GHz, I was impressed with the range on it and how well it stayed connected. By contrast, my Shield tablet has a dual band 2/5GHz but seems to have much lower range.

The screen is lower resolution, and an inch smaller than I'm used to (insert: "that's what she said" joke here), but I actually find the Kindle quite comfortable to use for gaming. It is a bit thicker than the Shield as well, but somehow the size/weight of it is easy to hold w/ one hand and feels more like a 'portable' gaming device. The Shield's screen for instance is beautiful to look at, though playing stuff like Pinball Arcade can feel a little awkward as touch controls are at the bottom of the screen, and it starts to feel a bit top heavy holding the tablet that way.

Unfortunately FireOS can only view the SD card as external storage. There's no way to merge the SD and treat it as internal such as on recent versions of "real" Android. This can create a bit of a problem. While this model has 8GB of internal storage, a good 5GB is eaten up by OS and bloatware. For instance, I was thrilled to find that the Play version of XCOM Enemy Within could be installed on the Kindle (it would NOT load on the Shield oddly enough - wouldn't even work when I side-loaded it there). However, the 3GB I'm left with is not enough to install it. I've got almost a full 120GB free on the SD card, but you can't download the app TO the SD card, and there's not enough space on the internal storage to do the download/install so that I can then move the app over.

***THIS IS THE PART YOU SHOULD JUMP TO IF YOU WERE TOO LAZY TO READ THE ABOVE***

1. So is there any way to clean up some of this bloatware without rooting? I've heard of some ways to remove "non-removable" apps on Android OS's via "developer modes" or something... I don't know about this stuff.

2. If no, has anyone ever rooted a Kindle? I've really never messed w/ rooting ANY Android device to be honest. And never really seen a real reason to do so.


Anyway, so far my conclusion has been mostly very positive. This cheap Kindle is not the beefiest hardware and yet seems shockingly competent considering.

[Tanooki]

Between my nexus that's long gone and the shield is that under the system panel you have at the bottom the 'about' area which has serial #, android version etc. One of those in android if you tap/hold for like over 5 sec it creeps open a new permanent option of dev tools. Google and see which it is, then try it as it couldn't hurt. Seems fairly unreasonable they'd gimp the thing that hard with a bit of software shenanigans. My shield felt at times small with the 16 it has after I stuffed a couple oversized apps on there, but once I got the 64GB card put into it it almost felt too unused (and it has been.)