What's the currently state of NDS emulation?

MegaGenesis · May 15, 2019

I wanto to know whats the currently best NDS emulator for modern Windows 10 PC. The game i want to run is Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver (U). And yes, i already have the AP patched runs (i play them on my 3DS with TWLMenu++).
Its been years since i used a DS emulator. last i used was DeSmuME 0.9.10 on Windows 7 Ultimate. I already know DeSmuME's last official update was 0.9.11 from 2015; No$GBA got a new update after years of hiatu (i never liked this emulator); and there's a new called MelonDS, but the compatibility thread on the official forum doesn't have any main line Pokémon game.
Using a emulator is the easiest way to record videos for yt, better than filming my NDS or 3DS offscreen.

FAST6191 · May 16, 2019

There are a few unofficial ports of desmume. For you the most interesting will probably be the one that increases the resolution of 3d rendering. https://gbatemp.net/threads/hi-resolution-ds-emulation.364549/

no$gba is good stuff, though as I use it a lot to hack things that is probably more why (its debug version went free at one point).

melonds seems to be up and coming, though of dubious usefulness for the basic ROM running type.

Other than this there are no emulators really worth keeping an eye on as everything else kind of stopped when desmume rose up to become the best open source emulator, and no$gba got the best debugger (especially now it is free).

PRAGMA · May 16, 2019

Windows: DeSmuME + any HiRes mods (but keep an eye on MelonDS)
Android: DraStic

ThoD · May 16, 2019

NDS emulation on PC has been flawless for almost 10 years now, don't see the point in asking about it... And what's the problem with No$GBA? It's much better than desmume if you ask me.

If you want to record and all, just use No$GBA with No$Zoomer, games look great and run flawlessly while having really nice customization/debug options on top!

Deleted member 453882 · May 23, 2019

ThoD said:
NDS emulation on PC has been flawless for almost 10 years now!

Yeah, right. No$GBA has some major compatibility issues, It is objectively worse than DeSmuMe, and even that emulator has some problems (a rouge dev halting compatibility and fixes for the pettiest of reasons, uses proprietary save files, etc.) MelonDS is the only saving grace we have right now.

ThoD · May 23, 2019

IAmRifki said:
Yeah, right. No$GBA has some major compatibility issues, It is objectively worse than DeSmuMe, and even that emulator has some problems (a rouge dev halting compatibility and fixes for the pettiest of reasons, uses proprietary save files, etc.) MelonDS is the only saving grace we have right now.

What have you tried to run that No$GBA couldn't run exactly? Because as long as you properly AP patch games, literally the only ones that won't work are the ones that use additional hardware (eg: the guitar hero game that uses the GBA slot for note input).

Deleted member 453882 · May 24, 2019

No$GBA has some emulation inaccuracies plaguing the emulator thanks to speedhacks, and Patching games?
is that a real solution rather than correct and accurate emulation?, the point of emulation is no longer just running games on a PC, but to preserve them as accurately as possible, because the hardware will die some day. Your usage of the word flawless despises me.

Deleted User · May 24, 2019

IAmRifki said:
No$GBA has some emulation inaccuracies plaguing the emulator thanks to speedhacks, and Patching games?
is that a real solution rather than correct and accurate emulation?, the point of emulation is no longer just running games on a PC, but to preserve them as accurately as possible, because the hardware will die some day. Your usage of the word flawless despises me.

DeSmuME is accurate. No$GBA is still being developed on. And that reason is because DeSuME does not have proper functions to use Dsi enhanced, so NO$GBA is working on properly emulating ds, gba, and dsi with accuracy eventually in mind, at the moment they aim with speed.

Deleted member 453882 · May 24, 2019

You are correct, however MelonDS already has plans to emulate DSi, and Martin has already said that his emulators are supposed to be faster than any other emulator, He had years to remove speedhacks, and I really doubt he'll remove them soon.

bobmcjr · May 24, 2019

monkeyman4412 said:
DeSmuME is accurate. No$GBA is still being developed on. And that reason is because DeSuME does not have proper functions to use Dsi enhanced, so NO$GBA is working on properly emulating ds, gba, and dsi with accuracy eventually in mind, at the moment they aim with speed.

Desmume is very much not accurate either. Good handful of games that require some of the archaic AP patches on most emulators, including desmume. melonDS seems to currently be on the best path to accurate emulation with how it handles these games so far.

No$GBA shines in its excellent Windows backwards compatibility to support the ever-growing Windows 3.1 userbase.
But really, it probably has the quickest to use debugger. It's frustratingly close to what I want in a DS debugger, but missing a handful of quality of life things.

the_randomizer · May 24, 2019

ThoD said:
What have you tried to run that No$GBA couldn't run exactly? Because as long as you properly AP patch games, literally the only ones that won't work are the ones that use additional hardware (eg: the guitar hero game that uses the GBA slot for note input).

no$GBA still hasn't properly emulated the Super Mario 64 DS intro music, because it has a broken sound channel that crackles, other than that, it runs it fine I guess.

MegaGenesis · May 26, 2019

bobmcjr said:
Desmume is very much not accurate either. Good handful of games that require some of the archaic AP patches on most emulators, including desmume. melonDS seems to currently be on the best path to accurate emulation with how it handles these games so far.

Exactly. My original R4 Revolution v2 (the original R4, no SDHC support) can fully play clean ROMs of HeartGold and SoulSilver with no problems, i've been playing on it for years. DeSmuME still need the old AP patches. Also, i forgot that DeSmuME uses proprietary battery save files.
I gonna try melonDS. I still think there's not enough coverage for melonDS on the emulation community. Its always "Drastic this and Drastic that".
Thanks everyone for the answers. I downloaded DeSmuME 0.9.11. It works, and it run much better on my new PC. Still, that weird black dots/grain effect on overworld graphics on Gen 4 Pokémon games still exist.

lorein0688 · May 15, 2020

Well, there are many best Nintendo DS emulator for Windows PC, and you already know most of them like DeSmuME, No$GBA, MelonDS.

These are some of the best Nintendo DS emulator but there are many others as well like RetroArch Emulator, Citra (Nintendo 3DS Emulator) that work best Windows 10 PC or other Windows version as well.

To learn about them read the article -

What's the currently state of NDS emulation?

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