DS
Image: Damien McFerran / Time Extension

If you've recently bought a dual-screen emulation-based handheld and have been looking for a DS-focused emulator to put through its paces, we have some potentially exciting news to share with you.

As spotted by Retro Handhelds, there appears to have been some movement in the DS emulation space recently, with MelonDualDS getting a big update, as well as a new, lighter sibling for Android handhelds and retro consoles with limited performance.

melonDualDS has been around for a while (the first release, 0.0.1, was released back in June of last year) and is described as a Nintendo DS and DSi emulator for Android, built on top of melonDS and the melonDS Android port by rafaelvcaetano. Developed by Sapphire Rhodonite, it was recently updated to version 0.7.0 over the weekend, introducing major changes you should know about if you're interested in the DS emulation space.

For starters, it appears that the emulator has now undergone another rebrand, being renamed to WatermelonDS, and has also received a noticeable UI refresh, promising better presentation of ROM lists and RetroAchievements.

This is not all, either, with Sapphire Rhodonite now incorporating RetroArch shader presets across all renderers and implementing a new experimental Vulkan FastPath (with the long-term goal of unifying the normal rendering path and the FastPath into "one stable, fast, and reliable rendering experience").

As for that "lighter option" we mentioned, it is called Seedless and is "built around the DraStic r2.6.0.4a core," while adding a new Android frontend, a new UI, RetroAchievements integration, and dual-screen behaviour designed for modern Android handhelds.

Here's a list of the "main highlights":

  • New Android frontend for a DraStic-based core
  • Based on the DraStic r2.6.0.4a core
  • New UI built from scratch with Kotlin + Jetpack Compose
  • UI direction designed to match the WatermelonDS family
  • Focused on Android handhelds with physical controls
  • Designed with dual-screen devices in mind
  • RetroAchievements support work
  • rcheevos Integration pinned to v12.3.0
  • Achievements, leaderboards, and profile information
  • Save states with screenshots
  • Quick save and quick load
  • Cheat database and custom codes
  • Global and per-game settings
  • Physical controller mapping
  • Front-end friendly launch intent support

As revealed by Sapphire Rhodonite, a Linux version of Seedless is also planned in the future, targeting devices with specs comparable to those of the Anbernic RG35XX SP.

[source retrohandhelds.gg]