mamesj/pokemon-fulldex pc-v1

Pokémon Fulldex for PC, Mac, Steam Deck and handhelds (Windows, macOS and Linux)

on GitHub

Pokémon Fulldex for PC, Mac, Steam Deck and handhelds: all seven DS games (Black 2, White 2, Black, White, SoulSilver, HeartGold, Platinum) and, on Windows and Linux, the GBA games (Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Ultra Violet), as one widescreen picture, up to 4K, 60 fps.

The same program as the Switch's all-games download, for a PC, a Mac, a Steam Deck or a Windows handheld (ROG Ally, Legion Go, MSI Claw and the like): start it and pick the game from a list. Nothing of the games is in it: you bring your own ROMs. On an Android phone? See android-v1. On an iPhone or iPad? ios-v1.

Update (30 October)

• A new name: Pokémon Fulldex, now that it plays GBA games as well as DS ones. Nothing moves: your ROMs, saves, settings and the download's file names are where and what they were.
• Windows: the program is now Pokemon Fulldex.exe. Made desktop shortcuts before? SETTINGS > SHORTCUTS > DESKTOP SHORTCUTS: CREATE again.
• New: GBA games (Windows and Linux). Pokémon Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen and Ultra Violet in the same list, in widescreen at 60 fps. Put the ROMs in the same roms folder (FireRed and LeafGreen 1.0 or 1.1; Ultra Violet's .gba, or its .ips with a FireRed 1.0 ROM beside it). Other GBA games play too, without widescreen.
• New: RetroAchievements. RETROACHIEVEMENTS in the pause menu: turn it on, LOG IN with your RetroAchievements account, and unlocks pop up as you play (casual mode: save states, fast forward and cheats still work). ACHIEVEMENTS lists the game's achievements; A on one shows what it asks for, when you unlocked it and how rare it is. You can also log in before playing: SETTINGS > RETROACHIEVEMENTS in the game list.
• New: SOUND > VOLUME, in the pause menu and the game list's settings: a slider from off to 100%.
• The game list in tabs: ALL (a heading per console), DS, GBA and 3DS. Q and E (or a controller's shoulder buttons) change the tab, or press up from the top row of games, then left and right. Pokémon Omega Ruby is in the 3DS tab, COMING SOON.
• New: the game list's look. SETTINGS > GAME LIST: COLOUR (red, blue, green, purple, gold, pink or teal) for the game list and the pause menu, and BACKGROUND: a picture of yours behind the games (background.jpg or .png beside your saves folder; best at 1920 x 1080).
• New: no version exclusives. OTHER VERSION POKEMON in the pause menu (SoulSilver, HeartGold, Black, White, Black 2, White 2): where the two versions' wild Pokémon differ, each encounter can be either version's.
• SoulSilver, HeartGold and Platinum: the European English copies work too.
• Widescreen fixes (Black, White, Black 2, White 2): no more flicker at the sides as you walk (the ground, a tree and the rail on the stairs up to Aspertia's lookout); from the lookout, the sky and mountains reach both edges without stretching or cut-offs; rocks and lamp posts no longer vanish before they leave the screen.
• Windows: the taskbar shows the program's own icon (a pinned shortcut to one game no longer takes over every window), and the game's log is kept after QUIT (for bug reports).

Earlier: 29 October

• New: Mac (Apple silicon and Intel). See Mac below for how to install it.
• New: change any key or button. CONTROLS > KEYS AND BUTTONS in the pause menu: give any DS button, the pause menu, fast forward or swapping the screens another key or controller button (triggers too). Giving one a button another one had swaps the two; RESET ALL puts them back. The game list follows the ones you change.
• Button prompts match your controller: the PlayStation symbols on a PS4 or PS5 pad, A / B / ZL / ZR on a Switch Pro controller, Xbox names on others, the keyboard's keys with no controller.
• The pause menu in groups: RESUME, SAVE STATE, LOAD STATE and FAST FORWARD up top, then DISPLAY, GRAPHICS and CONTROLS, each a page of its own. The settings page in the game list opens on the same groups (plus SHORTCUTS and HELP).
• Game list: any gamepad works in it now, and SETTINGS can be chosen with the D-pad (up from the top row).
• Change keys and buttons from the game list too: SETTINGS > CONTROLS > KEYS AND BUTTONS, before you start a game.
• New: cheats (Action Replay codes). Put usrcheat.dat (the R4 / DeSmuME cheat database) or your own codes in a cheats folder beside saves, then turn them on with CHEATS in the pause menu. The README explains the files.
• SoulSilver and HeartGold: Running Shoes from the X menu. The touch screen's button for them is out of view, so with the X menu open, Y (or a click on RUN ON / OFF beside the menu) turns them on and off.
• SoulSilver and HeartGold: the title screen and the opening film fill the view, with both of the DS's screens in it instead of one.
• New: a Linux AppImage for Gear Lever and other AppImage managers, which keep it up to date. See Download.
• LOWER RES WHEN BUSY is now off to start (also if it was on before): your 3D resolution stays put. Turn it on in the settings if your PC struggles in heavy scenes.
• A controller's START opens the pause menu (Menu on Xbox, Options on PlayStation; the games hardly use the DS's START). START BUTTON on the settings page sets it back to the DS's START. Enter on the keyboard is always the DS's START.
• Platinum: the introduction on one screen. Professor Rowan fills the view instead of the two screens side by side; for his two questions that take a touch, the YES / NO buttons or the Poké Ball appear at the right edge. A answers YES (B: NO) and presses the Poké Ball's button too.

Download

• Windows: pokemon-ds-wide-pc-windows-x86_64.zip
• Linux and Steam Deck: pokemon-ds-wide-pc-linux-x86_64.tar.gz (nothing else to install: SDL2 comes with it)
• Linux as an AppImage: pokemon-ds-wide-pc-linux-x86_64.AppImage, the program as one file. Add it to Gear Lever (or another AppImage manager) and it updates itself from this release. Its ROMs, saves and settings live in ~/.local/share/pokemon-ds-wide (press O in the game list to open its roms folder).
• Windows handhelds (ROG Ally, Legion Go, MSI Claw, ...): the Windows download
• Mac: pokemon-ds-wide-pc-macos-arm64.zip (Apple silicon: M1 and newer) or pokemon-ds-wide-pc-macos-x86_64.zip (Intel), macOS 11 or newer. New: see Mac below.

Install

1. Unpack it anywhere you like (not inside Program Files).
2. Put your ROMs in its roms folder (any names).
   • Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Ultra Violet (Windows and Linux): see Update above.
   • Black 2, White 2, Black, White: any English copy (US or Europe).
   • SoulSilver, HeartGold, Platinum: any English copy (US or Europe).
3. Start Pokemon Fulldex.exe (Linux: pokemon-ds-wide) and pick a game: arrow keys or a controller's D-pad, then Enter or A. Press H (or a controller's Y) in the list for the settings: every option in the menu, each explained.

Windows may warn that the program is from an unknown publisher the first time: choose "More info", then "Run anyway".

It starts in borderless fullscreen at 1080P with 60 FPS: change either in the settings (H in the game list) or the Esc menu, or press F11 for a window. The game list shows each game's box art (your own pictures in an icons folder take its place: see the README.txt).

Controls: a controller (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch Pro and others) plays as a DS; hold its right trigger to fast forward. On the keyboard: arrow keys for the D-pad, X/Z for A/B, S/A for X/Y, Q/W for L/R, Enter for START, the mouse for the touch screen. Left Shift fast forwards while held. Esc opens the menu (settings, save states, QUIT back to the game list), F11 is borderless fullscreen. CONTROLS > KEYS AND BUTTONS in the menu changes any of them. The README.txt inside has the full list.

Use your own save

Carry on from your own save: from another emulator, a flash cart or your real cartridge. Copy it into the saves folder beside the program under the game's name.

• Which files work: a plain .sav, as melonDS, DeSmuME (Export Backup Memory), flash carts (TWiLight Menu++, R4 and the like) and cartridge dump tools (Checkpoint, JKSM, GodMode9) make it. A DraStic or DeSmuME .dsv, or an Action Replay save (.duc), first goes through tools/bw2/convert_save.py.
• Check it worked: the game list shows SAVE FOUND under the game (NEW GAME: not found).
• Back up first: a save copied in replaces the one there under that name.

Mac

1. Download the one for your Mac. Apple menu > About This Mac: if it says Chip: Apple M1 (or M2, M3, M4, ...), take pokemon-ds-wide-pc-macos-arm64.zip; if it says Processor: Intel, take pokemon-ds-wide-pc-macos-x86_64.zip.
2. Unzip it (double-click it in Downloads; Safari may have done it already) and drag Pokémon Fulldex into Applications.
3. Open it once. macOS says it can't check the app (it isn't notarised by Apple): click Done. Then go to System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down to the line about Pokémon Fulldex and click Open Anyway, then Open. You only do this once. Or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Pokemon Fulldex.app", then open it as any app.
4. Add your ROMs: press O in the game list. The Finder opens its roms folder (~/Library/Application Support/Pokemon DS Widescreen/roms): put your ROMs in it and they appear in the list. Your own saves go in the saves folder next to it.

The keys and a controller work as on a PC; Ctrl+Cmd+F (or F11) switches between fullscreen and a window. A Mac's OpenGL stops short of what WORLD ON GPU needs, so the processor draws the widescreen world, at 720P to start: a MacBook Air M1 holds 60 FPS at 1080P.

Steam Deck and handhelds

Made to be played with a controller, so a handheld's own buttons and sticks work as they are: no keyboard or mouse needed, and a touch screen works like the mouse on the DS's touch screen. The picture fills 16:10 screens (Steam Deck, Legion Go) as well as 16:9 ones, without black bars.

Steam Deck: in Desktop Mode, unpack the Linux download and put your ROMs in its roms folder. In Steam: Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library > Browse (file type: All Files) and choose pokemon-ds-wide. (Or press H in the game list, choose DESKTOP SHORTCUTS, and each game is in the Add a Non-Steam Game list by name, with its box art, starting straight away.) Start it from your library in Gaming Mode with a gamepad layout, and set 3D RESOLUTION to 720P for the Deck's 1280x800 screen.

Windows handhelds (ROG Ally, Legion Go, MSI Claw, ...): unpack the Windows download, put your ROMs in roms and start Pokemon Fulldex.exe; DESKTOP SHORTCUTS (H in the game list) puts each game on the desktop for your launcher of choice. 720P or 1080P suits these screens.

Not yet timed on handhelds: please tell us how yours runs (see below).

What it needs

• Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), or 64-bit Linux from late 2023 on (Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 39, SteamOS 3.5 or newer).
• For WORLD ON GPU (on by default): a graphics card with OpenGL 4.3, which nearly any from 2012 on has with up-to-date drivers. Without it, turn WORLD ON GPU off in the Esc menu and the processor draws the world instead (that wants a much faster processor).

How fast a PC? Not measured on a range of PCs yet, so these are estimates. The Switch runs all seven games at 60 fps, and one core of any PC from the last eight years or so is several times as fast as one of the Switch's. What grows with your screen is 3D RESOLUTION (in the Esc menu: 720P, 1080P, 1440P (2K), 2160P (4K)), drawn by the graphics card:

• Minimum: a 4-core processor (Intel Core i5 6th generation or Ryzen 1000 on), graphics built into the processor (Intel HD 520 or Radeon Vega 8 class) at 3D RESOLUTION 720P to 1080P, 4 GB of memory.
• Recommended: a recent 6-core processor and a graphics card such as a GTX 1060 or RX 580 for 1440P; 2160P (4K) wants an RTX 2070 or better.

If yours struggles, turn on LOWER RES WHEN BUSY (off to start): it lowers the 3D resolution for a moment instead of slowing the game down. Please tell us how yours runs: open a bug report with your PC's processor and graphics card and the game.log from the program's folder.

Known limits

• The first PC release: tested far less than the Switch downloads.
• Platinum: the Pokétch (the watch on the touch screen) isn't shown during normal play; its apps are one press away (Tab, or F1 for the other DS screen).
• SoulSilver and HeartGold: at map borders (e.g. Route 29 / New Bark Town), parts of the neighbouring map pop in and out at the sides of the wide view.

Enjoying it? Tips are welcome but never expected: buy me a coffee or PayPal.

Free software under the GNU GPL version 3, built on melonDS. A fork of ClickingMaster/ssrecomp. Pokémon is a trademark of Nintendo, Creatures and GAME FREAK; this project is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.