Software Alternatives & Reviews

melonDS VS DeSmuME

Compare melonDS VS DeSmuME and see what are their differences

melonDS

A Nintendo DS emulator with support for commercial games.

DeSmuME

DeSmuME is a freeware emulator for the NDS roms & Nintendo DS Lite games created by YopYop156.
  • melonDS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-10
  • DeSmuME Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-08-04

melonDS

Categories
  • Gaming
  • Gaming Tools
  • Emulators
  • DS Emulators
Website melonds.kuribo64.net  
Details $

DeSmuME

Categories
  • Gaming
  • Emulators
  • Gaming Tools
  • Gaming Software
Website desmume.org  
Details $

melonDS videos

Quickly Setup melonDS Emulator For Windows & Linux!

More videos:

  • Tutorial - MelonDS DS Emulator for Nintendo Switch - How to Setup & Overview - Homebrew CFW App
  • Review - MelonDS Version 0.8.2 for For Nintendo Switch CFW

DeSmuME videos

DeSmuME: Complete Install Guide (Nintendo DS Emulator)

More videos:

  • Review - DeSmuMe: The Amazing Nintendo DS Emulator for PC! |Emulator Review| Ft. Anton Retro
  • Review - Desmume Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to melonDS and DeSmuME)
Gaming
48 48%
52% 52
Emulators
47 47%
53% 53
Gaming Tools
50 50%
50% 50
Gaming Software
47 47%
53% 53

User comments

Share your experience with using melonDS and DeSmuME. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare melonDS and DeSmuME

melonDS Reviews

Best DS Emulator: Are These Emulators Safe And Legal To Use?
MelonDS also offers high-performance graphics and sound emulation, making it a great choice for gamers who want an authentic DS experience.
Source: appletoo.us
5 Best Nintendo DS Emulators for PC
When we talk about best DS emulator for PC, we can’t avoid MelonDS. MelonDS is also one of the best Nintendo DS emulator. It has the following advantages:
Best emulators for Android in 2023
The Nintendo DS has such a wide back catalog of games to play, many of which are both incredible and not very computationally taxing. melonDS is the best way to enjoy those games on the go, and that's thanks to its ease of use. It's a free emulator that you can download from the Google Play Store, though it's not an official port (as melonDS is made for PC originally), and...

DeSmuME Reviews

Best DS Emulator: Are These Emulators Safe And Legal To Use?
It provides a good gaming experience with features like save states, cheat codes, and controller support. DeSmuME is also easy to use and has a simple interface.
Source: appletoo.us
5 Best Nintendo DS Emulators for PC
Although it only has handful graphic settings, you can get good game graphics comparable to DeSmuME with a few tweaks.
7 Best Mac Emulators For Gamers In 2022
If you are like me, and have never owned a Nintendo DS… DeSmuME can emulate the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite handheld game consoles with its Mac compatible program.
Source: retrododo.com
12 Best Gaming Console Emulators for Mac in 2022
DeSmuMe is a Nintendo emulator designed to allow users to play dual screens of Nintendo on their PC as the emulator simulates the dual-screen on the PC monitor.
Source: thebingeful.com
10 Emulators To Turn Your Computer Into A Retro Console
Nintendo’s dual screen console can be played on your computer using DeSmuME, with both screens simulated on your computer monitor. Your mouse is used as a stylus for the touch input. It even supports games that require you to play your device sideways.

Social recommendations and mentions

DeSmuME might be a bit more popular than melonDS. We know about 32 links to it since March 2021 and only 32 links to melonDS. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

melonDS mentions (32)

  • help with bw roms
    Use MelonDS instead, it's the most recommended DS emulator. Source: 8 months ago
  • Pokémon emulators
    You mean emulators running on PC? It took some doing, but I finally got DS Download Play to work on MelonDS. First you need to get DS firmware files. I found one on Retrostic that did not work for me. Melon told me it was an old hacked dump, and trying to boot it just got me a white screen. I found another on the Internet Archive that works. Source: 9 months ago
  • I feel like people put down MelonDS too much here
    MelonDS is actually doing a lot of really cool stuff. I can't speak too much on the Android build, but on PC they have actually gotten multiplayer too work flawlessly and they are currently working on implementing netplay. You can keep up with their progress here. Source: 9 months ago
  • Hi, new to emulators. I had a question, can I run gba and nds games on this?
    No, you can use mGBA for GBA games, and MelonDS for NDS games. Source: 9 months ago
  • Completely new to emulation
    AFAIK randomizers are usually romhacks, and so they should work on most DS emulators, I personally use melonDS, however you can find a list of DS emulators here. Source: 11 months ago
View more

DeSmuME mentions (32)

  • any one know how to emulate a dsi game
    Citra is for 3ds games. While it should be compatible with ds games since the physical consoles are, this isn't true of the emulators. http://desmume.org/ has what you need. Source: 8 months ago
  • Looking for My Old Nintendo 3DS
    You should probably emulate the games, your 3DS is unlikely to be found Here is an Emulator r/roms is a good resource for ROMs. Source: 10 months ago
  • Scooby Doo First Frights & the spooky swamp
    You can download DeSmuME (http://desmume.org/), which is a free Nintendo emulator. Then you wanna search up "Scooby Doo First Frights ROM" in Google, and download it. Then you can open the emulator, click on File at the top, click "Open ROM", then open the ROM file you downloaded to play the game. Source: 12 months ago
  • How do you guys play?
    Emulators 100%, mGBA for GBA games (My Boy for android, sprang for the paid version a while ago and don't regret it), DeSmuME for DS and Citra for 3DS. I do technically still own copies of most DS and 3DS games but I despise nuzlocking on hardware at this point and I tend to play romhacks anyways. I personally wouldn't recommend anything other than GBA games/romhacks for a phone, but maybe someone else has a... Source: about 1 year ago
  • Rule
    You’ll need an emulator that you can load the rom into. Desmume (https://desmume.org) is a decent one. Source: about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing melonDS and DeSmuME, you can also consider the following products

RetroArch - RetroArch is a frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.

Citra - Citra is a work-in-progress emulator for the Nintendo 3DS.

Drastic - Drastic is a Android DS Emulator

mGBA - mGBA is an open source emulator of the Game Boy Advance. The goals are speed and accuracy.

OpenEmu - Console and Arcade video game emulator for macOS.

VisualBoyAdvance - VisualBoyAdvance (VBA) is a free software (GNU GPL) emulator targeted for the Game Boy, Super Game...