¶ Technical data
- Manufacturer: Nintendo
- Year of release: 2004 (November in North America, December in Japan, March 2005 in Europe)
- Units sold: 154.02 millions (all revisions combined)
- Best-selling game: New Super Mario Bros.
- CPU: ARM946E-S @ 67 MHz + ARM7TDMI @ 33 MHz
- RAM: 4 MB
- Screens: two 256x192 LCDs, the lower one being a (resistive) touch screen
- Sound: 16 PCM channels, stereo
- Media: Nintendo DS cartridge, plus a slot for Game Boy Advance cartridges
- Other: built-in microphone, Wi-Fi
¶ Presentation
The Nintendo DS ("Dual Screen") was released at the end of 2004 as a "third pillar" presented by Nintendo alongside the Game Boy Advance, before plainly becoming its replacement. Its two screens, one of them a touch screen, its microphone and its built-in Wi-Fi set it radically apart from previous handhelds, betting on new ways to play rather than on a raw power race.
The bet paid off beyond all expectations: with more than 154 million units sold, the DS is one of the best-selling consoles in history. It was revised as the DS Lite (2006), DSi (2008) and DSi XL (2009), the last two adding cameras and an online store, but dropping the Game Boy Advance slot.
Its library is as vast as it is diverse: mainstream titles (Nintendogs, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training), major Nintendo series (New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart DS, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass), RPGs (Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest IX) and adventures only possible with a stylus, such as Phoenix Wright or Hotel Dusk.
¶ Emulators
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libretro DeSmuME | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Libretro melonDS | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
The Nintendo DS is available neither on RPi3, nor RPi Zero 2, nor OGA/OGS/RG351, nor RG353: no emulator is built for them. On RPi4/400 and RPi5/500, only melonDS is available. On PC, both cores are present and DeSmuME is used by default.
In practice, the DS is only playable on three families of machines: PC, RPi4/400 and RPi5/500. melonDS is the more modern of the two cores and the only one available on Raspberry Pi; DeSmuME, older, is still offered on PC. Neither supports netplay or softpatching. RetroAchievements are supported on this system. The layout of the two screens (side by side, one above the other, single screen…) and the pointer that replaces the stylus are configured in the core options, from the RetroArch menu while a game is running.
¶ BIOS
The three files below are mandatory: without them, games will not start.
| File name | Description | MD5 | Emulators |
|---|---|---|---|
bios7.bin |
ARM7 processor BIOS (mandatory) | df692a80a5b1bc90728bc3dfc76cd948 | melonDS, DeSmuME |
bios9.bin |
ARM9 processor BIOS (mandatory) | a392174eb3e572fed6447e956bde4b25 | melonDS, DeSmuME |
firmware.bin |
Console firmware (mandatory, several revisions accepted) | 145eaef5bd3037cbc247c213bb3da1b3, e45033d9b0fa6b0de071292bba7c9d13, 3ad72b2c9a736b24953f2d391da4bfcc | melonDS, DeSmuME |
Place your BIOS files like this:
/recalbox/share/bios/nds/
├── bios7.bin
├── bios9.bin
└── firmware.bin
¶ Roms
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/nds/
Supported extensions per emulator:
| Emulator | Extensions |
|---|---|
| DeSmuME | .bin .ids .nds .zip .7z |
| melonDS | .dsi .ids .nds .zip .7z |
The regular format is .nds: one file per game, preferably from a No-Intro romset. Games can stay compressed as .zip or .7z, with a single game per archive. .dsi images (DSiWare titles) are only accepted by melonDS.
Game Boy Advance games inserted into the DS cartridge slot are not handled here: use the Game Boy Advance system.