melonPrimeDS

Modded version of melonDS emulator to play Metroid Prime Hunters.

It's a bit of a hack but the goal is to make the game as fun as possible using mouse and keyboard.

I originally made this for controller but because there's no lock-on, it wasn't really fun to play.

Please read the instructions carefully.

melonPrimeDS.webm

Download

Releases for Windows, Linux and macOS here!

⚠️🖱️ Warning if using mouse acceleration!
Please disable mouse acceleration or it will feel strange.
Find a guide for Windows here and use SteerMouse if on macOS
Wasn't able to get raw mouse input unfortunately.

⚠️ Warning for macOS users!
Once you start the program, you're going to have to go into macOS settings:
Privacy & Security > Accessibility, and ensure melonPrimeDS is enabled.

Instructions

• Fyi. the emulator hack uses a different config path than melonDS, so this won't conflict

• Aquire a copy of the USA 1.1 rom of Metroid Prime Hunters
  Other regions don't work because memory injection is used

• Make sure to set all DS bindings to None in
  Config → Input and hotkeys → DS keypad
  Defaults should already be empty
  (click binding and press backspace)

• Find Metroid related Keyboard mappings in
  Metroid → Input settings
  Recommended defaults have already been set, but feel free to change them if you want to

  Notes:

  • Focusing the window will capture your mouse. Use ESC to release.
  • The stylus gets placed in the middle of the DS screen for aiming which can cause accidental presses
  • Whilst holding the virtual stylus button Tab, use your mouse to click around on the touchscreen
  • UI OK F will press "OK" on the touch screen, which will also jump and briefly break aiming
  • UI left Q and right E will also press on the touch screen, for scan visor messages
  • When in map view, press Shift to zoom out and LMB to zoom in

• Find Metroid sensitivity settings in
  Metroid → Other settings
  
  When in-game, make sure to set the aim sensitivty to the lowest!
  The DS touchscreen isn't very precise, so setting it to lowest helps
  

• Also recommended to set audio settings in-game to headphones

Default settings changed from melonDS

• Fullscreen toggle set to F11
• Screen layout set to horizontal
• Screen sizing set to emphasize top
• Screen filter set to false
• 3D renderer set to OpenGL
• 3D scale factor set to 8x for 1440p
• JIT recompiler set to enabled (helps with performance)

VSync was already disabled but keeping it off also helps with performance

Build

I modified melonDS and played Hunters on Linux. Building is straightforward

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -GNinja
ninja

Downloadable builds were made using GitHub actions

Todo

• Change controls when map is open. Need to find memory location
• Update to latest melonDS
• Would be really nice if weapon switching was done through the memory