Exophase, the developer of the DraStic Nintendo DS emulator, has made a statement regarding the future of the emulator. DraStic has been a popular closed-source DS emulator on Android that has been available for many years. However, following the fallout from both Yuzu and Citra emulator's situations, Exophase has decided to take DraStic off of the Google Play Store. According to them, DraStic was already going to be pulled from the Google Play Store, regardless of current events, but that things made the issue, "more urgent".

Before the app gets delisted, Exophase has made DraStic free to download, when it had previously cost $4.99 to buy. They plan on eventually releasing the source code for the emulator as well. You can grab DraStic DS Emulator from the Google Play Store here.

Source: The Verge

 

[SDA]

Pfft, I don't give a bother about this. I'm already fine with DeSmuME on my computer.

 

[Desconocido90]

It worries me that the developer is only doing this because they're going to abandon the project.

 

[Jayro]

God-damn it... I bought it too. Fucking asshole.

 

[lordelan]

I hope he open sources it soon and someone takes it over and provides (and maintaines) it via F-Droid forever.

 

[Metoroid0]

i knew this will happen. many devs will after nintendo did this to yuzu, make even more effort to preserve and make emulators more available and open source than ever. lol
thanks nintendo for enabling emulation to flourish and for the scene to be purified.

Post automatically merged: Mar 6, 2024

See, folks? This what i was talking about, every piece of homebrew/emulator/cfw etc projects will now follow suit.. Big N won! you'll be at their mercy and be happy.

its quite the opposite actually. read my previous comment.

Post automatically merged: Mar 6, 2024

Something I've noticed with these "Wah wha, Nintendo won! Wah wah!" is that Nintendo tends to do these when they're planning to release something alike themselves.

Allow me to elaborate:

• Another Metroid Remake, got taken down, months before Nintendo announced a proper 3DS remake of Return of Samus.
• Went after rom sites months before releasing the "virtual console" in the Switch.
  
  My guess is that, why wait this long to take down a Switch emulator?
  Well, according to tradition, I'm guessing that Nintendo is planning to emulate Switch with their new console.

thats true, i must agree. i also noticed that.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

See, folks? This what i was talking about, every piece of homebrew/emulator/cfw etc projects will now follow suit.. Big N won! you'll be at their mercy and be happy.

Just don't monetize your emulator and you won't be targeted? They can't do shit to the 90% of emus out there.

 

[Jayro]

I bought Drastic when I got the Samsung Z Fold4. It was basically the only reason why I liked that phone since it turned it into a DS with a foldable screen and the same form factor. The ability to resize the screens and on-screen controls in Drastic was unparalleled.


The Switch 2 got delayed by at least 6 months. That means that the Switch needs to last even longer than it already has, and Nintendo doesn't want to compete with PC playing the games better, especially when the PC players don't have to even buy the game.

Nintendo could have seized this opportunity to team up with the Yuzu and Citra devs to not only spruce up the emulator code, but also offer Nintendo account integration so you could sign in and play your digital games (One copy at a time, just like on Switch) on these portable computers, for those not wanting to buy a Switch.

More options is always better, and they squandered it. Could have made a shitload more money, same for the devs.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Nintendo could have seized this opportunity to team up with the Yuzu and Citra devs to not only spruce up the emulator code, but also offer Nintendo account integration so you could sign in and play your digital games (One copy at a time, just like on Switch) on these portable computers, for those not wanting to buy a Switch.

nintendo don't team up they are a closed archaic society who only care about themselves

 

[seseiSeki]

After I bought it it's free... I'm dying

Poor you, can't believe you supported a developer... May you rest in peace.

 

[Flame]

They said it's going to be open sourced a while back... in 2019! I even broke the news.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/drastic-ds-emu-to-be-made-open-source.544162/

 

[Lumstar]

Just don't monetize your emulator and you won't be targeted? They can't do shit to the 90% of emus out there.

All the emulator has to do, is remove the ability to decrypt games.
The user becomes responsible for defeating any copy protection.

 

[smilodon]

They said it's going to be open sourced a while back... in 2019! I even broke the news.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/drastic-ds-emu-to-be-made-open-source.544162/

View attachment 424125

The simple fact that it isn't open source makes it a bad emulator to me. Thank god for MelonDS.

 

[The_Monado_Satyr]

Even when I download APKs from the Internet Archive I still verify it via Virus Total. Maybe unnecessary, but cool to see it's clean.

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/

Same

 

[James_]

I wouldn't be surprised if this news turns into a game of telephone, from:

"DraStic is being taken down by the developer but it'll become open source which will make it live on "
to
"NINTENDO TOOK DOWN DRASTIC TOO?!?1/!? WE'RE DOOMED!!!"

This was the choice of Exophase.

I also originally said the choice to take down Citra was the choice of the Yuzu team as well, though I think the settlement did state that the Yuzu team couldn't operate any software related to emulation. Hmm.

 

[smf]

Nintendo should sue sony and microsoft 'cause their game consoles are sort of like the Switch...

I mean, Nintendon't came first and all, every thing after that must be a copyright infringement, right?

And the nominee for "I don't understand the law" 2024 goes to ....

Just don't monetize your emulator and you won't be targeted? They can't do shit to the 90% of emus out there.

You are assuming that the people who monetize their emulator, would have written their emulator if it wasn't for the $$$

They saw a way of making easy money, even though it was bad for preservation.

All the emulator has to do, is remove the ability to decrypt games.
The user becomes responsible for defeating any copy protection.

You understand that they would look for interpretations of laws, or changes to laws, to cover that circumstance and it would be bad for everyone, not just these money grabbers? It's better for the long term survival of preservation if yuzu loses.

 

[LingFox]

when it rains, it pours...

Nintendo should sue sony and microsoft 'cause their game consoles are sort of like the Switch...

I mean, Nintendon't came first and all, every thing after that must be a copyright infringement, right?

Inb4 Nintendo sues SEGA for their advertisement campaign against the Super Nintendo claiming that Sega Does what Nintendon't is a smear campaign against nintendo.

Are they bleeding money again? they're too lawsuit happy these days.

What all these emu devs should do is to open source their project, upload them on github, and archive them as "read only". That would be a good way to go.

 

[LightBeam]

Where's the source then ? I can see the google play link but I can't find the source code

 

[Coderman64]

Well, this sucks. But it seems like a big overreaction on the dev's part. I use MelonDS anyway, so I have no problems.

You are assuming that the people who monetize their emulator, would have written their emulator if it wasn't for the $$$

They saw a way of making easy money, even though it was bad for preservation.

Many people assume that not open-sourcing your emulator makes it somehow illegal. They're probably thinking of how fan games avoid charging money to avoid the wrath of their IP holders. Emulators, however, are (AFAIK) entirely legal to develop and sell, even without the copyright holders' permission. The case that most point to is with Bleem, an entirely commercial emulator project.

Better free options exist (MelonDS, etc.), making a paid emulator a hard sell for anyone who knows about the free option.

(I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.)

You understand that they would look for interpretations of laws, or changes to laws, to cover that circumstance and it would be bad for everyone, not just these money grabbers? It's better for the long term survival of preservation if yuzu loses.

Decryption doesn't even matter here because NDS games aren't encrypted in the first place.

In the Yuzu case, people say this is good for emulation since it doesn't set a bad precedent in court, but it doesn't set a good precedent either. In fact, the entirely one-sided settlement basically looks like an admission of guilt in itself. My guess is that Yuzu devs were doing some shady things behind the scenes (I heard they were sharing roms amongst themselves behind the scenes, for example), which would have resulted in their case being obliterated in a court of law.

(Again, not a lawyer, not legal advice)

 

[osm70]

All the emulator has to do, is remove the ability to decrypt games.
The user becomes responsible for defeating any copy protection.

Doesn't that make it useless to most people?

 

[eggcorp]

Is there any way to contact Exophase? I want to thank him. This emulator introduced me to the whole concept of emulation and it holds a special place in my heart.