nds4ios

Supports iOS 6 to iOS 9.

nds4ios is a port of the multi-platform Nintendo DS emulator, DeSmuME to iOS.

Currently, emulation is powered by a threaded ARM interpreter. As a result, emulation is rather slow on older devices, like the iPhone 4s and below.

nds4ios runs at nearly full speed on the iPhone 5 and above, and achieves full speed on devices using the A7-S5L8960X SoC (iPhone 5s, iPad Air, iPad mini Retina, and anything newer than these devices).

Due to the need to mmap the entire ROM into memory, older devices with only 256MB of RAM are not supported by nds4ios. These devices include the iPod touch 4, iPad 1, iPhone 3GS, and anything below those devices.

nds4ios

nds4droid

DeSmuME

We all work hard to make software that users will enjoy and love. If you enjoy nds4ios, please consider making a donation to help us create and provide better things.

Installing nds4ios

Do not redistribute nds4ios on other sites. We already provide official ways to download nds4ios below. THIS IS A FAIR WARNING.

Option 1: Download nds4ios from Karen's Pineapple (KarenP/88888888)

If you're jailbroken, please follow the instructions here: http://nds4ios.angelxwind.net/i/?page/downloads#jailbroken

If you're NOT jailbroken, please follow the instructions here: http://nds4ios.angelxwind.net/i/?page/downloads#notjailbroken

Option 2: Compile nds4ios yourself

IMPORTANT: Make sure your working directory is devoid of spaces. Otherwise, bad things will happen.

1. Open a Terminal instance and go to your working directory.

2. Do git clone https://github.com/raaxis/nds4ios.git

3. then Navigate to the "nds4ios" folder in your working directory.

4. Open "nds4ios.xcodeproj", connect your device, select it on Xcode and click the "Run" button (or Command + R). Don't build it for the iOS Simulator. IMPORTANT: Make sure you change your running scheme to Release first. Otherwise you will get errors on compile!

Option 2a

1. Alternatively, run xcodebuild -configuration Release from Terminal and then copy the resulting *.app bundle to your /Applications directory on your device.

Adding ROMs to nds4ios

Option 1 - On-device via Safari (All devices)

1. Open Safari.
2. Download a ROM image of a Nintendo DS game that you legally own the actual game cartridge for.
3. Tap the "Open in..." button in the top left hand corner, and select nds4ios.
4. nds4ios will automatically unzip the file, delete the readme, find the *.nds file, and refresh itself. Your ROM should show up in the list.

Option 2 - On-device via browser with download capabilities (All devices)

1. Download one of the many web browsers available on the App Store with download managers built in, such as Dolphin Browser.
2. Download a ROM image of a Nintendo DS game that you legally own the actual game cartridge for.
3. From the app's list of downloaded files, tap on the downloaded file, and select nds4ios in the "Open in..." menu.
4. nds4ios will automatically unzip the file, delete the readme, find the *.nds file, and refresh itself. Your ROM should show up in the list.

Option 3 - Using a computer via iFunBox Classic (Non-jailbroken devices ONLY)

1. Plug your device into your computer and launch iFunBox Classic.
2. Go to [device name] -> iTunes File Sharing -> nds4ios
3. Drag and drop *.nds ROM images of Nintendo DS games that you legally own the actual game cartridge for into iFunBox.
4. Restart nds4ios to see the changes.

Option 4 - On-device via Safari Downloader+/Chrome Downloader+ (Jailbroken devices)

1. Download a download manager tweak from Cydia like Safari Downloader+ or Chrome Downloader+.
2. Download a ROM image of a Nintendo DS game that you legally own the actual game cartridge for.
3. Using iFile or another filesystem explorer, move the downloaded .nds file to /User/Documents/. Alternatively, you can also tap on the downloaded file in the download manager's list of files, and select nds4ios in the "Open in..." menu.
4. nds4ios will automatically unzip the file, delete the readme, find the *.nds file, and refresh itself. Your ROM should show up in the list.

Option 5 - Via OpenSSH / iFunBox Classic (Jailbroken devices)

1. Install OpenSSH from Cydia if you plan to utilise SCP (SSH) to transfer ROMs.
2. If you do not wish to utilise SCP, then download iFunBox Classic and install it on your computer.
3. ROMs (*.nds) go in the directory: /User/Documents/
4. Saves (in DeSmuME's *.dsv format) go in: /User/Documents/Battery/

Reporting Bugs

Ew, bugs.

When something in nds4ios isn't working correctly for you, please open a GitHub issue ticket here.

Please include the following information:

• iOS device
• iOS version
• Jailbreak status
• Download location

Please do not open issues about the following topics:

• Slow performance
• Crashing on older devices with 256MB of RAM (iPod touch 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 1, and anything released prior to those devices.)

To-do

We'll get to these, really!

• GNU Lightning JIT (Currently running into pointer corruption issues.)
• Paravirtualisation (far-off goal, only after GNU Lightning JIT works)
• OpenGL ES rendering
• Automatically fix permissions of crucial folders on the jailbroken distribution
• Ability to change the folder the ROM chooser reads from
• Minimise memory footprint (which will fix support for devices with low RAM)
• Add more localizations (currently have: English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, French, Japanese, German)
• Much more.

Contributors

• DeSmuME
• Jeffrey Quesnelle (jeffq)
• rock88
• Karen Tsai (angelXwind)
• Brian Tung (inb4ohnoes)
• Jesús A. Álvarez (maczydeco)
• W.MS
• Riley Testut (rileytestut)
• David Chavez (dchavezlive)
• Michael Zhang (Malvix_)
• Angela Tsai (vanillastar67)
• winocm (winocm)
• Jesús Higueras (GranPC)
• Fabio Poloni (einfallstoll)
• iain-benson