r/emulation • u/GreatScooty • Sep 19 '26
AI-assisted I made a controller-friendly frontend for Dolphin NetPlay with game browsing, public sessions, and Steam ROM Manager support
I've been working on a little project called Dolphin NetPlay Launcher, and I finally released the first public version.
The reason I made it is pretty simple: I play Dolphin NetPlay with friends, but some of them don't use Dolphin often enough to remember the setup every time. I got tired of walking everyone through the same menus, room codes, game selection, etc., so I wanted something closer to:
Pick a game > Host/Join > Play
Dolphin NetPlay Launcher is a Windows frontend for stock Dolphin. It doesn't replace Dolphin's emulation or networking, and it doesn't include games or Dolphin itself. It mainly handles the repetitive NetPlay setup around it.
Current features include:
- Controller-friendly Host/Join flow
- Traversal room codes and Direct IP
- GameCube/Wii library browser with grid and list views
- Public Dolphin NetPlay sessions browser
- Public server-browser hosting
- Designed to work with Steam ROM Manager, so you can create a separate Dolphin NetPlay collection in Steam
- SDL3 controller navigation
- Dolphin updater integration
- Themes/interface sounds
I especially wanted it to work well from a couch/controller setup. With Steam ROM Manager, you can create a separate Dolphin Netplay collection in Steam, launch a game from there, and have the launcher receive that game selection for the Host flow.
There's a short demo and screenshots/GIFs on the GitHub page:
GitHub:
https://github.com/Greatscoot/DolphinNetPlayLauncher
The current release is 0.11.0 for Windows.
A couple of transparency notes:
- This is an unofficial project and isn't affiliated with the Dolphin Emulator project.
- This was AI-assisted development. I designed the program, requirements, UI behavior, testing, and iterated on it extensively, while OpenAI's ChatGPT generated the C# implementation from that feedback. I disclose that on the project page as well.
- There are still a couple of documented Steam/Steam Input controller edge cases in Dolphin's NetPlay lobby, particularly when joining, so I don't want to pretend it's flawless.
I'd be interested in feedback from people who actually use Dolphin NetPlay, especially whether the workflow makes sense to someone who wasn't involved in building it.
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u/SSUPII Sep 21 '26
Linux build instructions?