Nintendo DS

The Nintendo DS is a portable handheld created by Nintendo in 2004.

Ripping Tools

DS Tools

• Wood Dumper (latest is r89)
• NDS Backup Tool (creates bad dumps)

PC Tools

• Apicula (Command line tool to convert nsbmd to Collada DAE with rigging & animations) Dev's Forum Post
• Tinke
• DSLazy
• Oil of Vitriol
• Every File Explorer (AKA EFE)
• NDSHeader (aka NDS Header Viewer)
• NSMBe (aka New Super Mario Bros. Editor) (Can view, edit and export NCG, NCL, NSC and NSBTX files and supports NARC/ARC archives. It can also view, edit and export icons.)
• SM64DSe (aka Super Mario 64 DS Editor) (Can view and edit NCG, NCL and NSC files.)
• 54634564's NDS Icon Ripper
• NFTREdit (Can edit, view and export NFTR font files.)
• NitroStudio (Can edit, view and export most files contained in SDAT files.)
• VGMtrans (Made specifically for ripping. The only tool that can export SBNK and SWAR files to SF2 or DST.)

Console Tool

Console Tool is a program that allows you to view the files in an NDS ROM, and export them.

MKDS Course Modifier

MKDS Course Modifier views most common NDS 3D and 2D formats (read below) and allows the models to be exported in .OBJ format. It can also view NCG, NCL and NSC files, NARC/ARC archives and SDAT files (including their contents).

Physical Tools

• NDS backup Adapter+
• NEO SMS4

Common File Formats

NITRO File Formats

For more details on this file format, please visit the Nitro Files page.

The Nitro file system is a set of basic files created by Nintendo that helped developers quickly and easily develop titles for the console. Because of the simplicity of these files and the way they're created, it is the easiest common format on the DS to rip.

Formats include, but are not limited to, the following:

2D-related:

• NCLR (Nitro CoLoR) → Color Palette
• NCGR (Nitro Character Graphic Resource) → Graphical Tiles
• NBGR (Nitro Basic Graphic Resource) → Graphical Tiles
• NSCR (Nitro SCreen Resource) → Maps/Images
• NCER (Nitro CEll Resource) → Tile Arrangement Information
• NANR (Nitro ANimation Resource) → Animation Data
• NFTR (Nitro Font Table Resource) → Fonts

3D-related:

• NSBMD (Nitro Sdk Binary Model Data) → 3D Polygonal Model data
• NSBTX (Unknown) → Texture image and palette data
• NSBCA (Nitro Sdk Binary Character Animation) → Skeletal animation data
• NSBTP (Nitro Sdk Binary Texture Pattern) → Texture-swapping animations
• NSBTA (Nitro Sdk Binary Texture Animation) → UV-change animations
• NSBMA (Nitro Sdk Binary Material Animation) → Material-change animations
• NSBVA (Unknown) → Unknown

.NARC or .ARC

NARC (Nitro ARChive) and ARC (ARChive) files are used to store compressed filetrees in one file (like any archive format: .zip, .rar, etc)

.SDAT

Sound and music archives which often contain everything sound related in the rom. While they can be partially edited by a number of editors (such as MKDSCM, Tinke and DSSoundStudio), the best editor is Nitro Studio, supporting all formats except SSAR, which is only partially supported. Here are the formats SDAT (Sound DATa) files contain:

• SSEQ (Sound SEQuence) → Sequences. Can be either on their own or inside SSAR files.
• SBNK (Sound BaNK) → Instruments
• NIST (Nitro InSTrument) → Contained inside SBNK files. Individual instruments
• SWAR (Sound Wave ARchive) → Sound sample archives. These samples are used by instruments inside SBNK files
• SWAV (Sound WAVe) → Contained inside SWAR files. Individual sound samples
• SSAR (Sound Sequence ARchive) → Mostly used for sound effects and short jingles
• STRM (STReaM) → Full streamed songs

.LZ

These are compressed files (using the Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm) - they can be decompressed through several means/programs, like DSDecmp for example.

NCG, NCL and NSC

These formats serve the same purpose as the NCGR, NCLR and NSCR formats. They are used in New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 64 DS.

Suggested Emulators

Despite being a popular handheld, DS emulation has not progressed very well. For years, the most popular one has been DeSmuMe however the developers of the emulator have a certain dislike to a popular series and has a result affected emulation of the handheld even making it worse just so people can't play Pokemon on it. People have been using Drastic on Android and ironically runs faster than DeSmuMe when using an Android emulator.

There is an emulator that is very early in progress called MelonDS. In the future, this will be recommended however currently it is at an early state so compatibility currently might be a bit low even though it can run many games, it might not be stable and is missing features even though it has WIP multiplayer functions. It also requires 3 ROM dumps (two for the ARM processors and a firmware one) to run.

Specific Game Pages

• Corvette Evolution GT (DS)
• Elite Beat Agents
• Lost in Blue
• Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
• Monsters vs. Aliens
• Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
• Race Driver: Create & Race
• Sonic Rush