Nintendo DS in Retropie

[Felipe]

Hi,

My apologies for this newbie question, but I am not a gamer myself and all these sets of acronyms for the different platforms are much too cryptic for me.

As stated in the subject of the post, I would like to know whether a Nintendo DS game can be played with the Retropie. I have installed Retropie from source in the Raspberry for one of its future users, who enjoys playing a particular Nintendo DS game. I also have the image of the game. But I have no clue where to put this image within the different ROM folders and I am no longer sure whether it is actually possible at all, to run a Nintendo DS game with Retropie. I have tried to search for this information but I just get lost in acronyms.

I would be very much thankful if someone could answer my question (in an understandable form for lay people )

[welshy]

Felipe
Welcome to the Forum! Ok the Raspberry Pi has insufficient processing power to run Nintendo DS games so as of yet there is no emulator for Retro Pie to use (and unfortunately probably wont ever be). Even though the hardware is 'similar' to the DS (ARM processor) emulation requires the 'host' (RPi) to be many times more powerful than the 'guest' (DS) system. So with this in mind which systems can you run on your RPi in Retro Pie? The answer is surprisingly MANY consoles and computers upto and including PlayStation1! Check the Link Here - http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 78&t=31966 it contains information on the systems Retro Pie can run along with other 'Multi System' emulator Images (PiMAME) and 'Stand Alone' (Single System) ones (PiFBA, which runs a range of Arcade Game hardware from Sega, Capcom and SNK amongst others), along with details on how to compile your own versions for various systems from source code (If you so wish).

Hope that helps! If you have any more questions regarding this information and emulation on the RPi don't hesitate to reply and I will give further assistance/guidance.

[Felipe]

Yes, this indeed helps. Thank you, welshy for your detailed reply that also gives me more insight in the application!

But a pity that no DS emulator is available Just one question that maybe you (or some other who, unlike me, is more in the game scene) knows. Is there a Rummikub (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rummikub) game that can run in this emulator? I think it is not a game requiring more resources than the Raspberry has and it is the only game this future user of the Raspberry plays...

[welshy]

Mmm, that's a tough one! I hadn't heard of it before! There are sites where it can be played 'online' although again, the RPi's Internet Browser is probably of insufficient speed to run correctly (generally 'games' in Browsers run in Oracles JAVA plugin). JAVA can be incorporated into the RPi but it is NOT easy! It depends on how experienced you are with Linux/RPi but there is a 'Guide' Here - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/artic ... 04896.html They also suggest 'Ice Weasel' as the Internet Browser to use in place of Midori (The default browser in the Wheezy operating system is Midori). There was a team working on getting 'Android' running on the RPi but it seems to have stalled (or gone quiet) which is a shame because its available on Android! I would suggest searching to see if there is/was an MS-DOS version released, Pate has released a FREE version of a DOS emulator for the RPi Here - http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 78&t=32934 which if you can find one will probably play it.

[Felipe]

Thanks again, Welshy!

I had already searched without success for a DOS version of Rummikub, because DOSBOX is already installed for another game that the second future user of the Raspberry plays: Supaplex. I could not find any. I did find a Java based shareware alternative, so I installed the JRE in the Raspberry and attempted to play it, but as I imagined Java is too resource hungry and it took ages to start the game and do any kind of move, even when overclocked. I also found this online alternative you talk about, but since it is also Java-based I assumed (I have actually not tried it) that it would also be much too slow as to be a usable alternative. i guess that, unless someone knows better, I will have to accept that there is no such game available to be played in Raspberry, so I will please one of the future users, but not the other.

Thanks anyway yet again for your help!

[welshy]

Yes I have installed JAVA too and its recourse hungry (There is an excellent Vectrex emulator that runs in JAVA but as its graphics intensive is pretty much unusable on the RPi), Just thought it MAY have been ok for something less fast paced. Sorry I couldn't be of more help! If I come across anything will update the 'Sticky' emulation Thread which I try and keep updated with anything new.

[Felipe]

THANKS!

[NITROgaming]

It is (maybe) possible, especialy once the android 4.0 operating system gets finished, once its finished you should be able to download an older version of nds4droid and run it at a painful speed on the pi with terrible controls... But still its an idea.

[PompPenguin]

Hello, there is a closed source DS emulator for Android that runs many games full speed. It requires the NDS BIOS and interprets the code so it is VERY fast! https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... rasticdemo I have contacted the dev before and asked for a port but he said that it wouldn't be possible since his emu relies heavily on the NEON instruction set to get the ultra performance. Since the pi doesn't support this it may not be possible. But who knows, N64 emulation is on its way to being playable on the pi

[welshy]

PompPenguin
Its an HLE (High Level Emulator) which 'interprets' how the software sees the chipset rather than LLE which emulates the actual hardware, many modern systems are emulated in this fashion (Playstation2, GameCube etc.). Even if Android is eventually ported (I will leave the conspiracy theorists to argue that one!), it is doubtful whether it will run anywhere close to a playable level on the RPi as the DS is a generation removed from the N64 and as such more powerful.

[PompPenguin]

Thanks for the clarification Welshy. I know the RPI isnt powerful enough to ever achieve full speed but it would be a fun proof of concept even if it ran at 1-5 fps

[welshy]

PompPenguin
Well the RetroArch core compiles and runs!

[PompPenguin]

Thanks! I am definitely going to have to give that a try!

[multistar444]

Could the RPi2 be capable of running a nintendo ds emulation?
I'ts much more powerful than other RPis.

[mgoulart]

Maybe it's possible to run Drastic on Raspbian. There is a Drastic version for Open Pandora (pnd file). I read some topics explaining how to use pnd files on linux.

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=DraStic

[bobbyyoustra]

There is a DS emulator (sudo apt-get install desmume), but it requires X and is very, very, (very) slow on rpi1 (<6 fps).

[jackjt8]

There is a DS emulator (sudo apt-get install desmume), but it requires X and is very, very, (very) slow on rpi1 (<6 fps).

If that's the case, a rpi2 should be able to at least get 15fps, if not more. If we can find a way that we can not require X, It might push it up well into the playable regions for the majority of games. Or there could be a NDS emulator for which the source code is available for, that would make it somewhat easier.

[desdemonda]

There is a DS emulator (sudo apt-get install desmume), but it requires X and is very, very, (very) slow on rpi1 (<6 fps).

If that's the case, a rpi2 should be able to at least get 15fps, if not more. If we can find a way that we can not require X, It might push it up well into the playable regions for the majority of games. Or there could be a NDS emulator for which the source code is available for, that would make it somewhat easier.

I managed it to install desmume with the command from bobbyyoustra and bind it into emulationstation by adding the new folder and config files: /opt/retropie/configs/nds/emulators.cfg (I also copied the file retroarch.cfg from another emulation config folder)

Code: Select all

desmume="/usr/games/desmume-cli %ROM%"
default="desmume"

The trick is here to call desmume-cli instead of desmume (which requires X to be started).

And in /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg (or ~/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg)

Code: Select all

  <system>
    <name>nds</name>
    <fullname>Nintendo DS (exp)</fullname>
    <path>~/RetroPie/roms/nds</path>
    <extension>.nds .NDS</extension>
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 _SYS_ nds %ROM%</command>
    <platform>nds</platform>
    <theme>nds</theme>
  </system>

I haven't got to see the FPS yet but it takes about twice the normal time (if not even more) to play a game.

[Redbeard]

Is there any news on this? Anyone trying to optimize it for retropie?

[B0N0N0]

ETA Prime has a video where he plays Nintendo DS games on Retropie, though for some reason, they have removed this feature supposedly due to problems with the emulator's creator, would it be possible to add Desmume into Retropie .