reliving childhood
You always remember your very first games console. Maybe you'd begged for it for your birthday, or wrote to Father Christmas asking for that one console everyone was talking about.
I never asked for one, but for my seventh birthday, I received a DS Lite. To this day, the DS line of consoles is my all-time favourite.
I've always had a DS or a 3DS since, I even collected them for a while. I'd find scrappy ones on places like eBay and fix them up, give them a new life. But a few years ago, I went through something of a personal tragedy.
Having sight loss is hard, especially when you're actively losing your sight. You'll wake up one day and something you could do the day before is now off-limits to you, and unless you can find some way to adjust it, it's gone for good. I woke up one day, and I couldn't see my DSi screens well enough to play anymore. A few months later, the same happened with my 2DS XL.
I haven't been able to play a DS system in two years, and I've missed it. My 2DS XL was my main handheld, the one I played all retro games on, the one I got my Tetris records on, the one I spent so many hours making perfect, and here I was, unable to access it all. I got other handhelds, different ones for different purposes, but nothing seemed to fill that DS-shaped gap.
Then suddenly, dual screen emulation consoles started coming out of the woodwork. The Ayn Thor is absolutely beautiful, the OnexSugar 1 is so versatile, the RG DS is so nostalgic, the Retroid Pocket Duo has pedigree. Suddenly, there were options, options without the twenty year old screens or washed out panels that made it so hard for me to use my DSes.
But with all things, there's a catch. I live on an island, so shipping fees from any foreign country are significantly higher. Add US tariffs into that total and suddenly you're paying almost double.
I looked into everything I could, every option, and unfortunately the prices were too much to take. Before that, I was set on the OnexSugar 1, since it's modular, convenient and solves the issue with playing other systems on it by having a single screen mode.
So, what options did I have left?
As many people know, Microsoft released the Surface Duo in 2020, resulting in a complete flop. They'd misread the market, misunderstood what people wanted, but that form factor was familiar. Dual screens, a posable hinge, and support for displaying on both screens at once. The makings of a DS handheld, with the modern comfort of bright AMOLED screens, the kind I'd be able to see.
But again, the problem of cost. Surface Duos are generally £300-£600, even now, and woe betide you if you want a stylus. Definitely not all that viable.
So, after all that preamble, all those handhelds discussed, what did I do?
I found a holy grail.
A listing on eBay, a domestic listing, for a £200 Surface Duo with a case and stylus included. There were caveats - the back glass on one of the screens was cracked, one of the volume buttons didn't work and the device sometimes boot looped - but it worked enough for what I needed. The seller had kindly used a decal to cover the cracked glass, and included the case as extra protection, and the volume can be controlled from the notification shade. Nothing was beyond a workaround, even the bootloop could be resolved by simply clearing out old processes before it had the chance to loop again.
I placed the bid, and within four days, I had my own Surface Duo. Which was only the beginning, I still had to take this thing from an Android phone to a DS.
This seems like it's turning into quite the odyssey, right? Love found, love tragically lost, and hope appearing once again if only the noble hero can conquer this final hurdle.
I joke, of course, but something happened that really did make this feel like kismet. A week before I got my Duo, Mr Rubik finally released the long-awaited launcher, Nitrodeck, which turned your dual screen handheld into a true DS experience. A launcher that emulated the DS homescreen almost perfectly.
That was the first step, and the first step that made it feel real. I'd already paired the Duo with a cheap telescopic Bluetooth controller I had in storage, and with the buttons and the launcher, it really felt like reclaiming my childhood memories.
After that, came the actual process. This video by Retro Tech Dad gave me tutorials and tools to help set up Melon DS and Citra MMJ for perfect DS and 3DS setups. I could then transfer my games collection from my DSi and 2DS XL, including game rips from my original 20 year old carts, and it was off to the races.
So, what now?
Play! I've started a playthrough of one of the Tongari Boushi games, my favourite series of all time, as well as Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Tomodachi Collection. I've had so much fun playing those games again, and I've added childhood favourites like the Imagine games, Disney Friends, Tamagotchi Connexions, endless opportunities. I've included some photos of my escapades here:
I know this was a very long post, but I didn't know how to write it without adding the context of just how important something like this was to me. It's been a difficult, frustrating experience but I've finally gained back something I thought I'd lost forever. Thanks for reading!
This post was last edited 6 hours, 59 minutes ago.