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Nintendo · Handheld · 2004 Experimental

Nintendo DS emulator for PC

Nostyra plays Nintendo DS games through melonDS DS with its built-in BIOS and generated firmware, so no BIOS or firmware files are needed. The game boots directly.

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

Game files

  • .nds, .dsi (DS games with DSi extras, played in DS mode) and .ids (iQue DS), recognised by the header checksum.
  • Use decrypted dumps (the No-Intro "Decrypted" set). An encrypted dump is listed but stops with a clear message when you press Play.
  • DSi-only games are listed under "files not added". Zip and 7z archives are not read.

Screens and touch

  • Both screens show top over bottom (256×384). R3 swaps to side by side and back.
  • The left mouse button over the bottom screen touches it. On a gamepad, the right stick moves a touch cursor and R2 touches.
  • L3 holds "blow into the microphone".

Saves

  • The in-game save is saves/nds/<game> [<ID>]/save.srm, written every minute and on exit. A raw .sav from melonDS can be copied in and renamed.
  • Loading a save state also rewrites the in-game save with the one stored in that state, so an in-game save made after that state is lost. Keep this in mind before loading an old slot.

Known limits

  • Run-ahead works but costs about 18 ms per frame, so most PCs drop frames. Leave it off.
  • A 512 MiB game needs about 2 GB of RAM (the core keeps several copies in memory).
  • Not yet: OpenGL upscaling, your own BIOS / firmware, DSi mode, GBA slot-2, real microphone, Wi-Fi, lid button.

Before you start

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

Features for Nintendo DS 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. Rewind Rewind keeps a short history of the game in memory. Holding the rewind key plays it backwards at 2× speed. 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. RetroAchievements RetroAchievements is a community service that adds achievements to classic games. Nostyra supports it on 14 systems using rcheevos, the same library RetroArch uses. 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 Nintendo DS 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.