Is DSi XL worth it?

wudek

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 31, 2020
Messages
22
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
119
Country
Poland
Hello brothers.
im thinking about buying DSi XL. I already have n3DS XL, but playing ds/gba/snes etc. games on this thing is horrible, im talking about the screen. I have IPS screen but you know, even when playing pixel perfect you can see some black lines in game.
So my question, is DSi XL worth if I want to play - DS, GBA, GBC, SNES, NES games on it? Idk if you can get good aspect ratio for SNES games (screen is too small I think)? But I know the rest will look good. If it's worth it and SNES games would look good, what's the best way to play all those games? SD card hack or flashcard? Thank you and sorry for my english.
 

Flame

Me > You
Global Moderator
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Messages
7,201
Trophies
3
XP
18,339
Hello brothers.
im thinking about buying DSi XL. I already have n3DS XL, but playing ds/gba/snes etc. games on this thing is horrible, im talking about the screen. I have IPS screen but you know, even when playing pixel perfect you can see some black lines in game.
So my question, is DSi XL worth if I want to play - DS, GBA, GBC, SNES, NES games on it? Idk if you can get good aspect ratio for SNES games (screen is too small I think)? But I know the rest will look good. If it's worth it and SNES games would look good, what's the best way to play all those games? SD card hack or flashcard? Thank you and sorry for my english.

well. i mean it might look better. but the performance will be worse. its up to you really. i thinking about the performance of the snes emu for sure.
 

Nikokaro

Lost philosopher... searching for a way out...
Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2020
Messages
2,157
Trophies
1
Location
Nautilus (under) Lake Como, Italy 🇮🇹
XP
6,670
Country
Italy
My personal advice is that the regular DSi is better than the DSi XL. The image is more defined and the colors more vivid and bright. On the second one the image is coarser, squarer and pixelated and the colors more watered down.
As for SNES games both are not suitable: SnemulDS is an outdated emulator, incomplete, difficult to set and not very compatible. I do not recommend it.
GBARunner2 on the other hand is very good, and if you use it from SD slot you can take advantage of the faster processor and more ram available. But still on the XL screen the graphics are too angular and rough; on the regular DSi it is much better. Then NesDS and Lameboy/Gameyob are very good emulators.

P.S. I emphasize that I owned both, but I sold the DSi XL because I hardly ever used it, due to the flaws already mentioned.
 
Last edited by Nikokaro,

KleinesSinchen

GBAtemp's Backup Reminder + Fearless Testing Sina
Member
GBAtemp Patron
Joined
Mar 28, 2018
Messages
4,366
Trophies
2
XP
14,705
Country
Germany
The DS(i) screens have a too few lines to display a complete (S)NES image without either scaling (awful!) or cropping (missing information). nesDS offers okay emulation (still dislike the problem with the vertical resolution).

SNES emulation on DS(i) isn't something I would want to consider. Ignoring the rarely used higher resolution mode of SNES, the 2|3DS is able to show (S)NES pixel perfect or scaled to various aspect ratios. Performance is usually good, even on the older 3DS models -- at least for games not relying on strong enhancement chips (SA1, Super-FX)

The DSi(XL) will have a strong point in playing DS games. Pixel perfect on 3DS is small and any scaling is a compromise -- though some filtering options exist.
 

mrparrot2

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Nov 29, 2021
Messages
99
Trophies
0
Age
28
Location
SP, Brazil
XP
514
Country
Brazil
I do have a DSi and I did have an DS lite at some point before.

The DSi has a very wide emulation platform but most of them are not solid. SNES emulator have many glitches, the Genesis have to crop the screen, and GBARunner2 have bugs that will annoy you (some I found are It refusing to save in some parts of super Mario World and missing tiles in pokémon emerald).

The DS lite Will allow you to play gba games through Its gba slot, so you could Hook a flashcard there. But I also remember that the GBA was way better in playing gba games than the DS lite.

I'd say dont go for It. Stick with your 3DS.
 

The Real Jdbye

*is birb*
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
23,182
Trophies
4
Location
Space
XP
13,693
Country
Norway
Hello brothers.
im thinking about buying DSi XL. I already have n3DS XL, but playing ds/gba/snes etc. games on this thing is horrible, im talking about the screen. I have IPS screen but you know, even when playing pixel perfect you can see some black lines in game.
So my question, is DSi XL worth if I want to play - DS, GBA, GBC, SNES, NES games on it? Idk if you can get good aspect ratio for SNES games (screen is too small I think)? But I know the rest will look good. If it's worth it and SNES games would look good, what's the best way to play all those games? SD card hack or flashcard? Thank you and sorry for my english.
No. The DS Lite is the superior DS. GBA backwards compatibility is far more important than what little DSiWare worth playing there is (and while you can technically run GBA games on a DSi it's not native and it's far from perfect)
Plus, a DS Lite with a DSTWO can run SNES games far better than the DSi.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wudek and Marc_LFD

sombrerosonic

Idiot machine
Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2022
Messages
1,453
Trophies
2
Location
The Tower of pizza
XP
2,875
Country
United States
Hello brothers.
im thinking about buying DSi XL. I already have n3DS XL, but playing ds/gba/snes etc. games on this thing is horrible, im talking about the screen. I have IPS screen but you know, even when playing pixel perfect you can see some black lines in game.
So my question, is DSi XL worth if I want to play - DS, GBA, GBC, SNES, NES games on it? Idk if you can get good aspect ratio for SNES games (screen is too small I think)? But I know the rest will look good. If it's worth it and SNES games would look good, what's the best way to play all those games? SD card hack or flashcard? Thank you and sorry for my english.
DSI XL is shit in SNES emulation (Shin Megami Tensi Crashes every second, FF3 graphical glitches. Super Mario world slowdowns. etc). NTM Twilight Menu exist for native DS and GBA playability. ntm you can emulate GBC and NES on the 3DS.

Just stretch the screen with the built in settings, works fine
 
  • Like
Reactions: wudek

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Sorry for accidentally bending over