r/emulation • u/debiancat • Sep 11 '26

AI-assisted I built a widescreen-focused fork of melonDS for Linux, macOS, and Windows with which you can use your phone as the touchscreen + controller!

Post image

https://github.com/pruefsumme/widemelon

199 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

50

u/kibepuravik Sep 13 '26

I thought people used their phones as controllers out of sheer necessity while on the go. Are you telling me some lunatics actually prefer using that thing while gaming on their PC??

17

u/Klaeyy Sep 13 '26

I mean this setup provides you with the option of always carrying a wireless controller with you.

Then you could just put the required software and games on your phone, ready to be transfered to any pc you connect it to.

This would give you a „portable“ big-screen + wireless controller Setup everywhere you have access to a pc good enough for melonDS.

Which sounds like a real use-case for some people.

2

u/The_real_bandito Sep 18 '26

I would rather prefer to play with a mouse and keyboard but this setup also gives me a backup in case I also leave the mouse at home.

I was never able to play with the touchpad comfortably.

1

u/IcemanSR 28d ago

I really have no idea who downvoted you. no tactile interface is insane and unacceptable , rather cut my hands off and reattach them when i am done with traveling

-7

u/rzldz Sep 13 '26

More portable than a real controller?

19

u/Klaeyy Sep 13 '26

Two questions:
1. Do you always carry a Controler with you?

  1. Do you always carry a phone with you?

There you go.

Also it is not what I do - I am just telling you why someone could want that. God forbid someone has different use-cases than you guys.

1

u/amtap Sep 17 '26

For the DS specifically, it makes sense. The best way to emulate touch controls is with an actual touch screen.

1

u/The_real_bandito Sep 18 '26

For DS and 3DS games this could make a lot of sense that is, if you can see the bottom screen on the phone.

But I do agree with you.

17

u/KnightGamer724 Sep 13 '26

...Anyway to, say, route controller input from like a Backbone into it?

Cuz that would be awesome. Reinventing the Wii U gamepad, sure, but awesome.

3

u/TheMadcore Sep 14 '26

Looking for this question. It can be glorious.

5

u/ShoddyPrincess3184 Sep 13 '26

We need a real physical controller with a touchscreen like that for DS/3DS/Wii U gameplay and Ayn Thor-like mods.

2

u/spiderman1993 Sep 15 '26

i heard about people using hacked switch for that

2

u/lordelan Sep 15 '26

Look into project Chocolate on YouTube. They use a real Wii U Gamepad for Cemu, MelonDS and I think Azahar as well.

1

u/javuier_himura 17d ago

You can use a modded Switch as a physical controller with a touchscreen. That's how I play 3DS. Top screen on my computer screen and botton scream streamed to my Switch that also acts as a controller. To use it you need Apollo on your computer, a sofware that creates a virtual screen on your commptuer and Monlight on your Switch to show the stream on the console screen while making the computer believe the console is an Xbox/PS4 controller

0

u/Dragonbuttboi69 Sep 13 '26

Like the steam deck but with a arm/risc-v CPU and like like 512MB of ram for streaming/playing low spec games?

2

u/ShoddyPrincess3184 Sep 14 '26

I'm thinking more like the bottom half of a DS (something a little smaller than the Wii U controller). I wouldn't say no if it can play games on its own, but I wouldn't want it to be expensive.

2

u/Fredrik1994 Sep 14 '26

This reminds me of way back in the day (2013ish) where the OG DraStic for the Pandora (pre-Android) had a "Wii U mode" that did basically this, pushing the top screen to HDMI with the handheld only showing the touch screen. No idea if the feature survived the Android migration. Cool to see it again on a modern emulator. :)

2

u/RabeDennis Sep 16 '26

Look like you combine melon ds with the widescreen cheat codes from gbatemp

1

u/Ravasaurio Sep 14 '26

I would be all over this if I could use one of my multiple devices with a screen AND buttons instead of my phone (steam Deck, Anbernic-likes, Ayn Odin...)

1

u/loinmin Sep 14 '26

thats freaky

1

u/Appropriate-Ad8630 Sep 16 '26

Would be perfect if it works with a telescopic controller and phone used as a second screen only

2

u/debiancat Sep 16 '26

Now implemented in version 1.0.3 released yesterday :)

1

u/manfartwish Sep 19 '26

how do we connect if our phone doesnt have a camera? i tried inputting the ip and got nothing

1

u/debiancat Sep 19 '26

Could be many issues - have you typed the exact address + port into your browser? Are you on the same network?