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Hacking DLDI Support For Acekard Under Development

[WIP/Release] ds_mangaman - Turning the Nintendo DS into the Ultimate Vertical Book-Style Manga Reader!

Hwongfish · 2026-06-09T00:33:11+00:00

Hi everyone! I’ve always felt that the Nintendo DS is criminally underrated when it comes to being a dedicated manga-reader. Think about it: it has two screens built right into the form factor, one of them has a precise (not quite most of the time though) touchscreen, and when you rotate the console 90 degrees counter-clockwise, it perfectly mimics the ergonomics of holding a real physical tankobon (manga volume). When held vertically, the D-pad sits perfectly on the bottom, and the shoulder keys (L/R) are in the ideal position for switching chapters. Plus, the touchscreen can be used to magnify for reading the text or inspecting details. Such interactions are the ultimate form factors that modern smartphones just can't match. To prove this, I built ds_mangaman — an open-source, highly optimized homebrew manga viewer for the NDS/NDSL. Download and learn how to build in Github release: :teach::teach::teach: GitHub Repository: https://github.com/hwfish-error408/ds-mangaman :grog::grog::grog: Looking for Contributors! The compiler engine and core state machine are now fully functional and running smoothly on real hardware and emulators (like melonDS). However, I want to take this project further and could really use the community's help! I’m looking for developers, testers, and retro-enthusiasts to help with: A, Implementing a cleaner UI/Main Menu. B, Adding Bookmark support (saving states to SRAM/FAT .sav). C, Further optimizing the DMA memory copy speeds during page and chapter transitions. Feel free to download the source, check out the build pipeline, test it on your flashcarts, and open Issues or Pull Requests on the GitHub repo! Let's make the NDS the ultimate retro manga machine.

Thread starter DavePS
Start date Jan 22, 2007
Views 2,543
Replies 4

DavePS

Well-Known Member

Newcomer

Level 2

Jan 22, 2007

As the topic title says, Acekard team are working on a DLDI driver, so hopefully soonish, Acekard should become a more viable option for homebrew thus giving its critics one less thing to complain about.

8GuaWong

Member

Newcomer

Level 1

Jan 26, 2007

yay homebrew support finally

OSW

Wii King

Former Staff

Level 4

Feb 3, 2007

i'm pretty sure i heard it was already released.

shaunj66

GBAtemp Administrator

Administrator

Level 35

Feb 3, 2007

Is the DLDI for the AKFS or the FAT for the AK+?

Monkey01

Well-Known Member

Member

Level 2

Feb 3, 2007

QUOTE(shaunj66 @ Feb 3 2007 said:
Is the DLDI for the AKFS or the FAT for the AK+?

Only the FAT part of AK+.
http://www.acekard.com/wp-content/uploads/File/ak+dldi.rar
Filename is acekard_fat.dldi...
Some say they're still working on the AKFS DLDI support, but personally I think DLDI is for FAT only and don't see the whole point in making a new cart for the DLDI support if the old one would be DLDI supportable too. (hmyeah ok, drag and drop support maybe, but the main point was the homebrew support I think)