DeSmuME vs Pilas-melonDS

DeSmuME is a free emulator that attempts to reproduce the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite handheld consoles. It runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, and supports the D-pad, buttons, and touch screen, along with a Lid control for changing the emulated system's folded state. Graphics options include a software SoftRasterizer and an OpenGL-based renderer. Audio samples can use linear or cosine interpolation, or no interpolation; microphone input can come from hardware audio or software-generated samples. The Windows port can capture screenshots, AVI video, and WAV audio, as well as record TAS gameplay movies. Users can save and load game states, though the Windows manual warns that states may break between emulator versions. Cheat search and editing are available, and Action Replay codes are supported in post-0.9.2 development builds. Wi-Fi support is experimental and unsupported, and the project discourages end users from using it. The software is distributed under the GNU General Public License. DSi emulation is not supported.

Pilas-melonDS is a free HTML5 and WebAssembly browser frontend for the melonDS Nintendo DS emulator. It opens.nds,.dsi, and.srl files, runs in DS mode by default, and offers experimental DSi mode. Controls include keyboard, Gamepad API, touch, and DS touchscreen input. Users can choose Canvas 2D, WebGL 2, or WebGPU rendering, with audio through WebAudio. Cartridge saves and browser save states use IndexedDB, with as many as six save-state slots per ROM. The frontend can install DSiWare.cia files into DSi NAND or virtual SD storage. Camera and microphone input for DSi require browser media permission and a localhost or HTTPS origin. Browser internet mode provides a compatibility shim for DHCP, DNS, ARP, and basic TCP/HTTP, but it cannot provide arbitrary raw UDP/TCP internet or decrypt HTTPS traffic within the browser sandbox. DSi menu boot requires legally dumped BIOS files and a writable NAND dump; normal DS direct boot can use the built-in FreeBIOS fallback. The project is licensed under MPL-2.0.