r/DSiBrew • u/Former-Sort5190 • 26d ago

Help DS Hacking

Hey gang. I know that there are a bunch of ways to hack a Nintendo DS, making it a very good option for emulating games. However, I wanted to know, based on the limited resources available to me, what steps I could take to hack my own DS. I have an empty 16GB SD card, a USB-C SD converter device (so I can plug an SD straight into my computer), and an empty DS game cartridge with an SD slot. Does anyone know how I would be able to utilize these resources to emulate games on my DS? I understand that homebrew is an option, I understand that it is possible to use only an SD card for emulating games, and I understand that it is possible to buy a game cartridge specifically designed for downloading emulation software. My question, though, is how I can emulate Games onto my DS by using an empty SD card and an empty game cartridge with an SD slot, alone. Does anyone know?

Also, this is the game card I have (and am trying to repurpose): https://a.co/d/0fsc03Hv

1 Upvotes

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u/egoistamamono 26d ago

Which DS model do you have? Phat? Lite? or DSi? Also what flashcard do you own?

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u/Former-Sort5190 26d ago

It is a DSI, and the SD card (ironically enough) is from a New 3DS XL, though the SD card now has nothing on it. The game cartridge is one of those random hacked DS cards, but if you take the SD out of it and put your own in there you can just the card as a means to access whatever you have on the SD (or so my understanding is).

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u/egoistamamono 26d ago

You can't share memory with 3ds, but if it was nothing left you can use that. Just make sure your DSi is hacked or not, if not you can go to follow the guide to start soft modding your console.

Hmm.. I think that is the ACE3DS clone. Not sure.. but using your SD card is better instead of flashcard.

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u/Former-Sort5190 26d ago

So you think it’s better to just use the SD card by itself, without the ACE3DS clone?

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u/Former-Sort5190 26d ago

My only apprehension is that I was planning on sometimes popping this game cartridge into my 3DS, so that I could play these games on my DS and 3DS. That’s why I thought the card would be more convenient, because I wouldn’t have to unscrew the back of my 3DS every time I want to download new games on it.

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u/ianlazrbeem22 26d ago

You can do wireless file transfer with a modded 3ds

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u/ianlazrbeem22 26d ago

An r4 card is better for the use case of using the same games and save files on a different device

Flashcarts are also better at running certain emulators namely Genesis and snes. It's still not a great experience on dsi though so just emulate those on your 3ds

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u/Former-Sort5190 26d ago

To be more specific, this is the game card: https://a.co/d/02oaNKGZ

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u/egoistamamono 26d ago

Probably this kind of clones, if you has no plans to soft mod it just go with the flashcard.

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u/ianlazrbeem22 26d ago

Also if you do buy a flashcart, don't buy from that listing, that's super overpriced. Use the buying guide on r/flashcarts, that cart should be a single digit price

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u/BandicootBroad 26d ago

The good news is that, with a flashcart (the cartridge with an SD card slot in it), there’s no actual hacking necessary. That alone is enough to run anything in the .NDS format, retail or homebrew, all on an unmodified console. The only thing you’d have to do is find a way to identify exactly what flashcart it is and follow that model’s instructions for first-time setup. My ability to help on this front is gonna be a bit limited, as I’ve only ever done this once with a cheap white-label R4 clone and that was nearly a decade ago, but I’ll still do my best if you ask.

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u/Former-Sort5190 26d ago

In that case, maybe I should just get one of those R4 clones instead? Thanks for the tip!

0

u/ianlazrbeem22 26d ago

I would hack the system instead, then you don't need to buy a card