nds bootstrap
v2.2.1
nds-bootstrap is an open-source application that allows Nintendo DS/DSi ROMs and homebrew to be natively utilised rather than using an emulator. nds-bootstrap works on Nintendo DSi/3DS SD cards through CFW and on Nintendo DS through flashcards.
nds-bootstrap supports most DS/DSi ROMs, with a few exceptions. You can enhance your gaming experience with cheats and faster load times than general cartridges (for games that support those features). Game saving is supported too and will be saved in the .sav extention, and .pub or .prv for DSiWare. If you find a bug, please report it in the issues tab. ROM compatibility is recorded in the compatibility list.
Anti-Piracy patches can be loaded via IPS files, but they are not included inside the software itself.
nds-bootstrap also supports many homebrew applications, including games like DScraft.
B4DS mode (a result of running nds-bootstrap on DS-mode flashcards with locked SCFG or DS Phat/Lite) supports most (if not all) DS ROMs of which are supported on DSi/3DS. Some DSiWare ROMs are also supported.
If your goal is to get a build of the latest commit, you can download that from our TWLBot Builds repository. Also, if you push your commits to a GitHub fork, you can have GitHub Actions run on every commit that way. If, however, you'd like to compile locally, you will need to install devkitARM with the necessary Nintendo DS development libraries.
pacman package manager as described on the devkitPro wiki, then run the following command to install the needed libraries:
sudo dkp-pacman -S nds-dev
sudo may not be needed and it may be just pacman instead)git clone https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/nds-bootstrap.git) and navigate to the cloned repolzss.c to a directory in your PATH using a C compiler such as GCC (gcc lzss.c -o /usr/local/bin/lzss)
lzss.exe in the root of the repositorymake package-nightly to compile nds-bootstrap
bin folderIf you need help compiling, please ask for help in our Discord server or a GitHub Discussion.
A frontend isn't required as nds-bootstrap uses an ini file to load its parameters. However, it is very much recommended.
TWiLight Menu++ is a frontend for nds-bootstrap, developed by Rocket Robz & co. It has 6 customizable launchers to choose from with the ability to launch emulators and other homebrew.
It also includes a number of Anti-Piracy patches for the games and will automatically configure nds-bootstrap for you, with customizable per game settings.
Allows you to run games directly from the DSi Menu or 3DS HOME Menu. Some compatibility features from TWiLight Menu++ are missing in forwarders so if you have issues you may need to edit the per-game settings by holding Y while loading the forwarder.
An alternative forwarder generator for 3DS users. YANBF forwarders are 3DS-mode applications so they count towards the normal 300 title limit insted of the smaller 40 title limit on DSi-mode applications, however they cannot have animated icons and take slightly longer to load.
