If you had a phone running Gingerbread, you probably had a tiny screen (3.5 to 4 inches max), a physical or sluggish virtual keyboard, and just enough RAM to be dangerous. Yet, the games? They were built differently. They had to be.

Today, you can still find these relics. Sites like Archive.org preserve the .apk files. Old phones like the HTC Evo 4G or Samsung Galaxy Ace run them like champions. Firing one up is a time machine—a reminder of when mobile gaming was scrappy, experimental, and entirely yours.

So here’s to Android 2.3.5. To 256MB of RAM and external SD cards. To tilt controls that actually worked. To the games that taught us that you don’t need a flagship phone to have a flagship experience.

Long live Gingerbread. Would you like a curated list of the best actual games still compatible with Android 2.3.5?