Google has cracked down on developer Yongzh’s *oid video game emulation apps for Android. There has been no official explanation and no specific announcement of a new policy, but Consumerist is reporting that the apps have simply been removed from the marketplace.I checked. They’re gone.

Like everything else involving Google trying to exert some control over the Android landscape in any form, this effort has been half-assed. While the *oid games are no longer on the Marketplace, there are still dozens and dozens of rom-downloading crapware apps. Fortunately, there are also the Tiger King emulators, which have remained untouched, and include NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, GBA, GBA, and arcade (CPS1/CPS2/NeoGeo) emulators. They’re free, and while they don’t support save states, you can still save in games that use save files. Homebrew games, of course. Downloading roms is wrong and illegal and you shouldn’t do it.

Also, the *oid emulators are still available on the SlideME community marketplace. For the next two weeks, all emulators besides PSXoid are free, “to make Android Marketplace users who paid happy.” Nice work, Yongzh. Even nicer work, Google, for whom I am using an identical phrase but this time in a sarcastic manner.