Dolphin is a free and open-source video game console emulator for GameCube and Wii that runs on Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S. It had its inaugural release in 2003 as freeware for Windows. Dolphin was the first GameCube emulator that could successfully run commercial games. After troubled development in the first years, Dolphin became free and open-source software and subsequently gained support for Wii emulation. Soon after, the emulator was ported to Linux and macOS. As mobile hardware got more powerful over the years, running Dolphin on Android became a viable option. Dolphin has been well received in the IT and video gaming media for its high compatibility, steady development progress, the number of available features, and the ability to play games with graphical improvements over the original consoles. Development Origins (2003–2006) Dolphin was first released in September 2003 by Henrik Rydgård (ector) and F|RES as an experimental GameCube emulator that could boot up and run commercial games. Audio was not yet emulated, and the overall performance quality was very poor. Many games crashed on start up or barely ran at all; average speed was from 2 to 20 frames per second (FPS). Its name refers to the development code name for the GameCube. Dolphin was officially discontinued temporarily in December 2004, with the developers releasing version 1.01 as the final version of the emulator. The developers later revived the project in October 2005. Open source, Wii emulation, and 2.0 release (2007–2010) Dolphin became an open-source project on 13 May 2007 when the developers released the source code publicly on a SVN repository on Google Code under the GPL-2.0-only license. At this point, the emulator had basic Wii emulation implemented, limited Linux compatibility and a new GUI using wxWidgets. The preview builds and unofficial SVN builds were released with their revision number (e.g., RXXXX) rather than version numbers (e.g., 1.03). As with previous builds, differences between consecutive builds are typically minor. As of February 2009, the software was able to successfully boot and run the official Wii System Menu v1.0. Shortly after, almost all versions of the Wii system software became bootable. By April 2009, most commercial games, GameCube and Wii alike, could be fully played, albeit with minor problems and errors, with a large number of games running with few or no defects. Adjustments to the emulator had allowed users to play