Dolphin: open source emulator for games from the big N on Steam
In the official announcement the developers are still cautiously speaking of a “great experiment”, but Dolphin should find its way onto Steam before the end of this year. According to the makers, they are already well advanced with the development, but they do not want to give an exact date at the moment. On the recently unlocked Page in the Steam store but at least the second quarter of 2023 is given for availability in Early Access.
There is also little information about the functions offered at the moment, but the development process and the features of the Steam version will be presented in detail shortly before the release – Dolphin is and will remain open source, so it will also be independent after the start give analyses. “Everything is completely open source and free to download,” the developers confirm.
discussion for purpose
But why tie up resources and publish Dolphin on Steam when the software has been available for download from your own homepage for years? One reason is certainly that a release on Steam naturally promises a much wider distribution. Furthermore, the Steam deck has become the popular basis for emulators among enthusiasts. The adapted Dolphin version will probably bring comprehensive support here, which will make it even easier to use.
It will also be interesting to see whether Nintendo will react. The group cannot do anything about the software itself – it only enables the games to be run, but does not bring them with it. In the past, however, this has not prevented the group’s lawyers from using all means possible to prevent the spread of such community tools. And so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Dolphin makers even avoided the company’s name in the announcement and only spoke of the “big N”.
See also:
Valve, Valve Corporation, Steam Deck, Steam Deck
