Azahar drops support for Anbernic handhelds over the forks shown in RG DDS adverts

The 3DS emulator team says Anbernic promoted the RG DDS with AzaharPlus, an unofficial fork, so it will not investigate bugs from any Anbernic device.

AI-drafted from 6 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

Azahar, the open-source Nintendo 3DS emulator that grew out of the Citra forks, says it will not officially support Anbernic's upcoming RG DDS, or any other Anbernic handheld. The team announced it on its X account on 26 October.

The reason is Anbernic's marketing for the RG DDS, a dual-screen clamshell built to play 3DS games. In Azahar's words: "It has come to our attention that handheld manufacturer Anbernic has been promoting their latest handheld device, the RG DDS, using unofficial piracy-focused forks of Azahar, and has been openly featuring these forks in their advertising material."

What the decision means

Nothing has been switched off. You can still install Azahar on an Anbernic device. What changes is support: according to Android Authority, the team will not investigate or fix bugs reported from Anbernic hardware, and it recommends that anyone who wants a handheld with guaranteed support looks at alternatives. If a game crashes or the controls act up on an RG DDS, the Azahar developers will not be the ones looking into it.

The fork in question

The build on show in Anbernic's RG DDS gameplay video is AzaharPlus. Its GitHub page calls it "a fork of the Azahar 3DS emulator with extra features". Those extras include compatibility with every game file that works in any Citra fork, downloading system files from Nintendo's servers so that you do not need a real 3DS, built-in cheats and Amiibo generation. Azahar itself does not decrypt games for you; it expects you to dump them from a 3DS you own.

Retro Handhelds notes that the friction is not new. The fork uses the Azahar name and logo, the Azahar developers have asked for changes, and the developer of the Android frontend Cocoon had already dropped support for AzaharPlus. Citra was shut down in 2024 as part of Yuzu's settlement with Nintendo, and Azahar grew out of the forks that followed, so it is easy to see why the team does not want its name next to a feature list like that in a hardware maker's advert.

Where that leaves the RG DDS

The RG DDS has not launched. Android Authority says it is expected to start shipping on 10 December 2026; the price has not been confirmed. Neither Android Authority nor Retro Handhelds had a response from Anbernic when they reported the decision on 26 October.

For buyers this mostly matters later rather than now. A 3DS-style handheld lives or dies on its 3DS emulation, and the best emulator for it will not be taking bug reports from it. If you are weighing up an RG DDS, it is worth waiting for reviews that show which build it ships with and how well it runs.

Sources

Image: Anbernic

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