melonDS 0.9 is out!
It's been forever, but, finally, here it is. melonDS 0.9.

And it's big.



So, what are the highlights of this release?


- JIT recompiler

Brought to you by Generic (aka RSDuck), the new JIT recompiler enables melonDS to run much faster, and quite often reach fullspeed even when emulating DSi titles!

There are a few settings you can try out to get the most out of this JIT. While it has been heavily tested and worked on, it's still imperfect.


- DSi emulation

This is the other flagship feature of this release: melonDS now emulates the DSi!

You will need a NAND and firmware dump from your DSi, as well as augmented BIOS dumps (such as those that NO$GBA requires). The following BIOS dumper can dump the required BIOS files from a homebrew-enabled DSi.

Do note that this is still experimental. For one, direct boot will not work under DSi mode. Not everything is running yet, either, but we're getting there. melonDS does not yet emulate some hardware like the DSi cameras (but on the other hand, emulates DSi wifi).

melonDS has a small hack to bypass the region check. However, DSiware titles can't be run standalone yet, they will need to be installed to the NAND.


- GBA slot support

melonDS now supports loading a GBA ROM to simulate having a cartridge in the GBA slot. This is done by selecting a .gba file while your game is running. Note that we don't support emulating the GBA in any way.

We also support the Boktai solar sensor addon. Support for more addons is planned.


- New Qt UI

This means we get to do more without needing to work around the limitations that libui had. For the end user, this also means a bigger binary, but on the other hand, on Windows, all the dependencies are linked statically, so melonDS does not come with external DLLs anymore.

The new interface adds features that were long requested: for example, you can open the emu settings dialog to point melonDS at your desired BIOS/firmware/etc files, without needing to move/rename them around.


- Cheats

This is another popular request, and here it is. melonDS lets you enter Action Replay codes to mess with your games in whatever ways you want.


- DLDI

melonDS now supports letting homebrew access files and directories on a SD card image. Note that for now, you will need to provide an image file, melonDS does not yet build such images on the fly like DeSmuME can do.

Similarly, you can also use a SD card image to emulate the console's SD card in DSi mode.


- and the rest!

As usual, there are plenty of little improvements with this melonDS release, that are too many to list here, but you may discover them on your own! Or find them in the changelog (which we are still busy compiling - it's a big release).


Enjoy!


melonDS 0.9, Windows 64-bit
melonDS 0.9, Linux 64-bit

If you're feeling generous: here's our Patreon
Skylark says:
Sep 4th 2020
Nice, can't wait to try it when I get home. Great job!
Nixel says:
Sep 4th 2020
Is this what was being hinted at in the previous post?
Arisotura says:
Sep 4th 2020
yup :)
They says:
Sep 4th 2020
Add recent opened roms list pls
They says:
Sep 4th 2020
Maybe set initial keyboard mappings to make it little frendlier. (Like XZSA←→↑↓QWSpcEnt)
Laka says:
Sep 4th 2020
Awesome, mate! Gonna try it right now! =D
teteka says:
Sep 4th 2020
Awesome job!!
Vania Dude says:
Sep 4th 2020
Thanks a lot :')
Niklink says:
Sep 4th 2020
One year on the dot since 0.8.3. Cheeky.
makey says:
Sep 4th 2020
WOW is sooo smooth . BRAVO !
Generic aka RSDuck says:
Sep 4th 2020
Arisotura forgot to mention some features I find noteworthy:

- Slot2 support. Currently only GBA carts and the Boktai solar sensor are supported. This has been implemented by Chagall (rzumer on Github).
- Indirect mode wifi now uses libslirp and works well now and can be used over direct mode which only worked over ethernet and required pcap.
Pokéguy says:
Sep 4th 2020
this is a poggers moment
SIGMA says:
Sep 4th 2020
Thank you so much for this awesome release!
Oeil2Fenix says:
Sep 4th 2020
Awesome emulator!
I can use DS and DSI firmware without any trouble. I can even go through the camera app to do the "Memory Pit" exploit (yep it works in this emulator, it shows how accurate it is).
Noises! says:
Sep 4th 2020
Hey, it seems like there's only a 64-bit release available? Is there a 32-bit version I can download and/or planned in the future?
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