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;[[melonDS]]: Arisotura's goal is to make an emulator that's better optimized and includes features that others lack, either intentionally or not. While the developers of No$GBA had documented the Wi-Fi capabilities first, melonDS is the first and only emulator that's gotten as far as it has and it has been found to work reasonably well with a handful of games. There's also been progress made in emulating the DSi<ref name="melonDSi">http://melonds.kuribo64.net/comments.php?id=94</ref><ref name="progress on DSi">http://melonds.kuribo64.net/comments.php?id=99&p</ref>, the latest version can now boot into the firmware and load some DSiWare through the NAND, but full "DSi mode" support for retail games is still unsupported. It's on par with DeSmuME in terms of compatibility.
Players who both have This feature allows players with a DS but device, and only one copy of a game can use "Download Play" , to play together without . This way, everyone needing doesn't need to have a copy of the game. The player with the physical cartridge will host the game while the other players connects using a "downloaded" version received from the host. Normally they are either simple mini-games, stripped down demos of the main game, or a limited version of multiplayer. In most cases it's better to use multi-cart instead, however there are some games, like ''Mario Party DS'', that requires Download Play in order to use its multiplayer.
→Connectivity
===Comparisons===
;[[melonDS]]: Biggest difference is melonDS can use Wifi and run [[DSiWare]] games.<ref name="melonDSi">http://melonds.kuribo64.net/comments.php?id=94</ref><ref name="progress on DSi">http://melonds.kuribo64.net/comments.php?id=99&p</ref>, the latest version can now boot into the firmware and load some DSiWare through the [[NAND]], but full "DSi mode" support for retail games is still unsupported. melonDS requires DS bios to function.In terms of being user-friendly, options in melonDS are more simplified. Has similar DS game compatibility as DeSmuME. Both can run games at a higher internal resolution (sharper 3D objects). Both can open roms inside an archive (zip, rar, 7z). Both can display the two screens in a variety of ways, but melonDS has a hybrid mode: https://i.imgur.com/S73Eb4m.jpgWhile the developers of [[No$GBA]] had documented the Wi-Fi capabilities first, melonDS is the first and only emulator that's gotten as far as it has and it has been found to work reasonably well with a handful of games. melonDS does not have custom file paths yet (all saves will be created where the rom is). Switching to opengl in core options may give a performance boost. Support forum is very hard on the eyes, and hard to use. ;[[DeSmuME]]: One DeSmuME works out of the the box;The most developed emulators for regular DS games. DeSmuME has had significant improvements since 2018, though new features are still in development and are only available through either nightly/dev builds. It now uses less CPU/GPU resources, and Wi-Fi is also underway. The latest "Stable" build is no longer recommended as it's over 5 years old and lacks any new features. If you do run into issues on the dev builds, then try switching back to the last stable build (see [[Common Problems and Solutions]] for tips).
;[[DraStic]]: A payware, closed-source emulator for [[Android emulators|Android]] devices that can run games at a decent speed even on potato phones. It's on par with (or in some cases better than) DeSmuME, and emulating it through BlueStacks on PC may actually be a viable and fast alternative aside from a slight input delay. Some rumors have spread around that the developers deliberately put in issues to mess with pirated copies, though this is considered unsubstantiated. At the very least, you shouldn't expect any support from Exophase and company if you use a pirated copy, though it is available for free on the Raspberry Pi and Odroid via RetroPie.
;[[No$|No$GBA]]: Focuses on speed, and has major compatibility issues and glitches as a result. But because it was originally a GBA emulator, the DS's 3D features are still very poorly handled. However, it might be an option for a very low-end machine but don't expect a lot of games to run perfectly, or at all. A fan program, No$Zoomer, was released for version 2.6 which increases compatibility and options, as well as the titular zooming abilities. The biggest addition is noise cancellation which clears up static that No$GBA makes with its 3D rendering. No$Zoomer hasn't rebased yet but does add options for window resizing. There haven't been any noticeable changes with regards to accuracy, however. In v2.8, No$GBA became the first emulator to supports 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 romhacking for DS games or homebrew development), if you value speed above everything or just as a last resort.
;[[mGBA#medusa|medusa]]: [[mGBA]] developer endrift is also creating a DS emulator, but it's very much a work-in-progress and isn't nearly as far as melonDS in terms of the capabilities it's covered. As of March 2018, medusa's development is "suspended until further notice".<ref name="medusa suspended">https://mgba.io/2018/03/09/holy-grail-bugs-revisited/#postscript-a-several-month-late-explanation</ref>
===DS Download Play===
Download Play is supported by melonDS. Like with local multiplayer, it is very hit and miss but unlocking the framerate helps. melonDS will often fail during the download process, but some games actually go as far as booting and sometimes in-game as well.
