Homebrew Emulation Introducing Nintellivision - an Emulator for the DS/DSi

[Cellblock1138]

Just got this running last night. Great to have Inty on a handheld. I do seem to have problems loading roms though. Anytime I try to start a new rom it just defaults back to the current one. I have to restart the emulator every time I want to load a game.

 

[wavemotion]

Hi @Cellblock1138 - thanks for the kind feedback. I've not experienced that particular issue - I tend to run through a whole host of games when I sit down to play. What are you running? DS-LITE? DSi? Twilight Menu? Unlaunch? Some R4 clone card? Something might help to narrow down the problem...

 

[CrashMidnick]

Tested quickly on my side :

- DS lite via flash card : works
- DSi via flash card : works
- DSi via internal SD and TWL++ : works
- DSi via internal SD, TWL++ and game launched from explorer : works

All up to date.

 

[Cellblock1138]

Thanks for your testing @CrashMidnick and @wavemotion. I’m completely new to the DSi I literally just bought one last night so I could try this emulator as I’m a big Intellivision fan. Chances are it could be user error on the install.
I’m running a DSi XL with 1.4.4u system. Using a 32gig micro SD I installed pit.bin for 1.4 and TWiLight Menu++ v23.4.0 and NINTV v3.4.
When I try to load another game it says unknown game (see photo)
Also, just now I was playing around and restarted the emulator through the NINTV menu and got this weird red screen of death. That’s only happened to me once so far. Don’t know what that’s about.

 

[CrashMidnick]

@Cellblock1138

For the 1st screen, what is the file extension of your roms ?
The 2nd screen shows that it failed when coming back to TWL++.

Is your SD card formated FAT32 witk 32k clusters ?

If yes, what you can try is to delete your _nds folder (do not replace, DELETE) and BOOT.NDS at the root of you SD card.
Download TWL++ below, extract on your computer and copy back the _NDS folder + BOOT.NDS found in the archive to you SD.
https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/TWiLightMenu/releases/download/v23.4.0/TWiLightMenu-DSi.7z

If it does not work, maybe @RocketRobz and @wavemotion will have some more ideas.

Welcome here

 

[wavemotion]

Ok... I just went through a battery of tests. I tried on DSi, DS-LITE and 2DSXL both with TWL++ and directly with Unlaunch. With TWL++, I tried loading the emulator directly (loading the Nintv-DS.nds file) and loading up a .int file (so that it launches the emulator with the game auto-running) and in all cases I was able to load up another game with no problems at all.

I'm at a loss to explain it - I've definitely had a badly formatted SD card in the past - I formatted using Windows default formatter rather than using a real SD card formatter to get exactly the right cluster sizes, etc.

 

[Cellblock1138]

@CrashMidnick @wavemotion

The roms are .int extension. I formatted the card with SDcardformatter v5 for MAC to FAT32. Not sure what it sets the cluster size at.
I think I’m going to find a different SD card and see what happens.

 

[Cellblock1138]

Okay, tried a brand new SD card and same issue. Tried reformatting with MAC disc utility and same issue. Tried deleting and replacing the files as @CrashMidnick suggested now it only boots to the rocketrobz splash screen then just hangs with a blank screen. Will keep playing around with it I guess.

Just had a thought. Maybe one of you guys could upload a preconfigured files and I could copy it to my SD and see if that works?

 

[CrashMidnick]

Okay, tried a brand new SD card and same issue. Tried reformatting with MAC disc utility and same issue. Tried deleting and replacing the files as @CrashMidnick suggested now it only boots to the rocketrobz splash screen then just hangs with a blank screen. Will keep playing around with it I guess.

Just had a thought. Maybe one of you guys could upload a preconfigured files and I could copy it to my SD and see if that works?

_nds folder and boot.nds are the only files needed (on top of the exploit). You should not be stuck on a white screen.

MacOS is puting extra hidden files on drives (spotlight, trash and other things IIRC). Maybe TWL++ does not like them. Can you delete them and test again ? (do not forget to delete them in your macOS trashcan before removing your USB SD adapter).

EDIT : see picture

Do you have problems with other homebrews ?

 

[wavemotion]

I wonder if you’ve got the BIOS files in the right place. In global config you can set the directory. If you’ve got them in the directory with the ROMs, that should be ok.

 

[Cellblock1138]

I wonder if you’ve got the BIOS files in the right place. In global config you can set the directory. If you’ve got them in the directory with the ROMs, that should be ok.

Yes, they’re in the rom directory. I’ve run emulators on rasp pi before no problem. Could it be the pit.bin exploit? Would the Unlaunch exploit be better? I’m going to try a complete reset up tonight using a Windows machine.

Also, just tried version 3.3 for kicks and same issue.

 

[wavemotion]

I have 6 DS units and half run Unlaunch and half Memory Pit. Unlaunch generally opens up more possibilities for running a wider range of stuff but my emulators are pretty vanilla and run the same no matter what setup you use.

 

[Cellblock1138]

So I finally had a chance to try a fresh install using a Windows machine. Still getting the Unknown Game error when I try to load from the menu. I can still quit the emulator and restart it if I want to play another game so although not ideal it isn't the worst thing in the world.

 

[CrashMidnick]

So I finally had a chance to try a fresh install using a Windows machine. Still getting the Unknown Game error when I try to load from the menu. I can still quit the emulator and restart it if I want to play another game so although not ideal it isn't the worst thing in the world.

Can you try to redownload bios files from another source and retry. Those files are required and need to be placed in your rom directory if you did not change this in the emulator options :

grom.bin
exec.bin

 

[wavemotion]

This does feel like a BIOS finding issue... I really should have better error messages.

Try setting your Global Configuration to a specific directory for your BIOS files: either /roms/bios or /data/bios and try that...

 

[Cellblock1138]

Got the load to work finally. Tried the files @CrashMidnick sent (THANKS!) and it worked right away so it was an issue with the roms the whole time. I played around with my rom files trying to figure out why that was so when I was scrolling through my list of games and got to the very end and the file names began to repeat which I had not noticed because I had never gone to the end of the list before. Tried one of the repeats and it loaded right away. I haven't been able to determine yet why it's displaying a whole set of duplicates though. I can't see any hidden files or duplicates on my Mac or Windows machines so not sure yet where these duplicates are coming from exactly on the emulator.

 

[wavemotion]

I’m glad you got it mostly worked out!

I played Nintellivision for a solid hour today including some AD&D gaming. I haven’t touched it much in the past 6 weeks with ColecoDS and A7800DS taking most of my free time so it was nice to just load and enjoy it. At the risk of sounding like I’m patting myself on the back - this is one damn fine emulator

 

[Cellblock1138]

I’m glad you got it mostly worked out!

I played Nintellivision for a solid hour today including some AD&D gaming. I haven’t touched it much in the past 6 weeks with ColecoDS and A7800DS taking most of my free time so it was nice to just load and enjoy it. At the risk of sounding like I’m patting myself on the back - this is one damn fine emulator

It is pretty awesome and very affordable option too considering what you can pick a used DS up for. I had been thinking of getting something mobile for INTV for awhile but never saw anything that looked reasonable. Some of the games play much better with the D-Pad I'm finding too. Makes me think I should invest in a Genesis controller now for my rasp pi.

 

[somersetman7]

In the download package you will see a document for creating and using overlays.

Creating is not easy.
Using existing .ovl files is very easy.

Hi, this is a great emulator! I played some super pro football and it ran perfectly. I am still trying to figure out the overlays. I put the .ovl files in with the roms and none of them are there when I try to configure the game overlays, just the original 9 are there. I also tried making a new folder for the .ovl files and it didn't work either. Appreciate any feedback.

 

[CrashMidnick]

Hi, this is a great emulator! I played some super pro football and it ran perfectly. I am still trying to figure out the overlays. I put the .ovl files in with the roms and none of them are there when I try to configure the game overlays, just the original 9 are there. I also tried making a new folder for the .ovl files and it didn't work either. Appreciate any feedback.

You have different options for overlay locations in the main settings. Set it up, save and place your overlays there.