Exophase, the developer of the DraStic Nintendo DS emulator, has made a statement regarding the future of the emulator. DraStic has been a popular closed-source DS emulator on Android that has been available for many years. However, following the fallout from both Yuzu and Citra emulator's situations, Exophase has decided to take DraStic off of the Google Play Store. According to them, DraStic was already going to be pulled from the Google Play Store, regardless of current events, but that things made the issue, "more urgent".

Before the app gets delisted, Exophase has made DraStic free to download, when it had previously cost $4.99 to buy. They plan on eventually releasing the source code for the emulator as well. You can grab DraStic DS Emulator from the Google Play Store here.

Source: The Verge

 

[Nix_Lon]

I've been using the "cracked" version for years now. But it'll be nice to have the latest version for free!

You never pay for software

From my experiences back in 2016-2017, I will admit that I never bought DraStic in my life so I went with the "pirated" method but the drawback of the "pre-cracked" .apk version is that accessing the settings menu crashes the app. The only way to fix this issue is by patching a clean DraStic .apk using LuckyPatcher (which requires root) to 100% bypass the DRM. Nowadays, this method is obsolete which I will mention later.

Doubt drastic was receiving any updates lately? He's just being weak and using this as excuse to drop development.

Uhhh does this means the proyect, won't have future updates any longer?

DraStic's latest major update (in my opinion) was from late 2019 aka. AArch64 and x64_64 support, the later updates onwards are related to compatibility fixes to Android 11+, tweaks, and minor fixes for specific games; DraStic still receives updates.

And for the main topic in question and to the unfortunate users here who've bought DraStic just weeks / days before it went for free in the Play Store.

The funny thing is that, unless you intended to support the DraStic team by purchasing DraStic or just bought DraStic because of their strict DRM (as I mentioned earlier where the pre-cracked .apk version broke some stuff), the app's DRM has been entirely removed during 2020 via r2.5.2.2, the devs officially confirmed the DRM removal during 2022 when the app was shortly delisted from the Play Store.

I assumed that the DraStic devs have been planning to make the app for free in the future for their "DraStic going open-source" plan that they announced back in 2019, and the current yuzu situation made them remember that plan (or maybe not and did it as an excuse.)

 

[_47iscool]

Newest version has been uploaded by the author (?)

Yes, March 5th: https://apkpure.com/drastic-ds-emulator/com.dsemu.drastic

@Nix_Lon
Lucky Patcher actually works without root, though it is better with it.

I have two usable Androids, an older 4.4 Kitkat that is TWRP rooted, and a newer one running Android 10 that is not rooted because it is risky for that particular model.

 

[Kiiro_Yakumo]

A small reminder that if it would be about emulation alone, Nintendo would be smeared on the walls just like Sony and Atlus previously tried to take down emulators because "muh emulating is piracy", they both LOST in court, Nintendo would as well.
However in Yuzu case it's more complicated than that. First of all the Patreon but by itself that's not against the law. Secondly the early access to better version of Yuzu, again nothing bad so far. I would argue that even if early access version could launch the "just released" game it would still be a case that can be won because it's still JUST emulation. Unfortunately from what I have gathered - altough don't hold me on this as it's information gathered from the Internet and we know how it can be with it - devs had discord channel - ugh - probably with Switch roms on it, if that is true then Nintendo had a "Free for all" at this moment.

OK but what if they didn't have any roms? Would be good and Nintendo shouldn't win, right? Here comes the worst part, what I CAN CONFIRM personally as I have checked the source, the emulator had certain hashes written in the files, very certain hashes... The kind of hashes you use the same way as the example emulator would use BIOS dump file. That was also a "Free for all" for Nintendo, there was no need for "completely unrelated envelope with money in judge's pocket", they had legal grounds for it unfortunately.

As for DraStic well, if it would go open source, maybe work on running it on Raspberry Pi could be resumed someday. Not to mention of course porting it to whatever device of power above "1 kg of potatoes" to run it.

 

[Nix_Lon]

Lucky Patcher actually works without root, though it it better with it.

I have two usable Androids, an older 4.4 Kitkat that is TWRP rooted, and a newer one running Android 10 that is not rooted because it is risky for that particular model.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that LuckyPatcher also works non-root for Drastic but in my experience, it had the same "accessing settings menu crashes the app" issue similar to the pre-cracked .apk versions.

 

[elezzar]

See, folks? This what i was talking about, every piece of homebrew/emulator/cfw etc projects will now follow suit.. Big N won! you'll be at their mercy and be happy.

exploits, custom firmwares, and emulators will always exist. and developers will always exist to keep it alive.

where there's a will there's a way, especially in a world with online anonymity.

 

[WolfmanMods]

Nintendo.. nintendo...

 

[smf]

Hey are you intimating I don't understand copyright infringement law or that you don't understand a joke?

It sounded like a butt hurt comment, which you are now trying to pass off as a joke.

 

[Maximo101]

It sounded like a butt hurt comment, which you are now trying to pass off as a joke.

nope.

 

[dh3lix-pooch]

Right time to save the APK then.

 

[Asia81]

After I bought it it's free... I'm dying

same, i bought it 3 month ago

 

[elezzar]

It sounded like a butt hurt comment, which you are now trying to pass off as a joke.

I'm actually being very literal.

 

[cakelover4578]

when i saw this i instantly picked up my phone and downloaded it

 

[That1LoserGuy]

I'm not sure if I got the right app but it returned me an .apks file, something I never saw online (couldn't install it as is)

it is a batch apk file that contains extra apks for config of different screen sizes, one of them is going to be for your architechture as well, anyways, you can use this app to install the single file (the .apks file):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aefyr.sai&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1