Water
melonDS full screen, saves
melonDS goes full screen with its Toggle fullscreen hotkey, which has no key until you give it one: set it in Config › Input and hotkeys › General hotkeys, then press it during a game. To save properly, save in the game itself, which melonDS keeps in a .sav file beside the game. Savestates are snapshots on top, and loading an old one can take your save back with it.
Updated 29 October 2026
How to go full screen in melonDS
melonDS 1.1, the current release, has no full screen item in its menus. Full screen is a hotkey, and it has no key until you set one:
- Open Config › Input and hotkeys and pick the General hotkeys tab.
- Under Keyboard mappings, click the button beside Toggle fullscreen (it reads None) and press the key you want, such as F11. Under Joystick mappings you can give it a controller button too.
- Press OK, start a game and press your key. Press it again to go back to a window.
In full screen, melonDS hides its menu bar; its shortcuts keep working, so F1 to F8 still load states. Started with -f or --fullscreen on its command line, melonDS opens in full screen.
Make both screens fill the display
Full screen keeps melonDS’s default layout, the two screens stacked as on a DS, which leaves most of a wide monitor black. The View menu changes that:
- View › Screen layout › Horizontal puts the two screens side by side. Natural, the default, stacks them like a DS.
- View › Screen sizing › Emphasize top (or Emphasize bottom) makes one screen as big as it can be and fits the other in the space left. With Horizontal on a 16:9 display, the big screen gets the full height.
- Hybrid, under Screen layout, shows both screens small with a big copy of one beside them. Swap screens, in the same menu, picks which one is big.
- Top only and Bottom only, under Screen sizing, show one screen; Swap screens switches between them.
- View › Aspect ratio stretches either screen to 16:9, 21:9 or the window’s shape. That fills more of the display and widens the picture; 4:3 (native) is the DS’s own shape.
- Leave Force integer scaling, under Screen sizing, off: it rounds the screens down to a whole multiple of the DS’s size, which leaves borders.
The Swap screens and Swap screen emphasis hotkeys, on the same General hotkeys tab, switch these during a game.
How to save properly in melonDS
A DS game saves to a memory chip on its cartridge, and melonDS keeps that memory in a file. You save as you would on a DS, from the game’s own menu or save point. melonDS’s savestates are a second kind of save on top:
- In-game save,
.sav - The game’s own save, named after the game’s file and kept in its folder. melonDS writes it about two seconds after the game finishes saving. It picks the kind of save memory from its own list of DS games, so there is no save type to set.
- Savestate,
.ml1to.ml8 - The whole emulator at one moment, in slots 1 to 8 beside the game. File › Save state saves one (Shift+F1 to Shift+F8) and File › Load state loads it (F1 to F8). Shift+F9 saves to a file you name, and F9 loads one you pick.
Config › Path settings moves either kind elsewhere, with Save files path and Savestates path. Left blank, both stay in the game’s folder.
To bring in a save from another emulator or a flashcart, start the game and use File › Import savefile: melonDS resets the game and puts that save in place of its own.
Why save in the game before you close
- melonDS never loads a savestate by itself. The next time you open the game, it starts from its in-game save; progress kept only in a savestate comes back when you load that state.
- Loading a savestate brings back the game’s save memory as it was in that state, and melonDS writes it over your
.savfile: an old state takes your in-game progress back with it. File › Undo state load (F12) reverses a load you didn’t mean. - Config › Savestate settings › Separate savefiles stops that. Once you save or load a state, melonDS sends the game’s saves to a file named after that state, ending in
.ml1.savfor slot 1, and your.savstays as it is. In-game saves you make after that go to the state’s file too, so they aren’t in your.savthe next time you open the game. - The
.savfile is a raw save, and melonDS’s FAQ says it should be compatible with most other emulators. A savestate is a snapshot of melonDS itself. melonDS won’t load one saved in a newer savestate format than its own, or in an older format it no longer supports.
How Water plays DS games
Water plays DS games with melonDS DS, a RetroArch core built on melonDS. It is a separate project, made by its own team rather than the melonDS team, and Water isn’t affiliated with melonDS DS, melonDS or RetroArch. Water sets them up before a DS game starts:
- Play starts the game full screen, with no key to set.
- Both screens side by side, the biggest both can be on a 16:9 display. Each press of R2 moves to the next layout: a big top screen beside both small ones, then a big bottom screen, then back.
- The right stick moves a pointer over the touch screen, and pressing it (R3) touches.
- Saves and save states kept for each profile, so nobody plays over someone else’s game.
- Select and Start together open RetroArch’s Quick Menu, its pause menu, which saves and loads states.
The DS emulator page has the rest: which controllers work and how many DS games Water lists.
Or let Water do it
Water is a game launcher for Windows that installs PC games and games for 16 consoles, the DS among them. It downloads RetroArch and melonDS DS, checks them and sets them up before your first DS game starts, so you press Install, then Play. Your first install is free.
