The iPhone Duo may be the Nintendo DS replacement I didn’t expect

Apple’s new iPhone Duo already has plenty going for it as the company’s first foldable, but there may be another reason to get excited about those two screens: Nintendo DS games. Delta, one of the most popular retro game emulators available on iPhone and iPad, is working on dedicated support for Apple’s foldable. The news comes via RetroDodo, which reached out to Delta lead developer Riley Testut about whether the emulator would take advantage of the Duo’s unusual form factor.

Testut confirmed that dedicated iPhone Duo support is already in the works, although he stopped short of giving it a release date. And this feels like much more than Delta adapting to another new iPhone. The Duo’s folding design could finally give Nintendo DS games the kind of dual-screen setup that regular smartphones have always struggled to replicate.

The iPhone Duo could be perfect for Nintendo DS games

The Nintendo DS was built around two displays stacked on top of each other, with the lower screen doubling as a touchscreen. That layout has always made DS emulation a little awkward on conventional smartphones. You can squeeze both screens onto one display, but you either end up with two relatively small windows or have to constantly switch between layouts.

A foldable like the iPhone Duo could solve much of that naturally. Open the phone, place one DS screen on either half, and suddenly the hardware looks surprisingly well suited to the job. Delta can already run Nintendo DS games alongside systems including the Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, SNES, and others. It also supports custom controller skins, which could become particularly interesting on a larger folding display. There’s plenty of room for the Delta community to get creative with layouts designed specifically around the Duo.

Delta already did some of the hard work

Perhaps the most encouraging part is that Delta isn’t starting from scratch. Testut told RetroDodo that the team had previously put considerable work into making Delta adapt properly to resizing and multiple windows when Apple introduced Stage Manager on iPadOS. According to Testut, much of that work translates well to the iPhone Duo.

Delta has also teased its foldable ambitions on Threads, suggesting development is already well underway. There’s no guarantee the update will arrive alongside the iPhone Duo when Apple’s foldable goes on sale in October. However, knowing dedicated support is in development makes the Duo considerably more interesting as a retro gaming device. Buying an expensive foldable primarily to play Nintendo DS games would admittedly be a little excessive. But if you’re already planning to pick up an iPhone Duo, Delta might give those folding screens one very fun job Apple probably didn’t have in mind.