“There are tons of other DS emulators on the store, all derived from the open source DeSmuME emulator, but for most users, they just aren’t fast enough. “For most people, we’re the only really viable option,” Exophase said. A well-made, powerful app, but $8 nonetheless. I can’t especially fault the developers for these problems, though, as they’re outside of their control.
“I honestly have no idea what to expect from them, the only thing I know is that the other two highest-selling emulators on Android are emulating Nintendo consoles and have been there for years now.” “We haven’t heard anything from Nintendo,” Exophase said. Update: The developers sent me an email after this review was published further explaining the current law on emulators. Just remember Nintendo would be totally within its rights to send a cease-and-desist letter. Will you get in legal trouble from using it? Probably not. Logic and copyright are seldom seen in each other’s company. Despite what you’ve heard, emulators are still technically illegal. On the topic of emulation as a whole, legality remains problematic. This feels weird and is a definite drawback compared to apps emulating single-screen games. However, the dual screens fit on the phone’s display best when played in portrait mode. It’s the most like a real Game Boy and it’s easiest. Ideally, I prefer to hold my phone in landscape while I play with my thumbs.
Lordus promises further development with external gamepads in the next version to make it “completely usable.”
If you’ve got a spare PS3 controller, I’d recommend that – though it doesn’t solve the touchscreen problem. Hardware controls on a real DS will always be more responsive and user-friendly. I don’t like tapping at tiny buttons at the bottom of my screen. The developers have clearly done their best, but some of these are unavoidable.įor example, touch screen controls are mediocre at best. How cool is that? DrawbacksĪs cool as it is to get the true ending of 999, DraStic frustrates in a few places. If you’ve got the hardware, DraStic works. 999 requires little resources, so I didn’t get much of a sense of how this would handle something like Castlevania or Contra.ĭraStic didn’t blink when I threw Disgaea, Advance Wars and 999 at it on my Galaxy S4. You can set the fast-forward speed (a lifesaving feature for 999’s slow-moving text) as well as the DS name and favorite color. It’s an unavoidably awkward setup, but it works, and that’s impressive.ĭigging into DraStic’s settings reveals a robust set of options as well. I ended up switching between them as I went, depending on what worked best for the situation.
I played through 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors three times (don’t ask) on DraStic and had plenty of time to test the different control schemes. The setup smooths the issues enough so that it’s… acceptable. “Therefore it was the main goal from the beginning to give complete flexibility for the arrangements of screens and the virtual gamepad.” “DS emulation on a phone screen obviously has some unique requirements and the one setup that fits all games simply doesn’t exist,” said co-developer Lordus. It offers several different configurations for the screens and buttons, letting you change them on the fly.
Fitting two screens, eight buttons, and a directional pad onto one screen presents a real challenge.ĭraStic gets around this issue by letting you make the decisions. However, emulating something like the DS is still a weird affair.