Nds-bootstrap is an essential homebrew for those wanting to play their Nintendo DS games natively on a 3DS, using just an SD card. And as of a new update, it's only gotten better; a few months ago, @RocketRobz managed to get DSiWare titles running on original "phat" DS and DS Lite units, though compatibility was limited, and saving wasn't supported. Now, over 100 DSiWare games work on older DS models, with the ability to save your game data.

What's new?​

• DSiWare playability on DS Phat/Lite is finally out of it's proof-of-concept stage, as you can now save your data, along with 100 titles now supported (plus a few more, if you're using a DS Debug console)!
  • A custom .sav format is used for flashcard DSiWare save files (featuring a "save exist" flag and save size at the end of the file).
  • Shantae: Risky's Revenge can now get past the first two battles using an existing save file!
  • Scroll down to see which titles are now supported to play on DS Phat/Lite.

Some of the games that you can try out include Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop, Model Academy, Orion's Odyssey, and many more. WarioWare: Touched! DL version also works, though the audio does not work, because it takes up too much RAM. If you happen to have a debug DS unit, four extra games will work on it: Dragon Quest Wars, Make Up & Style, Metal Torrent, and Plants vs. Zombies.

Source
GBAtemp Project Thread

 

[Nekohaten]

This is great 👍 thanks for the hard work.

 

[Lostbhoy]

I'll say it again man.... What a time to be alive....

 

[raxadian]

This is great but I can already make these games work on my R4 clone? So I don't understand what is that changed? Is the the digital only versions?

 

[Willgheminass]

That is sick! I didn't think that was possible.

 

[Dartz150]

This is great but I can already make these games work on my R4 clone? So I don't understand what is that changed? Is the the digital only versions?

As long as your R4 clone is able to run TwilightMenu++, it should be able to play the listed DSiWare games on this update.

 

[Valwinz]

any point on using this if you have a Flashcard?

 

[peteruk]

RocketRobz is a legend <3

 

[RocketRobz]

any point on using this if you have a Flashcard?

Aside from playing DSiWare? You can run some ROMs that your flashcard firmware cannot run, such as certain ROM hacks and translations.

 

[Dartz150]

any point on using this if you have a Flashcard?

Read carefully. Flashcarts can't run DSiWare, neither DSLite/Phat models. This adds support for both of them as long as your flashcart is able to run TwilightMenu++, something that was thought to be imposible for a long time.

 

[ChaoticPumpkin]

I don’t know if it would even be worth implementing, but I know some DS slot-2 devices gave the DS extra ram, there’s a list on the dslinux wiki http://www.dslinux.org/wiki/ComparisonOfHomebrewHardware.html

 

[RocketRobz]

I don’t know if it would even be worth implementing, but I know some DS slot-2 devices gave the DS extra ram, there’s a list on the dslinux wiki http://www.dslinux.org/wiki/ComparisonOfHomebrewHardware.html

It is unfortunately either not possible or very difficult to implement Slot-2 RAM usage for DSiWare on DS, due to the Slot-2 bus being limited, only one CPU being able to access it at a time, and the console's RAM not being continuous with the Slot-2 one.

 

[DinohScene]

This is why I love the homebrew community!

 

[spkatsi]

Super news!

Has anybody tested if Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition runs (full playthrough) on DS-Lite?

 

[RocketRobz]

Super news!

Has anybody tested if Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition runs (full playthrough) on DS-Lite?

Unfortunately, that only works on debug models, due to it using more than 4MB of RAM. It also doesn't save either.
For those that do have a debug DS Phat/Lite model, a full playthrough should be possible.

 

[raxadian]

As long as your R4 clone is able to run TwilightMenu++, it should be able to play the listed DSiWare games on this update.

But Plants vs Zombies already works on the R4? That's what I was pointing out. At least with Wood.

 

[RocketRobz]

But Plants vs Zombies already works on the R4? That's what I was pointing out. At least with Wood.

Plants vs. Zombies has a DSiWare version which removes multiplayer (and afaik, the music video which plays at the end), and that version (outside of DSi/3DS) only works on debug DS consoles.
But yes, if you have the regular DS version, play that one instead. There are only a few DS games which have DSiWare versions, and in most cases are cut down from the DS versions.

 

[sombrerosonic]

It is unfortunately either not possible or very difficult to implement Slot-2 RAM usage for DSiWare on DS, due to the Slot-2 bus being limited, only one CPU being able to access it at a time, and the console's RAM not being continuous with the Slot-2 one.

Maybe a patch that supports the DS-2 flashcart's extra memory could help for the DSiware homebrew? just a thought

 

[RocketRobz]

Maybe a patch that supports the DS-2 flashcart's extra memory could help for the DSiware homebrew? just a thought

Maybe, if we knew how it works and how to implement it.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

Holy shit.. My only guess on making the games work better would be to redirect RAM reads/writes of the upper bits of ram (I.E. the extra mbs of ram the DSi usually has) to the gamecart/its SD card, or a GBA Expansion Pak if that works, in some way similar to the way EmuNAND works. (obvs it'd work different on the inside, I just don't know what else to compare it to)