The excellent Delta emulator for iOS is getting even better: According to Delta developer Riley Testut, the app will soon get online multiplayer support for Nintendo DS games. Testut's post about the feature includes a video of a Mario Kart DS race between two people played on the emulator and it immediately took me back to when I played the game on my own DS many years ago.
Nintendo discontinued the DS's online services back in 2014, so we asked Testut how the online services will work. “It's based on melonDS's online support, which connects to third-party Nintendo devices. [Wi-Fi Connection] Servers (like Kaeru, Wimmfi, AltWFC, etc.),” says Testut The edge“This means that all 10 million+ Delta users will be able to connect with other Delta users and users on real devices using these third-party Nintendo WFC servers.”
However, “that also means it's limited to Nintendo DS games for now, but all Nintendo DS games with Nintendo WFC will be supported,” says Testut. The Delta team doesn't plan to host its own server, so online multiplayer will be free when it's available to everyone.
You may have to wait a bit before you can try out online multiplayer for yourself. Testut says the feature will first be available in a beta version of Delta for Patreon subscribers. “We don't have a public release date yet,” says Testut. While that's disappointing, you still have plenty of time to get some Mario Kart DS practice in.