The Nintendo Dolphin Emulator is coming to Steam. Retrogaming promises to be easier than ever.
Nintendo might want to make it hard for gamers to enjoy their old games on official hardware, but there are several options to do so today if you know where to look. One of them will soon be very easy to find: Dolphin, a very popular emulator capable of running most GameCube and Wii games, will be available on Steam in a few months. Dolphin is already available for free, but launching it on Steam will make it much easier to use on devices such as the Steam Deck, where the current procedure – a completely manual installation – can be quite complicated.
Nintendo Dolphin Emulator Coming to Steam
However, that doesn’t mean that downloading Dolphin from the Steam store will give you instant access to iconic Nintendo games. The Dolphin page also states that “There are no games in the app. You must have an original copy of every game you wish to use with Dolphin.”If you’ve ever had a chance to play retro gaming, this should all sound pretty familiar – console video game emulation is, to put it mildly, in a murky legal area.
Retrogaming promises to be easier than ever
This is probably the reason why Dolphin’s Steam page seems reluctant to even explain what the app does, content to point out that it lets you play “Big N’s cube console classics and consoles with their motion-sensitive controllers”. “. The emulator’s website is a bit more forthright, stating that “downloading licensed games is illegal”and encouraging users to use special tools to back up discs of games they legally own.
Dolphin is expected to be available on Steam Early Access before the end of Q2 2023 and will be available to everyone before the end of Q2 2023.