Pokémon trading coming to Delta emulator on iPhone soon

Developer Riley Testut has shared on Threads that he’s finished work on the online DS multiplayer component of Delta and will release it to the public soon, as long as the final beta has no issues.

Now, that he’s almost done with online multiplayer he’s moved onto implementing ‘Retro Achievements‘ so you can track your progress through an old game more like a modern title.

Testut has been working on online support since last year and the feature has been available to beta testers on Patreon for a few months. He’s on the cusp of putting out the release candidate.

The online service piggybacks off of community-hosted servers and allows you to trade Pokémon, race against friends in Mario Kart DS and share your town in Animal Crossing: Wild World over Wi-Fi/or mobile data.

However, it’s not as easy to set up as a modern console. I’m using the latest beta and it does take a few tries and some trial and error to get it running. That said, it has come a long way since the first beta.

How to set it up

Delta’s new update page and Wi-Fi settings.

Unlike modern devices, the DS needed to set up your Wi-Fi connection in each game. Since most of the games are from Nintendo, you also need to exchange friend codes in each title to play online with your friends. And, all of that is just on the standard DS software side. Once you add in the hurdles of using emulation it gets even more complex.

In theory you would need to open a game like Pokémon, scroll down its main menu and select ‘Nintendo Wi-Fi setup’ or something like that. Then, you need to search for a Wi-Fi network and no matter what, the only one that will appear is called ‘MelonAP’ named after the DS emulator core in Delta. After that a popup appears asking you what server you’d like to use.

Delta presents three default options, but you can also manually input the DNS address of any server you want to use. I’ve had hit and miss results with all of them and have settled on ‘AltWFC’ for now. You can change this later in the ‘Core Settings’ section within Delta’s settings.

Once you’ve went through all these steps enter the game, save and restart. Next time you open the game it should work online. When I do this in Pokémon: Heart Gold everything is fine, but trying the same process in Pokémon: White crashes every time I load the trading room.

Before the latest beta you needed to manually input the DNS details of the server you wanted to use and I had marginally more success then. My friend and I could load into the trading room in Pokémon:White/Black but we couldn’t trade and we’d crash after trying to initiate a trade or battle.

I’ve reached out to the developer on the app’s Discord server and will update this story once I figure out a way to trade in all games.

Other tips and ideas

Make sure you and your friends are connected to the same server. Also be warned that you can’t both be on the same physical Wi-Fi network. If you are trying to connect with multiple people in the same house, you may need to use your mobile data.

You can use this fan-hosted servers to connect your old DS to the web and then trade between Delta and a DS. That said, similarly as before, you’ll need to use your phone on mobile data if you want this to work with both devices on the same Wi-Fi.

You can use this method to trade with yourself while playing the same game using MelonDS emulator on a computer. On PC MelonDS allows you to randomize your Mac address, but you can’t use the same trick with a phone. You’d have to start a separate save in a separate game to trade with yourself using two versions of Delta.

Make sure when trading in Pokémon games that you are using the Wi-Fi trading room, not the local trading space. The DS allowed people who were near each other to communicate with local wireless, which is what I used mostly as a kid, but with Delta you need to trade over Wi-Fi.

If you’ve never used Delta before and want to learn more about it we have a full guide that will teach you how to use it like a pro. You can also download the skins I have in my sample images from a creator named Sean Fletcher. The Pokémon Pearl skin I’m using is paid, but there are some free skins as well.

The Delta team has a guide to the online features posted, but at the time of writing it’s still geared towards the earlier betas. I’d expected it will be updated soon since the full release is on the horizon.

Source: Riley Testut