The Noobs Guide to DS Homebrew

[MutantMooBunny]

UPDATE: LOOK AT THE EDIT BELOW
ULTIMATE UPDATE!!! (July 31st, 2007)

/------------July 31st, 2007 update for Slot-1 (DS CARD SLOT) only solutions ------------\
Hello! I am now a proud owner of a black DS Lite, an R4 DS, and I used to own a DS-X, only it got stolen. The R4 DS (also called an M3 simply, they look different and have certain UI differences, but are the same performance-wise) is made by a Chinese manufacturer (I actually bargained for mine in china, it was pretty fun!), where the DS-X is made by Americans (obviously manufactured in China, as is everything these days, but designed and supported by English speakers, I suppose).

A Slot-1 solution is one which combines a noPass (explained later on) and a storage device into one device, so you don't need two! It is the pinnacle of DS homebrew hardware design.

There are other slot-one solutions ( a partial list is here http://dslinux.org/wiki/Slot-1_Device , along with a guide how to install linux on the slot-one cards) but the DS-X and R4 are the most well known. Since you're going to be ordering an expensive piece of potentially non-working hardware from the internet, you probably want it to work the first time around no?

Right, so the main difference between the R4 and the DS-X is that the DS-X will work with EVERYTHING you throw at it. It has a small usb port in the back that you just connect a standard mini-->big usb cable to, connect it to your computer, and you just drag and drop like a usb drive. If you want to discuss the issue of backups or ROMs (which nobody can talk about on this forum it is banned), please go somewhere else to find out. That information is not hard to find, though. The R4 may work with homebrew, it may not, but the DS-X does. Also, the R4 requires you to take it's micro-sd card (not included when you buy just an R4) out of the slot and put it in a card reader, then plug into your pc (The R4 people were nice, though, and they include a micro-sd card reader w/the R4) The R4 is analogous to a PC, the DS-X to a mac. Both the DS-X and R4 have working music applications as well.

Also, the DS-X has much better support. They have a graphical update tool, and they have native English, French, and German speakers on their support staff on their website. When my DS-X got bricked b/c their update tool malfunctioned, they got back to me online within a week and gave me a step-by-step solution. Which worked. The R4 has drag and drop updating, which was hard to use last time I tried. Granted, it should be easy w/a little finagling, but then it's not really for noobs, now is it?

BUT - the trade-off is that even with the added cost of removable storage, the R4 is still, on average, 50-60 USD less than the DS-X. One more thing is that the R4 can be used as a noPass direct to your Slot-2, and so you could have GBA games stored in a storage solution there (M3 Perfect, explained later on in the guide). GBA games cannot be played on a DS-X, unfortunately.

Since I bought my R4 in a store in China, I was able to test it. However, if I couldn't test it, I'd be skeptical about buying it, because if it was DOA, it's hard to return, and then you're 40-50 (well, maybe like 35 now, it depends on who you buy from). For a noob, I would suggest the DS-X. Pop it in, and you're good to go. No messing with homebrew, or music, just load it on, and it works. The interface rocks. Enough said! Go to www.ds-x.com for a list of their trusted suppliers, and off you go. Most of those suppliers should also stock the R4, so you can take your pick. I seriously doubt DS hardware homebrew development will evolve past this. Perhaps the maximum capacity of the DS-X will go past 2 Gigabytes, or high-capacity micro-sd cards will come out (4 GB and over) and the R4 will support them. Even so, that's all folks! Now read the rest of the post if you want to know how hard it used to be to get homebrew running on your DS .


\-------------End of July 31st, 2007 update ----------------------------------/

Okay, so I've been wasting my time looking around at electronics and such over the past few days. In my travels, I have figured out (in my opinion at least) the best way to get hacking on the new Nintendo DS Lite. This piece of superb portable gaming equipment is an upgrade to the Nintendo DS, is smaller, has a brighter screen, and looks cooler.

I'm now writing a noob's guide. This noob guide does not include many of advanced concepts or explanations behind all this hardware, it just details a way to start running a few things.

NOOB GUIDE!
This guide shows noobs the way to start getting the most out of your Nintendo DS Lite. (If you have earlier versions of the DS, all hardware listed is compatible.) With this guide, you can:
1. Run homebrew games on your Nintendo DS or DS Lite.
2. Watch movies/listen to MP3's.
3. Run Linux for the Nintendo DS/DS Lite

So, let's get started!

First, you need a Nintendo DS/DS Lite. Duh. Get one at Circuit City, Best Buy, or where-ever. They cost about $130 at the time of this writing (6/14/06).

Second, you need a "pass-through device." The reason for getting this device is a little complicated. I'll try to explain.

To run programs on your DS that are not official Nintendo games/official Game Boy Advanced Cartridges, you need this device. It lets the DS run DS programs through a cartridge that you put in the Game Boy Advanced slot. It does this by (well I really am not sure how, but let me give you a $#@!ty explanation!) by-passing the Nintendo DS firmware (firmware is like an operating system, just for the DS) and trying to boot (boot means load an operating system) a DS game or operating system (like Linux! or it could be a media playing system) from the cartridge you will put in the Game Boy Advanced slot.

So, the pass-through device that you should use is Datel's MAX Media Launcher. I know for a fact that you can get it at www.cheapmod.net .Those guys ship from the UK, it costs about $35-$36 with shipping.

This type of pass-through device is called a no-pass. It is called this for various reasons (if you really care, go look at the DS Linux wiki) but anyway, it fits right in your DS cartridge slot and looks nice. It also works like a charm. The only problem people seem to have is that the little notch that locks the DS cartridge into place is a little small, and the MAX Media Launcher may get stuck occaisionally. You can fix this by cutting it out a little more, but whatever. Deal!

This device is fairly new, so there might not be alot in stock. Another device that is reportedly the SAME EXACT THING is called the SuperKey. The company that makes it has it's website here: http://eng.supercard.cn/ . A distributor list for the Superkey (which may or may not be in stock right now, it hasn't appeared much in the forums, though the MAX Media Launcher is definetely out there and can be bought) is on http://eng.supercard.cn/dealer.htm, go to the canadian one. The canadian store has a good reputation. It's http://www.kicktrading.ca/ . The SuperKey has not been reviewed as much as the MAX Media Launcher, so buyer beware.

Third, you need a flash cartridge. You need it to access cards where data is stored! Like music, movies, games, whatever. This is a cartridge that goes in the Game Boy Advanced cartridge slot, and there are a number of options for this one.

Because this is a NOOB GUIDE, I'm going to give you one option. It will work with the MAX Media Launcher and maybe the SuperKey.

You can buy the Game Boy Advance Movie Player v2 (GBAMPv2) at http://www.natrium42.com/shop/gbamp.html . Basically it is a CF adapter for the DS. It is cheap (yay!) about $28 with shipping, and works well. It says something about passkey and versions of DS on that page, but DONT REGARD THAT. DO WHAT THIS GUIDE SAYS AND EVERYTHING WORKS! the passkey is an outdate pass-through device that required SRAM. nobody cares about the passkey.

IMPORTANT- CHOOSE THE VERSION THAT WORKS WITH A CF CARD. IF YOU DO NOT, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RUN LINUX AT THIS TIME.
This is because linux does not have drivers for writing to the mini-sd or sd versions of the M3 perfect or Game Boy Advance Movie Player.

You can also buy an upgraded version of the Game Boy Advance Movie Player, it is called the M3 perfect. Buy it from www.natrium42.com/shop, it comes with some better movie playing software than the Game Boy Advance Movie Player and will also work with other pass-through methods, but don't worry about that. The M3 perfect is about 3 times more expensive than the Game Boy Advance Movie Player, so you should probably choose the cheaper one .

Fourth, you need a CF (Compact Flash) card. This is to store data! (Finally we get to the data, the stuff that everyone likes!) Get it from Ebay, Circuit City, Best Buy, or where-ever. They come in sizes from a measly 8 megabytes to a ginormous 4 Gigabytes. Depending on how much stuff you want to store on the card, choose a 128 megabyte to 512 megabyte card. Those are the easiest to find and therefore the least expensive. Obviously the smaller the capacity, the less expensive the card. Try to find a Type I card, because I'm not sure if the Game Boy Advance Movie Player can use Type II cards or Microdrives. (CF=Compact Flash. It is a common type of camera flash memory card.)

Finally, Fifth, you may or may not need a CF card reader for your PC. If you already have a CF card reader from a camera, you don't need to buy another. You can get these at Circuit City, Best Buy, on Ebay, WHEREVER! They cost like 5 bucks. If you see one that has slots for other cards it will work as well. They're pretty much all the same.

So... You have all this stuff! What you do is you put the MAX Media Launcher from Datel/SuperKey into the DS cartridge slot, the CF card into the Game boy Advance Movie Player/M3, the GBA Movie Player/M3 with the CF card into the Game Boy Advance Cartridge slot, and start up the DS. You will see the MAX Media Launcher/SuperKey screen after a while, and then you will be confronted with the software that is on the GBA Movie Player/M3 Perfect. Right now you probably didn't put any data (games, movies, music, etc) on your CF card, but when you do (you do this by taking the GBA Movie Player/M3 Perfect out of the GBA cartridge slot, then the CF card out of the GBA Movie Player/M3 Perfect, then putting your CF card into your CF card reader, and plugging the CF card reader into your Personal Computer.) the software on the GBA Movie Player/M3 Perfect will recognize these files and play them easily! Have fun!

Notes: I use M3 and M3 Perfect interchangably in this guide. They are the same exact thing.

GBA always stands for Game Boy Advance. I might also say Advanced. It is the same thing.

Game Boy Advance Movie Player and Game Boy Advance Movie Player v2 are not the same thing (there was a version one), but in this guide both terms are referring to VERSION TWO of the Game Boy Advance Movie Player (GBAMP).

If you want to look more into the homebrew scene, check out: www.dslinux.org , Nintendo DS passthrough methods, <-- that's a great site, http://nintendo-ds.dcemu.co.uk/, and www.gbadev.org. Because this is a noob guide, I'll say this once. NEVER ASK, EVER, FOR PIRATE GAMES ON THESE SITES. You will get banned like a banana. Seriously, uncool.

Also, remember that the DS can play all old Game Boy Advance games, and that all the homebrew that was made for the Game Boy Advance works for the DS. Just put it on your CF card and you're good to go.

Okay, I hope this was helpful to people. Hack Away!

Last Note (noobs please disregard): Before I get flamed for not including stuff like the SuperCard, or the SD/mini-sd version of the M3/GBAMPv2, or different pass-through devices, or the MAX media dock (Which is a storage device, not a passthrough device), or any of that crap, remember this is a NOOB Guide. It is designed to get people up and running ASAP, and to provide them with the bare minimum of information they need to understand the concepts behind all this. For everything else, they can read this forum. Thank you.

EDIT: Okay, a few things have come to my attention. First of all, the MAX Media Dock is apparantly all it's cracked up to be. It's hard to get and Datel hoards all their stock. My new, updated suggestion (as of June 19, 2006) is to buy the Passcard 3 for your passthrough needs. It's around the same price, and made by the same people who made the M3 Perfect (and all its variants, like the SD card version, the CF card version, the mini-sd version, etc.) and the Game Boy Advance Movie Player v2. The Passcard 3 works the same way as the MAX Media Launcher, in the fact that it is a NoPass Method (check the DS Linux page for differences in passthrough methods.) You can get the Passcard 3 (NOT THE PASSKEY, THE PASSCARD) at www.jandaman.com (look in the Nintendo DS section) or http://www.consolesource.com/ecomm/c...productid=2440
yep, there.

Now, for your storage needs, I am amending my previous decision to recommend the Game Boy Advance Movie Player v2. It is old, outdated, and does not run GBA or DS roms without some firmware updating (or so I think.) You should buy an M3 perfect of some variation (Personally, I would recommend the CF version, but that's because I want to use linux. Anyone else can buy the SD or mini SD version. By the way, the difference between the slim SD version and the SD version of the M3 Perfect is that the slim version is a tiny bit smaller. Just buy the SD version, it's cheaper and neither fit flush into the NDS lite's GBA cartridge slot.) I'm reccomending it because it plays homebrew GBA roms/programs and homebrew DS roms/games without updating, modification, or any of that crap. It is the most noob friendly of the storage devices.

In conclusion, no matter what passthrough method/noPass card you use (noPass=MAX media Launcher or PassCard 3), they will all work with any storage method you choose to use (M3 Perfect, GBA Movie Player)

[RibStabsHeart]

While the supercard is cheaper, you get what you pay for with the M3 with a better interface and perfect DS and GBA emulation. The supercard tends to slow down a lot from what I have heard, and if you plan on playing games (especially GBA ones), the M3 works a bit better for the price.

Also, a 1gb card is a good starting point for many. You can get them for around $20 (even cheaper after rebates), and can hold a good amount of data. For people that really want to have everything with them to play (like myself), a 2+gb card will probably be necessary (seeing how I have over a gig of GBA games by themselves).

This is a good guide, but it may be better for noobs to wait out a little bit for the passcard 3. Its as big as a NDS card, and fits into the slot just like the MAX launcher, and will even be a little cheaper. Also, with how small the DS Lite is, it would probably be a good idea to go with the smaller M3's, like the MiniSD version (or if you insist, the mini-sd supercard). If you were to put a first gen passme and a CF version of the M3/Supercard, you will have one flipping behemoth of a machine. A little stick out is expected, but over 1.5" is going to be a bit distracting (and possiblly bad for the DS due to all the weight pulling down on it).

Just my $.02. A good starter guide though. I think it would be best for people waiting to get into the scene (and about to get a DSL) to wait a month or two in order to wait for smaller cartiges, and more passcard3's to come out!

[mat_dizzy]

i havent actually tried emulation and homebrew on my ds... oh wait i sold it

lol i doubt its better than psp emulation atm?

[The Hombrew Hunter]

Uh will this run DS programs, like Nester DS? With the two screens?

[Vernonjr]

i beg to differ on the supercard though, it runs every nds game (except a spiderman game) at fullspeed, and every gba game ive cared to try at fullspeed as well. Ive been very impressed with mine.

[wrestler500]

So just a double check before I buy. The Game Boy Advance Movie Player v2 (GBAMPv2) will work with the Max Media Launcher right?

Oh and I'm on a Mac is that gonna cause problems?

[Cigaboo]

Thanks for the newbie guide. I just got a DS lite today and am looking forward to the playing the gba/ds homebrews (and emulators). In my case, I have an SD card laying around. I noticed an SD version of the movie player recommended above: http://www.yesasia.com/?/image.php?ca...movieplayer-sd Would anyone happen to know if this version would work as well?

[travis134]

This should be stickied, great guide!

[ObsidianIdeals]

For what it is worth, I would not recommend going with the Max Media Launcher - all reports seem to indicate that it does not allow you to use the NDS's sleep mode.

I've personally cancelled my order and am currently trying to locate a Superkey.

[Cigaboo]

This guide is handy. But one thing that is a bit unclear is whether additional software is needed to run .gba or .nds files. For example, I am aware that the max media dock requires some additional software that converts .nds files to something else (.pat, I think). Also, do most/all of these flash card solutions work with the emulators and other software created for Nintendo DS?