Nintendo DS Homebrews and Programming

Nintendo DS homebrew is a software that has been developed by a group of home users and uses unofficial development kits and should be used via third party rewritable game cartridges. The major advantage of homebrews is that the applications of games proposed can be tested freely.

As the Nintendo DS is not sold with a storage medium, to store a homebrew, a third party storage is required.

SLOT-1 and SLOT-2 devices

The first solutions found for third party storage were the GBA cartridge slot, also known as SLOT-2, and a booting tool in the DS cartridge slot, also known as SLOT-1. But today, there are cards that only use the DS slot to store and execute the homebrew software and are called 2nd Generation cards.
The M3DS and the R4DS are among SLOT-1 devices that you can make use of for your Nintendo DS homebrew. They make use of Micro-USD cards and are very small. You should have a USB reader and insert the card with the logo facing front. With the M3DS, insert the card with the logo facing down, in such a way that the logo is facing the pins.

You can get more information about which cartridges to choose on the following link: http://dsflashcards.com/

System Files

To allow the M3DS or R4DS to boot up, you will need to install the right system files. There are available system files present on the Internet. I will suggest you to download them from the following links:

For M3DS system file:
http://www.handheldsources.com/M3DS/Download_M3DSR.html

For R4DS system file:
http://r4ds.cn/download/r4_v1.07_kernel.html

Homebrew Games and Tools

There are some good homebrew games and tools that you can download fro free from the internet.














Warcraft: Tower Defense
Download Link: http://ndswtd.wordpress.com/download/

DSNotes
Download Link: http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=68170

Scrabble Assistant DS
Download Link: http://nipil.org/a2008-01-16.html

Powder
Download Link: http://www.zincland.com/powder/

DSQuake
Download Link: http://dsquake.blogspot.com/

Nintendo DS programming

It can be wise to learn the Nintendo DS programming as this will allow you to better understand the environment of the homebrew games and tools and try to build them yourself.

There are excellent tutorials proposed by the Homebrew Nintendo DS Development website available through this link http://www.double.co.nz/nintendo_ds/index.html