alt.hn

6/25/2026 at 10:20:07 AM

Dolphin Emulator Progress Release 2606

 https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2026/06/25/dolphin-progress-report-release-2606/

by exploraz

6/25/2026 at 11:11:59 AM

Always a joy to read those and the fact that the emulator keeps on improving. You can run it on SteamDeck nicely and play Gamecube games better than Switch 2. It's a shame nintendo has only released about 5 games thus far.. Great work Dolphin Devs! I still need to give RetroAchievements a try.

by roboyoshi

6/25/2026 at 1:06:08 PM

I've never even used it and still I read every changelog posted here. So interesting and good writeups.

by matsemann

6/25/2026 at 11:57:30 AM

It runs on android phones! And on any snapdragon: very well (some are <200 second hand now). Steam decks are what now, 750 for the worst version?

by spwa4

6/25/2026 at 1:30:10 PM

> It runs on android phones!

Whats even more interesting IMHO is that according to TFA the most popular platform in terms of usage is Android. This is probably related to the large amount of dedicated Android gaming devices like the Ayn Thor and similar.

by dormento

6/25/2026 at 2:34:53 PM

... and the fact that (at least so far) android devices haven't 3x'ed in price due to AI bubbling.

And to add insult to injury: take a galaxy s23 ultra. Start a gamecube title. Connect USB-C to a monitor, display, TV, project: you get an image (and with a bluetooth gamepad it works from a distance). USB-C to HDMI converter? Also works! Going to a friend's house? Use a display at work? Just works!

Take either of Nintendo's 2 most recent hardware platforms: it doesn't effin work! Despite this being a major complaint on the previous hardware ...

by spwa4

6/25/2026 at 2:55:17 PM

> Take either of Nintendo's 2 most recent hardware platforms: it doesn't effin work!

Assuming this is the Switch and Switch 2 here, are you specifically talking about Gamecube titles? Because I've recorded video from my Switch over a USB-C->HDMI->USB-C dongle chain (Zelda:TOTK)

by zimpenfish

6/26/2026 at 7:50:15 AM

Which dongle are you using? Is there a nintendo one that works?

by spwa4

6/25/2026 at 4:50:28 PM

This is true for all Nintendo emulators afaik. I’m semi-involved in the Eden discord (the community successor fork of yuzu) and over half their users are on Android. I for one don’t get the appeal of emulating games on a phone but maybe I’m just old fashioned.

by ls612

6/25/2026 at 7:34:23 PM

Most of my emulation game time is outside the house, 90% (got a miyoo mini plus for when I'm in a que) is done on Android and none of it is on a phone :) Just the idea of touchscreen gaming is giving me RSI pain.

by toxicunderGroov

6/25/2026 at 5:11:06 PM

Honest Answer: You can play it on the Bus.

by Krutonium

6/25/2026 at 10:06:11 PM

Got my Steam Deck for a little above 300 a few years ago. Still use it, sad to see how much the price has gone up.

by simjnd

6/25/2026 at 2:52:01 PM

hopefully someone makes a phone mount for the steam controller.

by wombat-man

6/25/2026 at 11:22:25 AM

Dolphin is one of my absolutely favorite software projects. The kind of polish they put into absolutely everything, including these announcements, is incredible. And as somebody who spent many a relaxing day playing Super Monkey Ball against my fellow comp sci students in the early 2000s, this holds a special place in my heart.

by InsideOutSanta

6/25/2026 at 11:46:00 AM

> The kind of polish they put into absolutely everything, including these announcements, is incredible.

100%. They're easily the gold standard for emulation and open-source gaming...and possibly open-source projects in general.

The effort they put into the announcements is frankly amazing and shows what a labor of love this project is.

by sedawkgrep

6/25/2026 at 12:52:08 PM

"We imagine that Nintendo chose to use actual Game Boy hardware because of the difficulty of making a general-purpose software emulator. "

Dolphin Team, you are amazing and hilarious.

by xbar

6/25/2026 at 12:50:52 PM

Very cool update overall, great work!

> It was clear that something had to change. Bunny

When this issue was brought up in one of our chats, a former Dolphin developer suggested that we should give Bunny a try.

Another mention of bunny [0] gives them good exposure, and not just because they're an European company!

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48657030

by x______________

6/25/2026 at 12:50:02 PM

Still doesn't emulate dolphins.

by thisisauserid

6/25/2026 at 1:05:55 PM

False. You can play Endless Ocean which has dolphins in it. Hence, dolphins are being emulated. QED

by throwatdem12311

6/25/2026 at 6:37:22 PM

This update does! It adds support for the Game Boy Player, so it can play Ecco the Dolphin from the Sega Smash Pack for the GBA

by ihuman

6/25/2026 at 1:03:08 PM

It’s ridiculous get your money back

by nickpeterson

6/25/2026 at 11:43:28 AM

Hmm wasn't Dolphin taken down by Nintendo or something? I seem to remember being sad at the loss.

by stavros

6/25/2026 at 1:51:25 PM

You're probably thinking of the Steam debacle. Nintendo wasn't responsible for that.

What happened was that Dolphins developers wanted to release the emulator on Steam. Valve, independently from anyone else, send a message to Nintendo's legal team asking if they think it's permissible to distribute Dolphin on Steam. Nintendo's lawyers essentially responded with the company's policy on emulation ("third parties doing emulation is not okay") and that they might consider looking into their options should Dolphin release on Steam. After that, Valve told the Dolphin developers that the game was banned from Steam.

Nobody send any legal threats or anything; no C&D was issued, no DMCA invoked, no lawsuits, nothing. As far as the legal side of things is considered, the only thing that happened is that a business refused to do business with someone. (Which is generally their right to do, as long as it's not because that someone belongs to a protected class and being an emulation developer is not a protected class.) That's why Dolphin's devs also effectively had no recourse, even if they could pay the necessary lawyers. You can't force someone else to sell/publish your stuff.

by noirscape

6/25/2026 at 11:45:00 AM

You're likely thinking of Yuzu which was a switch emulator. Nintendo probably targeted them because they were about to launch the switch 2 and wanted to send a message.

by bspammer

6/25/2026 at 12:47:13 PM

It being a Switch emulator certainly didn't help. However, the primary reason Nintendo went after Yuzu was that Yuzu devs were openly accepting payment for special updates to run Tears of the Kingdom. TOTK was, at the time, only available because of a leak and had not officially released.

by hecifato

6/25/2026 at 6:10:31 PM

They also shut down Ryujinx at the same time by simply pressurimg the creator. So it was just an excuse they used.

by KHRZ

6/25/2026 at 4:53:35 PM

This is misinformation spread by the lawsuit. It was a 3rd party fork that added the code to make TOTK work before release (GPL software and all that). And the payments were orthogonal to Nintendo’s claims that the emulator was illegal, only a part of them saying how much damages they were owed.

by ls612

6/25/2026 at 12:20:45 PM

They planned to release on steam but Nintendo prevented it. The project however still exist standalone.

by TheMode

6/25/2026 at 11:48:18 AM

The switch emulators Yuzu or Ryujinx perhaps?

by sedawkgrep

6/25/2026 at 11:52:42 AM

Ahh yes, it might have been Yuzu, thanks!

by stavros

6/25/2026 at 11:44:47 AM

I think that was Citra emulator. Protect Dolphin at all costs!

Nintendo (among other creative corporations) do not seem to realise that invite to play creates an attachment to the product that is deeper than a license agreement, which is our shared cultural filament.

by poly2it

6/25/2026 at 6:05:51 PM

[dead]

by zamadatix

6/25/2026 at 12:05:38 PM

It is a Good thing "He who shall not be named" doesn't care about Gamecube games as much as the Switch or Switch 2 games.

by frankzero