Front-page Homebrew  Updated

After several years, DS Wifi emulation is back.

@StapleButter, a French developer well-known for homebrew SNES emulators blargSNES (o3DS, N3DS) and lolSNES (NDS) is developing since a few months a new DS emulator called melonDS. The open-source emulator, which originally started as a forum joke about the lack of proper Wi-Fi emulation in DeSmuME, has made a lot of progress, with the goal of being as accurate as possible. melonDS, now on its 0.3 release, is now capable of emulating most retail games, although it requires a pretty powerful CPU to work at full speed. Here are some screenshots of the 0.3 release:

melonDS3_1.png
melonDS3_2.png
melonDS3_3.png

​
One of the goals of melonDS was also accurate wifi emulation. Indeed, in the past, StapleButter's work on wifi in DeSmuME has been sabotaged by the lead dev zeromus, for various 'reasons'. Wifi emulation in DeSmuME has been since left out and the DeSmuME main page states that "Wifi is not supported and will never be emulated". A few days ago, in a pretty short tweet, StapleButter showed a screenshot of a communication between two emulated DSes in the well-known DS messaging app PictoChat. After a few years, Wi-Fi emulation is back again!

get.php
For now, despite the feature being still highly experimental, the feature has been reported working with local VS mode play in New Super Mario Bros. and even Pokémon trading.

Links:
 
Last edited by StarTrekVoyager,
  • Like
Reactions: Sirius64, SAIYAN48, derplayer and 78 others
Click to expand...
Arisotura

Arisotura

rise of melonism
Member
Level 11
Joined
Dec 5, 2009
Messages
839
Trophies
1
Age
30
Location
center of the Sun
Website
kuribo64.net
XP
2,498
Country
France
StarTrekVoyager said:
Local Wifi? Don't dfream. This is likely to be impossible, as it would require almost perfect timing etc. But it should be possible in the future through online (altwfc) whenever StapleButter implements Online (which is going to be quite hard :P)
Click to expand...
Online is actually easier than local multiplayer, as it only uses standard wifi features :P local MP on the other hand uses some pretty sick specific features, I made a post about them on the melonDS blog.

It even worked in desmume, for a while. I believe the related NGEmu thread is still stickied in their desmume forum.


also re: WFC

I don't believe there's much of a legal issue with having an emulator than can connect to WFC. This is moot though as the WFC servers are offline, but...

>people will use it to cheat and ruin WFC
They never needed a fancypants wifi-enabled emulator to cheat and ruin WFC. They just had to have an ARDS and tick a few checkboxes. And this isn't a problem if the servers have proper cheat protection (but of course lolnintendo).

I don't know of any legal action against a network-enabled emulator, but then again I haven't been paying attention to everything.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pandaxclone2, Deleted member 377734, Zense and 3 others
zero2exe

zero2exe

Well-Known Member
Member
Level 4
Joined
Jun 23, 2012
Messages
331
Trophies
0
XP
426
Country
Chile
So this seems to require some bios and firmware.bin files from an actual DS. Is there any available homebrew on temp that dump such files? I'd love to try it
 
Plstic

Plstic

Guru Meditation Error
Member
Level 12
Joined
Apr 21, 2010
Messages
1,196
Trophies
1
Location
Milwaukee WI
XP
2,816
Country
United States
StapleButter said:
Online is actually easier than local multiplayer, as it only uses standard wifi features :P local MP on the other hand uses some pretty sick specific features, I made a post about them on the melonDS blog.

It even worked in desmume, for a while. I believe the related NGEmu thread is still stickied in their desmume forum.


also re: WFC

I don't believe there's much of a legal issue with having an emulator than can connect to WFC. This is moot though as the WFC servers are offline, but...

>people will use it to cheat and ruin WFC
They never needed a fancypants wifi-enabled emulator to cheat and ruin WFC. They just had to have an ARDS and tick a few checkboxes. And this isn't a problem if the servers have proper cheat protection (but of course lolnintendo).

I don't know of any legal action against a network-enabled emulator, but then again I haven't been paying attention to everything.
Click to expand...
There was some legal action for programmed world which was a Konami eamuse emulator. Pretty sure that was all related to use of Konami assets ie. qpro parts and the like and they also ran the latest data which was in arcades in japan.
 
leon315

leon315

POWERLIFTER
Member
Level 14
Joined
Nov 27, 2013
Messages
4,100
Trophies
2
Age
124
XP
4,079
Country
Italy
It requires a very powerful cpu to emulate properly huh??? Let's see:

I7 6700k 300+bucks vs a used ds lite 50bucks

11/10 would get last gen cpu to emulate cheap ds
 
  • Like
Reactions: YuseiFD
Costello

Costello

Headmaster
Administrator
Level 27
Joined
Oct 24, 2002
Messages
14,203
Trophies
4
XP
19,739
leon315 said:
It requires a very powerful cpu to emulate properly huh??? Let's see:

I7 6700k 300+bucks vs a used ds lite 50bucks

11/10 would get last gen cpu to emulate cheap ds
Click to expand...
you will need actually two i9 CPUs (one for each screen of the DS) and make them work together via SLI
 
Last edited by Costello,
  • Like
Reactions: Deleted User, Brawl345, Zense and 4 others
SpongeFreak52

SpongeFreak52

Well-Known Member
Member
Level 7
Joined
Apr 8, 2007
Messages
414
Trophies
0
Location
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
XP
1,027
Country
United States
Costello said:
you will need actually two i9 CPUs (one for each screen of the DS) and make them work together via SLI
Click to expand...
I superglued my SLI bridge onto the processors but now it just ignites when I hit the power button. Gonna keep a bucket of water handy to see if that helps it run better.

EDIT: It works! I can run Settings at a blazing 3 frames per secon! Take THAT, Nintendo! Smell of electrical smoke has filled the room but I can scan for access points all day now!
 
Last edited by SpongeFreak52,
  • Like
Reactions: 8BitWalugi and StarTrekVoyager
D

Deleted User

Guest
StarTrekVoyager said:
Local Wifi? Don't dfream. This is likely to be impossible, as it would require almost perfect timing etc. But it should be possible in the future through online (altwfc) whenever StapleButter implements Online (which is going to be quite hard :P)
Click to expand...
But...but...:cry:
 
D

Deleted User

Guest
Nokia9000000000000 said:
56 internets
Click to expand...
Lol
StapleButter said:
Online is actually easier than local multiplayer, as it only uses standard wifi features :P local MP on the other hand uses some pretty sick specific features, I made a post about them on the melonDS blog.

It even worked in desmume, for a while. I believe the related NGEmu thread is still stickied in their desmume forum.
Click to expand...
But the picture of pictochat shows that it works, I think... it uses local comunication, right?
 
YayMii

YayMii

hi
Member
Level 5
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
4,916
Trophies
0
Age
28
Location
that place
XP
758
Country
Canada
Plstic said:
There was some legal action for programmed world which was a Konami eamuse emulator. Pretty sure that was all related to use of Konami assets ie. qpro parts and the like and they also ran the latest data which was in arcades in japan.
Click to expand...
There's a difference between "network-enabled emulator" and "private server for arcade cabinets running pirated software"...
 
Last edited by YayMii,
  • Like
Reactions: Deleted User and StarTrekVoyager

Site & Scene News

Go to forum More news

Popular threads in this forum

Testing the new EZ-Flash Parallel

ROM Hack  Mario Kart DS - Custom Tracks Grand Prix NITRO (CTGP NITRO) v1.1.0 Release

Best DS flash Cart?

EZ-Flash Parallel Question (Sav files and where to put them)

Emulation  What are the emulation capability of a DSi? (2024)

So what IS the best DS Flashcart?

EZ-Flash Parallel doesn't works on DSi XL

Emulation  Tomodachi Collection Cheat Codes (For Delta)

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    https://youtu.be/_sJ79aDQTeQ?si=dCPYbyGhZ8OFK8nb
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlxH_Th3-LI
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    good night
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    as to you
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    How do you know if the night will be good when you're asleep
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    because i didn't say i was asleep
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    i said i was sleeping...
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    sleeping with uremum
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Even my mum slept on that uremum
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    yall im torn... ive been hacking away at tales of phantasia GBA (the USA version) and have so many documents of reverse engineering i've done
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I just found out that the EU version is better in literally every way, better sound quality, better lighting, and there's even a patch someone made to make the text look nicer
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    Do I restart now using what i've learned on the EU version since it's a better overall experience? or do I continue with the US version since that is what ive been using, and if someone decides to play my hack, it would most likely be that version?
  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    @TwoSpikedHands, I'll preface this with the fact that I know nothing about the game, but, I think it depends on what your goals are. Are you trying to make a definitive version of the game? You may want to refocus your efforts on the EU version then. Or, are you trying to make a better US version? In which case, the only way to make a better US version is to keep on plugging away at that one ;)
  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    I'm not familiar with the technicalities of the differences between the two versions, but I'm wondering if at least some of those differences are things that you could port over to the US version in your patch without having to include copyrighted assets from the EU version
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    @Sicklyboy I am wanting to fully change the game and bend it to my will lol. I would like to eventually have the ability to add more characters, enemies, even have a completely different story if i wanted. I already have the ability to change the tilemaps in the US version, so I can basically make my own map and warp to it in game - so I'm pretty far into it!
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I really would like to make a hack that I would enjoy playing, and maybe other people would too. swapping to the EU version would also mean my US friends could not legally play it
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I am definitely considering porting over some of the EU features without using the actual ROM itself, tbh that would probably be the best way to go about it... but i'm sad that the voice acting is so.... not good on the US version. May not be a way around that though
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I appreciate the insight!
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    @TwoSpikedHands just switch, all the knowledge you learned still applies and most of the code and assets should be the same anyway
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    and realistically they wouldn't

    be able to play it legally anyway since they need a ROM and they probably don't have the means to dump it themselves
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    why the shit does the shitbox randomly insert newlines in my messages
  • Veho @ Veho:
    It does that when I edit a post.
  • Veho @ Veho:
    It inserts a newline in a random spot.
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    never had that i don't think
    The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye: never had that i don't think