DraStic (Nintendo DS emulator) OUT NOW for pi2/3!

celly

I'm really digging this emulator a lot. I've been messing about with games that don't require a stylus, those of us that don't have a mouse or want to map the analog stick. Yeah, i know, the point of the DS was the touch screen but for emulation purposes here is a small list of games running great and require no styles at all to play -

Contra 4
De Blob 2
Kirby: Super Star Ultra
Mario Kart DS
Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits
New Super Mario Bros.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
Tetris DS
Super Mario 64 DS (Does require stylus initially to start the game)

jcarhat

Is there a dev blog for drastic?

joyrider3774

Hi,

I've gotten the emulator to work by editing the config but does anyone have the problem that whenever you want to see the menu that all you see is a black display ? I can play games fine but whenever i try to go to the ingame menu my screen goes black.

Not sure if it matters but the screen i use in my picade has a maximum resolution of 800x600 if i remember correctly, i'm just not sure if resolution is changed when going to the emulator's build in menu.

If somone had the same problem what did you do to work around it ? thanks

qfoxp

I downloaded Drastic from RetropieSetup (after updating the script, the core packages, everything), put my roms in the right folder, but I just can't see it anywhere. it doesn't show up in ES (even if I modify the es_systems.cfg file) and I honestly have no idea on how to start the emulator. What can I do? Raspberry Pi3.

backstander

@joyrider3774

does anyone have the problem that whenever you want to see the menu that all you see is a black display ?
Not sure if it matters but the screen i use in my picade has a maximum resolution of 800x600

That is a known issue with 4:3 displays (800x600) and no one has found a workaround but I would contact the original developer about this here:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=170820

@qfoxp
I'm not sure which es_systems.cfg you're editing but have a look at the one at /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg and maybe add it manually like from this post:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7435/drastic-nintendo-ds-emulator-out-now-for-pi2-3/53

qfoxp

@backstander I did exactly that, which seems to be wrong by the way, as ES wouldn't start if I left that %$, which I fixed using

%ROM%</command>

unfortunately it still doesn't show up, I even tried putting ROMs in various places, like on a retropie-mount based usb drive, and directly on the SD. no luck.

backstander

@qfoxp

which seems to be wrong by the way, as ES wouldn't start if I left that %$, which I fixed using %ROM%</command>

sorry, forgot when I copy text from nano that long lines will end with '$' so I have fixed my original post adding %ROM%</command>

RetroPie's NDS Wiki says that DraStic supports .ZIP files but all of mine I have unzipped with the .nds extension and placed them in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nds

I'm not sure if the install script already does this now but I originally had to copy both drastic_bios_arm7.bin and drastic_bios_arm9.bin into the /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/nds/system/ directory manually.

joyrider3774

btw drastic supports 7z files (confirmed i tested this) and might support rar files as well. (not tested but did see something about this on the drastic forum) . So you change any romlisting to adopt for this it's not only *.nds and *.zip as the wiki said although i think the wiki shows info specific for the dsemu emulator .

Is there a workaround for the emulator not restoring the framebuffer ?

mediamogul

The author posted a progress report here yesterday for anyone who is interested.

AlexMurphy

@mediamogul That is great. I think DraStic is a fantastic emu... for a closed source project. Hopefully a few bugs will be sorted. Exophase seems like he wants to put the time and effort into really making it work on the Pi.

mediamogul

@AlexMurphy

I wish it was open-sourced myself, but the thing runs circles around everything else and it's hard to complain when such a great piece of software is being offered up for no cost. I actually bought the android version about two years ago and it was well worth it for all the entertainment it's given in that time.

AlexMurphy

@mediamogul Yeah, I've tried lr-desmumeit barely runs at 5-10 fps. DraStic is a brilliant addition to RetroPie. The more encouragement Exophase gets to keep supporting it the better. i tortured him on the DraStic forum and asked for a Pi specific sub. Hopefully that will happen and we can get book-mode and mic support added.

mediamogul

@AlexMurphy

i tortured him on the DraStic forum and asked for a Pi specific sub.

I poured sugar in his gas tank and asked for 3DS support. All I got was a restraining order.

A Former User

Well its no longer in the RetroPie Setup menu. Which sucks cause it was running all my games full speed. I just rebuilt my Retropie install now I no longer have access to Drastic.

A Former User

@tonberryhunter Apparently can still install it using the script module. https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/blob/c522c722b6753b1908d7f5fa00b4bc1e105e514a/scriptmodules/emulators/drastic.sh

backstander

@tonberryhunter
DraStic was taken off the setup script because the original author wasn't happy with it included in RetroPie in it current "closed beta" state. Hopefully after he releases an "open beta" or more stable release, he'll give RetroPie his blessing to add it back again.
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/75585

cbrowns620

So i had Drastic then when it was removed I added Desume. However when i open the DS Emulater its still Drastic. My problem is I can never get the settings to save so now everytime I want to play I have to reset the controller and screen settings.

AlexMurphy

@cbrowns620 DraStic was always flaky about saving specific game controls and settings for me. Some worked, others didn't. It's easy to re-map before playing. A pain but worth it. lr-desmume is awful. Avoid. Super Mario 64 DS runs at about 8-10fps on lr-desmume. and the audio is intermittent at best.

Evert

Hi guys, I still have Drastic installed on my Pi and it work really good with the games I play. I currently run RetroPie 4.1, if I update the setup script and all packages, will DraStic automatically be removed as it is no longer available in the RetroPie Setup script, or will it remain installed?
Thanks

BuZz

@Evert it will remain installed.