Hacking New DSi+R4i Gold Pro user, what to use in 2019?

[Rajo]

I’m usually the forum answerer more than asker, but in this case, I’m a bit confused by 10+ years of DS hacking/emulation minutiae. Please help.

What I have:
- NDSi with working HiyaCFW (done via Flipnotes exploit)
- R4i Gold Pro 2019 flashcart from r4isdhc . com (Touch Bomberman icon in original DSi menu)
- SD card for slot 2

What I want:
- play NDS roms
- being able to in-game save (.sav), plus RTS would be nice. I don't need cheats or Wifi.
- play GB/GBC/Genesis ROMs, GBA would be very cool but I understand it’s unstable and has issues with saving
- ocassional emulators like ZXDS, FrodoDS/Vice, some homebrew

Many if not most NDS games run fine via both NDS-bootstrap and the flashcart.

I use/tried:
- Twilightmenu 8.2.3 with nds-bootstrap 0.19.5 on SD card, boot via Unlaunch
- RetroGameFan Multi Cart Update v7.06 (I use the R4i-SDHC YSMenu subfolder for installation, so, RGF's YSMenu mod) on the flashcart

My issues so far:
- Twilightmenu+nds-bootstrap booted from SD card doesn’t run Tetris DS (hangs at red „corrupt save“ screen) and Chrono Trigger (hangs at Initializing).
- I’ve never been able to run any Genesis ROM, regardless if picodrive or Jnesis (0.7.4), Twilightmenu (SDcard) or RGF Ysmenu (flashcart). Roms in zip/md formats are physically on cards but not seen. Jenesis doesn’t even let me browse the filesystem
- „clean“ RGF Multicart Update doesn’t run GB/GBC/any other ROMs (YSmenu says „No flash cartridge in slot2“)
- clean kernel from flashcart manufacturer doesn't run commercial ROMs
- FrodoDS doesn’t actually run anything. It loads the d64 but after RUN, I’ve never seen a C64 image, on both installations

So basically I have dual boot: SD card with nds-bootstrap runs most things well except some NDS ROMs, and R4i Gold Pro flashcart that is only usable for NDS Roms that don’t work with nds-bootstrap. I’d love to be able to consolidate all of this stuff and have a nice system that runs everything.

Is that possible in 2019? Or would I be better of buying a (preferably) Old 3DS XL for this stuff?

Thank y’all!

 

[Hark0n]

I’m usually the forum answerer more than asker, but in this case, I’m a bit confused by 10+ years of DS hacking/emulation minutiae. Please help.

What I have:
- NDSi with working HiyaCFW (done via Flipnotes exploit)
- R4i Gold Pro 2019 flashcart from r4isdhc . com (Touch Bomberman icon in original DSi menu)
- SD card for slot 2

What I want:
- play NDS roms
- being able to in-game save (.sav), plus RTS would be nice. I don't need cheats or Wifi.
- play GB/GBC/Genesis ROMs, GBA would be very cool but I understand it’s unstable and has issues with saving
- ocassional emulators like ZXDS, FrodoDS/Vice, some homebrew

Many if not most NDS games run fine via both NDS-bootstrap and the flashcart.

I use/tried:
- Twilightmenu 8.2.3 with nds-bootstrap 0.19.5 on SD card, boot via Unlaunch
- RetroGameFan Multi Cart Update v7.06 (I use the R4i-SDHC YSMenu subfolder for installation, so, RGF's YSMenu mod) on the flashcart

My issues so far:
- Twilightmenu+nds-bootstrap booted from SD card doesn’t run Tetris DS (hangs at red „corrupt save“ screen) and Chrono Trigger (hangs at Initializing).
- I’ve never been able to run any Genesis ROM, regardless if picodrive or Jnesis (0.7.4), Twilightmenu (SDcard) or RGF Ysmenu (flashcart). Roms in zip/md formats are physically on cards but not seen. Jenesis doesn’t even let me browse the filesystem
- „clean“ RGF Multicart Update doesn’t run GB/GBC/any other ROMs (YSmenu says „No flash cartridge in slot2“)
- clean kernel from flashcart manufacturer doesn't run commercial ROMs
- FrodoDS doesn’t actually run anything. It loads the d64 but after RUN, I’ve never seen a C64 image, on both installations

So basically I have dual boot: SD card with nds-bootstrap runs most things well except some NDS ROMs, and R4i Gold Pro flashcart that is only usable for NDS Roms that don’t work with nds-bootstrap. I’d love to be able to consolidate all of this stuff and have a nice system that runs everything.

Is that possible in 2019? Or would I be better of buying a (preferably) Old 3DS XL for this stuff?

Thank y’all!

I run a R4i 3DS+ Flashcard together with a EZ Flash Omega in a DS Lite... Works perfect! One system running DS and GBA games... GB and GBC can run of the omega but these are not 100% compatible, that is a little hit or miss! Otherwise it is the perfect solution for me! Hope this helps.

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

What to use in 2019:

In terms of emulation:
- GameYob (GB/GBC Emulator)
- nesDS (NES Emulator)
- SNEmulDS (SNES Emulator)

GameYob:
GameYob is a really nice Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulator, runs everything really well including ROM hacks, link/multiplayer support exists, however it never got moved out of the "beta" stage.

nesDS:
nesDS is a really good NES emulator, it has a lot of nifty features to go along with it, though in my opinion, it feels unfinished, regardless though, it's great for what it can do.

SNEmulDS:
SNEmulDS is definitely questionable, it runs quite a few titles no problem, however graphically speaking it's not pretty, that's mainly due to the Nintendo DS being limited on hardware, you can still play games normal however so it's not unplayable.

Really hard to tell you what else as preferences differ, check here for whatever you want to try, warning though, some links are dead.
https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/List_of_all_DS_homebrew

 

[Rajo]

I was thinking more of thoughts on different ways of running the whole thing - if NDS-bootstrap is the preferred way these days or maybe a R4 flashcar. Thanks!

 

[isoboy]

A flashcar? NDS-Bootstrap has a ton of compatibility issues while flashcars are close to if not 100% DS compatible.