MelonDS | Nintendo DS Emulator
MelonDS is an open-source Nintendo DS (NDS) emulator for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and IOS devices.
Experience all your favourite Nintendo DS games from the past with MelonDS, the best and most popular NDS emulator available to date.
Nintendo DS (NDS) Emulator
Why MelonDS?
MelonDS is a recently up and coming – since 2019 – Nintendo DS emulator and has already garnered an impressive user base with its ultimate aim to become the best DS emulator on the market. The best alternative to DeSmuME with better accuracy and performance.
The Melon DS emulator is a reliable and secure solution that guarantees 100% performance. Best of all, it's free to use!
MelonDS enables gamers to enjoy a unique and enhanced gaming experience with the help of Action Replay cheat codes. Unlock special content, rare items, and more with these in-game enhancements!
Enable turbo mode to blaze through your favourite games or bypass tedious tasks.
This DS emulator is fully equipped to support both local and remote linking, making it ideal for users who want to enjoy multi-player games, engage in thrilling competitions, or trade Pokémon.
An integrated Save and Load state within Melon DS simplifies the process of saving and loading your current progress and acts as an additional backup system.
Ditch your keyboard keys and easily connect & use your Xbox, Nintendo, PC or PlayStation controller on MelonDS.
Screenshots
Requirements
MelonDS is a powerful emulation software that effectively replicates the hardware and gameplay of the Nintendo DS console. Thus allows us to run and play digital copies of the read-only memory chips, popularly known as ROMs on our devices without the need of having an actual NDS console.
melonDS aims at providing fast and accurate Nintendo DS emulation. While it is still a work in progress, it has a pretty solid set of features:
• Nearly complete core (CPU, video, audio, ...)
• JIT recompiler for fast emulation
• OpenGL renderer, 3D upscaling
• RTC, microphone, lid close/open
• Joystick support
• Savestates
• Various display position/sizing/rotation modes
• (WIP) Wifi: local multiplayer, online connectivity
• (WIP) DSi emulation
• DLDI
• (WIP) GBA slot add-ons
• and more are planned!
Each platform requires their own set of prerequisites. You can view the detailed instructions per device below;
- Android
- IOS
- Linux
- Mac
- Windows
You can access and download the source code here.
Frequently Asked Questions
We have gathered a collection of frequently asked questions from our users. We hope this will help you to find the information you need and any unanswered queries.
MelonDS, in summary - is a portable program that allows you to emulate the Nintendo DS on your Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and IOS devices.
Emulators are 100% permissible and the process of downloading them is perfectly legitimate. They offer no distinct difference from other commonly downloaded programs such as word processing or music player software. Uploading ROMs without permission however, is unlawful, so make sure you only use your own game files.
A NDS file is a Nintendo DS ROM file and can only be opened using a NDS emulator such as MelonDS.
To open a NDS file on MelonDS. Click on File > Open ROM > Select your NDS file to launch the ROM game.
If you're looking for NDS ROMS, a quick search on Google will bring up many sites where you can download them from.
However, we have compiled a NDS ROM section for our users (you can access it here) by archiving NDS ROM games from Vimm's Lair.
Using your favorite controller is just a plug-and-play away with MelonDS. With USB or Bluetooth connection capabilities, you can connect up to four controllers of any brand--PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo and beyond--to Melon DS. Then configure the key bindings via Config > Input and Hotkeys > Click on "Switch to Joystick mappings" and configure to your liking.
Yes, MelonDS supports Action Replay cheat codes. To enable cheats on MelonDS - load your game first and head over to the system tab. Now click on Setup Cheat Codes > Name your category and insert new AR code > Click OK and make sure the "enable cheats" option under System is ticked.
Have fun with NDS cheats!
If your NDS emulator is not functioning as expected, our troubleshooting guide may be able to help you diagnose and resolve any common errors. Should you require additional assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to us directly.
MelonDS is a portable application that you can use without needing to install it on your device. To uninstall Melon DS, just delete the folder in which you downloaded and extracted the emulator from.