Nintendo DS emulators

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Revision as of 18:28, 20 January 2015 by GH56734 (talk | contribs) (Comparisons)
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The Nintendo DS handheld console

The Nintendo DS is a handheld console produced by Nintendo in 2004/2005. 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 in lifetime sales, as a result of attracting a large amount of casual players, and even non-gamers, into the gaming community.

Emulating the DS has proven to be a pain for emulator authors due to its rather unusual hardware, although in some cases bugs that occur in emulators are due to the games being poorly-optimized or programmed.

Emulators

PC
Name Operating System(s) Latest Version GBA NDS Libretro Core Recommended
DeSmuMe Multi-platform SVN
DeSmuMe X432R Multi-platform Build
dasShiny Windows, Linux Git
DuoS Windows 8/25/2012 Beta
Ensata Windows 1.4d
iDeaS Windows, Linux 1.0.4.0
No$GBA Windows, DOS 2.7c
Mobile
Name Operating System(s) Latest Version GBA NDS Libretro Core Recommended
DraStic Android r2.2.1.2a
Dsoid Android SVN
nds4droid Android SVN
nds4ios iOS SVN

Comparisons

  • DeSmuMe is very good, and very well developed but works best with higher end computers. This emulator aims for accuracy over speed but you can tinker with the vast amount of setting to get some extra FPS (see Common Problems and Solutions for tips). If you're still having a hard time running anything without the output playing like syrup try no$gba. DeSmuMe is recommended regardless of your PC power. Like all post-16bit emulators, DeSmuMe isn't perfect. Expect nothing more than 60% at all times.
  • No$GBA focuses on speed, and has major compatibility issues and glitches. As this was first a GBA emulator, the 3D added by the DS is 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$zoomer, was released for version 2.6 which increases compatibility and more setting, as well as the titular zooming option. the biggest boost is noise cancellation which will clear up the static no$gba makes with 3d rendering. Version 2.7a isn't compatible with no$zoomer yet but does add resizing windows options but any increase of emulating skills is not noticeable. Only use no$gba for its debugging features (if you do translate/romhack DS/GBA games) or as a last resort.

High Resolution

  • DeSmuMe X432R is a fork of DeSmuMe, that has many more graphical enhancement such as an option to increase internal resolution and use MSAA, See the DeSmuMe page for more details. Check out this site to see what you're missing out on.

Multiplayer

  • Local Multiplayer and Download Play are not supported by any emulator. No$GBA can emulate it but the connection fails somewhere during establishing the actual connection (despite the names from the other DS showing just fine).
  • Nintendo WFC was successfully emulated with DesMume, but has quite a bit of requirements (Ethernet cable, though this can be circumvented with external software). After service shutdown, there was a version compatible with the fan servers (restoring all DLC data but sadly most multiplayer games had their content lost forever).
  • DS/Wii connection isn't emulated in any capacity.

DSi

  • DSi emulation isn't supported. No$GBA supposedly begun preliminary work on it starting from 2.7b, which offers a way to make complete DSi ROM dumps.
  • None of the DSi exclusive hardware was emulated yet, like the camera. iDeaS was planned to, but it's long dead by now.