The Dolphin Emulator has been making some headlines among emulator lovers. This particular emulator was developed with two video game consoles from Nintendo in mind. The two consoles in question are GameCube and Wii. The developers of the Dolphin Emulator ensured that the users could play the games of these Nintendo consoles on their PC in high resolution. When I say high resolution, I mean full HD, that is, 1080p.
If you already have experience with Dolphin Emulator, I am sure you don’t need me to say what an emulator can do in general. Rather, I will assume that you want to know the answers to these questions:
- What are the features of the Dolphin Emulator?
- How to install Dolphin Emulator?
- What are the system requirements for using Dolphin Emulator?
- How to play Wii and GameCube games on Dolphin Emulator?
I will try to answer all these questions in the same order as above. So, gear up, keep calm, and read on!
Contents
What are the features of the Dolphin Emulator?
The Dolphin Emulator comes with a lot of features and writing them down here is literally impossible. It is because of this; I will touch over the most important features that will be less technical and easy to understand in case you already have some experience with emulators. So, here we go:
- Irrespective of region, the Dolphin Emulator can start a game.
- It is capable of recording tool-assisted speedruns.
- The emulator comes with the ability to use cheat codes. Cheat codes can be used along with action replay and Gecko.
- It allows users to map the functions of the original Wii Remotes and GameCube controllers onto the PC controllers.
- It also supports many controller expansions like Turntable, Drums, Guitar, Classic controller, Wii Nunchuk, Wii MotionPlus adapter, etc.
- It supports two variants of network play, which are, Nintendo Wi-Fi connection and Emulated local multiplayer.
- It allows the users to save game progress on virtual GameCube Memory Cards, save states, and emulated Wii flash memory.
- It has support for arbitrary resolutions despite the fact that Wii and GameCube both have only 480p resolution support (basically, big-screen support).
- It also allows users to load texture maps that are customized. The texture maps can be of resolutions higher than that of the original games.
- Irrespective of the platform that the Dolphin Emulator runs on, it is capable of outputting stereoscopic 3D graphics.
- Dolphin Emulator has support for various graphics enhancement features like anisotropic filtering, spatial anti-aliasing, widescreen hack for outputting force widescreen for games, and post-processing pixel shaders.
- It also allows us to achieve higher frames per second.
How to Download & Install Dolphin Emulator?
First thing first, we are discussing Dolphin Emulator for Windows 10 PC. So, if you are expecting an installation method for other operating systems like Mac or Linux (various flavors), you will be disappointed.
Yes, Dolphin Emulator can be installed on Mac and even Linux but we will deliberately skip that. It is Windows 10 we are talking about and hence, our focus will be on that only.
Installing Dolphin Emulator on Windows 10 PC is simple. Just follow these steps:
- Download Dolphin Emulator. The downloaded file will be a zipped file.
- Extract the files in a new folder. Name the folder whatever you want but I suggest that you name the folder as ‘Dolphin Emulator.’
- Once you have extracted it, locate the file called ‘Dolphin.’ It is the application file with a dolphin icon. Double-click on the file.
- Once you double-click, two things can happen. Either the Dolphin Emulator will open or you can find an error dialog box stating VCRUNTIME140_1.dll was not found.
- If you see the error, click OK and close the dialog and then go to Microsoft site to download and install Visual C++ 2015 runtime packages.
- Once you finish installing the Visual C++ 2015 runtime packages, restart your computer.
- Once you reboot successfully, go to the Dolphin Emulator folder and double-click the application file. This time, the emulator will open successfully.
That’s all! There is nothing more you need to do as far as the installation of the emulator is concerned. Basically, it is a portable file (if I may say so) that you don’t need to install it. All you have to do is double-click the executable file and voila! The emulator will be up and running.
What are the system requirements for using Dolphin Emulator?
This is where things get a bit out of hand. The Dolphin emulator is quite power-hungry. So, if you are using a very old computer, or even a computer with a Core i3 processor from Intel, you will struggle with Dolphin.
Recommended System requirements for Dolphin Emulator
- Operating System – Windows 10 (64 bit).
- Processor – Intel Core i5-4670K or higher. In case you are going for AMD processors, Dolphin developers say that the emulator doesn’t perform well with anything below the Ryzen series. So, tread carefully.
- RAM – It is recommended that you should have at least 2 GB of RAM available. However, the higher the RAM, the better it is. I will personally suggest keeping the RAM at 8 GB.
- GPU – DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.4, or Vulkan GPU.
For best gameplay experience, you can always ditch the PC input devices (keyboard and mouse) and opt for either of the two:
- Original Nintendo Wii Remote to be used via DolphinBar.
- Original Nintendo GameCube controller along with Wii U USB adapter from Smash Bros.
Dolphin Minimum system requirements:
- Operating System – Windows 7 (64 bit).
- CPU – X86-64 or AArch64.
- Memory – 2 GB.
- GPU – Pixel Shader 3.0, DirectX 10 or OpenGL 3.
- Input Devices: Keyboard and mouse.
How to play Wii and GameCube Games on Dolphin Emulator?
Playing games on Dolphin Emulator is simple. Here are the steps that you need to follow:
- Open Dolphin Emulator by double-clicking the Dolphin Emulator application file.
- Once the application opens you will see the emulator window with a top horizontal menu. If you want to set up any controller, you can click on the Controller menu option and a pop-up window will open. Set up the controller of your choice. Alternatively, you can skip this and use a keyboard and mouse.
- Set up the game ROM path by clicking on Config and then on Paths and select the path where you have stored the ROM games for GameCube or Wii.
- Now go to the Graphics menu and make necessary adjustments and close the popup window.
- Now double-click on any game and start playing!
That’s all! It is simple!
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How to Get ROMS on Dolphin Emulator?
Please note that while downloading Dolphin Emulator is totally legal, acquiring game ROM from online sources is not. Doing so can land you in copyright issues. Be careful. I will always suggest that you go ahead and purchase those games and then dump them using your gaming console.
Also, downloading ROMs from online sources and lead to virus attacks that can damage your computer and steal your information. So, purchase games!