How to Play Nintendo DS Games on iPhone

Nintendo DS games running on iPhone

Apple has updated its App Store guidelines to allow emulator apps on iPhone, allowing users to play their favorite retro games on iPhone. I never thought this day would come, but it’s finally here, and I am excited. One of the best emulators to hit the App Store is the Delta Emulator, which lets you play games from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo (SNES), Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games. In this guide, we will show you how to play Nintendo DS Games on an iPhone. 

🔋
If you plan to play games all day, buy the MagSafe battery packs so your iPhone doesn’t run out of juice. 

Check out these iPhone 15 series gaming controllers to enhance your enjoyment of the games.

Play Nintendo DS Games on iPhone

To play Nintendo DS games on your iPhone, first download the Delta Emulator from the App Store. You can click the link to open its listing in the App Store. Once you install the app, you need to download the DS games' ROMs on your iPhone. 

Delta Emulator App Store listing

Hopefully, you already own the games and can use your own game cartridges with a ROM reader to download them. There are also several websites that allow you to download and play classic games under a CC license. 

Once you legally download the games on your iPhone, follow the steps below to play these games on your iPhone. 

Import games into the Delta emulator

1. Launch the Delta emulator app on your iPhone and hit the plus (+) button in the top right corner. 

Delta emulator home screen showing Plus button

2. Tap on the Files option and navigate to your downloaded files. 

File selector option

3. Tap to select the files you want to import and tap the Open button. 

selecting files to upload in delta emulator

4. Delta will import all the files and show you the game. 

Games added to Delta emulator

Solve Missing Required DS Files error in Delta Emulator

When you tap on a game to play it, you will notice a Missing Required DS Files error. Here’s how you can solve this issue. 

1. Open Safari browser on your iPhone and search for “NDS Firmware & BIOS Internet Archive”. Click on the first link to open the Internet Archive page.

NDS firmware google search

2. Scroll down to the Download Options section and tap on 7Z to download the file. 

Internet archive firmware download page

3. Now, we need to extract this file. Download the iZip app from the App Store and open it. Tap on Document Browser and select the file you downloaded. 

iZiP Document browser

4. Tap Yes and then OK to unzip the file. 

extracting files in iZIP

5. Now launch the Delta app and tap on a game to run it. When you get the Missing Required DS Files error, tap on the Import Files option. 

Import files

6. Now, tap on the bios7.bin option.

bios file option

7. Go to On My iPhone → iZip → NDS Firmware & BIOS and choose the file with the same name. 

Locating Bios file

8. Similarly, upload the other two files. 

uploading files
🔗
Check out how you can change skins in Delta emulator.

That’s it. Now, you can tap on any game to play it. If you want to follow along, we have also created a video guide on the subject that you watch below. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you find the guide useful.