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Hacking flash2advance and NDS

[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 Hagen
Start date Sep 29, 2006
Views 1,932
Replies 6

Hagen

Well-Known Member

Member

Level 2

Sep 29, 2006

Can I use my regular flash2advance 256mb (not the ultra) flashcard to play my legal backup NDS games? I am thinking of getting max media card to run NDS software off my f2a.

thanks

legendofphil

Phil no Densetsu

Member

Level 3

Sep 29, 2006

Not many games will work with it, you really need a proper DS flash cart.

Hagen

Well-Known Member

Member

Level 2

Sep 29, 2006

is there any compatibility list I can look at?

SpaceJump

Well-Known Member

Member

Level 13

Sep 30, 2006

Look for comp. lists of NDSpatch and Loadme. Those work with your cart.

wabo

Well-Known Member

Member

Level 3

Sep 30, 2006

QUOTE(Hagen @ Sep 29 2006 said:
is there any compatibility list I can look at?

Something like that?
http://www.dualscene.net/viewpage.php?page_id=29

Hagen

Well-Known Member

Member

Level 2

Sep 30, 2006

so all games compatible with NDSpatch and Loadme will work on my regular 256mb flash2advance cart?

legendofphil

Phil no Densetsu

Member

Level 3

Sep 30, 2006

There won't be that many you can run on that setup (F2A+MML) because 256Mbit is low for DS games and many of the games don't save on the flash cart but on an original DS game card of compatible save memory.