How is a modded 3DS for emulation?

[saulin]

3DS emulation is not easy on many handhelds and it uses 2 screens. I'm noticing Switch Lite Prices being cheaper than 3DS Handhelds though

If I wanted to play say GBA, NDS, 3DS more like in their native form without much emulation problems. For some reason my iPhone 15 Pro Max gives me cracking sound on GBA and NDS emulation on Retroarch.

I already have a DS Lite; so DS and GBA is covered there but no 3DS. Will a 3DS cover all 3 systems with near perfect gameplay for all 3 systems?

Or is the Switch a better investment than a 3DS. I supposed the Switch does may not be able to handle 3DS emulation well since even my iPhone 15 Pro Max has issues with it.

I'm not really looking for SNES, NES, TG-16, N64, Genesis, DC or PS1 emulation since Retroarch works awesome on my iPhone for those systems and I have a Gamesir G8+ controller for my phone.

Also is it worth paying extra for the New 3DS vs the original 3DS. The price different can be quiet a lot and I'm not even looking for the XL models as it looks like DS and GBA games may not look crisp on the bigger screen.

 

[ber71]

Yes the 3ds can run these three systems.
· 3ds natively
· ds natively, via cartridge, flashcart or nds-bootstrap. Be warned that the image may seem a bit blurry because interpolation over the different screen sizes.
· gba natively, via open_agb_firm, or VC for single games. Same about interpolation.

No need for a new model, if you stick to that.

I would NOT recommended a switch for 3ds emulation:
· the citra core is experimental and runs well few games. It has latency problems too.
· you can run nds games with a standalone melonds emulator, which runs OK for a majority of 2d games but not so well for 3d games.
· gba emulation is quite good with mgba, although not 100% native.

 

[ihaveahax]

An overview for emulators on 3DS is here: https://wiki.hacks.guide/wiki/3DS:Emulators

GBA and DS games can be played natively. This means no emulation issues, but also no features you might want from emulators like save states. The HOME Menu also cannot be accessed in the middle of gameplay.

GBA games can use open_agb_firm or VC injection. I would recommend you use open_agb_firm.

DS games can be played though TWiLight Menu++. Note compatibility is not 100%, if a game does not work, you might need to use a flashcart.

Sidenote, for iOS, you can try Delta for GBA and DS games. It might work better than RetroArch. It's also in the App Store and so no jailbreak is required.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

3DS emulation is not easy on many handhelds and it uses 2 screens. I'm noticing Switch Lite Prices being cheaper than 3DS Handhelds though

If I wanted to play say GBA, NDS, 3DS more like in their native form without much emulation problems. For some reason my iPhone 15 Pro Max gives me cracking sound on GBA and NDS emulation on Retroarch.

I already have a DS Lite; so DS and GBA is covered there but no 3DS. Will a 3DS cover all 3 systems with near perfect gameplay for all 3 systems?

Or is the Switch a better investment than a 3DS. I supposed the Switch does may not be able to handle 3DS emulation well since even my iPhone 15 Pro Max has issues with it.

I'm not really looking for SNES, NES, TG-16, N64, Genesis, DC or PS1 emulation since Retroarch works awesome on my iPhone for those systems and I have a Gamesir G8+ controller for my phone.

Also is it worth paying extra for the New 3DS vs the original 3DS. The price different can be quiet a lot and I'm not even looking for the XL models as it looks like DS and GBA games may not look crisp on the bigger screen.

I would say it's not ideal for GBA and NDS due to the screen resolution, games always look blurry compared to playing on a DS(i), unless you turn off scaling and play with borders, but then you lose a lot of screen real estate, maybe it is still a bit bigger image than the DS Lite if you play on a 3DS XL. I would not want to play DS/GBA with borders on a regular (n)3DS, the image is really small.

Compatibility wise for GBA and NDS it's more or less perfect since it runs on real hardware. Only games making use of slot 2 peripherals won't work correctly.

 

[saulin]

I would say it's not ideal for GBA and NDS due to the screen resolution, games always look blurry compared to playing on a DS(i), unless you turn off scaling and play with borders, but then you lose a lot of screen real estate, maybe it is still a bit bigger image than the DS Lite if you play on a 3DS XL. I would not want to play DS/GBA with borders on a regular (n)3DS, the image is really small.

Compatibility wise for GBA and NDS it's more or less perfect since it runs on real hardware. Only games making use of slot 2 peripherals won't work correctly.

So the DS Lite is still the better choice for DS and GBA I guess. And you pretty much need a 3DS for 3DS games since emulating the 3DS has been proven to be very challenging

 

[masterz81]

So the DS Lite is still the better choice for DS and GBA I guess. And you pretty much need a 3DS for 3DS games since emulating the 3DS has been proven to be very challenging

Well, the new3DS can perfectly run every nintendo handheld system from DS to the GB (At least if we ignore DS "The blurry problem", it doesn't apply to GBA games, which actually look quite good). In the case of desktop consoles, you can basically play everything from the first to the fourth generation and PS1 (50-60fps in most games with the optimal configuration)