Nintendo · Home console · 2001 Experimental

GameCube emulator for PC

Nostyra plays GameCube games through the Dolphin libretro core. Installing the core also downloads Dolphin's system files. The picture renders at the console's native 640×528 using OpenGL 3.3.

Written by vivusk, Nostyra maintainer Last reviewed 29 October 2026 Based on the Nostyra README and release notes

Game files

Plain and compressed discs up to 2 GiB: .iso, .gcm, .ciso, .gcz, .wia, .rvz, plus homebrew .dol / .elf.
Only the disc header is read, so a PlayStation, PSP or PS2 .iso is never mistaken for a GameCube disc.
Multi-disc games: list the discs in an .m3u; the pause menu gains Disc to swap.

Identification and saves

Discs are matched by the 6-character game ID in the header (for example GALE01) against the Redump DAT. Discs are not hashed whole, so the first scan stays fast.
Each game has its own memory card under saves/gc/<game> [<ID>]/User/. Save states are about 90–120 MiB each.

Controls

Left stick = control stick, right stick = C-stick, LT / RT = analog L / R, RB = Z. L3 / R3 give the digital "light press".
Both triggers are game buttons, so fast-forward and rewind holds stay on the keyboard.

Known limits

Dolphin runs single-core (CPU and graphics on one thread). Exactly OpenGL 3.3 is used, so effects such as bounding box are missing (Paper Mario-type games may show glitches).
Save states only load in the Dolphin version that made them. Run-ahead and rewind are off.
All discs and revisions of one game share one save folder (memory card, NAND, shader cache).
Not yet: upscaling, widescreen hack, your own IPL, a shared memory card, 4 players, GBA link, cheats, NKit, .tgc.

Nintendo GameCube at a glance
Emulator core	Dolphin (GPL-2.0-or-later)
Status	Experimental
File types	`.iso`, `.gcm`, `.ciso`, `.gcz`, `.wia`, `.rvz`, `.dol`, `.elf`, `.m3u`
BIOS	Not needed (Dolphin's built-in IPL replacement; system files download with the core)
RetroAchievements	No (the Dolphin libretro core has no RetroAchievements support)
Graphics	DirectX 12 or Vulkan, plus OpenGL 3.3
Platform	Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit

Core project: Dolphin. The core is downloaded from the libretro buildbot on first play and is never bundled with Nostyra.

Same core also plays: Wii .

Before you start

Nostyra does not include, download or link to GameCube games or BIOS files. Use games you own, dumped from your own cartridges or discs. See the disclaimer.

Features for GameCube games

Save states A save state stores the whole emulated machine at one moment, so you can continue from any point, not only where the game lets you save. PS4, PS5 and Xbox controllers Nostyra reads gamepads through SDL3. Gamepads work out of the box, and the Controls editor shows Xbox or PlayStation button labels to match your pad. The DualSense (PS5) has been tested by the maintainer. Library and ROM scanning Add one or more ROM folders, organised however you like. Nostyra classifies each file by its content and builds one library for all systems. Resume When you quit a game, Nostyra saves a resume point. The next time you press Play, it asks whether to continue from there or start fresh.

Play GameCube games with Nostyra

Free and open source. Portable zip, no installer, no account.

Download for Windows

macOS (planned) Linux (planned) iOS (planned) Android (planned)

Version 0.1.0 · 25.9 MB zip · Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit

Hosted on GitHub Releases. First time? Read the install guide.