Popular N64 emulator MegaN64 has been pulled from Play Store due to malware

The Nintendo 64 Emulator MegaN64 for Android has been removed from the Google Play Store. According to the Play Store, the app had more than 10 million installs. Presumably, the malware has been there since September 2018.

Google reports to users who have installed the app that Play Protect has found malware in the app. According to a notification thread on Reddit, MegaN64 was pulled from the Play Store on March 2. When Play Protect detects that a Play Store app contains malware, it also removes it from a user’s phone.

In January, Reddit user Reiley360 reported that MegaN64 was using very large amounts of data, even though he hadn’t opened the app itself “for quite some time.” He claimed that MegaN64 had burned more than 20GB of data on Wi-Fi and 249MB on mobile networks. He also suffered from pop-ups in the form of a Chrome tab that opened a page called ‘livemobilesearch’. Two other users say they were also affected by the pop-ups.

The Redditors also state that they have tried to contact the developer twice, but he or she has not responded. According to Reiley360, the malware has been present since an update that came out in September 2018, because after that the data usage started and that was the time of the last update.

MegaN64 was a modified copy of Mupen64, an open source N64 emulator that is on the Play Store in various forms, but also exists for other platforms. Other variants of Mupen64, such as Mupen64Plus FZ, are recommended as an alternative to MegaN64. It is also actively maintained and the developer is active on Reddit. Remarkably enough, according to the Play Store, this app has ‘only’ more than 1 million installs.