< Public service announcementmelonDS 1.0 RC, there it is! >
Happy birthday melonDS
Nov 8th 2024, by Arisotura
melonDS is 8 years old now. Thus, here's the appropriately colored logo for this event:



We have to a point where, well... You guess it, it's been two years since the last proper release.

melonDS has become quite a large and complex project, with many moving parts. I compare an emulator project to a tree: when you're done with the trunk, it branches off in a billion directions. That's pretty much it.

We have been through a pretty big refactor of the codebase, and that comes with its lot of issues, doubts, and so on. Was the refactor a mistake? What could we do better?

One of the major selling points was the development of netplay. Unfortunately, that's not the first time I have big ideas, big ambitions, but fail to concretize them. That's ADHD for you.

In a way, I'm also afraid of netplay. It feels like a bit of a Pandora box. I mean, it has potential for being a very cool feature, but also for being an endless source of issues. Dealing with the wifi connection issues for so long has given me a glimpse of it already. As a matter of fact, solving interesting problems is something I'm good at, but user support is not. I've had a bit of a similar experience at my last job, too.

Regardless, I still consider melonDS to be a great success.

I might try netplay later if I feel like it, but for now, I'm burnt out on that stuff.

However!

We are getting pretty close to the release.

Our plan is to first release a RC of 1.0. Given the amount of changes and the scope of them, there may be more bugs and other issues than we can notice through our testing. The RC will be the occasion to catch them before the proper 1.0 release.

I also plan to open up the nightly builds section around that time. Given the slower development cycle of melonDS these days, it makes sense to provide nightly builds to the public.

But for now, I'm going to have surgery in two weeks, so I want to get the RC release out before that date. Hopefully very soon!
18 comments have been posted.
< Public service announcementmelonDS 1.0 RC, there it is! >
Endzio says:
Nov 19th 2024
WOAH PINK LOGO :D
ari32 says:
Nov 20th 2024
Quick stupid question. Melonds is compiled in C/C++ right? Why is it that I can toss it on my flashdrive and move it from computer to computer? I should know this, I program in C++/Rust, and still I was always under the impression that compilation was extremely device dependent and exe's were not at all portable.
Arisotura says:
Nov 20th 2024
thanks y'all :)

ari32: technically, no reason melonDS wouldn't run, as long as the OS and environment (and CPU architecture) are compatible

incompatible platforms might use emulation, like Wine under Linux
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