Hacking Nintendo Splash Screen

[Bri]

Yeah, YSMenu won't work correctly on the R4. As far as I know, there's no way to make YSMenu do what you want without going through the menus like you already tried.

However, since YSMenu does it, there must be a way to write a .nds file that can do the same thing. I don't know if anyone's already done this or not, but it would be useful.

Also, I noticed that YSMenu is much smaller than the "firmware.nds" file, which leads me to believe that it's somehow launching the built-in firmware rather than including a copy of the NDS firmware within it (which is probably why we're getting the brightness settings with YSMenu).

I wonder if Yasu would be willing to write a standalone program to go to the NDS menu. It should be trivial since YSMenu already does it.

-Bri

 

[Bri]

bluesharpie,

I asked SkH to contact Yasu and see if he would be willing to release a standalone .nds file that will boot the NDS menu. Yasu agreed, so it should be available sometime in the near future!

-Bri

 

[Hit]

There is a way to do it without removing the flash cart.

There is a .nds file of the NDS firmware:

second item from the bottom.

You can boot it like any other .nds file. The only problem is that it doesn't recognize the DSTT in slot1, so there is no soft reset back to TTMenu.

(Thanks for MadBob for this)

-Bri

You may have not realized it, but you just technically linked to an illegal ROM image

.

I don't think it's illegal if you own a DS

 

[arctic_flame]

I don't think it's illegal if you own a DS

Well, it is. Compressed, or decompressed, it's Nintendo Property.

 

[Bri]

I'm not sure if making a dump of your own firmware is illegal or not, but Yasu's solution seems to boot the original NDS firmware rather than itself being a dump of the firmware. This is probably the best solution, since it ensures that the firmware that is running is the official version that is correct for your hardware (i.e. it will be the NDS Lite firmware on an NDS Lite), and the file size of the .nds is much smaller since it's just running the already-installed firmware.

-Bri

 

[bluesharpie]

bluesharpie,

I asked SkH to contact Yasu and see if he would be willing to release a standalone .nds file that will boot the NDS menu. Yasu agreed, so it should be available sometime in the near future!

-Bri

Wow that is freaking awesome!!

 

[Bri]

I asked SkH to post here when Yasu is done with it.

-Bri

 

[bluesharpie]

that's pretty sweet! Wow isn't amazing how someone all the way in Japan will us

 

[MadBob]

What I am wondering is this ... if you are using the Yasu menu on your DSTT and you want to change the brightness, why don't you just tap top-left on the touch screen and see what happens

 

[Bri]

bluesharpie (who asked the question) has an R4, not a DSTT. I imagine it would be useful for users of other carts to be able to launch the NDS menu from their cart menu as well.

For me personally, I don't use YSMenu as my default menu (I like the touchscreen control of TTMenu) and there are times when I want to boot to the NDS menu to connect to download play, change system settings, etc. I currently use "firmware.nds" but I think Yasu's approach is probably better (it's smaller and launches the native NDS Lite menu on an NDS Lite).

-Bri

 

[MadBob]

But for the R4 you just press the L shoulder button or Top left touch screen in the Game select menu

But it would be nice to have a "back to the menu" NDS file just for the hell of it.

I have an R4 DSTT and CycloDS and love the fact the Cyclo boots like a real game.

 

[cracker]

If you use FlashMe then you should be able to prevent the DSTT from booting by holding Select when you power it on.

 

[Bri]

The NDS menu does do other things besides change the brightness. I actually use firmware.nds occasionally. I like Yasu's approach better than firmware.nds since it loads the native firmware, which is why I will be replacing firmware.nds with Yasu's version when it's complete.

Since 99% of the time you will want to boot directly to the cart rather than the NDS menu, I don't think I would change the settings so that it requires the extra click to get to the cart menu if I had a CycloDS. It makes much more sense to go to the NDS menu from the cart menu than the other way around. So if you have the CycloDS set up to go directly to the cart menu, can you get back to the NDS menu without rebooting (other than using firmware.nds)?

I know that when you go to the NDS menu from YSMenu, it won't go back (the NDS menu doesn't recognize the DSTT as a game cartridge). It'll be interesting to see if it will go back on a CycloDS with the new program. Anyone know how the CycloDS manages to get the NDS menu to recognize it as a game cartridge, or does it have its own modified version of the NDS menu that gets loaded instead of the standard one?

-Bri

 

[PikaPika]

If you use FlashMe then you should be able to prevent the DSTT from booting by holding Select when you power it on.

No, that'll just boot whatever is in the Slot-2. And if there's nothing in Slot-2, white screens.

 

[Bri]

...ignore...duplicate post.

 

[MadBob]

BTW the newest YSMenu doesn't boot to the DS firmware (using start then select) on my Flashme'd DS, it just white screens.

 

[cracker]

If you use FlashMe then you should be able to prevent the DSTT from booting by holding Select when you power it on.

No, that'll just boot whatever is in the Slot-2. And if there's nothing in Slot-2, white screens.

Crap coulda swore it worked on Slot 1 carts as well as Slot 2...

 

[SkH]

Yasu released it, the name's back2fw. Note: It doesn't work on FlashMe yet.

 

[test84]

wish there was something like holding a button that forces DSTT to go into GBA mode (or acting as PassME since its GBA mode is buggy) directly.

 

[Bri]

@SkH:

Where can we get it? I can't find it on Yasu's page.
ETA: Never mind. I found it on Yasu's website. Click on "ETC" at the top, then "Nintendo DS" in the menu, then the link near the top that says "in english" and you'll find the link to "back2fw" on that page.

Anyway, it works great! Love the "Back to the Future" icon!

@test84:

YSMenu will launch GBA games directly (without needing a loader program) if that's what you mean. Unfortunately, saves don't work properly yet.

By the way, has anyone noticed that if you click on any icon on the left side of the game list in TTMenu, it will launch whatever game is selected even if the icon you clicked is for a different game? That seems like a bug to me -- if the icon doesn't go to the currently-selected game, I would have expected it to select the game that went with the icon.

-Bri