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Setting up Emulators

Nintendo Consoles

Info

GBARunner 2 and 3 are both hypervisors for running GBA games on DS hardware. Setup guides for both are provided, as currently, some games run better on one than the other. GBARunner2 is the older and more stable release, while GBARunner3 is the in-development successor to GBARunner2.

  1. Download DSL Enhanced GBARunner2.

  2. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root, and place GBARunner2_arm9dldi_ds.nds inside.

  3. Create a _gba folder on your SD card root.

  4. Obtain a GBA BIOS dump. Rename the file to bios.bin if it isn't named that already.

  5. Place the bios.bin file in the _gba folder.

    Note

    If you are unable to obtain a GBA BIOS .bin file, you may skip the two steps above. Keep in mind however, that GBARunner2 will fallback to the built in open-source BIOS, which will lead to worse game compatibility.

  6. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create a GBA folder inside it. Place your .gba game ROMs inside.

  7. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  8. To play GBA games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch the GBARunner2 NDS file, and select a GBA ROM in the GBARunner2 menu.

Tip

If the ARM9 DLDI version of GBARunner2 doesn't work on your cart, you can try using the ARM7 DLDI version instead.

  1. Download the GBARunner3 zip file.

  2. Open/extract GBARunner3-hicode.zip, and copy the contents into the root of your SD card.

  3. Download the GBARunner3 frontend.

  4. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root, and place gbar3-frontend.nds inside.

  5. Obtain a GBA BIOS dump. Rename the file to bios.bin if it isn't named that already.

  6. Place the bios.bin file in the _gba folder.

  7. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create a GBA folder inside it. Place your .gba game ROMs inside.

  8. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  9. To play GBA games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch gbar3-frontend.nds, and select a GBA ROM in the menu.

  1. Download the GameYob zip file.

  2. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root.

  3. Open/extract gameyob.zip, and locate gameyob.nds inside. Copy this file to the Emulators folder on your SD card.

  4. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create a GB folder inside it. Place your .gb or .gbc game ROMs inside.

  5. Obtain a GameBoy Color BIOS dump. Rename the file to gbc_bios.bin if it isn't named that already.

  6. Place the gbc_bios.bin file in /ROMs/GB.

    Note

    If you are unable to obtain a GBC BIOS .bin file, you may skip the two steps above. However, GameYob will not be able to run games in color without the BIOS file, so you will only be able to emulate games in grayscale.

  7. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  8. To play GB/C games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch gameyob.nds, and select a GB/C ROM in the GameYob menu.

Warning

SNEmulDS has fairly low game compatibility, so expect results to be hit or miss. Some games may run flawlessly, some may be buggy, and some may be completely unplayable. You can get an idea of what will work and what settings to use by checking the compatibility list.

  1. Download the SNEmulDS zip file.

  2. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root.

  3. Open/extract snemulds_0.6a.zip, and locate SNEmulDS.nds inside. Copy this file to the Emulators folder on your SD card.

  4. Copy snemul.cfg to your SD card root, then open the file with Notepad. Change the ROMPath = /SNES line to ROMPath = /ROMs/SNES, and save the file.

  5. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create a SNES folder inside it. Place your .sfc game ROMs inside.

  6. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  7. To play SNES games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch SNEmulDS.nds, and select a SNES ROM in the menu.

  1. Download the NesDS 7z file.

  2. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root.

  3. Open/extract nesDS.7z using 7-Zip, and locate nesDS.nds inside. Copy this file to the Emulators folder on your SD card.

  4. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create a NES folder inside it. Place your .nes game ROMs inside.

  5. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  6. To play NES games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch nesDS.nds, and select a NES ROM in the menu.

Atari Consoles

  1. Download the StellaDS NDS file.

  2. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root.

  3. Copy StellaDS.nds to the Emulators folder on your SD card.

  4. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create a 2600 folder inside it. Place your Atari 2600 game ROMs inside.

  5. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  6. To play Atari 2600 games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch StellaDS.nds, and select a ROM in the menu.

  1. Download the A5200DS NDS file.

  2. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root.

  3. Copy A5200DS.nds to the Emulators folder on your SD card.

  4. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create two folders inside: 5200 and BIOS.

  5. Place your .a52 game ROMs inside the 5200 folder.

  6. Obtain an Atari 5200 BIOS dump. Rename the file to 5200.rom if it isn't named that already.

  7. Place the 5200.rom file in /ROMs/BIOS.

    Note

    If you are unable to obtain an Atari 5200 BIOS file, you may skip the two steps above. A built-in open-source BIOS is provided by the emulator, but some games don't have full compatibility with the built-in BIOS.

  8. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  9. To play Atari 5200 games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch A5200DS.nds, and select a ROM in the menu.

  1. Download the A7800DS NDS file.

  2. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root.

  3. Copy A7800DS.nds to the Emulators folder on your SD card.

  4. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create two folders inside: 7800 and BIOS.

  5. Place your .a78 or .bin game ROMs inside the 7800 folder.

    Note

    NTSC ROMs are strongly recommended by the developer. PAL ROMs have more scanlines and render more slowly, causing the sound to be wrong. All testing was also done with only NTSC ROMs.

  6. Obtain an Atari 7800 High Score ROM dump. Rename the file to highscore.rom if it isn't named that already.

  7. Place the highscore.rom file in /ROMs/BIOS.

    Note

    If you are unable to obtain an Atari 7800 highscore.rom file, you may skip the two steps above. The emulator will work without it, but your high scores won't be saved.

  8. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  9. To play Atari 7800 games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch A7800DS.nds, and select a ROM in the menu.

Miscellaneous Consoles

  1. Download the jEnesisDS zip file.

  2. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root.

  3. Open/extract jenesisds_0.7.4.zip, and locate jEnesisDS.nds inside. Copy this file to the Emulators folder on your SD card.

  4. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create a Genesis folder inside it. Place your Genesis game ROMs inside.

    Supported File Types

    jEnesisDS requires ROMs to be in .gen, .bin, or .smd format to be recognized in the file browser. If you have .md ROMs, rename them to .gen or .bin before placing them on your SD card.

  5. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  6. To play Sega Genesis games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch jEnesisDS.nds, and select a ROM in the menu.

  1. Download the ColecoDS NDS file.

  2. Create an Emulators folder on your SD card root.

  3. Copy ColecoDS.nds to the Emulators folder on your SD card.

  4. On your SD card root, create a ROMs folder, and then create two folders inside: Coleco and BIOS.

  5. Place your ColecoVision game ROMs inside the Coleco folder.

  6. Obtain a ColecoVision BIOS dump. Rename the file to coleco.rom if it isn't named that already.

  7. Place the coleco.rom file in /ROMs/BIOS.

  8. Place the SD card back into your cart, and boot into the menu.

  9. To play ColecoVision games, navigate to the Emulators folder, launch ColecoDS.nds, and select a ROM in the menu.

Tip

More consoles than just ColecoVision are supported by ColecoDS - similar architecture devices are also emulated. See the ColecoDS README for more information, and a full list of supported BIOSes.