Why did the price of 3ds shoot up ?

Ann0ying · May 27, 2026

DS-es are one of the few consoles that can't be emulated to get "close to original" experience like most of the others, including switch. And the sheer amount of working ones gets lower every year, not even talking about ones in good condition.

jonhon · Thursday at 2:39 AM

Ann0ying said:
DS-es are one of the few consoles that can't be emulated to get "close to original" experience like most of the others, including switch. And the sheer amount of working ones gets lower every year, not even talking about ones in good condition.

I don't understand why people are saying the DS is difficult to emulate. It's been always easy to emulate since at least 2013. Besides, most games don't even require the touchscreen; you can play with the buttons only.

And it's not like the touch screen is very difficult to emulate. The mouse has always been a good option.

Furthermore, I would also argue that games that primarily use the touchscreen are not very comfortable to play, whether on an emulator or the actual console.

skawo · Thursday at 3:50 AM

The mouse has always been a good option.

It really isn't. Not even actual modern touchscreens are a good replacement for the resistive DS one.

Games with heavy touchscreen use, like both the DS Zelda titles, really need to be played on real hardware to be properly experienced.

SpaceGameJunkie · Thursday at 3:57 AM

As someone who's tried emulating DS and 3DS games on multiple devices, nothing beats the original hardware.

Ann0ying · Thursday at 12:52 PM

jonhon said:
I don't understand why people are saying the DS is difficult to emulate. It's been always easy to emulate since at least 2013. Besides, most games don't even require the touchscreen; you can play with the buttons only.

And it's not like the touch screen is very difficult to emulate. The mouse has always been a good option.

Furthermore, I would also argue that games that primarily use the touchscreen are not very comfortable to play, whether on an emulator or the actual console.

It's not "difficult" pure hardware power-wise, it's difficult to get decent experience, as in "expirience you get is ass compared to the OG hardware".

It's either crampy, like if you emulate on the phone, or just straight up ugly, if you use PC with big screen.
That also highly depends on the game you play. Like Ace Attorney is a good experience with the right skin on the phone, but playing anything like Spirit tracks or metroid just straight up ass. You need the console in hand with your stylus in your right hand for it to feel "right".

bonkmaykr · Friday at 4:12 PM

Nostalgia LARPing.

Yes the 3DS is unique and hard to replicate but let's be 100% honest most of these people do not care about that in the slightest. There were two entire models dedicated to removing its whole selling point because when it was still new Nintendo realized nobody cared about the 3D, so that leaves just the dual screens. The players who do still care about the 3DS mostly did not get rid of theirs. On the other hand, it's becoming trendy because "retro gaming" is now a marketable and exploitable niche that has breached containment. A lot of those 3DS buyers aren't even interested in the 3DS but rather the idea of a 3DS and will maybe play one game in their lifetime that justifies the purchase.

I also don't buy the whole "it's because of chip prices" because there are a million options for games on any platform now, the 3DS is not the first thing that will be on your mind for your next hardware unless you already own one. The same demographic has long been targeted by cheap Pi boxes and clone handhelds, including ones aimed directly at dual screen control, and these are not some obscure DIY thing anymore. Getting the original game experience alone would not create this much demand.

cmdada · Friday at 4:19 PM

The Real Jdbye said:
And there's no good way to play DS/3DS games other than a dual screen handheld.

Yeah, I think this is probably the biggest thing, and emulating them on a full tv is just a bad experience, not that a phone is much better but at least you have a touchscreen.

Why did the price of 3ds shoot up ?

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