Last Updated on: 20th December 2023, 04:25 pm
Web site: dolphin-emu.org
Category: Emulators
Platform: Android, Linux, OS X, Windows
License: GNU GPL
Interface: GUI
Wikipedia: Dolphin
First release: September 22, 2003
Dolphin – an open-source emulator for two recent Nintendo video game consoles: the GameCube and the Wii. It allows PC gamers to enjoy games for these two consoles in full HD (1080p) with several enhancements: compatibility with all PC controllers, turbo speed, networked multiplayer, and even more.
Dolphin was the first emulator to boot GameCube and later Wii games, and now boasts compatibility with most titles for those game systems. With a huge community of developers and users around the world, Dolphin continues to gain compatibility, performance, and new features to this day.
Dolphin is a cross-platform emulator that runs on Windows (7 SP1 and newer), Linux, and macOS (10.13 High Sierra and up). For their ease of use and additional graphics backend options, Windows is generally recommended for most users. Other Unix-like systems (such as FreeBSD) may work but are not officially supported. Operating systems are required to be 64-bit to run Dolphin.
As well, Dolphin runs on Android 5.0 and up on 64-bit Android devices. The Android version of Dolphin is in alpha and should not be expected to work as well as the PC counterpart.
Dolphin is a dual core application that relies upon IPC (Instructions Per Clock) and clockspeed for performance. Additional cores will not make Dolphin go any faster, though an “extra” core that Dolphin isn’t using may help slightly by keeping background tasks from using the same cores as Dolphin.
Accordingly, the perfect CPU for Dolphin has high IPC, a high clock rate, and four cores or more. With four cores, Dolphin has two cores for the main emulation threads, a third core for other tasks, and another core for the operating system and background tasks to run without taking resources from the emulator.