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Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS is a very popular handheld game console
produced by Nintendo, released in 2004 in Japan and North
America and 2005 for the rest of the world.

DS stands for “Dual Screen”, with this distinctive new feature to

handheld games: two LCD screens working in tandem (the bottom
one being a touchscreen).

This system scrapes metadata for the “nds” group(s) and loads
the nds set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

Accepted ROM formats: .nds, .bin, .zip, .7z

Folder: /userdata/roms/nds

Emulators
libretro: DeSmuME
libretro: melonDS
melonDS
DraStic

BIOS

These BIOS files are required for any NDS emulation:

v33 and below:

MD5 checksum Share file path Description

94bc5094607c5e6598d50472c52f27f2 bios/firmware.bin NDS firmware
df692a80a5b1bc90728bc3dfc76cd948 bios/bios7.bin NDS ARM7 BIOS
a392174eb3e572fed6447e956bde4b25 bios/bios9.bin NDS ARM9 BIOS

v34:

MD5 checksum Share file path Description

94bc5094607c5e6598d50472c52f27f2 bios/dsfirmware.bin NDS firmware
df692a80a5b1bc90728bc3dfc76cd948 bios/biosnds7.bin NDS ARM7 BIOS
a392174eb3e572fed6447e956bde4b25 bios/biosnds9.bin NDS ARM9 BIOS

v35 and above:

MD5 checksum Share file path Description

94bc5094607c5e6598d50472c52f27f2 bios/firmware.bin NDS firmware
df692a80a5b1bc90728bc3dfc76cd948 bios/bios7.bin NDS ARM7 BIOS

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MD5 checksum Share file path Description

a392174eb3e572fed6447e956bde4b25 bios/bios9.bin NDS ARM9 BIOS

If you'd like to optionally emulate DSi specifically, you'll also need these:

v34 and below:

MD5 checksum Share file path Description

559dae4ea78eb9d67702c56c1d791e81 bios/biosdsi7.bin DSi ARM7 BIOS
87b665fce118f76251271c3732532777 bios/biosdsi9.bin DSi ARM9 BIOS
74f23348012d7b3e1cc216c47192ffeb bios/dsifirmware.bin DSi firmware
d71edf897ddd06bf335feeb68edeb272 bios/dsinand.bin DSi NAND
DSi SD card (if wanting to
bios/dsi_sd_card.bin
emulate the SD card as well)

v35 and above:

MD5 checksum Share file path Description

559dae4ea78eb9d67702c56c1d791e81 bios/dsi_bios7.bin DSi ARM7 BIOS
87b665fce118f76251271c3732532777 bios/dsi_bios9.bin DSi ARM9 BIOS
74f23348012d7b3e1cc216c47192ffeb bios/dsi_firmware.bin DSi firmware
d71edf897ddd06bf335feeb68edeb272 bios/dsi_nand.bin DSi NAND
DSi SD card (if wanting to
bios/dsi_sd_card.bin
emulate the SD card as well)

ROMs

Place your Nintendo DS ROMs in /userdata/roms/nds.

Emulators

RetroArch

RetroArch (formerly SSNES), is a ubiquitous frontend that can run multiple “cores”, which are
essentially the emulators themselves. The most common cores use the libretro API, so that's why
cores run in RetroArch in Batocera are referred to as “libretro: (core name)”. RetroArch aims to unify
the feature set of all libretro cores and offer a universal, familiar interface independent of platform.

RetroArch configuration

RetroArch offers a Quick Menu accessed by pressing [HOTKEY] + which can be used to alter
various things like RetroArch and core options, and controller mapping. Most RetroArch related
settings can be altered from Batocera's EmulationStation.

Standardized features available to all libretro cores: nds.videomode, nds.ratio, nds.smooth,

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nds.shaders, nds.pixel_perfect, nds.decoration, nds.game_translation

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value

Settings that apply to all cores of this emulator
Choose your graphics rendering
GRAPHICS BACKEND nds.gfxbackend
⇒ OpenGL opengl, Vulkan vulkan.
Audio latency in milliseconds, turn it up if you hear
AUDIO LATENCY nds.audio_latency crackles
⇒ 256 256, 192 192, 128 128, 64 64, 32 32, 16 16, 8 8.
Improves performance at the cost of latency and more
video stuttering. Use only if full speed cannot be
THREADED VIDEO nds.video_threaded
obtained otherwise.
⇒ On true, Off false.

libretro: DeSmuME

A libretro port of the prolific DeSmuME DS emulator.

libretro: DeSmuME configuration

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value

Settings that apply to all systems this core supports
Improve the fidelity of 3D models (does
not affect 2D sprites)
⇒ 256×192 256×192, 512×384
512×384, 768×576 768×576, 1024×768
VIDEO RESOLUTION
1024×768, 1280×960 1280×960,
global.internal_resolution_desmume
1536×1152 1536×1152, 1792×1344
1792×1344, 2048×1536 2048×1536,
2304×1728 2304×1728, 2560×1920
2560×1920.
TEXTURE UPSCALING (XBRZ) Upscales textures on 3D objects
global.texture_scaling ⇒ Off 1, 2x 2, 4x 4.
Smooths out textures on 3D objects
TEXTURE SMOOTHING global.texture_smoothing
⇒ Off disabled, On enabled.
Smooth out jagged edges on 3D object
polygons
ANTI-ALIASING (MSAA) global.multisampling
⇒ Off disabled, 2x 2, 4x 4, 8x 8, 16x
16, 32x 32.
Allows you to arrange the DS screens
⇒ top/bottom top/bottom, bottom/top
bottom/top, left/right left/right,
right/left right/left, top only top
SCREEN LAYOUT global.screens_layout
only, bottom only bottom only, quick
switch quick switch, hybrid/top
hybrid/top, hybrid/bottom
hybrid/bottom.
Skip frames to improve performance
(smoothness)
FRAMESKIP global.frameskip_desmume
⇒ Off 0, 1 1, 2 2, 3 3, 4 4, 5 5, 6 6, 7 7, 8
8, 9 9.

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libretro: melonDS

An up-and-coming Nintendo DS emulator by StapleButter, ported to libretro. Still in its early phases
but its game compatibility is already comparable to DeSmuME.

libretro: melonDS configuration

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value

Settings that apply to all systems this core supports
SKIP DS SYSTEM MENU Use it to configure options like time and language
global.melonds_boot_directly ⇒ Off disabled, On enabled.
Allows you to arrange the DS screens
⇒ top/bottom Top/Bottom, bottom/top
Bottom/Top, left/right Left/Right, right/left
Right/Left, top only Top Only, bottom only
SCREEN LAYOUT
Bottom Only, hybrid top ratio 2 Hybrid Top-
global.melonds_screen_layout
Ratio2, hybrid top ratio 3 Hybrid Top-
Ratio3, hybrid bottom ratio 2 Hybrid Bottom-
Ratio2, hybrid bottom ratio 3 Hybrid Bottom-
Ratio3.

melonDS

An up-and-coming Nintendo DS emulator by StapleButter. Still in its early phases but its game
compatibility is already comparable to DeSmuME.

melonDS configuration

Standardized features available to this emulator: nds.videomode

DraStic

A standalone closed-source NDS emulator that originally started out as a paid app on Android. A free
version of this is used on Raspberry Pi builds.

If you're curious as to why, click here.

To quote Exophase:
It's on Raspberry Pi because I released the port for it, as a semi-closed beta. I asked people
not to distribute it but since I did link to it publicly somewhere it was basically inevitable. It
still would have been nice if maintainers of a major front end didn't decide to incorporate it
prematurely. That said, I still plan to release an “official” first version although at this point
the lines have been really blurred as to what that even means.

As for why they get to use it for free, I guess I don't have much of an answer for that other
than that it's simply up to my discretion and I don't think the RPi ecosystem or community is
a good fit for paid apps. This isn't completely without precedent, I released the Pandora

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version of DraStic (which the RPi one is more similar to than the Android) without charging,
and before the Android version.

Source: Posted by Exophase on the drastic-ds.com forum at Wed Feb 01, 2017 2:47 am.

DraStic configuration

Standardized features available to this emulator: nds.videomode

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value

Settings that apply to this emulator
Improve the fidelity of 3D models
HI-RES nds.drastic_hires
⇒ Off 0, On 1.
Improves performance in 3D games (can cause glitches)
THREADED 3D nds.drastic_threaded
⇒ Off 0, On 1.
Fix main 2D Screen to follow action
FIX 2D SCREEN nds.drastic_fix2d
⇒ Off 0, On 1.

Controls

Here are the default Nintendo DS's controls shown on a Batocera Retropad:

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Troubleshooting

Why are my DS games in a different language?

Sometimes you want to launch an NDS game, but the language doesn't match the one you set in
Batocera (like by default, you have Spanish for many EU games). That's because the NDS emulator
manages its own language.

To fix that, go to the ADVANCED SYSTEM OPTIONS for the NDS and set SKIP DS SYSTEM MENU
to OFF. This will enable you to get into the Nintendo DS system menu and set the language you want
to use for the games. Click on the tiny “DS” icon at the bottom center of the screen with either the
stylus or via D-pad navigation.

Once this is done, you can set “Skip DS system menu” back to AUTO, the language you set will be
used for all your games.

Further troubleshooting

For DraStic specific issues, check their FAQ first (although it is focused on the Android version, it can
still be quite helpful).
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For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

From:
https://wiki.batocera.org/ - Batocera.linux - Wiki

Permanent link:
https://wiki.batocera.org/systems:nds

Last update: 2022/08/29 08:11

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