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NCard

Converting Bootleg Games into an N-Card Flashcart

N-Card Carts

This tutorial only applies to N-Card based hardware. The best way to verify this is to check the back of the cart where the pins are located and look for text saying "ASIC" or "ASNAND". The label is not a reliable way to determine this as some bootleg games are not based on the N-Card hardware and cannot be modified.

This tutorial requires a Nintendo DSi with Unlaunch. This guide cannot be performed on a Nintendo 3DS.

Setup Guide:

  1. Ensure your Nintendo DSi system has Unlaunch installed, as it is a requirement for this guide to work. Follow this guide on installing Unlaunch on your Nintendo DSi.

  2. Download GodMode9i and place it on the root of your DSi SD card.

  3. Download the N-Card Conversion Package and extract it. Place the extracted N-Card Conversion folder on to the root of your DSi SD Card.

  4. Insert your Game into the console and power it on.

  5. Launch Unlaunch's file browser by holding A + B while powering on your console. Navigate to the N-Card Conversion folder. Launch the uDisk.nds file while holding Start + Select. Unlaunch lists .nds files in alphabetical order by folder, so if you have many .nds files, you may have to scroll until you find it. This is the only file that must be loaded via Unlaunch.

  6. You will now be shown a formatting screen. Select the FULL FORMAT option. It will check the N-Card for bad blocks and perform a full format.

    Warning

    Do not power off your console while uDisk is formatting the cart, this may cause your game cart to become bricked!

  7. The formatting process is complete once it says please copy xmenu.dat to card!. Power off your console.

  8. Power on your console and launch GodMode9i from Twilightmenu++ or Unlaunch. Enter the [sd:] drive and nagivate to the N-Card Conversion folder. Highlight autorun1.nds and press Y to copy it to the clipboard.

  9. Back out to the drive screen and enter the [fat:] drive. Press Y to paste and select the Copy files option.

  10. Power off your console while holding A + B to boot into Unlaunch. Load up the uDisk.nds file again, this time without holding any buttons. You will be asked if you would like to update uDisk, press A to continue. The update process will stop at 88%; this is normal. Once it reaches 88%, wait a few seconds, then power off the console.

    Tip

    At this stage you may now continue using a Slot 2 USB adapter on a DS/DS Lite system if you prefer, as the cartridge now has a working uDisk installed. You can follow the below steps but instead copying & deleting the required files from a computer.

  11. Power on your console and launch GodMode9i via Unlaunch or Twilightmenu++. Enter the [sd:] drive and nagivate to the N-Card Conversion folder. Highlight DSYSTEM and press the L trigger, then highlight xmenu.dat and press the L trigger. Press Y to copy the two files to the clipboard.

  12. Back out to the drive screen and enter the [fat:] drive. Press Y to paste and select the Copy files option.

  13. Highlight autorun1.nds and Press X to delete it, press A to confirm.

  14. Reboot your console and boot the cart, it should now boot into the xmenu interface. Your bootleg game has now been converted into an N-Card flashcart! The capacity of your N-Card will be shown at the top left of the screen.

    Tip

    You may now copy .NDS files to the N-Card via GodMode9i on a DSi or 3DS, or via a Slot 2 USB Adapter with a DS/DS Lite. Bear in mind that the N-Card xmenu does not contain any anti-piracy patches so you may wish to patch your ROMs where necessary, and ROMs larger than 256MB cannot be played on xmenu, for both these issues you may use an alternative loader instead such as Twilightmenu++.

Testing the SRAM Battery

The N-Card and it's clones typically use an SRAM chip with a small coin cell in order to hold save data of currently running game. When the console powered off and then powered back on, this save data is then written back to the N-Card's internal flash storage from the SRAM.

On some units, usually due to age, this battery may not hold much of a charge, or sometimes no charge at all, leading to the contents of the SRAM being lost if the console is powered off, or powered off for too long. This usually results in a corrupted or lost save file. In order to test the battery on your N-Card, you can use nrioSaveTester.

  1. Download nrioSaveTester and copy it to the internal storage of your N-Card.

  2. Boot the N-Card and highlight the the nrioSaveTester.nds file. Hold Select and Use the D-Pad left or right to select the "4 KBit" save option on the top screen, then press A to load it. Press B to write a new save file. Press A to power off your console.

  3. You can now choose how long to wait before testing the save again. To test the save, Power on your console and boot the N-Card and launch the nrioSaveTester.nds file. Press A to test the save, then press A to power off your console. An example can be waiting an hour then testing, then a day and then a week. When the save test fails, the time difference between last testing the save and now should indicate roughly how long the SRAM battery can hold a charge for.