Mini vMac DS(i)

TarableCode · Jun 9, 2026

VERY WIP: https://github.com/TaraHoleInIt/minivmac-dsi

This is a port of the Macintosh emulator Mini vMac to the DS(i).
Unlike the original DS port, this should be full speed with sound on DSi systems.

I have not tested this on the DS phat/lite, sound probably will only work on the DSi only.

Data files need to go in /data/minivmac:
vMac.ROM
diskX.dsk where X is 1 to 6 for disk images inserted at startup

Keys:
DPAD: arrow keys
L/R: mouse click
A: return
X escape
Start: dismiss message
Select: swap screen/enable UI

Let me know what you think!
I hope I haven't forgotten anything.

TarableCode · Jun 12, 2026

New update: https://github.com/TaraHoleInIt/minivmac-dsi/releases/tag/Test2

Keybindings from the original post no longer apply except for START and SELECT.
I'll have to add key binding back in sometime in the future.

ber71 · Jun 14, 2026

Thanks! Glad to see new projects on this venerable console.
I think that something is wrong at file handling. The emulator (1m) can't find the vmac rom when running in my R4 card (ds mode), in the specified location. The same bios works well in the old minivmac emulator.
Hope you can fix it.

TarableCode · Jun 14, 2026

I'll have to think of how to test for this since I don't have a DS lite anymore.
Did you put the files in the new location (/data/minivmac)?

ber71 · Jun 14, 2026

Yes im quite confident that the rom file is in the correct path.
I've now set up melonds to run the emulator too, in ds mode + emulated flashcard, receiving the same 'not rom found' error. Perhaps you can use this setup to debug.
Or im doing something terribly wrong.

TarableCode · Jun 14, 2026

Thank you.
I know what's causing it, and after I think of a solution I'll make another release and post it.

Hopefully not too long.

Post automatically merged: Jun 14, 2026

ber71 said:
Yes im quite confident that the rom file is in the correct path.
I've now set up melonds to run the emulator too, in ds mode + emulated flashcard, receiving the same 'not rom found' error. Perhaps you can use this setup to debug.
Or im doing something terribly wrong.

Try this and let me know what happens.

ber71 · Jun 14, 2026

It works

TarableCode · Jun 25, 2026

New version with various improvements: https://github.com/TaraHoleInIt/minivmac-dsi/releases/tag/Test4
Disk image quickstart guide: https://github.com/TaraHoleInIt/minivmac-dsi/blob/main/doc/Mac Quickstart.md
Usage guide: https://github.com/TaraHoleInIt/minivmac-dsi/blob/main/doc/Using.md

Hwongfish · Jun 30, 2026

DSI only

TarableCode · Jun 30, 2026

Hwongfish said:
DSI only

Try the 1MB or 2.5MB versions with no sound, it might work but just be a bit slower.

dfgged · Monday at 4:50 AM

This is super cool work! I'm just getting back into my old DS lite stuff, and I was curious. Any chance for a 4mb build that utilizes slot2 ram expansion like the old version used to? Not even sure what Id do with it, just seems like a neat little extra use. Id also love to see a trackpad mode return for touch screen input. I find the scaled cursor movement is kinda blehhhhh on my mediocre touch panel.

TarableCode · 2026-09-01T17:24:03+0100

What version did you use?
I could have sworn I added trackpad mode in the Test4 build.

I'm glad you've taken the time to play with it though

Unfortunately, I have no way of utilizing slot-2 RAM at the moment because I do not have a DS/DS Lite or a memory expansion card.

dfgged · 2026-09-02T02:32:04+0100

TarableCode said:
What version did you use?
I could have sworn I added trackpad mode in the Test4 build.

I'm glad you've taken the time to play with it though
Unfortunately, I have no way of utilizing slot-2 RAM at the moment because I do not have a DS/DS Lite or a memory expansion card.

I used test4, played with pretty much all the builds on my DS Lite. Maybe I just missed the toggle for it somewhere.

Thank YOU for putting it together! Super unfortunate to hear that's not on the roadmap. If ya ever wanna take a stab at it, I'd be more than happy to play guineapig with my hardware. I've got access to 2 ez flash 3in1pls's. I'm gonna poke around and see if I can find the old source code from the original DS Homebrew. Looks like the site was archived but wayback machine is cooked atm. I'm no experienced coder, but maybe I can smash something together for myself if I have to.

The docs may also want to mention that a vMAC.ROM was still necessary. I was stumbling through the setup process for a while before I realized that.

EDIT; OH I also wanted to mention, that sound totally works on DS Lite. Might throw together a 2.5mb build with sound enabled to see if that's stable enough.

CrashMidnick · 2026-09-02T12:06:00+0100

Thanks for this new emulator on our beloved nds. The lack of sound on older harware is due to RAM limit or CPU ? If RAM, maybe you can add support for slot-2 flash card.

EDIT

Tested on my DSi : works already great ! Congratulations. !

May I ask you to add the ability to map some keyboard keys ? For example, Prince of Persia requires the OPT key to be pressed to move slowly, it is not easy to play with the touch button in the keyboard menu (reacts like ON/OFF), would be better to map it to ABXY.

TarableCode · 2026-09-02T17:50:40+0100

The thing with sound is that the emulator needs to be running at least 1x speed to generate enough sound samples, and the DSi is barely fast enough (most of the time).

dfgged said:
EDIT; OH I also wanted to mention, that sound totally works on DS Lite. Might throw together a 2.5mb build with sound enabled to see if that's stable enough.

Really?!
That honestly surprises me, but sure, I'll make a note to add more build types.

Support for slot-2 RAM is a lot more complicated due to the way the GBA slot works. I mean, it's theoretically possible because I can control all reads/writes to emulated RAM, but it would be much slower due to the lower speed of RAM attached to slot-2 and because the GBA slot is uncached. I think the original Mini vMac DS manually enabled caching that region, but I'm not sure.

Does anyone know how much of a performance impact a slot-2 build had in the original Mini vMac DS?
You can try running Speedometer (you can get it on the Macintosh Garden) and seeing what speed difference there is in the regular build vs the slot-2 RAM build.

Actually doing a slot-2 build would require a lot of back and forth testing with people who have the hardware, that being said, if it really becomes a popular request I'll start looking into it.

CrashMidnick said:
May I ask you to add the ability to map some keyboard keys ? For example, Prince of Persia requires the OPT key to be pressed to move slowly, it is not easy to play with the touch button in the keyboard menu (reacts like ON/OFF), would be better to map it to ABXY.

That is a good point, and something I've thought about. The ideal way to handle this is to allow every button mappable to a keyboard key or mouse action. It's something I really should look into as one of the next things.

However, speaking of next things, it might be a while before I get a chance to do another build. There's really not that much public interest in this project, and I've been busy with work lately.

I am honestly super happy that at least some people had a few minutes of fun with it though

The DS/DSi is such a fun platform to write code for.

CrashMidnick · 2026-09-02T19:40:25+0100

TarableCode said:
Support for slot-2 RAM is a lot more complicated due to the way the GBA slot works. I mean, it's theoretically possible because I can control all reads/writes to emulated RAM, but it would be much slower due to the lower speed of RAM attached to slot-2 and because the GBA slot is uncached. I think the original Mini vMac DS manually enabled caching that region, but I'm not sure.

Does anyone know how much of a performance impact a slot-2 build had in the original Mini vMac DS?
You can try running Speedometer (you can get it on the Macintosh Garden) and seeing what speed difference there is in the regular build vs the slot-2 RAM build.

I do not think that the use of slot-2 RAM has an impact on homebrews, I never saw the differences for those I tested.

I tested on the old mini vMac emulator, with (4MB executable) or without (2.5MB executable) the extra RAM with a slot-2 flash card, results are 100% the same :

TarableCode said:
That is a good point, and something I've thought about. The ideal way to handle this is to allow every button mappable to a keyboard key or mouse action. It's something I really should look into as one of the next things.

I hope you will find the time to add the remap function, this emulator is the best choice for DS users right now to emulate an 68k mac, the older one was unusable unfortunately.

Thanks again for this present !

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