Dual screen gaming is an era of Nintendo’s history that seems to have finally come to an end with the closing of the Wii U and 3DS’s eShop last year. With no official means of purchasing both the games and systems themselves, many have come to question exactly the best way to experience some of the great titles they might have missed over the years. Thanks to great emulators like Cemu and Citra, we have have the software to elevate these games thanks to higher rendering resolutions, easy mod access, and more. What we’re still chasing is the perfect hardware to play them on though.

Now it’s not to say that specific hardware doesn’t exist, but there’s always a catch. AYANEO released the Flip DS earlier this year with two displays, but the secondary display is low resolution. The Surface Duo exists as an Android device with two discrete 4:3 screens, but finding an ideal controller for that becomes a challenge. And for either of those you’re forking out hundreds for new hardware when you may already own a Steam Deck, ROG Ally, or any other number of handhelds that exist out there.

​

The DNA Duo takes a different approach to the problem, and it’s one I appreciate. A 6.5 inch 1080p touch display that runs at 60Hz, the DNA Duo is a second screen designed to enhance the tech you already own. The screen attaches to your device of choice using a unique magnetic connector, leaving you with a hinged clamshell design. As it stands each system requires a unique adaptor, with the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Odin 2, and Retroid Pocket 4 Pro being available to order now. The creator Jordan, also going by Mister DNEH, has stated they’re looking into a more universal design, and that other adaptors for further compatibility are being considered in the meantime.

I reached out to Jordan for a little more on the story behind the DNA Duo. The larger design stems from their love of clamshell systems, starting with the GBA SP they got as a child. The project really found its roots back in March though when they picked up the DraStic emulator for the first time in years, discovering it had the capability to make use of a second connected display for emulating DS games via Media Projection on Android. From there they started their R&D journey buying and trying a number of off-the-shelf screens on Amazon, but none quite offered the full feature set they were wanting. It needed to have USB C for video, another USB C for charging pass-through, and some kind of Mini or Micro HDMI port for better compatibility. Realising they’d need something more bespoke, they looked overseas and landed on what we’re looking at today; a display that ticks all the boxes.

To get the project off the ground they require $50,000 CAD, which is the equivalent to the cost of 500 screens. The project is currently live on Indiegogo with the display itself being priced at $200 CAD, and system-specific adaptors ranging from $20 CAD to $30 CAD. The campaign is live for the next 42 days, with estimated shipping listed as November 2024. As with any crowdfunding campaign there are risks involved in pledging, but this is a project I do feel worthy of attention.

If you’re interesting in learning more, you can find the project page below:

DNA Duo Project Page

 

[LexDG]

Use caution y'all. Creator has had some trouble owning up to missteps and correcting misinformation. It was a sponsored video for a product in a category he’s trashed and the specs he gave were wrong. When notified he doubled down instead of making sure to get it right. I actually GENERALLY like the dude and his content has helped me but I also know when money is to be gained people seem to forget how much of the truth matters.

 

[Spider_Man]

Everyone is like WOW this is amazing.

Calm down, all it is is a second display, something you could already do.

The part for N00bs that it is not showing, is its set up.

It will not be as shown in its videos that you simply plug it in and BOOM, ive got 3DS emulation just like on the console.

You'd have to set it up as a secondary display, configure your emulator to display main screen to external and bottom screen to remain on primary screen.

And we can already do this with any capable device out there, be it my 240Hz gaming monitor set on my OneXplayer 2 Pro, with top screen running at 240fps.

So, while this sounds impressive, for what you get, it is too expensive and I bet no doubt the brain dead DeckHeads will be creaming in their pants.

Wow we can get 3DS/DS emulation just like the console.

Its claimed price is £144, for a measly 1080p touch screen.

£140 I have a 32" QLED 240Hz monitor.

 

[LexDG]

And I see now that an update was buried in the description of the video but not annotation or sticky comment. Sus.

 

[Scarlet]

Everyone is like WOW this is amazing.

Calm down, all it is is a second display, something you could already do.

The part for N00bs that it is not showing, is its set up.

It will not be as shown in its videos that you simply plug it in and BOOM, ive got 3DS emulation just like on the console.

You'd have to set it up as a secondary display, configure your emulator to display main screen to external and bottom screen to remain on primary screen.

And we can already do this with any capable device out there, be it my 240Hz gaming monitor set on my OneXplayer 2 Pro, with top screen running at 240fps.

So, while this sounds impressive, for what you get, it is too expensive and I bet no doubt the brain dead DeckHeads will be creaming in their pants.

Wow we can get 3DS/DS emulation just like the console.

Its claimed price is £144, for a measly 1080p touch screen.

£140 I have a 32" QLED 240Hz monitor.

I mean on PC at least it pretty much is just "plug it in and BOOM". It's literally one setting in Citra to have it come up as two windows, then you go to all the effort of reaching for your keyboard and hitting F11 to full screen it lol. Same with Cemu. I will be fair and say that Android you will probably have a bit more pain though, that much is fair.

As for the comparisons, yeah, other things exist. Having a look on Amazon I can see 24 inch 1080p displays at 240Hz for that £140, so I do think you probably got a good deal on yours. I don't doubt you did get it for that though. It's just different markets really, you're not going to be putting a 32 inch QLED 240Hz monitor into your backpack.

 

[urbanman2004]

How to play DS games on a hacked Switch:

 

[Tofu_mommy]

I mean on PC at least it pretty much is just "plug it in and BOOM". It's literally one setting in Citra to have it come up as two windows, then you go to all the effort of reaching for your keyboard and hitting F11 to full screen it lol. Same with Cemu. I will be fair and say that Android you will probably have a bit more pain though, that much is fair.

As for the comparisons, yeah, other things exist. Having a look on Amazon I can see 24 inch 1080p displays at 240Hz for that £140, so I do think you probably got a good deal on yours. I don't doubt you did get it for that though. It's just different markets really, you're not going to be putting a 32 inch QLED 240Hz monitor into your backpack.

Having an emulator place the windows on appropriate displays automatically would take setup. I'm not a KDE user, so I won't talk about the specifics here, but the implication that it's pretty much plug and play might be a little bit on the too optimistic side.

 

[ftjiso]

neat idea but $200cad is no thank you. i'll stiick to emulators where you can resize the top and below screen in a single monitor
(yes i know this is more than just for emulators but i dont particular use dual screens more than anything else)

 

[Tofu_mommy]

neat idea but $200cad is no thank you. i'll stiick to emulators where you can resize the top and below screen in a single monitor
(yes i know this is more than just for emulators but i dont particular use dual screens more than anything else)

That doesn't include the adapter to attach it to a handheld, so the actual price will be a bit higher, assuming there won't be taxes or customs on top of it all.

 

[Yanazake]

I'm glad I saw another interesting screen for my handheld-at-home project, and now I have extra reason to get it and do this myself.

 

[Psycho]

this thing reminds me of the ps one screen attachment from way back. always was a cool idea.

feels like a niche market in this case to me, but then again i'm not exactly sure how popular/infamous handheld PCs really are since i only know 2 people who have one irl and rarely see any people with one in public

 

[SecureBoot]

Sad to see this isn't really been receiving funding. Have any other publications picked it up? I want to contribute, but with that flexible goal, I can't be sure my investment is safe

 

[KingVamp]

Unfortunate, I thought it would have at least gotten half. Hope they approve their visibility.

 

[Desconocido90]

I like the idea for DS/3DS emulation, although I'm afraid the anchoring could scratch the borders of the screen