# Drastic DS emu to be made open source.



## Flame (Jul 23, 2019)

Arguably the best DS emulator Drastic DS is going to be made open source from "start of new year". which could be made into homebrew that runs on you beloved switch and many other devices.

Exophase also talks about 64bit version coming to android among other new things expected from the emulator it self.

which device would you like it to be port to?

source:- https://drastic-ds.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5680


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## Kioku_Dreams (Jul 23, 2019)

Oh my. This is neat. RA core when..


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## KiiWii (Jul 23, 2019)

This is the only emulator I haven’t tried properly on Shield tv. A 64 bit version would be excellent.


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## fvig2001 (Jul 23, 2019)

I bought a Shield TV for it. It works great at least for the games I've tried.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Jul 23, 2019)

That's been the plan for years now AFAIK, so it's nice to see it'll be happening soon. Will be interesting to see how many devices people can get it running on, it's requirements are relatively low for what it is.


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## RedoLane (Jul 23, 2019)

Awesome! I've been using it on my android tablet for years!


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## Deleted User (Jul 23, 2019)

Raspberry pi 3 would be cool.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Jul 23, 2019)

MicmasH_Wii said:


> Raspberry pi 3 would be cool.


DraStic has already been ported to the Pi, and I can confirm it runs great on both the 3 and the 2b.


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## Deleted User (Jul 23, 2019)

Oops, sorry :3 I've got a Pi 3b+.
(off-topic: by the way I found a .deb of gzdoom compiled for raspbian, and I
also found a way to play openarena again, if anyone's interested.)


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## Deleted User (Jul 24, 2019)

Wow, that's nice, just hope they fix the ROMs not appearing problem on Android 8.x+


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## Idontknowwhattoputhere (Jul 24, 2019)

Open source?
I wonder if melon ds could use any of this


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## NoNAND (Jul 24, 2019)

@Flame bro who would have expected this to actually happen.
I'm certain the 64Bit version of this DS emulator could benefit more in terms of performance and compatibility, hence resulting in higher frame rates and so on.
Furthermore this opens up new possibilities and ups the chance of seeing a switch port and perhaps a Vita port as well..(though it could face some difficulties in the later.
By far drastic is the most reliable and arguably the best DS emulator on ARM arch devices.



Memoir said:


> Oh my. This is neat. RA core when..


Let's just sit back, relax and wait. In due time a RA core should be released, assuming anyone has got the will, interest and time on their hands to do it.


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## RedBlueGreen (Aug 2, 2019)

Drastic is great. I got full speed emulation on my Xperia Play using it around 5 years ago back when the only options were things that ran at like 5-10 FPS.


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## LucasM3 (Aug 2, 2019)

Good that it will be open for everyone.


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## the_randomizer (Aug 2, 2019)

I'll be damned, since DeSmuME has been stagnant for years, this is a great alternative.


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## BORTZ (Aug 2, 2019)

I love DraStic. I have been using it for years. Honestly I think their emulation is fantastic. What I would love is to see someone implement wireless functionality into their existing builds.


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## AkikoKumagara (Aug 2, 2019)

I missed this news when it came out, but I'm excited to hear about this.


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## SuzieJoeBob (Aug 2, 2019)

Drastic is an amazing emulator that performs well on both low-end and high-end devices, having gotten a device with only a 1 GHz CPU and 2 GB of RAM to run most games at full speed. When Drastic becomes open-source, DS emulation will be possible on many lower-end systems, although not at full-speed. Current generation consoles and computers will have a new option for emulation, whereas devices like the PS Vita and Wii might be able to play games with some optimization and speedhacks, just without major resolution upscaling and needing some (possibly heavy) frameskipping.


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## the_randomizer (Aug 2, 2019)

Would be interesting to see this on Wii U and Wii, if possible


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## gnmmarechal (Aug 2, 2019)

Woo, this is really nice to see!


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## bobmcjr (Aug 2, 2019)

DraStic targets ARM and x86 only. The Wii/Wii U are not feasible to port to because they are PowerPC based, and I don't see anyone writing PPC JITs these days. The Vita is probably too weak, 444 MHz is pretty low. The OpenPandora was 800MHz, and it struggled a bit with 3D heavy games.


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## Idontknowwhattoputhere (Aug 11, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> Would be interesting to see this on Wii U and Wii, if possible


Stop smoking cannabis
wii u and wii scene is pretty much dead homebrew wise
or why don't you port it ya self?


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## NoNAND (Aug 11, 2019)

bobmcjr said:


> DraStic targets ARM and x86 only. The Wii/Wii U are not feasible to port to because they are PowerPC based, and I don't see anyone writing PPC JITs these days. The Vita is probably too weak, 444 MHz is pretty low. The OpenPandora was 800MHz, and it struggled a bit with 3D heavy games.


And much like with the aforementioned systems the Wii U is weak and low powered, insofar that it even struggles with N64 games.
Drastic emulation would perhaps perfom on estimate 25-30 FPS in heavy demanding 3D NDS games and who knows maybe a bit better in less intense (graphics-wise) games.
Furthermore, like @Idontknowwhattoputhere said the Wii and the Wii U scene are dead meat by now. Long have they perished. To be frank the WII U scene wasn't as anticipating and as exciting in contrast to It's handheld counterpart--the 3DS and way off in popularity in comparison to It's predecessor the Wii.
So long story short, don't expect anything new for the wii u henceforth.
highly unlikely that anyone would be pouring their efforts and time into achieving such a task.


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## The Real Jdbye (Aug 11, 2019)

I don't know about best, but it's certainly the fastest (apart from maybe No$GBA, if you can even get it working properly with the game you want to play)

Knowing Exophase's past, I honestly didn't expect this from him. He has been kind of iffy when it comes to open source, I remember at one point breaking a license by withholding source code, which as far as I know he never remedied.


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## bobmcjr (Aug 11, 2019)

The Real Jdbye said:


> I don't know about best, but it's certainly the fastest (apart from maybe No$GBA, if you can even get it working properly with the game you want to play)
> 
> Knowing Exophase's past, I honestly didn't expect this from him. He has been kind of iffy when it comes to open source, I remember at one point breaking a license by withholding source code, which as far as I know he never remedied.



Do you happen to remember exactly what source code was withheld?


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## The Real Jdbye (Aug 11, 2019)

bobmcjr said:


> Do you happen to remember exactly what source code was withheld?


I think I was confusing him with ZodTTD actually. Guy withheld the source code for pcsx4all, Exophase was the one calling him out (by requesting the source code in public), on the Openpandora forums (now the Pyra forums)
So I guess Exophase is cool. ZodTTD on the other hand...


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## DjoeN (Aug 11, 2019)

Nice to read this, i bought it last month on my Android Tablet (Lenove TAB P10 4GB/64GB) where it runs perfect (Also on my Android phone (Moto G7+ 4GB/64GB) it runs perfect


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## Zyvyn (Aug 11, 2019)

Memoir said:


> Oh my. This is neat. RA core when..


That would open up tons of choices though the DS is kinda hard to play with touch and all on emu


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## the_randomizer (Aug 11, 2019)

Zyvyn said:


> That would open up tons of choices though the DS is kinda hard to play with touch and all on emu



That's what Bluetooth controllers are for.  I use a Moga pad on my LG Stylo 4 and it DraStic runs perfectly.


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## pasc (Aug 11, 2019)

Ah! Noiiice ! Looking forward to many improvments.


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## Zyvyn (Aug 11, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> That's what Bluetooth controllers are for.  I use a Moga pad on my LG Stylo 4 and it DraStic runs perfectly.


yes but what about games that commonly switch between touch and buttons


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## Humanity (Aug 16, 2019)

Flame said:


> View attachment 173994
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I haven't played with DS emulators since back in the day when no$gba was the best one for full speed and DeSmuME still had a lot of work needed for games to run at better speed.

This looks good, though. If DraStic is as good as no$gba was.


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## Humanity (Aug 18, 2019)

Is there a Windows version of DraStic?

I have only found Android


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## Flame (Aug 18, 2019)

Humanity said:


> Is there a Windows version of DraStic?
> 
> I have only found Android



DraStic is now Android and coiuple other platforms, well once it is open sourced it can be ported to windows.


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## Deleted User (Aug 18, 2019)

Idontknowwhattoputhere said:


> Stop smoking cannabis
> wii u and wii scene is pretty much dead homebrew wise
> or why don't you port it ya self?


He says if possible, implying uncertainty and understanding that it may not happen.
No need to be rude if you ask me.


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## Idontknowwhattoputhere (Aug 18, 2019)

monkeyman4412 said:


> He says if possible, implying uncertainty and understanding that it may not happen.
> No need to be rude if you ask me.


Your quoting something from over a week ago 
*grabs popcorn*


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## Deleted member 501038 (Aug 18, 2019)

Drastic ran perfectly on pretty much any phone I threw it on, it going open source will help other emulators and ports.


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## Deleted User (Aug 18, 2019)

Idontknowwhattoputhere said:


> Your quoting something from over a week ago
> *grabs popcorn*


Nice attempt at trying to redirect the conversation. Changing it so we won't discuss that you were being rude to someone else for no good reason.
Cute. So what's next?


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## Idontknowwhattoputhere (Aug 18, 2019)

monkeyman4412 said:


> Nice attempt at trying to redirect the conversation. Changing it so we won't discuss that you were being rude to someone else for no good reason.
> Cute. So what's next?


Your starting drama now ay?
Another person on the ignore list


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## Deleted User (Aug 18, 2019)

Idontknowwhattoputhere said:


> Your starting drama now ay?
> Another person on the ignore list



Okie. seems like you have issues if the first person that tells you that you're wrong, and then when you try to create a strawman and that said person rips it apart, and calls it out. Your response is to block..... how telling.
Anyways doesn't change that you were being unnecessarily rude.
Moving on I'm excited for one drastic comes on to windows, and hopefully on to wiiu and wii, one day someone maybe will. One day.


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## Axido (Aug 18, 2019)

Ucking inally! 
This is my emulator of choice when it comes to DS games, but playing it on my phone rather than an actual handheld console always made it feel kinda wrong. Hopefully, this will turn into Switch homebrew soon. I'd definitely welcome playing DS Pokémon games with fast forward enabled on a Nintendo device.

Now if this also meant that an ARM-optimized 3DS emulator was going to be in the works, that'd make my wildest dreams come true.



> Would be interesting to see this on Wii U and Wii, if possible


DraStic is mainly taking advantage of the ARM architecture, since it's the same, since the DS family of handhelds (as well as the 3DS family) is based on ARM. This is why you are capable of getting performances unrivaled by DeSmuME on smartphones and tablets. Iirc the Wii and Wii U do feature an ARM coprocessor each, but those are for handling IOS software (not to be confused with iOS by Apple).


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## Hambrew (Aug 18, 2019)

Flame said:


> View attachment 173994 which device would you like it to be port to?


DS


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## Deleted User (Aug 18, 2019)

Hambrew said:


> DS


THONKKKKKKKKKKKKK™
*big brain of the century right here*


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## Humanity (Aug 18, 2019)

Axido said:


> Ucking inally!
> This is my emulator of choice when it comes to DS games, but playing it on my phone rather than an actual handheld console always made it feel kinda wrong. Hopefully, this will turn into Switch homebrew soon. I'd definitely welcome playing DS Pokémon games with fast forward enabled on a Nintendo device.
> 
> Now if this also meant that an ARM-optimized 3DS emulator was going to be in the works, that'd make my wildest dreams come true.
> ...


Isn't DeSmuME notably slower than no$gba?


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## Humanity (Aug 24, 2019)

Idontknowwhattoputhere said:


> Stop smoking cannabis
> wii u and wii scene is pretty much dead homebrew wise
> or why don't you port it ya self?


Wii is not dead homebrew wise.


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## Idontknowwhattoputhere (Aug 24, 2019)

Humanity said:


> Wii is not dead homebrew wise.


Eh....
New releases are hard to come by


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## Humanity (Aug 24, 2019)

Idontknowwhattoputhere said:


> Eh....
> New releases are hard to come by


Do you mean totally brand new software or do you mean software updates?


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## Idontknowwhattoputhere (Aug 24, 2019)

Humanity said:


> Do you mean totally brand new software or do you mean software updates?


Brand new software/homebrew


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## Humanity (Aug 24, 2019)

Idontknowwhattoputhere said:


> Brand new software/homebrew


Then I suppose you are right.


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## the_randomizer (Aug 24, 2019)

Axido said:


> Ucking inally!
> This is my emulator of choice when it comes to DS games, but playing it on my phone rather than an actual handheld console always made it feel kinda wrong. Hopefully, this will turn into Switch homebrew soon. I'd definitely welcome playing DS Pokémon games with fast forward enabled on a Nintendo device.
> 
> Now if this also meant that an ARM-optimized 3DS emulator was going to be in the works, that'd make my wildest dreams come true.
> ...



Then we need a Switch port of it, because DeSmuME just ain't the optimized on ARM.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Aug 24, 2019)

Axido said:


> DraStic is mainly taking advantage of the ARM architecture, since it's the same, since the DS family of handhelds (as well as the 3DS family) is based on ARM. This is why you are capable of getting performances unrivaled by DeSmuME on smartphones and tablets.


Nope, DraStic running on ARM has little to do with its speed, it's simply that Exophase developed DraStic to be a very well optimized emulator. As Exophase himself said: 


> If everything Android were using x86-64 instead of ARM all along the performance probably wouldn't be that much different, since I would have optimized it heavily for x86-64 instead.



https://drastic-ds.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1939 <


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## the_randomizer (Aug 24, 2019)

Tom Bombadildo said:


> Nope, DraStic running on ARM has little to do with its speed, it's simply that Exophase developed DraStic to be a very well optimized emulator. As Exophase himself said:
> 
> 
> https://drastic-ds.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1939 <



Which is weird, considering it runs full speed on my Android phone, and having a somewhat weak CPU.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Aug 24, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> Which is weird, considering it runs full speed on my Android phone, and having a somewhat weak CPU.


As I said, it's because it's an extremely well optimized emulator. Android wasn't even it's initial platform, originally DraStic was first developed and released for the Open Pandora which has a 600mhz single core ARM SoC, and as such was optimized to run on extremely low end hardware ever since its release.


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## the_randomizer (Aug 24, 2019)

Tom Bombadildo said:


> As I said, it's because it's an extremely well optimized emulator. Android wasn't even it's initial platform, originally DraStic was first developed and released for the Open Pandora which has a 600mhz single core ARM SoC, and as such was optimized to run on extremely low end hardware ever since its release.



Hopefully a libretro core comes out someday


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## Humanity (Aug 24, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> Then we need a Switch port of it, because DeSmuME just ain't the optimized on ARM.


Is no$gba still noticeably faster than DeSmuME?

I have not really been keeping up since around 2011.


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## the_randomizer (Aug 24, 2019)

Humanity said:


> Is no$gba still noticeably faster than DeSmuME?
> 
> I have not really been keeping up since around 2011.



It's faster, but some games still have audio issues (Mario 64 still has crackling audio in the intro). It's good for
debugging, but for general use, DraStic is superior.


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## Humanity (Aug 24, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> DraStic is superior.


Not yet. DraStic is behind a paywall still until next year and it is not available for Windows yet, either.

From what I have gathered, DraStic is faster than no$gba?


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## the_randomizer (Aug 24, 2019)

Humanity said:


> Not yet. DraStic is behind a paywall still until next year and it is not available for Windows yet, either.
> 
> From what I have gathered, DraStic is faster than no$gba?



I meant in terms of emulation, it is. no$GBA still hasn't gotten the SM64 DS intro right after all these years, it still crackles a lot.  DraStic is super fast.


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## Humanity (Aug 25, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> I meant in terms of emulation, it is. no$GBA still hasn't gotten the SM64 DS intro right after all these years, it still crackles a lot.  DraStic is super fast.


Which is faster though, DraStic or no$gba?


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## Jayinem81 (May 28, 2020)

So according to catlover007 who has been working on MelonDS, this is coming to Retroarch Switch. Feel bad fo catlover for all the great work they've done, but this is also exciting.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/melonds-for-switch.518300/page-61#post-9072519


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## Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee (Jul 25, 2020)

This never happened. What gives?


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## Tom Bombadildo (Jul 25, 2020)

Exophase is still working on this, I suspect with the whole Covid issue at the start of this year (when he was planning on potentially releasing it as such) changed things a bit. 

There's no ETA anymore, but it's suspected it should go opensource at the same time the Retroarch core is done (which is being worked on currently). I expect we should see open source and the RA core at least by the end of this year, if not sooner.


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## Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee (Jul 25, 2020)

Tom Bombadildo said:


> Exophase is still working on this, I suspect with the whole Covid issue at the start of this year (when he was planning on potentially releasing it as such) changed things a bit.
> 
> There's no ETA anymore, but it's suspected it should go opensource at the same time the Retroarch core is done (which is being worked on currently). I expect we should see open source and the RA core at least by the end of this year, if not sooner.


there was no covid pandemic in january, he said when new year starts it will be open source.

we are almost on month 8 of the year.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Jul 25, 2020)

Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:


> there was no covid pandemic in january, he said when new year starts it will be open source.
> 
> we are almost on month 8 of the year.


No, he said _after_ the start of the new year. Not "JANUARY 100% GUARANTEED!!!"  And yes, there was Covid issues starting in January. 

Again, he's working on it, there's this thing called "real life" that tends to get in the way of other things, and a whole big fucking pandemic is happening in between. Be patient.


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## Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee (Jul 25, 2020)

Tom Bombadildo said:


> No, he said _after_ the start of the new year. Not "JANUARY And yes, there was Covid issues starting in January.


no one head of covid in january + he said "start of new year".

i dont really want to use it at all anymore, but he lied.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Jul 25, 2020)

Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:


> no one head of covid in january + he said "start of new year".
> 
> i dont really want to use it at all anymore, but he lied.





			
				literally from Exophase himself said:
			
		

> I've also mentioned before that I intend to make the emulator open source at some point. *Right now xperia64 and I are expecting that to happen after the start of the new year.* In the mean time we'd also like to push more releases on ARM Linux platforms like Odroid and RPi 2+ (32-bit and 64-bit binaries) and Windows.



https://www.ajmc.com/focus-of-the-week/a-timeline-of-covid19-developments-in-2020

\


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## Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee (Jul 25, 2020)

Tom Bombadildo said:


> https://www.ajmc.com/focus-of-the-week/a-timeline-of-covid19-developments-in-2020
> 
> \


no one says after the start of the new year to mean over 8 months after.

would someone say "i'm buying ice cream soon" to mean in 9 years time? hahaH.


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## gnmmarechal (Jul 25, 2020)

Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:


> no one says after the start of the new year to mean over 8 months after.
> 
> would someone say "i'm buying ice cream soon" to mean in 9 years time? hahaH.


dads sometimes go out to buy cigarettes


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## Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee (Jul 25, 2020)

gnmmarechal said:


> dads sometimes go out to buy cigarettes


You went too far.


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## Hambrew (Jul 25, 2020)

YOS
now my phone can actually, you know, emulate DS games well


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## Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee (Jul 25, 2020)

Hambrew said:


> YOS
> now my phone can actually, you know, emulate DS games well


Whats YOS

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

did you mean yes


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## AmandaRose (Jul 25, 2020)

Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:


> no one says after the start of the new year to mean over 8 months after.
> 
> would someone say "i'm buying ice cream soon" to mean in 9 years time? hahaH.


Not meaning to be rude to you but you are being a bit of a cunt over this. For all you know he or one of his family could have died from coronavirus or some other illness or some other life drama could have happened ect stop being an whingeing entitled brat cause nobody here wants to here it. Thank you


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## Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee (Jul 25, 2020)

AmandaRose said:


> Not meaning to be rude to you but you are being a bit of a cunt over this. For all you know he or one of his family could have died from coronavirus or some other illness or some other life drama could have happened ect stop being an whingeing entitled brat cause nobody here wants to here it. Thank you





Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:


> i dont really want to use it at all anymore, but he lied.





Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:


> i dont really want to use it at all anymore


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## AmandaRose (Jul 25, 2020)

Its not a lie if something happened to him or his family.


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## Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee (Jul 25, 2020)

AmandaRose said:


> Its not a lie if something happened to him or his family.


yeah sure, a dog ate my homework too. :shrug:


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## AmandaRose (Jul 25, 2020)

Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:


> yeah sure, a dog ate my homework too. :shrug:


In what way does this have any impact in your life? It doesn't there are FAR more important things in life to be worried about. Suck it up kid. Stop being so entitled and GROW UP.


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## AkikoKumagara (Jul 25, 2020)

Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:


> no one head of covid in january + he said "start of new year".
> 
> i dont really want to use it at all anymore, but he lied.



That's not even factually correct. COVID-19 was very much known in 2019 (by a different name, but what the heck do you think the 19 means?), but didn't become a true pandemic until the beginning of 2020.

Things take time, extraneous conditions can make this time even longer. If you've ever developed anything in your life, you would know this.


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## bobmcjr (Jul 25, 2020)

Honestly I can't tell if this person is a child or a troll given what they've posted previously. Probably best to ignore them.


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## RedBlueGreen (Jul 26, 2020)

Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:


> no one says after the start of the new year to mean over 8 months after.
> 
> would someone say "i'm buying ice cream soon" to mean in 9 years time? hahaH.


Can you guess what pandemic happened after the new year that could delay stuff like this? Also you're objectively wrong. COVID19 was known about in 2019, we were just referring to it as another SARS like virus (which it is), and later Coronavirus. Just because you don't pay attention to the news doesn't mean nobody else does. The first known case can be traced back to November 2019, and news outlets were reporting about rumours of a SARS-like virus in China around that time. Also it was officially recognized by WHO in January.


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## Vancete (Jul 27, 2020)

Just curious about that source code


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## Tweaker_Modding (Aug 9, 2020)

the nice thing about it going open source means that its going free which is good as its the best ds emulator for android but what put me off from using is that its paid


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## antiNT (Dec 4, 2020)

Anything new regarding this?


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## Tom Bombadildo (Dec 4, 2020)

antiNT said:


> Anything new regarding this?


Nope, devs still working on it but still no strict ETA beyond "probably this year" as of August 2020. Given that it's December, it very well could be sometime 2021 before we see it as opposed to this year.


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