.DSV File Extension

DeSmuMe is an open-source Nintendo DS emulator available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It allows players to play DS games on their PCs.

In most cases, DeSmuME players save their game progress in .DST files. Players can conveniently create these save state files from DeSmuME's own menu at any point during gameplay. This allows players to save their progress at any time, not just at in-game save points.

However, DeSmuME players can also save their game progress in DSV files. Unlike DST files, DSV files store a player's progress only up to their last in-game save. Primarily, players save their progress as DSV files to make it easier to transfer that progress to another Nintendo DS emulator. The DSV format is nearly identical to the SAV format, which many other emulators use.

How to create a DSV file in DeSmuME

To save your game progress as a DSV file in DeSmuME, select File → Export ROM Save File.... Remember, your DSV file will contain only your progress up to your last in-game save.

DSV files are useful for saving large, tabular data sets in a plain text format. Any user can open a DSV file in a text editor to view the data set it contains. More commonly, users import DSV files into spreadsheet and statistic programs, to view the data they contain in a more intelligible format.

The first line in a DSV file typically defines the data included in each of the data set's columns. For example, the first line of a DSV file might read "Date","Vendor","Amount Paid". The next line (and following lines) typically list values associated with those columns, such as "October 29 2012","FileInfo.com","$5,125".

Unlike CSV and TSV files, which respectively always contain comma-separated and tab-separated values, DSV files can contain data separated by any sort of special character. Some common examples include colons (:), semi-colons (;), and pipes (|). However, most DSV files use commas or tabs as their delimiting character.