[versteegen]

Wait... what? As someone who's always tried to target the oldest Android version I can which Google Play will still allow uploading (for a long time, Android 2.3), this is alarming. Why don't they run now? I don't actually play games on Android myself.

[Pxtl]

No idea of what API they're hitting but basically half of my old humble library won't run anymore - they show a warning about old APIs, show the title screen, then crash to desktop.

Even some old games I paid for are gone from the Play Store too. Like, I paid for Puffle Launch and it's just plain gone from my library.

Edit: ahah, I was looking in the wrong spot! Its still in my "not installed" list, just not in my "family library". Either way, not compatible with any device I own.

[exikyut]

Ah, 2011, the age of so many Angry Birds clones...

I just found https://archive.org/details/PuffleLaunchAPK and https://archive.org/details/PuffleLaunchAmazonAPK (both point to each other), with a note that says that the latter generally works and the former crashes. I can verify this; on my (Android 8, 32-bit compatible) device the Play version crashes with:

  08-10 14:55:03.864 25995 25995 E linker  : ERROR: OOPS:     0 cannot map library 'libmono.so'. no vspace available.
  08-10 14:55:03.864 25995 25995 D AndroidRuntime: Shutting down VM
  ...
  08-10 14:55:03.865 25995 25995 E AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
  08-10 14:55:03.865 25995 25995 E AndroidRuntime: Process: com.disney.PuffleLaunch, PID: 25995
  08-10 14:55:03.865 25995 25995 E AndroidRuntime: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Bad JNI version returned from JNI_OnLoad in "/data/app/com.disney.PuffleLaunch-rjdXjIyhGz7STdfxQ9xH2g==/lib/arm/libmono.so": 0

I'm always on the lookout for old interesting games, and maybe there are workarounds for the other titles in your library too. What's the list?

[versteegen]

I tried looking up that "no vspace available" error (which is the real error message) and found no explanation. I wonder whether it's something like trying to map a .so segment as memory that's both executable and writeable but it's no longer allowed? And IIRC Android's runtime linker was rewritten sometime around Android ~4 because the original was not very well written, so that might be the cause of the incompatibility. Come to think of it, the large parts of libc that were also completely replaced (mostly with code from OpenBSD and FreeBSD IIRC) because they were terribly buggy will probably cause compatibility issues too.

[Pxtl]

Puffle Launch wasn't an Angry Birds clone, it was the barrel scenes from Donkey Kong Country expanded into a full game.

One problem is that some games aren't just incompatible, but also were enshittified with ads and nonsense after I paid for them (before they were killed altogether).

Offhand, the ones I remember: a paid version of Angry Birds Space, Amazing Alex (Rovio's excellent take on The Incredible Machine), Swords and Soldiers (fortunately there's a Steam version of that), Noodlecake's "Wave Wave", Pool Break Pro, and some classic ports like Dead Space, Spy vs Spy, and Ur-Quan Master, but there are better non-mobile ways to play those games.