Homebrew WIP melonDS for Switch

[Hydr8gon]

melonDS for Switch

This is my port of the Nintendo DS emulator melonDS for the Nintendo Switch. To use it, place your legally dumped Nintendo DS BIOS files in the sdmc:/switch/melonds directory with the names "bios7.bin", bios9.bin", and "firmware.bin".

The emulator does have a hardware renderer, but it is currently broken on the Switch and in most cases actually runs slower than the software renderer. To get better performance, there is an option to enable overclocking of the Switch processor, with a maximum frequency of 1785 MHz. However, even with this, most games will not reach full speed!

Huge thanks to @StapleButter (Arisotura) for developing the core melonDS project and for just being a cool gal in general!

My releases are available on GitHub or on the GBAtemp download center. Source code is available as well. However, @catlover007 has released a build with an ARM64 JIT, resulting in much better performance. It is recommended to use this build instead; find it here.

If you'd prefer to launch directly from the home screen, an optional .nsp forwarder by @OkazakiTheOtaku is attached. You'll still need the .nro in place to use it!

Screenshots:


Gameplay video courtesy of @grabman (old version):


Check out the official melonDS website!

 

[Deleted-442439]

Great work! Nice to see more emulators hitting the Switch

 

[Csmrcc]

sweeet news before going bed!!
thank you!

 

[Xandrid]

Nice! Didn't know the melonds developer stopped the project, glad he resumed

 

[radicalwookie]

This are the news I need to start off my day!
GOOD WORK!

 

[Billy Acuña]

Hope this goes somewhere, melonDS is very future-proof AND alreally surpased desmume in accuracy, but it fails on the lack on hw rendering, hope Staple gets it soon.

Enviado desde mi LG-X240 mediante Tapatalk

 

[Draxzelex]

mgba and melonDS in the same day? This is the true power of the Switch hacking scene!

 

[Nevercholt]

Awesome stuff <3

 

[focusonme]

amazing !

 

[nWo]

Great!! man, looking forward to see the updates. Thanks

 

[OkazakiTheOtaku]

Loading any ROM simply crashes my console. Firmware 4.1.0

 

[Hydr8gon]

Loading any ROM simply crashes my console. Firmware 4.1.0

That's weird. Do you have BIOS files in the melonds folder with the correct filenames? Not sure why it's crashing though, it should be bringing up a message saying the files are missing and then stopping...

Edit: I fixed the crash when an error occurs when attempting to launch a ROM. It should now properly display a message telling you that either the BIOS can't be found or the ROM can't be loaded. I updated the build for the initial release.

 

[OkazakiTheOtaku]

That's weird. Do you have BIOS files in the melonds folder with the correct filenames? Not sure why it's crashing though, it should be bringing up a message saying the files are missing and then stopping...

Edit: I fixed the crash when an error occurs when attempting to launch a ROM. It should now properly display a message telling you that either the BIOS can't be found or the ROM can't be loaded. I updated the build for the initial release.

Hmm, I verified my bios with an MD5 hash. I wonder if it corrupted when I FTP'd it over. I'll try again.

 

[Hydr8gon]

Hmm, I verified my bios with an MD5 hash. I wonder if it corrupted when I FTP'd it over. I'll try again.

Try redownloading melonDS too to get the updated build. It'll tell you whether the problem is with the BIOS or the ROM. And make sure the BIOS are named exactly how melonDS wants them: bios7.bin, bios9.bin, and firmware.bin.

 

[Fadi5555]

Sounds amazing.
I hope we can run ds games on full landscape mode with tiny square on upper left or right or completely fullscreen without second screen like (Drastic DS).

Here’s an image to get my point:

 

[andre1891]

Are you planing to implement the Wireless Multiplayer DS Feature of melonds ?

 

[Wombleton]

thank you for this, tested a handful of games this morning and everything seems to load, managed to play a very slow 200 line marathon on Tetris DS, looking forward to improvements. Keep up the good work

 

[Hydr8gon]

Are you planing to implement the Wireless Multiplayer DS Feature of melonds ?

It's not a priority right now, but maybe once the speed improves.

 

[TamarindoJuice]

Nice work, thank you dev!

Tried the Dragon Quest IX, booting fine, i wish you the best and that this emulator project goes on and on!

 

[mariogamer]

Nice to see the homebrews popping up.

Nice! Didn't know the melonds developer stopped the project, glad he resumed

He didn't stopped it in the first place. Just a lack of commit those time.
"Resume" doesn't mean that it was stopped.