The Simplest Way to Run HoMM 3 on Your Android Phone

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Ah, the legendary 3DO. Even though its lifespan was short (just 12 years), it will forever be remembered for two things: the 3DO console itself and, of course, the Might & Magic series. In partnership with New World Computing, they brought the saga to its conclusion—although, as is often the case, the later installments weren’t exactly the pinnacle of quality.

Personally, I never got the chance to own the console (but hey, it’s never too late). What stayed with me was the epic adventure that began way back in 1986 with Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum and wrapped up with Might and Magic IX: Writ of Fate a whole 16 years later. Yes, I do acknowledge the existence of Might & Magic X: Legacy, but honestly I consider that game a tribute to the franchise, rather than a direct sequel to M&M IX. Besides, it was made by a completely different studio (props to them for trying).

The Heroes Connection

Running HoMM 3 on Android—The Easy Way

And that’s exactly why I decided to explore the current options for getting HoMM 3 up and running on a modern Android phone, without having to spend an entire evening tweaking scripts and fiddling with files and folders that haven’t been touched since the early 2000s. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are reliable and user-friendly methods (actually, just one, but read on) that deliver the full experience in just a few steps.

But before we dive in, one thing is absolutely essential—you need to own a copy of the game. If, for whatever reason, you don’t (or your old CDs refuse to work), just grab it online for next to nothing. For a reference, in this guide I am using Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Complete from GoG.

Tried and Failed: Other Android Options

Before writing this, I did some digging to see what options are out there for playing HoMM 3 on Android—not just running it somehow, but actually playing it properly. That’s when I found out that Ubisoft once had an official port of the game, but sadly, it’s been pulled from Google Play… because, well, Ubisoft.

The second option is the classic Winlator + Wine combo, but from what I tested, the experience was so rough it felt more like a proof of concept than something you’d actually want to play.

That brings us to the third and best option: VCMI. It delivers such a smooth and well-designed experience that even some big-name studios would be impressed. So let’s kick things off there.

VCMI for Android: The Head-On Approach. Nice and Easy.

VCMI actually stands for “Vinyar Callor Meletyo ar Ingoleo”, which roughly translates to “New Heroes of Might and Magic.” And no, that’s not Latin or Ancient Greek. It’s Quenya, a construct language created by J.R.R. Tolkien for the elves of Middle-earth.

VCMI isn’t an emulator,mod, or a port. It’s an open-source project aiming to recreate the entire H3 engine from scratch. While it’s technically not 100% complete, development is very active—and the experience is nearly flawless. Some might argue that if the engine isn’t original, then the experience can’t be either. I’d disagree. Not only does VCMI replicate everything the original engine did—it actually improves on some aspects. Especially when it comes to mod support and how easy it is to install and manage them.

There’s just one caveat: the HD Edition from Steam is not supported—not on Android, not on any other platform. But in return, VCMI brings its own high-resolution options and a slew of quality-of-life improvements for the game’s interface.
_{Edit, it seems the developers added experimental support for that version too, but results may vary.}

And here’s the kicker—VCMI has full online multiplayer support, and yes, it works.

How to install and setup VCMI on Android

Step 1:

Install VCMI from Google Play, or visit the official website if you prefer to sideload the APK onto your Android device.

Step 2:

Once installed, you have two options:

1. Install the game by selecting the GoG installation files, or
2. Manually copy the game folder and point VCMI to it.

I’ll use the second method, since not everyone owns the same version of the game.

Step 3:

In the root of your device’s Internal Storage, create a new folder (use any file manager, or connect your device to a PC) — name it something like “Win Games”. Inside that, create a subfolder named “HoMM3”.
Place all your Heroes 3 files and folders into this folder.
Your path should look something like:
/Internal Storage/Win Games/HoMM3

Step 4:

Once the files are copied, open VCMI and tap “Copy existing data”.
This will launch the file manager. Navigate to:
/Internal Shared Storage/Win Games/HoMM3
Then tap “Use this folder” at the bottom, followed by “Allow”.

If your device seems frozen at this point, don’t panic—just give it a minute. The HoMM3 folder is about 1GB, and VCMI needs time to scan and index the files.

When the next screen appears and you see “Heroes III data files” with a green progress line—congrats, you’ve successfully installed the game! Just tap “Next”.

Step 5:

Here, you’ll choose which base mods to enable.
I recommend keeping “Interface Improvements” checked, and enabling any expansions you want to use:

• Horn of the Abyss
• In the Wake of Gods

Then tap “Finish”.

Step 6:

The next screen shows a list of available mods.
If this is your first time, I suggest skipping it for now—you can always add mods later.
Just tap the “Game” icon in the upper left corner, followed by “Play” at the bottom right and watch the magic happen. If everything went right, you should see the white 3DO logo coming up.

Here is a video of me starting a new campaign.

And that’s it — you’re all set to enjoy Heroes of Might & Magic III right on your Android device. If you’re feeling competitive, you can even hop into the multiplayer lobby by starting a new game and selecting “Multiplayer”. Just a heads-up: online activity can be a bit quiet at times, especially since VCMI only added proper multiplayer support starting from version 1.5.

Before we move on, yes—you can connect a mouse to your phone, and yes, it works perfectly with VCMI. Even right-clicking works as expected (instead of triggering the usual Android “Back” action). That said, the touchscreen controls are so smooth and intuitive that I honestly doubt you’ll even feel the need to use a mouse.

Winlator: A Promising Tool, But Not Quite There Yet

No offense to the Linux and Wine fans out there—personally, I think Winlator is a brilliant piece of work with a very bright future ahead. That said, like any ambitious project of this kind, the early days are always rough. And yes, Winlator is still very much in its early days.

First things first: if you’re trying to run Heroes of Might & Magic 3 Complete (GoG version), it simply won’t work. No matter what settings you try, the issue lies elsewhere. You see, GoG—trying to improve compatibility with modern versions of Windows—actually patched the main executable (Heroes3.exe) and replaced ddraw.dll with their own version called xdd.dll. And they did this without bothering to document it anywhere.

The result? The game just refuses to launch. No error messages. Nothing.

Luckily, the fix is straightforward.

If you have access to a Linux machine, open up a terminal and navigate to the folder where Heroes3.exe is located. Then run this command:

sed --in-place 's/xdd\.dll../ddraw.dll/' Heroes3.exe

That’s it—the file is patched, and the game will now run under Winlator.

It’ll run… but the real question is: how well?

Spoiler: Not quite well enough

At first, I was pleasantly surprised that the game even runs at all (somehow) — with minor graphical glitches, the occasional audio pop, and other small issues. But hey, it runs. I tried every possible combination of Windows environments, graphics drivers (Turnip Adreno, Vortek, VorGL), DirectX wrappers (Wine3D, DXVK, VKD3D, CNC DDraw), and more. The results were… predictably average. Compared to VCMI, the difference was noticeable — and not in a good way. As expected, the multiplayer menu doesn’t work, but the campaign was playable despite the little quirks popping up here and there. Here are the settings that worked best for me:

If you’ve got an adventurous spirit, feel free to tinker with Winlator yourself. It’s free, and learning how it works could come in handy down the road. That said, when it comes to HoMM3 on Android, it’s clear that VCMI takes the win.

And with that, I’ll wrap this up — this post turned out way longer than I expected. For anyone interested in playing retro PC games on Android, I’d definitely recommend following this blog. We’ve got more like this coming soon.

Hmm… Red Alert 1 on Android? Why not — I’ll shake the tree and see what falls out.

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Martin Janov

Links for everything used here

VCMI Official Website
VCMI on Google Play
Winlator Official Website
Heroes of Might and Magic® 3: Complete (GoG)