Category: 3ds

Last updated: 03NOV2025 (see Changelog for details)

We’re seeing a lot of new dual-screen Android handhelds release this year. Setting one up is mostly the same as any other Android-based handheld, with a few key differences relating to that dual-screen functionality. This guide will cover all those special dual-screen considerations and serve as a complement to my greater Android Handheld Starter Guide.

Table of Contents

Compatible handhelds (and others)
Stylus recommendations
Initial setup
Preparing your ROM files
Nintendo DS
Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo Wii U
Dreamcast, PSP, and more
Frontend launchers

Changelog

Compatible handhelds (and others)

There are a number of different Android dual-screen handhelds out right now, and more likely on the way. This guide was written with the AYN Thor in mind, but other options include the ONEXSUGAR, AYANEO Pocket DS, and the Retroid Dual Screen attachment (or any other monitor setup, really).

Fundamentally, they all behave the same. You have a primary display, and then the software detects that there is a secondary display attached. In the case of the AYANEO Pocket DS and the Retroid Dual Screen attachment, the bottom screen is recognized as the primary display and the top screen is external; on the AYN Thor it’s the other way around, where the software thinks of the top screen as its primary display. This is a minor difference but may require you to assign a specific window to a certain screen in emulator settings (i.e. the “external” display in MelonDS could be the top or bottom screen depending on your device).

Stylus recommendations

Because dual-screen handhelds excel in playing 3DS and NDS games, you may be interested in getting a stylus for your handheld. It’s worth noting that these modern (capacitive) screens have a different touch input than the original DS and 3DS (resistive) screens. You can’t use a DS/3DS stylus on a modern display. Instead, you’ll have to use a rubber tip, disc or active pen stylus, and each of them provide their own unique feel (and shortcomings). Here is a video I made testing out a bunch of stylus options:

Long story short: my preferred stylus is a mesh tip, and the two commercial options I like the best are the Mixoo stylus and the Nintendo Switch touch pen.

There is also a new handmade option available on Etsy, I have tested this one and I think it’s more accurate than the ones I tested in the video above, and it is of similar size to the original DS/3DS stylus options. You can find it here, and use code RETROSTYLUS for 30% off.

Initial setup

The initial setup of this device will be the same as any other Android-based handheld. The gist is that you’ll install a bunch of emulation apps and games, load up your device with ROMs for the emulators to access, configure the emulators, and then use a frontend to tie everything together. Because this setup is identical to my previous Android Handheld Starter Guide, I’m going to refer you to that guide for the initial setup. We’ll focus on those special considerations for dual-screen devices for the rest of this guide.

In other words — check out the Android guide, then come back here for the dual-screen fun.

Preparing your ROM files

In order to get the best experience with our dual-screen setup, we should prepare our ROM files to give us the best compatibility and smallest possible file size.

Nintendo DS: Your game files should be in a .nds file format. Both MelonDS and DraStic can read these files when they are zipped, which will reduce their overall size. So I would recommend compressing your .nds library into .zip format instead. You can use tools like 7Zip on your PC, or do this directly on your Android device. To do it on the device, browse to your NDS folder with the Files app, then long-press on the .nds file and select “Compress”. This will make a zip file of your game and you can delete the .nds file at that point.

Nintendo 3DS: The Azahar app requires your games to be decrypted .3ds files, and they must be in the .cci file format. Thankfully, changing your .3ds files to .cci is simple, you simply just rename the .3ds file extension to .cci and that’s it. Citra MMJ can also read .cci files, so once you’ve changed their file extensions you should be good to go. The Azahar app can also create and load compressed .zcci files, which can reduce the file size by about 25%. Unfortunately Citra MMJ cannot load .zcci files, so if you want to use both apps you should stick to .cci instead.

Wii U: For Wii U files, I recommend using .wua files, which are compressed and contain the game, updates, and DLC all in a single file. I discuss how to set this up in my File Compression Guide.

Nintendo DS

For Nintendo DS, we have two major emulator options on Android: MelonDS and DraStic. For many years, DraStic was the premier Nintendo DS emulator on Android. Unfortunately it is no longer in development and no longer available on the Google Play Store, and it lacks some key features necessary for excellent dual-screen gaming. MelonDS is currently in development and is frequently adding new features like high resolution scaling. I generally recommend MelonDS, but DraStic setup information is also provided below.

MelonDS

As of making this guide, the official MelonDS app does not have dual-screen support. Thankfully, a community developer has created a fork of the official version that has dual-screen support. The developer’s goal is to get these changes integrated into the official version of the app, but for now we’ll use the fork instead. There are nightly and stable releases of the MelonDS fork; both run well, but the nightly version may have additional features and compatibility fixes (and additional bugs). For this guide we’ll use the stable version, but the setup process for the nightly version is the same.

Download the latest release of MelonDS fork either directly from their GitHub or via the Obtainium emulation pack (in its dual-screen section). I recommend the stable (non-nightly version). Open the app and tap on “Select ROM directory” and navigate to the folder where you have all of your ROM files. Select “use this folder” and confirm, and now your game list will appear in the app.

• Tap on the top right menu icon (three dots) and choose Settings. I recommend the following settings changes:
  • Video > Renderer > OpenGL
  • Video > Internal Resolution > 4x (or whatever matches the chip and screen on your device)
  • Video > Filter > LCD (optional, provides a grid layout similar to the DSi XL)
  • Video > Internal Screen Layout > Custom (tap on the Plus button on the top right after selecting this option)
    • The custom editor will show both screens at once. You want to remove the red rectangle by tapping on it and selecting DELETE. Then tap on the blue rectangle and increase the width as much as possible, then tap on “Center Horizontally”. The blue rectangle should be centered, 4:3 aspect ratio, and as large as possible. Alternatively, if you want it to be the same size as the device’s bottom screen, you can adjust it to be smaller (around 1088 x 816 pixels on the Thor) and then position it to the bottom of your screen.
    • The rectangle will sometimes not change size when you move the slider. If this happens to you, just tap out of the box and then tap on the blue rectangle again, and it should work.
    • Once you have it sized the way you like, tap the Back button on your device and select “Save and exit”. By default the name will be “My Layout” but you can change it if you’d like. Make sure you select it as your Internal Screen Layout.
  • Video > External Display > Bottom Screen (Thor)
  • Video > External Screen Layout > Default
  • Video > FPS counter position > Whatever you’d like (optional)

Next, go into the Input settings and tap on “Key Mapping” to map your controls. Note that you can map multiple inputs. For example, you can map both the d-pad and analog stick to the same direction (you just need to map them each separately). I like to map Fast Forward (Toggle) to R2, and Swap Screens to L2. Also in the Input settings be sure to turn OFF the “Show soft input” option to disable the on-screen controls.

On the AYN Thor, once you start up a game you will see that the bottom screen is not at a proper 4:3 aspect ratio. Press the Back button on your device, then go to Quick Settings > Keep DS Aspect Ratio and turn that ON. That will fix it for every game going forward.

For the Thor it is possible to make a custom external display for the bottom screen to make it 4:3 and to push it up to the top of the bottom display (to remove that top bezel), but unfortunately as of making this guide it disables touch input on the bottom screen if you do so.

DraStic

While DraStic does support dual screens, the touch functionality may not work on some devices like the AYN Thor (see note in the box below). This renders the app only useful for games that don’t require a touch input. If you want to try it, you’ll need to download the app and sideload it onto your device. Archives of the app are available on APK Mirror and Archive.org, and you can navigate directly there on your handheld.

• APK Mirror: grab the arm64-v8a APK version.
• Archive.org: click on the “Android Package Archive” link to download

Once installed, tap on the app to open it. At the first prompt you will be asked to create a desktop shortcut, I recommend declining. Tap on “Load new game” and navigate to the folder where you have all of your ROM files. Select “use this folder” and confirm, and now your game list will appear in the app.

• Go back to the main menu, and select “Change options”. I recommend making the following changes:
  • Video Settings > Frameskip > None
  • Video Settings > Filter > None (optional, will make games look sharper)
  • Video Settings > High Resolution 3D Rendering > ON
  • Video Settings > External Display Mode > Correct Aspect Ratio
  • Video Settings > External Display Screen > Bottom Screen
  • Video Settings > External Display Border > 0%
  • External Controller > Select Key Mapping > No Mapping (then tap on “Map Control” and input all the controls). Do the same with “Map Special” to map hotkeys like screen swap to your liking
  • External Controller > Disable mapped keys in overlay > ON
  • General Settings > Show FPS > ON (optional)
  • General Settings > Default Layout > Landscape Aspect

Once you have configured these settings, exit the app and restart it, then start up a game.

Not getting touch input? There is a new version of DraStic that does enable touch input on the AYN Thor’s bottom screen, and you can find it here. This app also pre-loads a bunch of custom shaders which are nice (I prefer the LCD1X shader). To configure the app, select these options in lieu of those listed above:

Video Settings > External Display Mode > Correct Aspect Ratio
Video Settings > External Display Screen > Bottom Screen
Video Settings > External Display Border > 14% (or 15% for a very slight black border on each side)

You’ll need to restart the app to see the changes applied.

Nintendo 3DS

There are two main apps for 3DS gaming on Android: Azahar and Citra MMJ. Citra MMJ is more performance-focused but Azahar is more accurate. Neither app is perfect, and some games will run better on one emulator over the other. This guide will show you how to set up both apps so you can swap between them if you would like.

Azahar

Azahar is the primary app I use for 3DS, because it has an active and engaged development team who keep adding new features and functionality. It is also a highly accurate emulator. To install the app, you can grab the latest version from their releases page (“android universal apk”), or from the Obtainium emulation pack.

Open the app to start the setup process. Confirm all the permissions requirements it needs to function, then in the Data Folders section, choose a place for your User folder (this is where you’ll find your save files, configs, etc – you can put it anywhere, even in your 3DS ROMs folder). Your “Applications” folder is your ROMs folder, so navigate to that folder and allow it access. You’ll get a prompt about how .3ds files are no longer accepted, and then your game list will appear.

Click on the menu (three dot) icon on the top left, and then choose Settings. I recommend the following configuration:

• Gamepad > configure your buttons as you like.
• Graphics > Graphics API > Vulkan
• Graphics > Enable asynchronous shader compilation > ON
• Graphics > Internal Resolution > 4x Native (or whatever matches your device chip and display)
• Graphics > Disable Right Eye Render > ON (may cause flickering in some games)
• Layout > Landscape Screen Layout > Single Screen
• Layout > Secondary Display Screen Layout > Bottom Screen
• Layout > Performance Layout > adjust as you’d like (optional)
• Debug > Enable V-Sync > OFF (improves input latency)

Once you start up a game, the controller overlay will appear. Press the Back button on your device to enter the quick menu, then go to Overlay Options > Show Controller Overlay > OFF.

Other tips and tricks:

• If you’d like (and if your device supports it), you can use custom GPU (“Turnip”) drivers with this app, which you can load via Options > GPU Driver Manager. I have found that custom drivers for devices like the AYN Thor don’t seem to provide any additional benefit over the stock GPU drivers on the device.
• You can long-press on the game and choose the rightmost icon to create a game shortcut that will appear on your Android desktop. From there you can tap on the shortcut to launch the game directly.

Citra MMJ

Citra MMJ is a performance-minded app that will sometimes implement workarounds to ensure the best performance on your device. These tweaks may introduce other issues with your gameplay, so it’s always best to experiment with both Azahar and Citra MMJ to find the best experience with any particular game. My rule of thumb is to start with Azahar and then jump into Citra MMJ if the Azahar experience isn’t great.

To install the app, you can grab the latest version from their GitHub releases page or via the Obtainium emulation pack. They have multiple versions: Citra MMJ, Antutu, and storage access. I generally use the “Storage Access Antutu” version since that gives me the most freedom to find my config files and the Antutu version may give you the best performance too (it tricks the device into thinking it’s running a benchmark app to force the best performance from your machine).

Once installed, tap on the app to open it. Tap on the green box that says “Add folder to Library”, then navigate to your 3DS ROMs folder. Select “User this Folder” the confirm, and after that your games will appear in the games list.

Click on the menu (three dot) icon on the top right, and then choose Input Binding, and map all of the buttons on your device. Back in the main menu, click on the Settings icon on the top right, and make the following changes:

• Screen Layout > Single Screen
• Internal Resolution > 4x (or whatever matches your device chip and display)
• New 3DS Mode > ON

Once you start a game, it will automatically function with both screens, that’s pretty handy. But it will also show the controller overlay; to remove that, tap on the Back button on your device and select Settings > Hide Input Buttons > ON. While still in the Quick Menu Settings, go to Asynchronous Shader Compilation > ON.

Nintendo Wii U

While most of the catalog didn’t take advantage of the Wii U’s unique gamepad functionality, there are still quite a few games that work great in a dual-screen setup. Many will have a simple quick menu on the secondary display, but others like Star Fox Zero use the second screen as a key game mechanic.

Cemu is the only viable Wii U emulator option on Android, and it is still in an early experimental status on the platform. Unfortunately the official build does not have dual-screen support. Community developer SapphireRhodonite built a fork of this app that includes dual-screen gameplay as an option. That’s the fork we’ll be using for this guide.

To install the app, you can grab the latest version from their releases page, or from the Obtainium emulation pack (in its dual-screen section).

Once you have it opened, tap on the menu (three dot) icon on the top right, then select Settings. From there, go into General Settings > Add game path, then tap the “+” icon on the top right. Navigate to where your Wii U games are stored and select “Use this folder” and confirm. The games should now appear in your main menu.

Go back into the Settings section and go to Input settings. Select Controller 1 > Emulated Controller > Wii U GamePad. Now tap the “Setup all inputs” button, choose your device controller, and all the buttons should be mapped properly (maybe check the ABXY mapping to ensure they are correct, just in case).

Also in the menu (three dot) section there is a Graphics Pack option. Go in there, tap the download button on the top right to download and install the latest graphics packs. I would recommend going into the graphics packs for each of your games and see if there are any configurations that will enhance your gameplay experience.

Once you launch a game, swipe from the left on your screen to bring up the Cemu quick menu. Turn ON the “Show Pad” and “External Pad Screen” toggles and you should see the secondary screen appearing on the bottom. If it’s just a duplication of your primary screen, chances are that game doesn’t have a dual-screen feature.

Dreamcast, PSP, and more

Other systems may benefit from a dual-screen setup. For example, using the second screen to display VMU information in Dreamcast would be great! Unfortunately I haven’t seen this as an option with the current Dreamcast emulators yet but I’ll keep an eye out and will update this guide if that happens.

Some unexpected apps may feature dual-screen support in the future too. There is an experimental fork build of PPSSPP that allows you to present a zoomed-in section of the main screen on the bottom screen. This would be handy if you wanted to show an enlarged mini-map on your secondary display for games like GTA.

Frontend launchers

Frontend launchers wrap together various emulator apps into a single navigation experience, providing a console-like feel to this hodgepodge of apps and settings. Single-screen frontends will work great on dual-screen devices, but some developers are building specific dual-screen functionality into their products. Here is a rundown of our current options.

Console Launcher

This app has been around for a while, and it provides a really clean navigation experience while also integrating in your emulation library. Their official release on Play Store hasn’t been updated in a while, but the latest Beta release from their GitHub has recently added dual screen support.

To install, grab the latest Beta release from their GitHub page. When you start up the app, it will walk you through the onboarding process. You can choose whatever you’d like, but this is what I chose when setting up the AYN Thor:

• Set Console Launcher as your default launcher > NO (you can do this later)
• Home Screen focus: Game Icons (or whatever you’d like)
• Kind of games: Retro (or “Both”)
• Icon Image Style: Steam Grid DB
• Find Platforms > navigate to your ROMs folder
• RetroAchievements > log in if you’d like

After that, the app will scrub your ROMs folder, and as long as the ROM directories are named in a standard way (NDS = Nintendo DS, etc), it should find all of your files and scrape the box art. From there, you can navigate your game directories and launch your games. The first time you launch a game it will prompt you to read instructions on how to set up each emulator, you can skip this if you’d like.

Of note, as of making this guide, Console Launcher doesn’t support .zcci (compressed 3DS) files, so you will need to use standard .cci files to have your games appear in the launcher.

EmulationStation-DE

ES-DE is my preferred launcher, and the team is currently planning to roll out dual-screen support in its next release, which will include the ability to launch your game on a separate screen instead of the ES-DE screen. That will be handy for multitasking! I’ll update this guide once it is officially available, but for now, the ES-DE setup instruction in my Android Starter Guide will work just fine.

iiSU DS

Thanks to a viral video showing off some UI design ideas, the iiSU DS launcher gained a lot of traction even before a single line of code was written. Thankfully, community developers have joined the project to help it become a reality. It is currently in closed beta access but public releases should be available at some point, and the app promises to bring a clean and Nintendo-like user experience to your handheld, all focused on a dual-screen layout.

Beacon

Beacon Game Launcher is also an excellent, simple frontend, that allows you to pull images from SteamGridDB. This app works great with dual-screen handhelds, but will only show one screen at a time (which honestly is great for multi-tasking). So even if it isn’t specifically made for dual-screen devices, it’s still an excellent option.

Daijisho

Daijisho is a free frontend that can provide a clean interface. Like with Beacon, it’s not specifically made for dual-screen handhelds but it still works fine.

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Changelog

03NOV2025
– added link to DraStic version with Thor bottom screen touch support

27OCT2025
– published guide