melonDSi has been merged

melonDSi has been merged
Jun 2nd 2020, by Arisotura

melonDSi started last year as that clunky DSi experiment branch. Over time, it became more capable, but it still felt really crusty. It was basically stuck in DSi mode, hardcoded all around, didn't work that well, and was based off what became an increasingly obsolete version of melonDS as it was put on the backburner in favor of other fronts.

But that is past now.

I wanted to get it ready for the JIT merge, so I set to work. First off was merging recent melonDS into it, which went smoothly. It was a great sight to see the DSi menu come to life inside the new Qt UI.

Then, in a couple days, the SD/MMC issues were fixed, such that for example Flipnote can now save without softlocking. I then decided that would be a good base, and cleaned it up. Basically, I de-hardcoded it, allowing it to switch between DS and DSi modes, changing how DSi-mode assets are loaded, all that.

And now, there it is, DSi support is part of the master branch.

Couple notes on this:

* It was reworked to require less files. Namely, aeskeys.bin, initmem7/9.bin and boot2_7/9.bin are no longer required. However, it now requires 'augmented' BIOS dumps, the same ones that NO$GBA requires. I intend to provide an appropriate dumper.

* The location of the BIOS/firmware/NAND files can be configured.

* It is able to run both DSi and DS games from the menu. For some reason, some will fail to load, giving that error screen.

* Direct boot is not supported yet under DSi mode.

* The current DSi emulation is more or less a base. Cameras, DSP, new wifi, etc... aren't supported yet.

* There is a hack in place to bypass region locking.

* DS games loaded via the DSi menu run in more-or-less-DS mode. Right now, some details like clock switching or RAM size aren't supported. Most games seen to run fine under these conditions, but some may run into issues.

* If you want to try out DSi support, I recommend that you keep a backup of your NAND dump.

* Savestates are not yet supported.

Next up is the JIT merger, Generic will keep you informed about that!

33 comments have been posted.

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Peduls says:
Jun 2nd 2020

I keep checking this site multiple time a day to see if 0.9 has released. I am so excited for all the new features to be merged!

Niklink says:
Jun 2nd 2020

Utterly historic. Good job!

Comlud says:
Jun 2nd 2020

Yessss :D

carzynoob458 says:
Jun 2nd 2020

great job! no$gba was an awful emulatior to use but this is awsome! thamks

poudink says:
Jun 2nd 2020

well for now no$gba still has much better dsi emulation

CE says:
Jun 2nd 2020

Congratulations!

QuintusNX says:
Jun 2nd 2020

Thanks for your work ! It's good to see that someone care about DSi emulation. I wait for the official release !

AsPika2219 says:
Jun 3rd 2020

2 in 1.... That's was awesome emulator!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Eniols says:
Jun 3rd 2020

Excellent job!!! I am one of the many fans who follow this page every day, waiting for the release of new versions. For me this is the best and most complete DS emulator and for sure, DSi too.

Masky says:
Jun 4th 2020

been silently lurking for a while now

the amount of passion put into this project is absolutely awesome

👏👏👏👏👏

^.^ says:
Jun 5th 2020

The DSi is getting some love once in a while :D
It will be a great release ^.^

meh says:
Jun 5th 2020

I download latest build from github actions and the interface is exactly the same but the size of executable is 22 mb vs old 900 kb. I think im stick with 0.8.3.

Arisotura says:
Jun 5th 2020

if that is the only thing you care about... good for you.

WTB says:
Jun 6th 2020

Really, someone just complained about the SIZE of the binary?! That's a new low even for an user

Guest says:
Jun 7th 2020

WTB, it matters more than you think (though not as much as some may wish it did), since that extra weight is additional code, that in turn requires additional system resources.

I for one, don't really like the added weight, however if that is what is necessary for melonDS to get better, then so be it (however even then, I have my limits, I had jumped ships more often than many, purely because of the weight (former Microsoft Translator on Android user here, when the size jumped from ~8MB to ~14MB, I had warned of this, and asked for better efficiency (which fell upon dead ears), however when it suddenly jumped to ~50MB, I had finally left)).

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