RocketRobz continues to work on and improve nds-bootstrap, the homebrew project that allows Nintendo DS backups to be run from an SD card. Five years after the project's initial launch, and a year after nds-bootstrap's v1.0.0 release, version 2.0.0 has just come out. This marks the 200th release of the homebrew, and to celebrate, there's been numerous bugfixes and compatibility improvements made. A full rundown of the additions and tweaks can be seen below, with the download available on the official thread in the source link.

What's new?​

• Remember Foto Showdown? The Pokémon clone where you get new monsters using your DSi or 3DS camera, and use them in battles?
  You can now play it on your DS Phat or DS Lite console, with one difference!
  The camera lens will either be substituted with a video (Place the video file in fat:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/dsiCamera/ and name it default.bin, must be recorded using dsi-camcorder), or it'll just be covered and you'll see nothing.
• If you use a debug/dev model of the DS, you can now also play System Flaw & System Flaw: Recruit!
• The ROM pre-load settings from the nds-bootstrap-extras repo are now part of nds-bootstrap itself, as they'll help reduce some ROM load issues causing some frame flickers and/or slowdown in certain games, regardless of which frontend you use!
• Card Read DMA patching is now implemented in B4DS mode, making more games such as Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune, The Magic School Bus: Oceans, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat now work on DS flashcards!
• Minna no Mahjong DS, Diddy Kong Racing DS, and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn now work in B4DS mode, as their save functions are now directly patched on arm9.
• Mario Hoops 3-on-3 now works in B4DS mode, as a missing patch has been added.
• The Kiosk Demo version of Mario Kart DS now boots on DS and DSi consoles!
• Nintendo DS Guide Server now boots!
• If your DSi console no longer has LEDs powering on (as a result of a bricked BPTWL I2C chip), but can still manage to boot it using ntrboot, patches are now implemented to allow games to work properly!
• Card Read DMA patching has been re-enabled for TWL titles running in DSi mode.
• Improved the ROM pre-loading feature on DSi/3DS, as it now tries to pre-load only the NitroFS data, if the ROM is slightly too big to fit in the console's RAM.
  • In addition, for full ROM pre-loading, 480KB of DSi WRAM are now allocated for a few more ROMs to be pre-loaded.
• The Sound/Mic frequency setting now works in homebrew!

Bug fixes​

• On DSi consoles, in Pokémon Black & White 1&2running in DSi mode, scrolling in the bag menu no longer has slowdown.
  • Hopefully, the random crashes are also gone.
• On DSi consoles, the intro of MegaMan Battle Network 5: Double Team DS no longer has slight slowdowns.
• In B4DS mode, the European version of Super Princess Peach now boots!
• On DSi/3DS consoles, flickering in the title screens of Dragon Quest IV & VI have been reduced.
• On DSi consoles, Nervous Brickdown & Big Bang Mini no longer crash on black screens on startup!
• Fixed bugged music playback in Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends running in DSiWare exploits (such as Memory Pit) and/or in DSi mode.
• In B4DS mode, due to the implementation of Card Read DMA, Tony Hawk's American Sk8land no longer hangs when getting into gameplay.
• In B4DS mode, due to the implementation of Card Read DMA, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 no longer crashes during a cutscene.
• Nintendo DSi Shop & System Settings no longer crash on white screens.
• Optimized touch screen mode switching code to fix where the sound would no longer play on certain DSi/3DS consoles.
• Other minor fixes.

Known bugs​

• As both Nintendo DSi Shop & System Settings no longer show white screens, they'll instead show the stock DSi error screen. This is due to them being unable to read the version data from TWLNAND, but the fix for this is unknown.
• Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise now also works in B4DS mode, but does not save.

Source

 

[Cranesbill]

Wooooo oh yeah!

 

[Silterpy]

Nice. I just updated my DSi CFW last week, and it looks like I'll have to do it again.

 

[Alexander1970]

Hail to the King
@RocketRobz

..and to the (maybe some retired) Princes
@ahezard
@DamianoAmatruda
@Gericom
@Epicpkmn11
@shutterbug2000
@NightScript370
@ApacheThunder
@lifehackerhansol
@nicastel

..and all the other Dukes of bootstrap

THANK YOU all for awesome Work,your Time,your Heartblood and your (still awesome) Passion for Homebrew and the good,old "little" Nintendos.

 

[Maximumbeans]

A cornerstone of the DS/3DS hack scene. So cool to see it still being worked on so passionately and with regular updates. Long may it continue!

 

[Dothackjhe]

Has it been 5 years since already? Man, time flies. More importantly, though, thanks to @RocketRobz for his consistent and unwavering efforts.

 

[NitroRevolutionNX]

Congrats on the milestone @RocketRobz & co.

 

[urbanman2004]

Oh, so this is only for the Nintendo DSi since you would need a flashcart to run DS roms from a microSD card on an Nintendo DS Lite... First time ever hearing a/b this nds-bootstrap...

 

[RocketRobz]

Oh, so this is only for the Nintendo DSi since you would need a flashcart to run DS roms from a microSD card on an Nintendo DS Lite... First time ever hearing a/b this nds-bootstrap...

nds-bootstrap also works on flashcards through it's B4DS mode, and you can run some DSiWare games and a couple of DSi-Exclusive cart games (one of them being Foto Showdown, as highlighted in the nds-bootstrap 200 logo) on DS Phat/Lite that way. nds-bootstrap can also be used on flashcards which cannot natively run DS games, such as the Action Replay DS(i) or Games n' Music flashcards.
nds-bootstrap is also for 3DS/2DS consoles, since those also have an SD card slot.

 

[ZeroT21]

Friggin' amazing! Wooot

 

[SylverReZ]

Congrats on this 200th release!

 

[MysticStarlight]

Congrats!
Long live the DS(i) and the 3DS family!

 

[LanHikariDS]

Wait, what is Nintendo DS Guide Server?

 

[KanaKonpaku]

This application single handedly killed off my R4 cart on my 3DS (albeit mostly through TwilightMenu++). Glad to see it updated, as I still haven't fully unleashed it's potential haha. Can't wait to eventually try it out on my original DS Lite at some point as well, make those flash carts useful again!

 

[Egoistamamono]

Congratulations I know improving nds-bootstrap not easy as it, so thank you for doing the best for the TwLmenu users

 

[lurkerer]

Amazing work as always @RocketRobz

 

[ZeroFX]

one of the few hb's that are a must...

 

[lurkerer]

Curious if we'll ever see fixes to the glitched visuals in the openings for Dragon Quest 4, 6 and I think 11 (9 sorry, my bad!) @RocketRobz?

Or if that's even within the scope of what's possible with nds-bootstrap?

Edit; After checking this thread, it seems to be an SD card issue actually perhaps? (Though my SD card is a decent quality Sandisk.) Could it be that I need to source the ROM again (file corruption)?

https://gbatemp.net/threads/graphic-glitches-dragon-quest-iv-intro-sonic-rush-map-menu.294489/

 

[RocketRobz]

Curious if we'll ever see fixes to the glitched visuals in the openings for Dragon Quest 4, 6 and I think 11 @RocketRobz?

Or if that's even within the scope of what's possible with nds-bootstrap?

Fixes for 4 and 6 have been implemented, as stated in the changelog. Also, I haven't heard of a Dragon Quest 11 being released for the DS.

 

[lurkerer]

Fixes for 4 and 6 have been implemented, as stated in the changelog. Also, I haven't heard of a Dragon Quest 11 being released for the DS.

9 sorry

Forgive me derailing this thread, I've been curious about these glitches for almost a decade lol.