Talk:Nintendo 3DS emulators

Given that Citra was recently shut down and their source code repository removed, would it be wise to add a notice to the table listing that the project is in a state of, for lack of a better word, existence flux/instability?

Folium iOS app

Folium iOS App can play 3DS games. not listed. in the page. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/folium/id6498623389

Lime project

Before adding this project to here, we should give some time to assess its potential and especially viability: https://github.com/RyzenDew/Lime-3DS-Emulator Ahayri (talk) 17:44, 07 March 2024 (UTC)

Is there any point in even partially recommending Mandarine?

The only notable thing about this emulator is the sheer amount of drama it's involved in. Is there a reason why it's partially recommended? It doesn't really seem like they're doing anything particularly interesting. -MisterSheeple (talk) 16:44, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

And like clockwork they're already under fire for something else literally the same day I bring this up. Funny. https://twitter.com/MikageEmu/status/1834970652333191564 -MisterSheeple (talk) 00:33, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

Should "Citra and its forks" be replaced with Azahar in the main list?

Since the shutdown of Citra, Azahar has positioned itself as the best and most active replacement fork project. Should the main list recommend it instead of listing every Citra fork, most of which don't work as well as Azahar? There's still citra libretro of course, but we can leave just it instead of keeping dead links and outdated information about the now long dead Citra standalone. I believe this change would make the list both more up-to-date and more useful than its current form.

Should we add Azahar to the main emulators table?

It's been almost 2 years and Azahar has come out as the clear winner among the Citra forks. All others are either inactive or cannot be recommended for other reasons.

Ahayri, you reverted this edit to bring it to the main table because you want to have a separate Citra forks table on the page, but I don't really see the point in that. Most of the Citra forks on the existing table are obsolete. Making a separate table is kind of useless when there's so few viable options. Or if you'd prefer, we can keep the "good forks" in the main emulators section, and the rest of them can stay in a separate forks section, perhaps on the Citra page where the forks table already is. -172.71.194.62 14:25, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

I agree about the Azahar, but separating it while also keeping "Citra and its forks" in the main table could end up confusing readers. In my opinion, the cleanest approach would be:

* Add a separate Citra forks table directly in the main Nintendo 3DS emulators emulators section.

* In the primary table, change “Citra and forks” to simply “Citra” and mark it as “Not recommended”.

-Ahayri (talk) 14:54, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

I'm not opposed to this, but I still think Azahar should be in the main emulators table because it's different enough from the rest of the forks, with the main big differences being the removed support for encrypted titles and the completely different system setup process. It's getting to a point where you can't lump it in with the rest of the forks because of how different it's become compared to the original Citra, which the rest of the forks are still closer to. This is also made more difficult when in the "Citra and forks" columns for the features/peripherals and enhancements tables, there's always a note next to each one if only Azahar supports that feature. It would be better if Azahar has its own column to prevent confusion. People will usually look to the top of a table for the most recommended emulator, and Azahar is the best option right now, so if we don't include it there, it'll just get buried under all of the others, and people will probably pick Panda3DS instead of scrolling lower and looking at the Forks table. So I think it's really important that it goes there. I'm okay with making the other changes you suggested, but I really think Azahar belongs in the main table. -104.23.209.183 15:16, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Yeah bro, I really don't like how the features/peripherals and enhancements tables handle "Citra and forks" right now. Maybe we shouldn't split into separate tables at all. Instead, let's keep everything in a single main table but use rowspan for a "Citra forks" group row (rowspan), then list Azahar (and any other active ones) clearly under it. That way Azahar stands out as the top/recommended option without getting buried, and we avoid lumping it in with the obsolete older forks that are closer to original Citra. Go with your gut on the details, I'm good with whatever gets Citra situation properly highlighted in the main section while cleaning up the rest. - Ahayri (talk) 16:13, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Do you mean a colspan? I think a rowspan would complicate things more than it needs to. Honestly though, I still don't really understand the need for us to separate the table based on whether an emulator is a Citra fork or not. If you disagree with me on that, please explain why, but I'll explain my reasoning here:

I think that kind of thing still makes sense to do for Switch emulators because a lot of those forks are still in close competition, and there's not really any clear winner. One of them can validly be chosen over the other. But for 3DS, I don't think there's much need for this anymore after a lot of the forks that came up either got merged into each other or became inactive. So instead, we could just do forks like most other pages on this wiki do forks.

For example, let's look at the SNES emulators page. The emulators table there has ares, bsnes, higan, and lsnes. What all of these emulators have in common is that they're all directly or indirectly forked from the original 2004 version of bsnes. The 2004 version of bsnes was forked to become higan, higan was eventually forked to create the new version of bsnes, and higan was later forked again to create ares, while lsnes was directly forked from the new version of bsnes. And in the enhancements and peripherals tables for that page, they only differentiate between ares and bsnes (the new version), as those are the most popular forks in this complex fork tree. The rest of the forks are not included in the enhancements/peripherals tables at all. I think we can do something similar to that here without needing to discern to the reader which emulators are forked from Citra, because to them that's mostly irrelevant. They can still get that info from the Comparisons section. I say we should include Azahar, Borked3DS, Folium, Mandarine, and Citra MMJ in the emulators table, and only include Azahar in the enhancements/peripherals tables. We can probably completely remove PabloMK7-Citra and Lime3DS because those merged to directly become Azahar.

If we really must mention in the table which emulators are forked from Citra, then we can do something similar to what lsnes does and put "(based on Citra)" next to the names of the emulators that derive more heavily from Citra. But I would still rather not do this either, because it raises more complicated questions over which emulators are derivative enough to not be considered "based on Citra"

-162.158.155.135 17:29, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

What I meant was something like this example from the IBM PC emulator comparisons page. Other than that, I agree with your suggestions. What a mess this situation has become, huh. :) Ahayri (talk) 18:41, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

I see what you mean now. I'm not really sure if this would be ideal for the 3DS emulators page because some Citra forks will rank higher than other non-Citra emulators, so when you group them all together, you lose the ability to visually prioritize it. I would rather stick with what I mentioned earlier that lsnes does with the "based on Citra" in parentheses next to the name. -104.23.211.192 19:03, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Should I add this emulator?

https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/TWiLightMenu/releases/tag/v25.9.1

It's a launcher, not an emulator. Ilyagredasov (talk) 13:52, 16 August 2026 (UTC)