Dolphin Emulator Abandons Fixed Major Version Updates, Switches to Rolling Releases

Dolphin Emulator, an open-source and free game emulator, supports running Nintendo GameCube and Wii games on Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android platforms.

In June 2016, Dolphin Emulator released version 5.0, the most significant update in its history, which not only fixed many long-standing issues but also brought numerous new features and improvements.

Eight years have passed, and Dolphin Emulator has been stuck with the 5.0 version number. However, this release approach has been abandoned, as Dolphin Emulator has transitioned to rolling releases starting this month.

The rolling release model means that there is no fixed major version number, and new versions are marked with the year and month of release, such as the latest version, 2407, which represents the new version released in July 2024.

In addition to using the year and month as the version number, Dolphin Emulator will also append a number, such as 2407-144, which represents the new version released in July 2024 with 144 code commits.

A letter, such as "a", may also appear after the number, indicating a single fix release, such as 2409a, which represents a bug fix version released in September 2024, rather than a major feature update version.

All users can now download the Dolphin Emulator 2407 version from the official website, which is the first official version after the switch to rolling releases, supporting 32/64-bit Windows, Arm64 Windows, Mac, and Android systems: https://cn.dolphin-emu.org/download/