Inside Azahar: Interviewing the Duo Keeping the 3DS Alive Through Emulation

The Nintendo 3DS is in a pretty funny place right now. Nintendo's little dual-screen handheld systems have been gone from store shelves for years, and yet the machine seems to be finding a new audience. The games haven't disappeared, of course, but there is something else happening too: modern hardware is beginning to recreate the very thing that made the 3DS so unusual in the first place.For years, playing 3DS games through emulation on a PC, phone or single-screen handheld meant finding a way to squeeze two displays into one. It worked (sometimes remarkably well) but it was never quite the same as having a screen sitting above another screen with a touchscreen underneath. Now devices such as the AYN Thor and Retroid's Pocket Duo are bringing that form factor back, while machines such as the Ayaneo Pocket DS have given Android developers an increasingly interesting reason to think about genuine secondary-display support. Azahar has become one of the most important pieces of software…