Akshay Gangwar / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A developer managed to port The Simpsons: Hit & Run for Android devices.
- The port requires the original game files and runs surprisingly well.
- It currently requires a controller to play, but touch controls could be added soon.
If you’re a fan of The Simpsons, you might remember a certain PC game that was often called the best Simpsons game of all time. Yes, I’m talking about The Simpsons: Hit & Run. While it’s no longer available to buy, if you still have the itch to drive around Springfield, you can now do so on your Android device.
A developer who goes by the name Carlox33 on GitHub has uploaded a fully working Android port of the game for anyone to install and play. However, it does require the original game files, which means you’ll need the original CD and a computer to access your Android phone’s “data” folder — because that’s where you need to paste the game’s assets.
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You will also need an external controller to play, because there are no touch controls yet. However, the developer said they’re working on adding touch controls soon as well.
In the meantime, you can connect a PlayStation or Xbox controller to your Android phone and start going around Springfield trying to solve all the weird, mysterious happenings around town.
I tried it out on a vivo X300 FE, and it runs really well. Of course, it should run well on a phone as capable as that because the minimum requirements listed on the GitHub page are incredibly low. Pretty much any phone from the last several years should be able to run this port without any issues.
Playing this game after so many years was quite a nostalgic experience, and I quickly found myself completely engrossed. The developer has done a great job with this port, and I would recommend it to any Simpsons fans.
The only thing that might trip you up is copying all the original game assets to your Android phone. Since Google tightened Android filesystem’s security, you can no longer access folders inside the “Android/data/” directory. The only way to do it is by connecting your phone to a PC. Or, in my case, since I use a Mac, I used ADB to copy all the files to the phone.
Fortunately, you won’t have too much trouble getting the game to run, as there’s a handy file with installation instructions in the GitHub repo.
Hopefully, the port won’t get DMCA’d out of existence, because it’s truly a trip down memory lane for anyone who grew up playing computer games in the early 2000s.
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