Overview

Azahar is a high-level Nintendo 3DS emulator for desktop and mobile, derived from Citra and developed by a community of contributors. It runs 3DS titles with enhancements over original hardware such as higher rendering resolutions, modern controller support, and save states. Beyond playing games, the project also positions itself as a debugging platform for homebrew developers and a research/preservation resource for the 3DS ecosystem.

Quick start

Download a build for your platform from the Releases page:

• Windows: installer or zip archive. If unsure whether to pick the MSVC or MXE variant, choose MXE.
• macOS: macos-universal works on all Macs; macos-arm64 and macos-x86_64 are platform-specific alternatives.
• Linux: the recommended format is the Flatpak on Flathub. AppImages are also published; use the default azahar.AppImage unless native Wayland is required, because upstream Wayland issues can affect the emulator.
• Android: the easiest route is the Google Play build. The Vanilla build uses a faster file-management method and is technically superior but is not allowed on Play; install it via Obtainium or the APK from Releases. Note that APK installs do not receive automatic updates.

After installing, launch the emulator and load a 3DS game image to begin; the README does not document further first-run configuration.

Requirements

Desktop builds need Windows 10 64-bit, macOS 13.4 or newer, or a modern 64-bit Linux distribution. The CPU must be x86-64 or ARM64 (Windows on ARM is not supported), with SSE4.2 on x86_64 and a PassMark single-core score above 1,800. A GPU with OpenGL 4.3 or Vulkan 1.1 is required, along with at least 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended). Android builds require Android 10+ 64-bit, a Snapdragon 835 or better, OpenGL ES 3.2 or Vulkan 1.1, and 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended).

Project scope and limits

The project is free and open source under GPL-3.0 and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo. Build instructions live in the wiki. Contributions are accepted through pull requests, translations on Transifex (no new languages are being added), and compatibility reports following the compatibility list guide. Upcoming work is tracked through GitHub milestones.

HotRepo's take

On the C++ daily chart for 2026-11-08, Azahar recorded 15 new stars and reached position 5 on that language list, with 8,592 stars and 807 forks in total. The data is a single day's snapshot, so it supports only that day's standing, not a trend. What stands out technically is the breadth of the delivery: a single project targets desktop and Android, offers Flatpak and AppImage on Linux, and explicitly recommends its own MXE Windows build and default AppImage variant over alternatives—reflecting an emulator that has to accommodate diverse graphics and display stacks.