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Hombrew Hunter's DS Homebrew and Emulation FAQ!
Alright, I've seen WAY too many people get their money stolen by Datel. So I'm making a guide to help people with homebrew choices, so they can TRULY use their devices to their max potential.
Here it is.
Hombrew Hunter's Guide to Homebrew!
1. Introduction to Homebrew
2. Flash Cards
3. Passme's and other alternatives
4. Good homebrew apps and games
\1. Introduction to Homebrew/
What is homebrew?
Homebrew is an application or game made by oneself, generally not used for sale.
What can Homebrew do?
Homebrew can vary from a video player, mp3 player, picture viewer, games, or even an emulator for an older game!
How can I use Homebrew?
On DS, you'll need a flash cart and a Passme device.
\2. Flash Cards/
What is a Flash Card?
A flash card is a cartridge that can read Compact Flash, Secure Digital, Mini Secure Digital, or Micro Secure Digital cards, OR run off of internal memory and run programs on the memory..
What are some good flash cards?
A good flash card is the M3, which comes in 3 flavors, Compact Flash, Secure Digital, and Mini Secure Digital cards. Also, there is the G6, which runs off of internal memory, 512 MB. If you don't care for GBA, the Supercard has good NDS support, and mediocre GBA support. The Supercard can handle all the above cards AND Micro SD, whihc is for the DS lite. But watch out, there are FAKE Supercard SD types...There are threads pointing them out, could someone post one?
Are there any cards I should stay away from?
The max media dock AND player are wastes of money, don't run things very well, and have crappy support for WHATEVER it does. The GBAMP is okay-ish, but go with one of the above advised cards.
How can I use some of the above-mentioned cards?
Well, I only have experience with the M3, but depending on what you want to do, you just copy homebrews and applications onto the media card. For roms of GBA and NDS, you open the M3 software and click on either "Write NDS" or "Write GBA". When you click on one, you locate the rom you want to convert, use the leftmost box to locate to your CF card and where you WANT the rom to go, and then click certain settings for the rom. NDS compatibility list can be found here, while the GBA compatibility list is here.
Acidburn05 wrote this awesome supercard lite tutorial!
What you need:
Nintendo DS Lite
Supercard Lite With Super Key or PassMe 3
Micro SD Card
First thing to do before anything
Load the latest firmware From thie site-- ( http://eng.supercard.cn/soft_scl.htm )
Load it to the Micro card and select it on the menu. It will upgrade to the latest firmware (1.63)
Then you need to use the MicrosdV255 to set up for converting your NDS & GBA roms. It will guid you step by step.
How to PLAY in GBA Mode:-
Press L+R+A+SELECT while you are playing a game so you can backup the save on your Micro SD card. Save will be auto reload after you play the game again.
OR
Press L+R+B+SELECT while you are playing a game to save in REAL-TIME mode. You have to first start the rom, then repress L+R+B+SELECT to load the save game.
To watch movie on GBA
1. Download the movie player software and unzip it, store it into Micro SD. Store your movie file(.gbs .gbm) into Micro SD too.
2. In the Micro SD main menu, select the movie player software and press A, you can enter movie player main menu, and then select the first menu press A, and you can find the movie file(.gbs .gbm), and then press A too, you can enjoy your movie now.
To read E-book? listen Music? view PIC
1. Download the movie player software and unzip it, store it intoMicro SD . Store your Txt file, Music files and Image files into Micro SD too.
2. In the SC main menu, select the movie player software and press A, you can enter movie player main menu. 3. Now, You can enter the menu and enjoy your E-book, Music and Images just by press A.
Can someone explain the G6? I will also put that up here.
What's the difference between CF and the SD cards?
The CF has slightly better support and is cheaper, and the SDs are much faster and smaller. Choose your weapon(s).
\3. Passme's and other alternatives/
What is a Passme?
A passme allows you to run flashcards in NDS mode, in turn allowing them to load .nds files.
I've seen a lot of Passme's, which should I get?
It depends. The Passcard 3rd Generation is made by the makers of G6 and M3, and the Superkey is by the Supercard creators. They are both DS cart sized and cross compatible, so pick either.
I've heard of the Ninjapass, what's that?
Well, the Ninjapass is a passme that has small amounts of data space on it to store NDS roms, the biggest size is 128mb.
Acidburn05 has a quick little guide for the Ninjapass:
They come in 512mbit = 64MB & 1gbit =128MB and theres two kinds.
It is a first Direct Boot Up and real size flash storage device of the DS & DSL . Therefor it is a first real DS Flasher of the world .
Ninjapass for the Nintendo DS and DS Lite is the perfect solution for accessing DS media from any GBA flash storage device. Simply snap in the Ninjapass dsflash cartridge, and that's it ! Media, freeware, executables and other files stored on your flash card can be launched. The Flash Cart revolutionized the GBA Homebrew scene, and with Ninjapass dsflash , it will do for the DS too.
Ninjapass Media Launcher Invincible Boot Up Solution is compatible with most types of flash cards including all G6 Family , all SuperCard Family , all EZ Family , all M3 Family , ...
And Ninjapass dsflash Build - in 128Mbit / 256Mbit / 512Mbit / 1Gbit memory , let you to run the DS Homebrew rom direct from DS slot and don't need any GBA flash storage device . Ninjapass Build - in 2MB memory , therefore Ninjapass DsFlash Compatible with most the game save (4k , 64k . 2M).
Ninjapass Built in Multi-game menu and passcard function , so you can make your Multi game or passcard to boot up your other GBA flash storage device from the GBA slot or direct play your ds rom from the DS slot .
This version Ninjapass DS Flash Jr. without the Multi-game Function
Instructions:
- Go to ninjapass.com
- Click on downloads
- Download the ninjapass software
- To unzip the software you will need some tool to unzip rar files
- Unzip rar file
- Plug in drive and wait for windows to say new hardware is installed (this will only happen once)
- Stick nds flash cart into drive
- Start up software and follow instructions found on ninjapass.ds to burn or transfer your DS rom (Clean rom need) to the Ninjapass card .
What are the "alternatives"?
Well, the best known alternative is Flashme, but you need to open your console and solder some things before it will install. You'll need a passme to install it though, but you can recover the firmware if your DS becomes bricked.
\4. Good homebrew apps and games/
What is a good movie/mp3 player?
Moonshell. You need to convert movies to the DPG format, which you should use something called "DPG Convert" and look at CPU Smarts' DPG Converter Settings for best results. They are listed here.
What is a fun game?
Well, there's an RPG called Tales of Dagur that is very fun, also, look for Lupidan's Zelda Platformer. It's only a demo now, but it's still very cool.
What should I use to play NES, SNES, etc...
For SNES, use Snezzi DS. NES, look for NesDS (Rewinding for another life is cool.). Genesis? Picodrive DS. SMS/GG? Look for the GBA emu called DrSMS. For GB/GBC, try GoomBA and GoomBA Colour (GBA).
That's it for now. If you think I missed anything, post it and I will affix it into this post. Also, if you need something explained, post the question and I will do my best to explain it, and if you feel something wasn't explained enough, tell me and I'll update it.
Signed with hope that you don't get ripped by Datel,
The Hombrew Hunter
