Treat the APK like a normal install. Ignore the "designed for older Android" warning. When opening for the first time, grant All Files Access (critical for The Sims 1 to read user data).

9.5/10 Lost half a point because you still can't easily type cheats without a Bluetooth keyboard. Have you installed The Sims 1 on ExaGear recently? Share your custom neighborhood screenshots in the comments below. For more guides on running Windows 98/XP games on Android (RollerCoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, and Age of Empires 2), check out our ExaGear Updated Masterlist.

Old ExaGear crashed on launch due to libhoudini (Intel’s binary translator) deprecation.

For nearly two decades, the holy grail of mobile simulation gaming has been elusive: playing the original, uncensored, gold-era The Sims 1 (Complete Collection) natively on an Android device. While The Sims FreePlay and Mobile exist, they lack the gritty charm of the 2000 original—the haunting piano build mode music, the tragic clown painting, and the stress of watching Bob Newbie set his grill on fire.

| Action | Old ExaGear (2022) | | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Boot time | 2 minutes 10 sec | 38 seconds | | Neighborhood pan | 12 FPS / Stutter | 60 FPS / Smooth | | Build Mode (wall tool) | Input lag (200ms) | Instant (<20ms) | | Live Mode (8 Sims) | Crashes after 10 min | Stable for 2+ hours | | Sound crackling | Severe | Minor (fixable via winecfg) |

Game saves corrupt when rotating screen Fix: Lock your phone to Portrait mode before launching ExaGear. The emulator hates orientation changes.

Enter . For years, this Windows emulator for ARM devices was the only way to play PC classics on the go. However, as Android OS evolved (Android 13/14/15), official ExaGear became broken, laggy, and abandoned.

"Failed to initialize DirectDraw" Fix: In ExaGear settings, force Software Rendering in the Wine configuration ( winecfg > Libraries > add ddraw as "Native then Builtin").