Nintendo DS Homebrew
This question comes up from time to time – How do you get started writing Nintendo DS Homebrew. Here’s a very brief intro:
Daily news:
Dev Platforms
- DevKitPro or PALib (which is based on DevKitPro).
- The DSDev / GBADev forum is a good place to start learning about the two.
- PALib has a lot of great documentation and has a very active community, but it insulates you from the hardware more than DevKitPro does.
- You’ll want to test with one or more emulators. I like Dualis, but I hear that no$gba is rapidly becoming the compatibility frontrunner.
Dev Hardware
- First, read about FlashMe.
- For the DS or DS Lite, I think the new DS-X card is the most interesting for Homebrew Developers. It fits in the DS slot, not the GBA slot and you don’t need to buy a micro SD card. DS-X requires that you use FlashMe and not a PassCard. Frankly, I’m glad, because I prefer having a flashed DS – it’s safer, because it reduces the risk that your DS will get bricked by malicious code.
- If you can’t wait for the DS-X to ship, you should consider the SuperCard Lite. It fits in the GBA slot, so you can use FlashMe or a PassCard.
- You can buy both of those cards at http://www.divineo.com or http://www.winsunx.com.
John Tokash 