How to Play Android Games on PC

Bored playing the same old PC and Facebook games on your computer? Well, you can now play Android games on your PC with the help of an emulator. All you need to do is download the free app, type in the name of the game on its search box and install it to play right on your computer.

Bluestacks and GenyMotion top the list of popular Android emulators for PC. They can run almost all games, including newer titles. While the former can play all games effortlessly, you may need to tinker with settings on Jar of Beans. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to play some of your favorite games using these two emulators.

Step 1

Download Bluestacks and double-click on the set-up icon to start the installer. Make sure your computer is connected to the Internet when installing the emulator. The installer will download key components and then install the application on your PC.Click thumbnail to view full-size

Installing Bluestacks

Step 2

Once installed, you will be taken to the Bluestacks home screen. The display screen is well categorized into your favorite apps installed, game apps and utilities apps. To download and install a new game, click on the magnifying glass icon at the top-right corner of the screen.

To Download an Android game, click on the Search icon.

Step 3

In the Search for Apps text box, type in the name of the Android game you want to download, install and run on PC. Alternatively, you can also click on the “Games” button to get a list of games chosen by the emulator. These are some of the most popular Android games available on the app store.

Search Box

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Step 4

After typing in the name of the game on the search box, a drop-down menu will show a list of possible matches. Click on the game and Bluestacks will perform a quick search. It will then display the game title, this time with the install button. Click on install and wait for the emulator to search for the title via various app stores, including Google Play.

Step 5

The game will automatically get downloaded and installed. Many times, Bluestacks will show only the app stores (Amazon and Google Play) with the game enlisted on the store. You will need to click on the game once again to download it to your PC.

To play the installed game, click on My Apps and double-click on it. (Warning: Some games may crash while loading. Remember that Bluestacks is still in Beta-1 phase and it will take time to launch the complete bug-free version.)Click thumbnail to view full-size

Playing Games Using Jar of Beans

This free application is new and is updated regularly to get rid of bugs and glitches. It is a user-developed app and currently available via XDA developers forum. You may need to tweak some settings if you want to play Android games on PC with the help of this emulator. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Download Jar of Beans. The file size is around 180 MB. Double-click on the downloaded emulator to extract it to an empty folder. Make sure you create an empty folder first. Then extract all components to that folder.

2. Open the folder where you have downloaded Jar of Beans and double-click on the executable application.

3. Jar of Beans is open-source software and is still in its initial stages, so don’t expect it to be totally bug-free. It may also ask you to install additional components. For example, when I opened the app, I was asked to install HAXM drivers to facilitate hardware acceleration. I will have to install it to ensure Android games don’t run slow.

To install it, close the emulator and navigate to Extras > Intel > Hardware Accelerated Execution…. You will find this in the same folder. Double-click on the IntelHaxm file to install it and then re-launch the emulator.

4. Click on Start Android Default to begin emulation. Make sure you have 1024 MB RAM free to emulate games and apps. You will then need to select a USB drive or physical disk first in order to start emulation. Once ready, you can search for apps via the in-built search function or click on the Install apk button to manually install an .apk file stored on your PC.

5. You can also dabble with the settings to ensure optimal performance. Click on the Setting menu to your left and change the resolution, RAM requirement, screen rotation and device DPI. You can also select a preset from the list of preset if you don’t want to get into any tweaking hassles. Always choose the “Standard” or “Power” preset to get smoother performance.

All Screenshots, provided by the writer, courtesy of their respective emulator developers.