DS-Homebrew/nds-bootstrap

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

1388 stars · 87 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

nds-bootstrap is an open-source homebrew application that loads Nintendo DS/DSi ROMs and homebrew natively from an SD card on DSi/3DS consoles (via CFW) or DS flashcards, by patching Slot-1 read/writes instead of emulating. It supports cheats, game saving, anti-piracy patches via IPS files, and a B4DS mode for DS Phat/Lite and locked flashcards.

Use cases

• run Nintendo DS ROM backups from an SD card
• play DS games on a Nintendo 3DS without a flashcart
• load DS homebrew like DScraft on DSi or 3DS
• apply cheats and faster load times to DS games
• run DSiWare titles from SD card
• boot .nds files on a DS flashcard

When to choose

• you want to play DS/DSi ROMs natively on DSi, 3DS, or a flashcard rather than via an emulator
• you use TWiLight Menu++ or another DS homebrew frontend and need a ROM loader backend
• you want cheats, save support, and per-game settings for DS ROMs

When to avoid

• you need to emulate DS games on a PC or phone rather than on real hardware
• your game is on the incompatibility list or requires exact Slot-1 timing nds-bootstrap cannot yet provide
• you are not comfortable installing custom firmware or homebrew on your console

Facets

application · maturity active

game interpreter embedded gaming-tools embedded-systems hardware embedded iot nintendo-ds nintendo-3ds homebrew rom-loader flashcard game-console cfw

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="DS-Homebrew/nds-bootstrap")