No$GBA for Mac (Nintendo GBA/DS Emulator)

Isair · Nov 14, 2010

It is not actually a real port. I just compiled the latest version of wine, used a wrapper named Wineskin to make an app bundle that runs No$GBA via wine and made an icon that looks like No$GBA's original one. Voila, a smoothly working Nintendo DS emulator for Mac!

This one actually runs way better than desmume for mac, so I decided to share it here.

IMPORTANT: If you don't want your save files to disappear then don't quit the app by pressing Cmd + Q or by right clicking the app icon and selecting quit. Instead, close its window if you want to quit the app.

Download Page

If you happen to experience any problems, give me a description of the problem via the contact form on my site and I'll address it necessarily. Also any kind of feedback is appreciated.

Screenshots:

Hydrocity · Nov 14, 2010

is there a way to play these on a ipad/iphone?

Isair · Nov 15, 2010

Hydrocity said:
is there a way to play these on a ipad/iphone?

Well there are no NDS emulators for iOS as far as I am aware (don't know about apps for jailbroken devices. There was a PSX emulator, so an NDS one should be possible). If you are talking about using wine on iOS to run windows software like this, theoretically? It is possible. But a big portion of wine would need to be rewritten to run on iOS. Lets assume that such a version of wine exists, even then

1) It wouldn't be accepted into the iOS App Store.
2) It wouldn't be logical to use it on an iOS device other than an iPad.
3) Wine has problems as it is, maintaining a forked version will be a pain.
4) Instruction set difference.

jackerbacker · Dec 22, 2010

I know this is kinda late, but how in the world did you get Soul Silver to load? LOL. Even when I change the "NDS- Cartridge Backup Media" setting it still fails.

Isair · Dec 22, 2010

jackerbacker said:
I know this is kinda late, but how in the world did you get Soul Silver to load? LOL. Even when I change the "NDS- Cartridge Backup Media" setting it still fails.

Try running it with the default settings. Also it loads fine but it gets stuck right after character creation for me. Other games I have work fine though.

Also I uploaded build 4. It is better performance-wise and some bugs that caused a crash are fixed.

Edit: I forgot to change something in build 4, making a new build and uploading.

jackerbacker · Dec 22, 2010

Sorry if this is asking for too much, but could you try to make Pokemon White/Black work on this? LOL. It seems impossible to get those games working on No$ but on DeSmuME it works fine... well not really. DeSmuME lags and crashes like a bitch on Snow Leopard for me but it can play the games. Those two games require the 2048k byte cartridge backup media but im not sure if thats even possible for No$

EDIT: Nvm. Figured it out. Found a AR code to input and it works amazingly. All we need now is No$Zoomer.

Thank you for all your work Isair. This is so much better than DeSmuME.

ash09 · Dec 27, 2010

Ah, this is awesome!
Thanks so much for this.
Any chance of a screen rotation option similar to the one in Desmume?

I'm playing Hotel Dusk and the rotation is 270°.
If not, I understand, just figured I'd ask.

Thanks again for this, totally kicks the crud outta Desmume.

Isair · Dec 27, 2010

Glad that you were able to find a fix jackerbacker. Also yeah I am going to include No$Zoomer in it soon but there are rendering related issues with it. Since No$Zoomer supports rotation it'll solve ash09's problem too.

Kehaan · Dec 27, 2010

Thanks.

Will test this one out

ynksb1962 · Jan 1, 2011

Golden Sun 3

Hey, I'm running Mac 10.5.8 and I've got a Golden Sun 3 file. I'm fairly certain that it works because I've played it using DeSmuMe for Mac. (It was annoyingly slow.)
I downloaded your emulator because no$gba was supposed to be superior, but I wasn't able to get the game to run. Would you be able to help me?
It might be a problem with the OS compatibility but it's also possible that I don't know what I'm doing - I'm not very experienced with emulation.
Thanks

Isair · Jan 2, 2011

ynksb1962 said:
Hey, I'm running Mac 10.5.8 and I've got a Golden Sun 3 file. I'm fairly certain that it works because I've played it using DeSmuMe for Mac. (It was annoyingly slow.)
I downloaded your emulator because no$gba was supposed to be superior, but I wasn't able to get the game to run. Would you be able to help me?
It might be a problem with the OS compatibility but it's also possible that I don't know what I'm doing - I'm not very experienced with emulation.
Thanks

You need a patched ROM for it to work with No$GBA, you can check some ROM sites for it or patch the current ROM you have.

roadbloc · Jan 2, 2011

An emulator in a emulator. What a novel idea.

himatzs10 · Jan 2, 2011

As you know the roms for pokemon HG and SS have anti-piracy "checks". Desmume is able to get past those obstacles, and there is no need for a black screen ar code either. the problem is for me on my mac its way too slow. I changed the frameskip and everything its still ridiculously slow. NO$GBA cannot get past those anti-piracy obstacles. So i decided to download and use your version of the no$gba. It works great except it also crashes and has the same problem as the other no$gba emulators. At a certain part of the game you cant even play it, because there is a fatal error "rom-image crash". Is there anyway around it? I would use desmume but its too god damn slow. Please help

DrugsterGenesis · Jan 2, 2011

jackerbacker said:
Sorry if this is asking for too much, but could you try to make Pokemon White/Black work on this? LOL. It seems impossible to get those games working on No$ but on DeSmuME it works fine... well not really. DeSmuME lags and crashes like a bitch on Snow Leopard for me but it can play the games. Those two games require the 2048k byte cartridge backup media but im not sure if thats even possible for No$

EDIT: Nvm. Figured it out. Found a AR code to input and it works amazingly. All we need now is No$Zoomer.

Thank you for all your work Isair. This is so much better than DeSmuME.

Can you please share the AR CODES with us? and can you also teach me how to do copy/paste on NO$gba, coz i doesn't allow me do command c/command v

Thanks,

DrugsterGenesis · Jan 2, 2011

isair said:
if you happen to experience any problems, give me a description of the problem and i'll address it necessarily. Also any kind of feedback is appreciated.

i'm having problems with copy/pasting ar codes. I dont wanna type all the codes there. I see that you are from istanbul

mukemmel bir icad seninkisi.

Thanks,

Isair · Jan 4, 2011

DrugsterGenesis said:
i'm having problems with copy/pasting ar codes. I dont wanna type all the codes there. I see that you are from istanbul mukemmel bir icad seninkisi.

Thanks,

control + v kullan program icindeyken.

himatzs10 said:
As you know the roms for pokemon HG and SS have anti-piracy "checks". Desmume is able to get past those obstacles, and there is no need for a black screen ar code either. the problem is for me on my mac its way too slow. I changed the frameskip and everything its still ridiculously slow. NO$GBA cannot get past those anti-piracy obstacles. So i decided to download and use your version of the no$gba. It works great except it also crashes and has the same problem as the other no$gba emulators. At a certain part of the game you cant even play it, because there is a fatal error "rom-image crash". Is there anyway around it? I would use desmume but its too god damn slow. Please help

Check if there are patches on the internet.

gkelly1117 · Jan 7, 2011

I cant save

I just downloaded this EMulator. and its fast as hell.. and I downloaded a Pokemon game, Pokemon Diamond to be exact.

but how do I save?! thats my biggest issue as of right now

jace88 · Jan 7, 2011

I think we're clearly venturing into the off-topic realm of warez/pirated software so be careful ladies and gents.

I'm amazed at people being able to play DS games on a computer- it just doesn't click in my mind as to how you can substitute finger/stylus with a touchpad/mouse. *shrugs*

bo-waleed · Jan 8, 2011

it doesn't work in 10.6.6

when i open it it automatically quit.

gkelly1117 · Jan 8, 2011

yeah, i found out how to save anyways.

biggest issue now is the microphone wave in error. ANy idea how to fix that? Maybe No$Zoomer

Emannyv93 · Jan 8, 2011

Hello, I saw your video on youtube & i downloaded the No$GBA, & i tried using the patched pokemon black, but it doesnt let me pass the blue screen... So ive tried copying the Ar code but its not letting me paste it -__-. Can anyone help me ?

Thanks a lot guys & happy new years :'D

Isair · Jan 8, 2011

Emannyv93 said:
Hello, I saw your video on youtube & i downloaded the No$GBA, & i tried using the patched pokemon black, but it doesnt let me pass the blue screen... So ive tried copying the Ar code but its not letting me paste it -__-. Can anyone help me ?

Thanks a lot guys & happy new years :'D

I have no such video on youtube, also as I wrote before that you need to press control + v instead of command + v in No$GBA in order to paste the contents of your clipboard buffer.

bo-waleed said:
it doesn't work in 10.6.6

when i open it it automatically quit.

Weird, I have 10.6.6 and it works perfectly. Can you check your console messages for me and send the related ones via e-mail?

gkelly1117 said:
yeah, i found out how to save anyways.

biggest issue now is the microphone wave in error. ANy idea how to fix that? Maybe No$Zoomer

I'll have to either port No$Zoomer too or a new official version of No$GBA addressing that issue will work too.

jace88 said:
I think we're clearly venturing into the off-topic realm of warez/pirated software so be careful ladies and gents.

I try to not cross the line, and certainly hope that other people won't too.

GFLPraxis · Jan 8, 2011

Isair said:
Well there are no NDS emulators for iOS as far as I am aware (don't know about apps for jailbroken devices. There was a PSX emulator, so an NDS one should be possible). If you are talking about using wine on iOS to run windows software like this, theoretically? It is possible. But a big portion of wine would need to be rewritten to run on iOS. Lets assume that such a version of wine exists, even then

1) It wouldn't be accepted into the iOS App Store.
2) It wouldn't be logical to use it on an iOS device other than an iPad.
3) Wine has problems as it is, maintaining a forked version will be a pain.

It's not even theoretically possible.

A Windows binary is written for the Windows API and then compiled for x86 processors. WINE is a wrapper that interprets those Windows API calls. You still have the "compiled for x86" problem; iOS runs on ARM processors.

That's the reason WINE never worked on PowerPC Macs. Apple solved that problem with Mac software by making XCode make Universal Binaries that had both x86 and PPC versions of software in them.

Isair · Jan 8, 2011

GFLPraxis said:
It's not even theoretically possible.

A Windows binary is written for the Windows API and then compiled for x86 processors. WINE is a wrapper that interprets those Windows API calls. You still have the "compiled for x86" problem; iOS runs on ARM processors.

That's the reason WINE never worked on PowerPC Macs. Apple solved that problem with Mac software by making XCode make Universal Binaries that had both x86 and PPC versions of software in them.

Forgot the instruction set difference, thanks for reminding.

Emannyv93 · Jan 8, 2011

Ohhh ok thanks , can you give me the ar code? so i know this is the legit one

No$GBA for Mac (Nintendo GBA/DS Emulator)

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