R4DS – Homebrew Gaming Made Easy

There are a lot of Nintendo DS aficionados out there, and for each one, there are people working tirelessly on free and open source projects, creating unofficial -Homebrew- applications and games.

Homebrew

Homebrew opens the doors to a whole new world of software and games. The homebrew software is written by non Nintendo programmers using C and/or C++, and is hence unofficial, but in no way infringes on any copyrights, and is completely legal.

Homebrew on your Nintendo DS

With homebrew, your humble Nintendo DS transforms into an amazing device, on which you can watch movies, listen to music, browse though your photographs, or even read an e-book. Most people are afraid of homebrew as it is conceived to be complicated, however this is far from the truth, and there are multiple tutorials available which will explain the whole process to you in manner that’s concise and easy to understand. Homebrew is loaded onto your Nintendo DS via a third party re-writable cartridge, such as the R4DS. Any homebrew software can be loaded and deleted, without it affecting your Nintendo DS in any way, so it is completely safe, and will not harm your system in any way.

Getting started

Before you can start using homebrew on your Nintendo DS, you will need to buy yourself a flash card. There are multiple choices in both Slot1 and Slot2. Slot1 has a DS cartridge slot, where as Slot2 has the -Game boy advantage cartridge- slot, plus the DS cartridge slot. We recommend the ever popular R4DS or its bigger brother the R4iDS. Both fit snug into the Nintendo DS and leave no room for complaint. However it is important to note that due to a design flaw in the Nintendo DS, the loading spring eventually gets weak, so use it only when necessary. A workaround is to not take out the cartridge ever time you want to change the data on it, what you can do instead is to just take out the memory card from the cartridge, and place it back when you are done.

The cartridge

The R4Ds or R4i DS cartridge can be loaded with a SDHC card. SDHC cards are available in an array of sizes, right from 1GB to the most recent development, a 32GB card. Speeds also vary, between classes 2 through 6 in multiples of 2.

Piracy

Beware of piracy; there are a lot of clones and even pirated components available in the market. Many of these cheap knock-offs don’t only provide inferior support, they can also damage your hardware, or your SDHC. Always purchase equipment from a verified seller, to protect yourself, and your Nintendo DS.

NINTENDO DS Homebrew applications

With newer devices like the r4 siblings boot up tools are no longer required. A host of software can be used on the Nintendo DS. The top favorites are Colors, DS Lines, DSOrganize, DSWiki and MoonShell.

Homebrew is a revolution that is here to stay, for more information on R4DS or the newer R4iDS cards, visit nds-gear.co.uk