< LAN multiplayer: in the worksRTC and ambitious plans >
LAN multiplayer: getting there!
Oct 7th 2023, by Arisotura
As of today:



LAN gameplay between the two computers I have at hand over here.

LAN is actually fairly close to a finished product, now. It's obviously still a bit rough around the edges, may be a tad unstable, but from my testing it has shown to be pretty smooth.

From this point, I encourage anybody who is interested to grab the experimental builds from our Github CI. It's the runs labelled 'season2 test PR'; note that you will need a Github account to download them.

But if you're motivated, please give them some deep testing, abuse them in whatever ways you can think of, and report anything that seems odd to you, in our IRC or Discord or in this thread. We'd like these features to be rock-solid for the 1.0 release.

How to get a LAN game going:

1. On the host machine: open melonDS, then System -> Multiplayer -> Host LAN game. You enter a player name and you're good to go.

2. On client machines: open melonDS, then System -> Multiplayer -> Join LAN game. Enter your player name there, then it should list any existing LAN games. If not, you can always try using the direct connect button.

3. Once all sides are connected to the LAN game, you can open a ROM on each machine and try getting a game going. Do note that you will need a good local network for this to work. Ethernet should work, but anything else may fail if the latency can get too high.

That should be about it. There are also options pertaining to netplay, but for now, it doesn't work. I had managed to get it working as a very crude proof of concept, but due to changes in the melonDS codebase since then, it's broken. I will let you know when I can get it working again.

Have fun!


EDIT- clarification on the terminology:

LAN is for playing local multiplayer games over a local network (ie. multiple computers in the same house for example).

Netplay is for playing local multiplayer games over the internet.

Neither of these apply to online multiplayer (aka WFC).
61 comments have been posted.
< LAN multiplayer: in the worksRTC and ambitious plans >
lucaspltn says:
Oct 7th 2023
YEAH!!!!! Inter-computer networked play πŸ™ŒπŸΌπŸ™ŒπŸΌπŸ™ŒπŸΌ

I do have a few questions about it, though. Does LAN multiplayer refer to this "DS Wireless Communications" thing I've heard about (not IR, not Wi-Fi)? And also, I'm not sure about this, but does it currently work in melonDS 0.9.5 when you make multiple melonDS instances on the same computer?
Shadowwolf1337 says:
Oct 7th 2023
at this point you should call it version 0.10
JIIN says:
Oct 7th 2023
OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY !!!!!!!!!!!! CAN I PLAY a simple board game with my friend over the net ?
where can i download it ?
Crackerstie36 says:
Oct 7th 2023
Much luv <3 (No homo) glad to see multiplayer atleast somewhat working. much love from Melbourne Australia (lol I should sleep rn its 4:30)
Crafter says:
Oct 7th 2023
JIIN, read first before ask
Variant9 says:
Oct 7th 2023
You should be able to netplay using VPN solutions like LogMeIn Hamachi (or whatever the current flavor is called), though I don't know what impact the increased latency will have.
^.^ says:
Oct 8th 2023
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\"""\ / \ \ ; \"""\ / \ \ ;
`---` `--` `---` `--`


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^.^ says:
Oct 8th 2023
Aw crap, I guess no ascii art in these comments πŸ˜…

Just wanted to say I'm really happy about the progress ^.^ but sadly can't help with testing rn...
thisisaname says:
Oct 8th 2023
I can't seem to load nds files with the experimental build, is that normal?
great work says:
Oct 8th 2023
amazing :D
a stupid person says:
Oct 9th 2023
Is there a possibility for a lan connection with real hardware in the future?
Klauserus says:
Oct 9th 2023
Great! Big steps towards version 1.0
Keep it up, you do great work. I hope privately everything has calmed down. Have a nice Week
thisisaname says:
Oct 9th 2023
Got it running!
AndroidEnthusiast says:
Oct 10th 2023
Great progress! Will this come to the Android version as well? Hoping I will be able to play Mario Kart with my friends on a plane just like I used to on my DS hahahaha

Also, a quick question, is Lemuroid also running 0.9.5. on android? Or should I switch to the MelonDS app?
kevincrans says:
Oct 10th 2023
There is still 0.4 to go, no reason for the .1000.1000 madness.
With these features the emulator deserves being above 1.0.
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