Someone got a PS1 emulator running on a DS cartridge, and I'm really impressed

Did you know the Nintendo DS is now over 20 years old? Yeah, I feel old, too. Well, despite the console's age, people are still doing really cool things with it, because why not? It was an excellent console, and people aren't ready to move on from it just yet, when they can still do really fun things with it.

Take, for example, this person who managed to get PS1 games running on their Nintendo DS. It doesn't work great, and not every game will play nicely, but it's still an amazing feat, especially given that playing PS1 games on DS hardware isn't really meant to be possible.

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This PS1 emulator lives entirely on the Nintendo DS game cart

As spotted by Hackaday, this cool trick was performed by f4mi on YouTube. They posted a video showing a PS1 emulator booting up on a Nintendo DS, and immediately, they say what that you're looking at is "technically impossible." The Nintendo DS just doesn't have the hardware chops to render a PS1 emulator, and f4mi didn't use any streaming or remote play apps to get it done. So, how did they pull it off?

The trick here is that they didn't use the Nintendo DS's hardware at all. Instead, it's all in the game cartridge plugged into the DS itself. The cart that f4mi used to run an emulator on the DS is called the DWTWO, which comes with its own hardware built into the cartridge. In fact, f4mi says it's essentially a "computer in a cart", which is really cool in my opinion.

If the idea of a Nintendo DS cartridge coming with its own CPU sends your mind into a spin, I highly recommend checking out the video about it. F4mi does a fantastic job going into detail about how third-party cartridges came to be, the people who profited from them, and the individuals who stole from those who profited from them to profit from them. It was a real wild west during the early days.

If you want to give this a try yourself, do note that the emulation isn't perfect by a long shot. In fact, it's a struggle to call it "playable." Some games won't make it past the initial boot process, and the ones that do will render slowly with zero sound. If that doesn't put you off (for some reason), you can check out all the details on how to get this done over on the GBAtemp forums. You'll need to source the game files yourself, and some titles will go so far as to demand the console BIOS too, so be sure to have those legally on hand.

If you'd prefer something a little more recent on the hardware front, check out how a hacked Nintendo 3DS is better than any gaming handheld.