Because of the homebrewing scene the 3DS has had, you can install a variety of emulators. Currently, the New 3DS is capable of running much faster than the older models, making it a much more ideal platform for emulation, but despite this there are still some emulators that have issues regardless. For more information on how to homebrew your 3DS, visit 3ds.hacks.guide.

1Multi-System
2Consoles
3Handhelds
4Computers
5Others

Hi guys, Tech James here,For this video, I’ll show you guys how convert your SNES ROM’s into CIA files and Install them onto your Old 3DS/2DS or NEW 3DS/2DS!. Note that, only on New 3DS, secretsector.bin is needed to revert the arm9loaderhax exploit, which is why it is not needed for the installation of boot9strap on a stock console. If you do not have a New 3DS, you do not need secretsector.bin. New 3DS Users Only: secretsector.bin; The latest release of Luma3DS; The v7.0.5 release of Luma3DS. 3DS CIA Manager List all CIA files from a folder and display its ID. Leerz: Thread: 3DS to CIA converter Convert.3DS files to.CIA format CCI/CIA Command Builder (aka ROMTool GUI) TiniVi: Thread: Git: CIA Auto-Generator Script to speed up cia generation mmn: Thread: Cia to TitleID List all cia files from a folder and display its ID. CIA files are generic data containers that can be installed on a 3DS. In order to do this you need to have a 3DS below 9.2. The process of building a CIA is similar to building a.3DS file: arm-none-eabi-strip myproject.elf makerom -f cia -o myproject.cia -rsf cia.rsf -target t -exefslogo -elf myproject.elf -icon myproject.smdh -banner banner.bin. Manually builds the CIA now; makerom is no longer needed This should mean lower-memory computers can properly convert larger games. The 3dsconv.exe in this release includes all the necessary libraries and a Python interpreter, so it should be usable on 64-bit Windows without Python installed. Convert exe to app.

Multi-System[edit]

RetroArch[edit]

There are preliminary 3DS ports of the following cores: stable 3DS ports

2048
FinalBurn Alpha CPS1
FinalBurn Alpha CPS2
FinalBurn Alpha CPS3 (most games are too slow to run even on New 3DS, though JoJo runs almost full speed)
FinalBurn Alpha Neo Geo (A few games are unable to be loaded due to memory constraints)
FCEUmm
Mednafen NGP
Mednafen PCE Fast
Mednafen VB
Mednafen WonderSwan
mGBA (acceptable with Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, but some games are slow to use, even on New 3DS, at present)
NXEngine
PCSX-ReARMed (see below)
Snes9x 2002 (formerly PocketSNES) (less compatible than CATSFC, but can actually run many special chip games at full speed)
Snes9x 2005 (formerly CATSFC)
Snes9x 2005 Plus (formerly CATSFC Plus) (has more accurate audio, slower)
Snes9x 2010 (formerly Snes9x-Next) (too slow to use even on New 3DS at present)

Using current exploits, the New 3DS is capable of running most of these cores at or nearly at full speed on most games. The only cores the older 3DS can reliably run at full speed are 2048, Gambatte, QuickNES, NXEngine, and some older Sega games using PicoDrive.Opposed to normal use of RetroArch, these are all self-contained emulators, albeit sharing the same automatic configuration.Screenshot-taking is broken. Upon exiting RetroArch 3DS, press the Start button.

Unofficial Builds[edit]

There are unofficial ports which add new cores with emulators that do not have a retroarch by default

Atari800
GW
VirtualJaguar

Consoles[edit]

NES[edit]

3DNESno longer in development

SNES[edit]

Snes9x for 3DS - runs a good majority of games well, even on old 3DS/2DS's. It's recommended to use a New 3DS if you want to run games that uses the SuperFX or SA-1 chip properly.
blargSNES - It works well, but lacks compatibility for games with certain chips (i.e. the SuperFX chip).

Nintendo 64[edit]

DaedalusX64 - N64 has always been known to be a hard system to emulate, which is why many were skeptical about how feasible it would be to have an emulator for the system on the 3DS. While still in its beta stage, it has shown a lot of improvements thanks to using a dynamic recompiler, with some games running at a playable state. It also supports using stereoscopic 3D (at the cost of slower performance), which isn't a feature a lot of emulators have.

Playstation[edit]

PCSX-ReARMed (RetroArch) - Thanks to the work of many developers, it is now possible to have full speed 60 FPS emulation for a majority of games and support for .CHD compression formats. Generally, 2D games will perform better than 3D, however you can get some better performance by tweaking the settings if necessary. The nightly builds have seen major improvements since the initial release and can even play some of the more demanding games at full speed (See here for some tips), so it's better to use that until the next stable release. NOTE: This emulator is mainly targeted for the New 3DS so don't expect the o3DS to run well if at all.

Atari 2600[edit]

Genesis/32X/Sega CD[edit]

PicoDrive for 3DS - 32X and Sega CD are playable on the original 3DS, but works better on New 3DS. Sega CD requires BIOS in order to play, they must be named:

'bios_CD_U.bin', 'bios_CD_J.bin', and 'bios_CD_E.bin' based on the respective regions. BIOS need to be in the /3ds/picodrive_3ds/bios folder.

PC Engine[edit]

Vectrex[edit]

Vex3DS - Based on vecx

Handhelds[edit]

Game Boy[edit]

GameYob: forked from a popular emulator used on the DS. Emulates the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. The original DS version is actually more polished than the 3DS port, so some of the more hardware pushing games won't work as well as the DS port.

Virtual Boy[edit]

r3Ddragon - It's kind of surprising that Nintendo never released a Virtual Console for the Virtual Boy on the 3DS, especially given how small the library of games were for the system and how both utilizes 3D effects ~~and causes eyestrain~~. What makes this emulator stand out is the fact that it's able to display the graphics in 3D the way it was intended, something that is almost impossible to do on other platforms, unfortunately compatibility is still low and requires a New 3DS to run. Development has since halted.

Pokémon mini[edit]

Game Boy Advance[edit]

The 3DS does include native firmware for a GBA mode which was mainly used to run ambassador releases instead of having to develop an emulator for them. Because it's technically running a 'virtual' GBA, it can't provide features that are normally available on other emulators, such as savestates, screen filtering, or sleep mode, however it does have high compatibility with the exception of cartridges with special hardware. If you're using an old 3DS/2DS, this is the best option to play GBA games. There are two ways to take advantage of this firmware:

Some versions of Office such as Office Professional Plus 2019, Office Standard 2019, or a stand-alone app such as Word 2019 or Project 2019 don't have an associated Microsoft account, or work or school account. The steps to install these versions can be different depending if you got Office through one of the following ways.

Best 3ds To Cia Converter