Changes

|discontinued = 2013

|predecessor = [[Game Boy Advance emulators|Game Boy Advance]]

|emulated = {{✓}}

}}

The '''[[wikipedia:Nintendo DS|Nintendo DS]]''' (NDS) is a handheld console produced by Nintendo and released on November 21, 2004, and had 2 ARM CPUs (ARM9 and ARM7) with 4 MBs of RAM and was priced at {{Inflation|USD|149.99|2004}}. The main selling point was the use of dual screens for gameplay, with one being a touchscreen. It is the only console to have come close to the [[PlayStation 2 emulators|PlayStation 2]] in lifetime sales (154.02 million units), as a result of attracting a large number of casual players, and even non-gamers, into the gaming community.

==Emulators==

! scope="col"|Name

! scope="col"|Platform(s)

! scope="col"|Latest Version

! scope="col"|[[#Enhancements|Enhancements]]

! scope="col"|[[#Hardware_features_and_accessories|Hardware features<br/>and accessories]]

|[[melonDS]]

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|FreeBSD}}

|{{✓}} ||{{~}} ||{{~}} ||[https://melonds.kuribo64.net/board/forum.php?id=3 ?] ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}

|-

|{{✗}} ||{{~}} ||{{~}} ||? ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}

|-

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux}}

|[https://gitlab.com/TASVideos/BizHawk/-/pipelines Dev builds]<br/>[http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk/ReleaseHistory.html {{BizHawkVer}}]

|align=left|{{Icon|Android|Pandora|Pyra}}

|[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dsemu.drastic&hl=en_US&gl=US {{DraSticVer}}]<br>[https://pyra-handheld.com/repo/apps/32 0.1 Pyra]

|-

|[[melonDS]]<small> (unofficial)</small><br/><small>[https://docs.libretro.com/library/melonds/ melonds_libretro]</small>

|align=left|{{Icon|Android|iOS}}

|{{✓}} ||{{~}} ||{{~}} ||? ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}} <small>(WIP)</small>

|-

|[[Delta]]

|align=left|{{Icon|iOS}}

|{{✗}} ||{{?}} ||{{?}} ||? ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}}

|-

|-

|[[NooDS]]

|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||? ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}} <small>(WIP)</small>

|-

|[[DeSmuME PSP]]

|align=left|{{Icon|PSP}}

|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||[[DeSmuME PSP|26%<br/><small>16 out of 63 reported titles </small>]] ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}}

|-

;[[DeSmuME]]

:DeSmuME has had significant improvements since 2018; new features include less CPU/GPU resource usage and high-resolution 3D rendering, and Wi-Fi emulation has been reintroduced in the latest builds. v0.9.13 from May 2022 is the first "Stable" build in over 7 years and is highly recommended over all previous builds (though dev builds are also generally very usable). [[OpenEmu]] uses a shallow fork of the v0.9.11 build and should be avoided as well.

;[[DraStic]]

;[[No$|No$GBA]]

:Focuses on speed, and has major compatibility issues and glitches as a result. Because it was initially a GBA emulator, the DS' 3D features are still very poorly handled. '''It's a good option for low-end machines, but don't expect a lot of games to run perfectly'''. A fan program, No$Zoomer, was released for version 2.6, which increases compatibility and options, as well as the titular zooming and resizing abilities. The biggest addition is noise cancellation which clears up static that No$GBA makes with its 3D rendering. It doesn't change accuracy though. No$Zoomer never rebased to newer No$GBA versions, and it looks like it was abandoned, so it likely never will. In v2.8, No$GBA became the first emulator to support DSi games, which has been their most notable feature. Only use No$GBA for DSi games that don't work on other emulators, debugging (if you've taken up ROM-hacking for DS games or homebrew development), if you value speed above everything, if you're using a potato PC, or just as a last resort.

;[[Delta]]

;[[mGBA#medusa|mGBA/medusa]]

==Enhancements==

|- style="font-weight:bold;"

! colspan=2 | Name

| {{Y}}

| {{Y}}

| {{?}}

|

|-

| Pre-rendering AA<br/><small>(MSAA, SSAA)</small>

| {{?}}

| {{?}}

| {{?}}

|-

| colspan=7 | <small>Requires access to the depth buffer and temporal data like motion-vectors so it's quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible in the near future.<br/>Besides any GPU that can use DLSS can run these emulator at 4k native with ease anyway.</small>

|-

| colspan=7 | <small>Implementing frame generation technology in an emulator is unfortunately quite challenging and unlikely to be feasible in the near future, however post-processing techniques such as [[Wikipedia:Motion_interpolation|motion interpolation]] is quite possible. [[Input_lag|Input latency]] will be a crucial factor, but its impact likely varies depending on the specific technique employed, it's recommended to use '''after applying the "Internal Framerate Hack"'''.<br/>While '''AFMF''' or '''LSFG''' could be used with melonDS or DESmuME?, please be aware that some visual glitches and artifacts may occur at this time.

|-

| [[Wikipedia:Category:Anti-aliasing_algorithms|Post-rendering AA]]<br/><small>(FXAA, TXAA and MLAA/SMAA)</small>

| {{~}}<ref group=N3>Only possible with software renderer.</ref>

| {{?}}

|-

| {{Y}}

| {{Y}}

|

|

|-

| [[Shader_Presets|Shader Chain]]

| {{N}}

| {{N}}

|-

| rowspan=5 | [https://tasvideos.org/Emulatorresources/Features TAS features]

| {{Y}}

| {{Y}}

|

|

| Rewind

| {{N}}[https://melonds.kuribo64.net/board/thread.php?pid=5060 *]

| {{N}}

| {{N}}

| {{Y}}

| {{Y}}

| {{?}}

|

| {{Y}}

| {{Y}}

| {{?}}

|

| [https://tasvideos.org/Movies Movie recording/playback]

| {{N}}[https://github.com/melonDS-emu/melonDS/issues/463 *]

|

|

| {{N}}

|-

| [[Save_disk_space_for_ISOs|Streamable compression format]]

| {{Y}}

|

|

|-

| Per-Game Profiles

|

|-

|-

| {{N}}

| {{~}}<ref group=N3 name=lrRA>Only possible with libretro core. [https://github.com/melonDS-emu/melonDS/issues/1146 Github Issue page for adding RetroAchievements to the melonDS standalone version]. But DSi RetroAchievement are [https://docs.libretro.com/guides/retroachievements/#nintendo not supported].</ref>

| {{N}}

|-

| {{~}}<ref group=N3 name=lrRA></ref>

| {{~}}<ref group=N3 name=lrRA></ref>

|

|-

| {{N}}

| [https://old.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/9lwy0r/desmume_begins_to_implement_a_freelook_feature/ WIP]

| {{N}}

|-

| {{N}}[https://github.com/melonDS-emu/melonDS/issues/249 *]

| {{Y}}

|

|}

<references group=N3/>

==Hardware features and accessories==

|- style="font-weight:bold;"

| colspan=2 | Name

|

|

|

|

|

|-

| Rumble pack

| {{✓}}

|

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}<ref group=N2 name=Slot2MelonDS></ref>

|

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|

|

|-

| Slide controller

|-

| rowspan=2 | [https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=28.%20pokewalker PokéWalker]

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}[https://github.com/UnrealPowerz/powar/issues/2 *]

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|

|

|-

| rowspan=2 | DSi Inputs

| {{✓}}

|}

<references group=N2/>

===Connectivity===

===Other issues===

Certain games, such as American Girl titles (e.g., ''Julie Finds a Way'' and ''Kit Mystery Challenge''), suffer from severe flickering issues which keep those games from being playable on most emulators. [[DraStic]] was the first emulator able to run the two games properly, and while DeSmuME r5043 had an initial fix that worked around the glitch, it was removed in later revisions as it broke compatibility with ''Pokémon SoulSilver'', among others; this has since been patched on r5531 once the true nature of the [https://sourceforge.net/p/desmume/bugs/1134/ bug] was better understood. The fix would be later incorporated into other emulators. ''Ultimate Mortal Kombat'' suffers from flickering and slowdown due to the way it loads sprites, though it isn't as serious in DraStic. ''Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Jedi Alliance'' is an even more egregious example, crashing due to timing differences between actual hardware and an emulated system.

=Nintendo DSi=

|discontinued = 2014

|predecessor=[[Game Boy Advance emulators|Game Boy Advance]], [[Nintendo DS emulators|DS]]

|emulated = {{✓}}

}}

===No$GBA===

For now, NO$GBA is the most mature DS emulation project that supports the Nintendo DSi. Using the latest debugger version of NO$GBA is recommended.

===melonDS===

melonDS has poor DSP support. DSiWare has to be launched from the NAND as it cannot boot them as .nds.

<references />

[[Category:Seventh-generation video game consoles|!DS]]

[[Category:Nintendo DS emulators|*]]

[[Category:ARM-based|!DS]]