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Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS icon Nintendo DS logo

Overview

Released in 2004, the Nintendo DS injected dual displays, touchscreen control, and backwards compatibility into handheld gaming.

Quick reference

  • ROM folder: /userdata/roms/nds
  • Accepted formats: .nds, .bin, .zip, .7z
  • Cores: libretro: melonDS, libretro: DeSmuME, standalone melonDS, Drastic
  • System group: nds

Technical specifications

  • CPU: 67 MHz ARM946E-S with secondary 33 MHz ARM7TDMI for legacy Game Boy Advance compatibility.
  • Memory: 4 MB onboard RAM and 656 KB WRAM working with the video engines.
  • Display: Dual 3-inch TFT LCDs at 256×192 (upper screen touchscreen, lower for stylus) supporting 262k colors.
  • Sound: Stereo DAC with 16-bit PCM samples, MIDI playback, and DS-specific hardware mixing.

BIOS & firmware

Place the Nintendo DS firmware trio (firmware.bin, bios7.bin, bios9.bin) in /userdata/bios/, matching the MD5s shipped with REG-Linux. DSi titles additionally need dsi_bios7.bin, dsi_bios9.bin, dsi_firmware.bin and dsi_nand.bin.

ROMs

Copy .nds files directly into /userdata/roms/nds. Zip archives are supported, but unpack them if the emulator fails to detect the game. Titles that depend on DSi enhancements require the DSi BIOS set noted earlier.

Emulator options

RetroArch

Both melonDS and DeSmuME rely on RetroArch’s Quick Menu ([HOTKEY] + south face button) to tweak internal resolution, texture filtering, screen layout and frameskip. Additional per-core options include global.melonds_screen_layout, global.internal_resolution_desmume, and global.texture_scaling.

Standalone & Drastic

  • Standalone melonDS: Adjust save slots, touchscreen calibration and per-game tweaks via the built-in UI.
  • Drastic: Present on compatible SBC images; enable nds.drastic_hires for sharper graphics and nds.drastic_threaded to smooth out performance.

Troubleshooting

  • If you receive “BIOS missing”, make sure every firmware file resides under /userdata/bios/.
  • Use the DSi BIOS bundle for modern ROMs that require additional features.
  • See the generic support pages for general issues.