Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Creating DS Games Check List

So You Want to Create Games on the DS?
And really, who wouldn't? The problem is some of the resources for finding information on this topic are so few and far between. It's very hard to get started in something like this when the material is so lacking. It will be my attempt to allieviate some of that stress by giving a more clean cut and concise form of information on this topic. So let's do the checklist in exactly what you need to start creating your own DS games:

DS Game Checklist
  • Nintendo DS (Obviously)
  • Computer (Ultra obviously)

Nintendo On Your DS


NES On Your DS
Being a Nintendo DS owner myself as well a huge fan of Nintendo in all of its forms (spare Virtual Boy i.e. instant seizures) one of the many reasons I wanted to hack my DS was to incorporate the old nostalgic NES games onto my DS to play and brag to girls about anywhere I happened to go. With this quick tutorial on how to add Nintendo to your DS, you'll be picking up girls in no time, I promise.

This tutorial is going to assume that you already have a proper storage device cart (See the "Getting Started" section if you need to) to transfer the necessary files to make your NES dreams come true and have the ability to play it anywhere you go.

So let us take a look at where to go to obtain a Nintendo for your DS:

Acquiring the Emulator:
First things first you need to obtain an emulator for the NES specifically made to be used on your DS. You have a couple choices but the one that has worked for me very very well, especially in comparison to the others out there is the nesDS emulator. You can download that emulator here at their site at nesDS.

Before you download it however, pop your MicroSD card into your computer via USB stick and create a new folder in the root directory of the card. Name this folder "NES", make sure that it is named exactly "NES" (without the quotes of course) or it will not recognize the files properly. Once you have your NES folder created, download the nesDS emulator and extract all of the files from the download into this folder. At this point the nesDS emulator and all of the necessary files should be in the NES folder on the root directory of your MicroSD card.

Acquiring the ROMS

Super Nintendo On Your DS

SNES On Your DS:
Ok, this is going to be a fairly straight-forward "How-To" post enabling you to play Super Nintendo games on your DS. The first and foremost thing is to already have some type of media storage cart for your DS (see Getting Started if you need help in that area). Once you have the proper provisions set before you, you are ready to get SNES for your DS.

Downloading the Emulator
First things first, you need to get a SNES emulator made to specifically run on a DS. There are a couple options presented here:
I would have to say that the SNEmulDS trumps the others in that it most reliably emulates the games on the DS. Of course, it is not without its shortcomings and downfalls, it is still prone to errors and will not run all of the game flawlessly. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to check which emulator performs the best with its counterpart rom. With that being said, it is possible to have all of these emulators on your DS if you wish to switch between and try which one works best. Pick one of the above sites to download the emulator from.

Now, once downloaded extract the files and put them on your MicroSD card in the root directory in a folder named (this is very important) "SNES" exactly. The folder must be called "SNES" or it will not work properly. So, at this point you should have all of the extracted SNES emulator files in a newly created folder titled "SNES" located in your root directory of your MicroSD card.


Downloading the Roms
Ok, so now you in theory have a working SNES emulator on your DS, but of course what good does that do you without any games? There are plenty of ways to get bulk assortments of SNES roms, (Note: Due to ESA Law, you must own a physical copy of the game to legally download it). With this in mind, here are a few of many links that will provide SNES roms to download:

These are just a few of the many many sites in which provide rom downloads. So find a rom to your liking, download it, and if necessary extract the rom from the zip file in which it is contained.

Putting the Roms on Your DS
Once you have the emulator located in SNES folder, all you must do from here is quite simple. Drag the rom you recently downloaded (an .SMC file) and drag it into the same SNES folder in your MicroSD card. That's the short and long of it really, SNES games are pretty small compared to the DS counterparts, so if you got a decently sized card you should be able to store a whole slew of SNES games for ultimate nostalgia. Once this is all said and done, go ahead and put the MicroSD into your storage cart and viola! You should see the SNES directory you labeled from the computer, click on it again to see the games held within.

A short final note, when you first start up the emulator for the first time it will prompt you to create a save file, do so. Also whenever you begin a game in which you have not played on your DS it will prompt you as well to create a save file, again do so. So there you have it, hopefully by now you have a working SNES on your DS. Congratualtions!

Getting Started with the R4DS:


What is the R4DS?
The R4DS or Revolution for Nintendo DS is a very well-known, highly used, and extremely popular storage device cart used to by-pass the firmware on your DS. This will allow you to put emulators, roms, media, etc. onto your DS in a fairly simple manner. Compared to older routines of by-passing the firmware, this is certainly one of the simplest methods out there and it comes very highly acclaimed and recommended by yours truly. Let us now look at where we can currently purchase one of these.

Where to Buy?
Google proves to be a powerful tool for finding such an answer in most cases with the exception of this scenario. It took me quite a while to find reliable sites that provide such a product, however with a bit of sleuthing I was able to obtain the following list of sites which will provide you with what you need:All of these sites provide relatively the same product and price, for around $30-$60. Let's now look at what this package comes with.

What you Get:
The package contains not only the physical R4DS cartridge, but some other goodies as well to help:
  • USB MicroSD card reader
  • Cartridge Case
  • Key Ring
Note: You need a MicroSD card that goes inside the R4DS. The sites usually provide the option to tag one on. If you already have one however, just make sure that it is 2Gig or less, and properly formatted before use.


I've just received the R4DS....Now what?
Go ahead and open the box you received to reveal the contents inside. You should see a USB stick which has a slot for the MicroSD card, gently insert the MicroSD card into the USB stick. Now, you are ready to load up whatever you have onto your MicroSD card. Insert the USB stick into your computer, a green light should begin to flash indicating that your device has been found.



Depending on your computer settings, it may immediately prompt you to open the device, if not go to My Computer->Removable Device. You should now see an empty folder, go ahead and download the most recent Kernel for your particular language here:

R4DS Software.

Once the download has completed drag and drop all of the contents into the empty folder. This is basically all of the components necessary for you to bypass the firmware and boot with the R4DS screen.

You may now take out the MicroSD card from the USB stick and insert it into the R4DS Cartridge (make sure to follow the small pictorial diagram on the cartridge as to now ruin your MicroSD card). From here, all you need to do once the MicroSD is securely inserted into your R4DS is to pop it into your slot 1 of your DS.

Go ahead and boot it up, intially you will see the regular boot up DS screen, which will be overriden with a new "Loading" screen and send you to the main R4DS menu. (If it intially does not boot to this menu, make sure that the MicroSD card is in the R4DS, you may want to reinsert it gently).

So there you go, you hopefully have successfully booted the R4DS onto your Nintendo DS and are ready to add whatever content you can onto it!