Delta Nintendo iOS Emulator Adds Multiplayer For DS Games
Delta is a free emulator for various Nintendo game systems, available for iOS devices. Version 1.7 has just been released, bringing with it a major update: online multiplayer support for Nintendo DS games.
Nintendo shut down the original online DS servers in May 2014, with online support for the 3DS also going the way of the dodo in April 2024. As such, DS gamers have only been able to play multiplayer games online locally, whether they’re using an actual DS device or an emulator like Delta.
“Thanks to community-hosted Nintendo WFC servers, you can now use online features in any online-compatible DS game, including Mario Kart, Pokémon, and Animal Crossing,” Delta said in an official post on Bluesky.
“Just choose your preferred server in Delta’s settings and you’re good to go, no DNS configuration necessary.”
Multi-System Emulation
There are plenty of emulators available for handheld devices, but few focus on iOS-based cellphones. There are other Nintendo emulators around, but they don’t all cover a wide range of game systems in one go.
Gamers can use Delta to play a variety of titles for the NES, SNES, N64, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, and of course the DS, and without needing to jailbreak their phone. Users will need to add their own game ROMs, however.
Aside from the DS multiplayer support, version 1.7 also fixes graphics issues with N64 games (such as black textures) by incorporating OpenGL ES 3.0 support for rendering (the option to switch back to OpenGL ES 2.0 is still available, though). Other major fixes are now shown onscreen when the emulator first loads up.
Not Quite Open Source
Gamers who know their emulator history will be familiar with Delta, as it’s the spiritual successor to a popular GameBoy Advance emulator, GBA4iOS.
Whereas the source code for that emulator is available under a GNU GPLv2 license (meaning the code can be tweaked by others, but according to strict terms), Delta uses existing emulators such as Nestopia and melonDS, meaning its full source code is not available for others to use.
However, the main developer, Riley Testut, has made his original code freely available, should anyone wish to tweak Delta (without the Nintendo emulators) to run outside the iOS ecosystem.
