Nintendo 2DS
Image: Nintendo

Update [Tue 12th Sep, 2023 12:40 BST]: A spot of reverse image searching has revealed that this photo is actually from 2015:

Which begs the question, why has Max Zhou chosen to repost this now?


Original Story [Tue 12th Sep, 2023 10:05 BST]: If you've been following the handheld emulation scene over the past few years, you'll know that these pocket rockets are now capable of replicating the performance of systems such as the Dreamcast, GameCube and PS2, making them thoroughly attractive options for retro gamers on the go.

One system that has traditionally been quite hard to emulate on these devices is the Nintendo DS (and its successor, the 3DS) – not because of a lack of processing power, but because the dual-screen layout is tricky to reproduce on a traditional landscape display.

However, that could be about to change. Max Zhou, owner of Anbernic, has shown off a concept design for what appears to be a handheld focused on Nintendo DS and 3DS emulation. As you can see in the image below, the design is very similar to that of the Nintendo 2DS – there's no clamshell, and the screen is effectively a single display oriented in portrait mode (fun fact: this is precisely what the 2DS' screen is like – it's a single panel divided in two by a strip of plastic to give the impression of dual displays).

While we don't know for sure, the most obvious application for a device like this would appear to be Nintendo DS and 3DS games.

Would you like to see an emulation option for DS and 3DS appear? Or do you prefer playing on original hardware? Let us know with a comment below.