56 points diasks2 | 1 comments | 25 Aug 25 06:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.324s | source

I developed a game called "Putter King Adventure Golf" for iOS and Android back in the 2010s. It's long since disappeared from the app stores, but my son recently asked if he could play it, which got me thinking about whether it might be recoverable.

I'm wondering if there's any way to find a copy of it somewhere on the web (I assume it was probably pirated at some point during its lifetime). And if I could find it, what would be the best approach to get it running again?

Has anyone here successfully recovered and revived their old mobile apps? I'd appreciate any suggestions on:

* Where to look for archived APKs or IPAs * How to sideload/run old mobile apps on modern devices * Whether emulators might be a viable option

Show context

jimkleiber ◴[26 Aug 25 13:36 UTC] No.45026359[source]▶

>>45010951 (OP) #

I'm not sure where to find the APKs/IPAs, but once you do, I wonder if using Claude Code or some other LLM tools could help you update the app (or reverse engineer) for modern OS versions. It's something that I've been thinking to do for my 2012 obsoleted microjournaling app.

replies(2): >>45027567 #>>45039206 #

1. reactordev ◴[26 Aug 25 15:02 UTC] No.45027567[source]▶

>>45026359 #

They could, but then so can a lot of tools. At least with Android, it’s still Java so you can just emulate the runtime and run the app. To upgrade, just decompile the Java bytecode back into something editable.

I had this same issue with one of my “long lost” games only, it wasn’t a mobile game but a console game, so Ghidra was my only hope.

↑

Ask HN: How can I recover and run my old mobile game from the 2010s?