Top 4 NDS Emulators for MAC OS

Every Gamer from the ’90s misses the old school Nintendo consoles especially people who spent their entire childhood on consoles such as the Nintendo DS. Now since Nintendo has stopped everything for our old favorite consoles we are left with no other choice than searching for emulation software on the net. So to help fellow gamers we decided to make the list of the top 4 NDS emulators for Mac OS. So without further ado lets begin:

1) Open Emu

  • Free emulator
  • Gamepad or Joystick controller support.
  • Supports older Nintendo handhelds
  • Easy to use

It’s probably the current king of emulation software for MAC OS. Open Emu is you’re an all-in-one package for gaming on MAC OS. It’s one of the best emulators for NDS on MAC that also comes with almost all gaming consoles. If you wanted an all-in-one emulator then this is the one for you. It also has support for external controllers and the best part is it’s free and easy to use.

It’s not exactly on the app store so you need to install it but its a great emulator nonetheless. It was a tough choice to choose between the retro arch and open emu since both are that good. But since Open Emu is dedicated to Mac OS we gave it the crown.

2) RetroArch

windows  nds emulator
  • An all-in-one front end
  • Wide array of settings to tweak depending on your system
  • Has support for multiple systems

Slowly becoming the fan-favorite emulation software, not only for the Nintendo DS but pretty much every console out there. It’s available for almost every platform and has millions of downloads. It’s quite actively developed and supports the latest version of MAC OS pretty well at the time of writing. It has all the necessary support for making gaming fun and exciting. It supports high resolutions to make the console games look that much better. It’s pretty stable and over the years with regular updates have become the go-to emulator for the emulation community.

Must Read: Top 5 NDS Emulators for IOS

3) Citra Emulator

  • Most active and currently updated NDS emulator
  • Graphics optimization
  • Better suited for mid/high end PCs

If you want the most stable and recently updated NDS emulator for MAC then this is the one for you. It comes with support for a tonne of consoles as well as useful features such as support for a microphone, an external controller, and wifi. It’s quite robust and many people have downloaded Citra emulator for Mac OS over the years.

It’s one of the few NDS emulators for Mac OS that are actively being updated and maintained to this day. Many are updated once a year if lucky.

4) DeSmuME

windows  nds emulator
  • Supports OpenGL
  • Graphics settings need to be tweaked game by game but allows better control
  • Better suited for mid/high end PCs
  • External controllers supported

DeSmuME was probably the first Nintendo DS Emulation for Mac OS. At the time there were no NDS emulators for Mac OS and DeSmuME changed it for the better. It’s a lightweight emulator and has plenty of customization options to suit your needs. It also supports pretty much all the consoles fo its definitely a great download.

It has support for a microphone, an external controller, and wifi support for gaming making it perfect for mac users.


That’s all for this one. These were the best NDS emulator for Mac OS which will let you play your favorite Nintendo DS games on your Mac PC. These emulators are the latest ones and are compatible with almost all Mac OS versions. Hope this article on NDS Emulators for Mac OS has helped you get what you were looking for in the world of emulation. If we missed any great working NDS emulators for Mac OS then let us know in the comment section below.

Happy gaming. See you in-game

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