How are things on the homebrew front for DS?

[Guden Oden]

The DS Lite is about to be unleashed upon the world in a few weeks, and I'll undoubtedly get one sooner or later - prolly sooner, considering I'm going on a long vacation this summer - so I'd like to know what things are like where homemade software is concerned.

It would be REAL COOL for example if I could play old MAME games on the DS for example. The DS would be ideal for this, with the main CPU emulating the game logic, with the auxiliary CPU emulating the video hardware and drawing the screen for example. So maybe I wouldn't be able to play all the coolest games, but there's stuff that's cool enough. The genuine arcade version of Super Mario Bros. perhaps.

I haven't played that one since I saw an arcade machine on a denmark ferry way back in the 80s. It would be such a nostalgia-trip.

So, what's happening, and more importantly, what do I need? I heard about a flashram cartridge adaptor that one could buy online or something...? I'm not interested in pirating GBA or DS games, I'll buy the ones I want. I just wanna relive some golden oldies perhaps, and check out anything else that's cool that people have cooked up for a neato handheld.

 

[xmu]

So, what's happening, and more importantly, what do I need? I heard about a flashram cartridge adaptor that one could buy online or something...?

A few of the guys at the office have done homebrew on the DS, and I was lead to believe it doesn't require you to do that much, but more than on the PSP though.

My info might be outdated, but when I still had a DS you first had to patch your firmware. I think this was done via WiFi, and your WiFi card had to have a specific chipset in it. Then once the firmware's patched, you can upload homebrew via WiFi (and boot off flashcarts (or whatever they're called) most likely?).

As for the development, atleast one of the guys is using DevkitPro, available from www.devkitpro.org.

I can dig up more accurate info if you need, would've asked the guys right away but they're not at the office yet.. lazy bastards.

 

[Iron Tiger]

M3 Adapter to get you started. I got mine from Divineo, and they're now selling ones with a Passkey2 (which is required for running DS code through the GBA cart slot on a new firmware DS, a la Hot Rod Red). I don't have time to get links for all this stuff, but so far I've used Moonshell (MP3, OGG, etc. player), NDS2key (wireless keyboard emulator w/ wi-fi network sniffer), and DSLair (Dragon's Lair FMV port in development). There's a lot of other really cool stuff out there like NDS2Win, which is a wireless virtual mouse (more like a tablet or touchpad), that even displays screencaps of your PC desktop, SNESDS (SNES emulator), NESDS (NES emulator), SCUMMDS (Lucasarts adventure game engine emulator), Texas Instruments graphing calculator emulators, drawing apps, games, and much more out there.

Homebrew on the DS is awesome, and getting better. I just hope it won't get killed by the DS-Lite. I had to flash a new firmware to my DS to be able to DS stuff through my GBA slot without a Passkey, and they could easily remove the user flashability of the DS with a hardware revision, or at least make it much more difficult.

 

[Apoc]

You can also buy a Supercard at half the price of a M3. The flashing of the console is done using a file in the flashcart and running it. I flashed mine in less than a minute, so I could get rid of the passme (it drains lots of battery. It lasts 3 hous with it and 8 hours without it).

 

[Guden Oden]

Passme and hot rod red, what's that? I've not meddled with the DS at all really because I don't like the standard silver-spray look. The lite looks to change all that, unless Nintendo sabotages the homebrew ability of the console of course...

Thanks for the infos so far guys, where can I get hold of this Supercard thingy you speak of?

 

[hey69]

i'm in the same boat as you . just found a nice priced DS here. i need those passmes and yous also....
welle the one thing enables you to read and write from the GBA slot
and in the gba slot you put in a compactflash /reader thingie where you put your legal roms and homebrew on it.

and then it works eeh, with a original game or demo in the passme slot so it can bypass the authentitcation or something like that

 

[Apoc]

i'm in the same boat as you . just found a nice priced DS here. i need those passmes and yous also....
welle the one thing enables you to read and write from the GBA slot
and in the gba slot you put in a compactflash /reader thingie where you put your legal roms and homebrew on it.

and then it works eeh, with a original game or demo in the passme slot so it can bypass the authentitcation or something like that

Just flash it and get rid of the damm passme.

 

[hey69]

flash what? the DS itself? i really need to dig up some information for all of this

i cant follow anymore

 

[Apoc]

flash what? the DS itself? i really need to dig up some information for all of this

i cant follow anymore

Ask me and i will answer all your questions.

 

[Guden Oden]

Ask me and i will answer all your questions.

Please start here.

 

[hey69]

so you say is I dont need a passme key to enable running *.roms from the flashcard inside the gba slot underneath the DS?

do you have a good website where everything is explained..

i just bought my DS and borowed my friends Castlevania... yummie

edit: starts googling for Supercard , thats what you used to flash your ds , so you could trow away your passme

 

[hey69]

APOC:



I think the M3 is better then the supercard no?

1) Run NDS Roms with FlashMe (whats this?)

2) Run NDS Roms with PassMe (thats the extra adapter where you put your original card in )

 

[Apoc]

You can get a supercard from divineo or lik-sang fot 50 bucks.

This is my DS:

these are the supercard, the sd card I use, and the passme (i don't use it since I flashed it).

This is the supercard and passme plugged into the DS:

finally this is the supercard menu (01-06 are directories):

This is me loading wario ware from the supercard and playing with it a little. Sorry for not rotating the video, but I don't have any program to edit it.

Video

Here you can find all you need to flash your DS.


The M3 is not better, just more expensive. With Supercard you can run nds roms with passme (if you don't want to flash the DS) or without passme flashing it. Flashme is the name given for all you have to do to flash it. Also, Supercard is more compatible with SD cards than M3.

 

[hey69]

wow thanx for all the info mate! it all makes sense now.

but either way i have to buy the passme also then to use it at least once to flash the DS ?

 

[Apoc]

wow thanx for all the info mate! it all makes sense now.

but either way i have to buy the passme also then to use it at least once to flash the DS ?

Yes, or you can borrow it from a friend.

 

[Apoc]

Any other question?

 

[Rolf N]

Is there any flash card for the NDS where you can just run a rom without having to copy it anywhere first? The optimal case would be that if there's only a single rom on the flash card, that this one just runs when the NDS is turned on, without any selection screens or whatnot.

I assume that your Supercard there is like the GBA's EFA II, because the menu screen looks the same. On that card I have to copy each and every rom image (which I moved over USB from the PC) from the "big pile of slow flash" to a "smaller area of fast flash".

So everytime I want to try something out on true hardware I have to copy it to the card effectively twice. First over USB onto the "pile". Then I plug the card into the GBA, boot it up, wipe the "small fast", and copy the fresh rom image there, which might take a couple of minutes. I'm starting to hate that. Need instant instanteousness.

 

[Apoc]

With the Supercard it's not done that way. I just plug the SD card into my card reader, move the roms there (just a few seconds. It's very fast, 9-10MB/s), and then i plug it into the supercard.

There's no way of running a single rom by just turning the ds on, it always goes to the menu first.

 

[StefanS]

What's the difference between PassKey and PassKey2?

 

[Apoc]

What's the difference between PassKey and PassKey2?

Passkey works only with the first ds firmwares, and passkey 2 works with all, but it needs to be programmed.