Dolphin, a popular emulator for playing Wii and GameCube titles, has recently undergone an overhaul of its version numbering system. The old version 5.0 is now replaced by the new version number 2407, reflecting the current month of July in the year 2024.
The change in the version naming scheme isn’t about introducing any fixes, updates, or features to the emulator itself; instead, it aims to establish a new update naming convention for future releases. In fact, the only difference between version 2407 and the previous version (5.0-21811) is the version number (commit). The new system will help avoid confusion and indicate more clearly which version is being used, as the old numbering method could make it difficult to distinguish between versions over time.
Dolphin’s logo has also been updated with a softer design, reflecting the maturity of the emulator. It’s an interesting move by designer MayImilae, where he’s got to “…finally address all the things that were bugging me for ten years.”
If you’re a fan of Wii and GameCube games or simply interested in emulators, this version number overhaul might be worth noting for future reference when discussing or referencing Dolphin builds.
Did you find the previous versioning system confusing? Is this a welcome change?
EDIT: Clarify wording about the new version.
Thank you for pointing out the unclear wording.
is talking about the change between version 5.0-21811 and 2407. I’ve updated the post to be clearer.
Dolphin have made huge strides in GameCube/Wii emulation since the 5.0 release, and I think they’ve done themselves a disservice by not highlighting these significant achievements through major version number releases.