no$gba is what you'll see recommended because it runs on low specs, but it hasn't been updated in years.

Desumume or ideas, depending. Desumume's updated more IIRC.

 

Avoid iDeaS like the plague, they haven't so much as improved the sound emulation even after several years since its initial release. No$gba is dead since Martin went silent, so DeSmuME is the only real DS emulator with potential.

 

When I used Desumume, I had to tweak a sound setting or two, but after that I played 999 flawlessly.
Ditto for Super Scribblenauts.

 

It is only illegal if it contains even tiniest bit of copyrighted code. Just because it is an emulator doesn't mean it does.

 

That'd be like asking why Microsoft doesn't want you to pirate Windows.
Or asking why Sony doesn't want people to hack their PS3.

 

... because then he doesn't get money? Fucking duh.

That'd be piracy, akin to ROM distributions.

 

Well then you better start suing Nintendo for selling VC games on the Wii! Those are sold with an emulator bundled, you know (that's how they run).

Why the fuck would it be illegal? He spent his time working on it, it was his own code, and (for the time) it was a valuable testing tool. It seems you think that emulators are just about piracy, but that's why you're wrong. They're not. Hell, on the guy's page, the section below the emulator has the debugger and specifically states it's useless for playing games. The two are meant to be run hand-in-hand for development.

I mean I even wrote up a small guide on setting up a DS programming environment, and one of the most important tools is having an emulator you can launch into easily. With this I was able to test the (singular) homebrew I was making (before I got bored) without extra wear and tear on my MicroSD's contacts, the reader's contacts, my flash card's contacts, and my DSi's contacts. On that subject, ask any homebrew tester how often they take microSDs and carts in and out of their units... Another World has made comments on how often that happens.

EDIT: And not to mention the in-house emulators that game development companies use to make development easier for some of the above reasons, and commercially-sold emulators like bleem. Yeah companies didn't like that one bit, but they never got it legally shut down (instead it was a money waiting game as usual).

I mean any competent developer would slap you for the comments you've made here, you have no clue what you're talking about so hard it's not even funny.

 

Or maybe trying to catch some not acknowledged guys for paying a bit more?

Agreed, if for example we would make GBA emulator with GBA BIOS coded in (the dumped one) we can expect war

Only if there is code of ARM7 or ARM9 or GBA BIOS inside of it...well then overall emulator is illegal

Yes...some kind of emulator...tough probably done smartest way, for example every N64 game has that "emulator" but if we have like 4 titles installed, the emulator part takes space only ONCE (not sure, guessing)

Rydian - I agree emulator for me is only for testing the code I do, as long as all parts of code are working on Desmume I don't have to do the in-out card ritual

Please no asking PLEASE T_T

LeRodeur - there is just little problem with no$gba it wasn't fully donations definition as "You can pay and download or just download", it was more like "pay so You will get LATEST version, if not pay then You will have older for free"
It wasn't illegal or something, just wrong way defined...


EDIT #1
Ah one more thing, if emulator doesn't have things like GBA BIOS dump coded in but CAN OPTIONALLY use it if user provides it, it's still ok in light of law