Nintendo DS Emulator DraStic Is Now Free
The developer behind the popular Nintendo DS emulator is no longer charging for the app.
The popular Nintendo DS emulator DraStic is now free to use on the Google Play Store … but get it while you can. Developer Exophase made the announcement online yesterday, adding that they don’t intend to keep it listed on the Android storefront for much longer.
“I just changed the app on GPlay to free,” Exophase posted on Discord. “I don’t intend to even have it on there for that much longer but I want to make it clear that I don’t have any kind of financial incentive to not open the source.”
This change comes in the wake of fellow developer Tropic Haze’s decision to settle a lawsuit with Nintendo over its Switch emulation software Yuzu. That also resulted in a take-down of the 3DS emulator Citra, which shared many devs with Yuzu.
DraStic first released in 2004 and on the Play Store in 2013, where it has been downloaded more than 1 million times. It previously sold for $4.99. The emulator is also available on Linux.
Exophase stated that their intention has been to make DraStic free and open source for a while now. While the Yuzu situation didn’t bring about this change, it did make it more urgent for the developer to pull the trigger. That’s because Nintendo’s legal filing against Tropic Haze includes complaints about that company’s apparent profiting from their emulator via Patreon subscriptions.
Providing the community with DraStic’s source code will also go a long way toward building the software’s longevity, as other developers could fork the project and continue it should Exophase cease development in the future. Open source projects are also all that more difficult for the big publishers to shut down permanently … something Nintendo is about to witness in the Switch emulation community, where Yuzu was also open-source.
“Going open source will probably be the best thing that can happen to it now even if I don’t keep attachment,” Exophase said.
Head to the Google Play Store to download DraStic before it goes away. Once the app is delisted users will still be able to source the APK file and sideload it onto devices.
