v2.0.0: 200th Release

Welcome to nds-bootstrap's 200th release!
In this new version, you'll find many new improvements for game compatibility! Also, in B4DS mode, some games which have not booted in a long time, now finally boot!

Included in TWiLight Menu++ v27.8.0

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z or .zip file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

What's new?

• Remember Foto Showdown? The Pokémon clone where you get new monsters using your DSi or 3DS camera, and use them in battles?
  You can now play it on your DS Phat or DS Lite console, with one difference!
  The camera lens will either be substituted with a video (Place the video file in fat:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/dsiCamera/ and name it default.bin, must be recorded using dsi-camcorder), or it'll just be covered and you'll see nothing.
• If you use a debug/dev model of the DS, you can now also play System Flaw & System Flaw: Recruit!
• The ROM pre-load settings from the nds-bootstrap-extras repo are now part of nds-bootstrap itself, as they'll help reduce some ROM load issues causing some frame flickers and/or slowdown in certain games, regardless of which frontend you use!
• Card Read DMA patching is now implemented in B4DS mode, making more games such as Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune, The Magic School Bus: Oceans, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat now work on DS flashcards!
• Minna no Mahjong DS, Diddy Kong Racing DS, and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn now work in B4DS mode, as their save functions are now directly patched on arm9.
• Mario Hoops 3-on-3 now works in B4DS mode, as a missing patch has been added.
• The Kiosk Demo version of Mario Kart DS now boots on DS and DSi consoles!
• Nintendo DS Guide Server now boots!
• If your DSi console no longer has LEDs powering on (as a result of a bricked BPTWL I2C chip), but can still manage to boot it using ntrboot, patches are now implemented to allow games to work properly!
• Card Read DMA patching has been re-enabled for TWL titles running in DSi mode.
• Improved the ROM pre-loading feature on DSi/3DS, as it now tries to pre-load only the NitroFS data, if the ROM is slightly too big to fit in the console's RAM.
  • In addition, for full ROM pre-loading, 480KB of DSi WRAM are now allocated for a few more ROMs to be pre-loaded.
• The Sound/Mic frequency setting now works in homebrew!

Bug fixes

• On DSi consoles, in Pokémon Black & White 1&2 running in DSi mode, scrolling in the bag menu no longer has slowdown.
  • Hopefully, the random crashes are also gone.
• On DSi consoles, the intro of MegaMan Battle Network 5: Double Team DS no longer has slight slowdowns.
• In B4DS mode, the European version of Super Princess Peach now boots!
• On DSi/3DS consoles, flickering in the title screens of Dragon Quest IV & VI have been reduced.
• On DSi consoles, Nervous Brickdown & Big Bang Mini no longer crash on black screens on startup!
• Fixed bugged music playback in Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends running in DSiWare exploits (such as Memory Pit) and/or in DSi mode.
• In B4DS mode, due to the implementation of Card Read DMA, Tony Hawk's American Sk8land no longer hangs when getting into gameplay.
• In B4DS mode, due to the implementation of Card Read DMA, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 no longer crashes during a cutscene.
• Nintendo DSi Shop & System Settings no longer crash on white screens.
• Optimized touch screen mode switching code to fix where the sound would no longer play on certain DSi/3DS consoles.
• Other minor fixes.

Known bugs

• As both Nintendo DSi Shop & System Settings no longer show white screens, they'll instead show the stock DSi error screen. This is due to them being unable to read the version data from TWLNAND, but the fix for this is unknown.
• Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise now also works in B4DS mode, but does not save.

A special wallpaper featuring 5 games that now work in B4DS mode has been made available here!:
https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/nds-bootstrap/blob/master/images/200th%20Release/Wallpaper.png

v1.6.2 (hotfix #2)

Included in TWiLight Menu++ v27.7.0

Originally released on 8/26/2024, re-released to restore the version number in the in-game menu.

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z or .zip file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

What's new?

• For consoles which improperly trigger sleep mode (with opened lid), sleep mode can now be disabled!

Bug fix

• Fixed games which use NAND saves not booting (such as WarioWare: DIY, Jam with the Band, and Face Training).

v1.6.1 Changelog

Bug fix

• Fixed an overlooked bug which caused 512MB ROMs to not load under Memory Pit.

v1.6.0 Changelog

Bug fixes

• Improved stability of wireless communications by moving SD R/W operations from vBlank & IPC Sync IRQs (of arm7) to main loop (of arm7) (once again, achieved by hooking SWI Halt calls)!
  • This means little to no random connection dropouts (may vary, depending on the game).
  • Mario Kart DS will now properly host a single-card multiplayer game.
  • No more slowdowns during ROM reads from the SD card with wireless comms.!
  • Compared to prior versions which implemented SWI Halt hooking, some optimizations have been made to reduce slowdown from said hooking. No slowdown has been found in known games which had those prior, such as CTGP Nitro (v1.0).
• Fixed an overlooked bug (which occurred since v1.1.0) which caused a Data Abort crash when attempting to connect to PBR via Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum.
  • The same disconnection bug will likely persist.
• Cut the Rope no longer shows black screens for Memory Pit users!

Known bugs

Due to moving SD R/W operations to main loop, the following will occur.

• Compared to previous versions, there may be some minor slowdown in certain games (such as Pokemon B/W 2, during the title screen).
• On DSi consoles, Nervous Brickdown & Big Bang Mini will crash on black screens after the company logos. Both will still run on 3DS consoles, as those games are pre-loaded to RAM.
• If you still encounter random connection dropouts, try turning off the Card read DMA setting in either TWLMenu++ or the forwarder per-game settings menus.

v1.6.1 (hotfix)

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z or .zip file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

Bug fix

• Fixed an overlooked bug which caused 512MB ROMs to not load under Memory Pit.

v1.6.0 Changelog

Bug fixes

• Improved stability of wireless communications by moving SD R/W operations from vBlank & IPC Sync IRQs (of arm7) to main loop (of arm7) (once again, achieved by hooking SWI Halt calls)!
  • This means little to no random connection dropouts (may vary, depending on the game).
  • Mario Kart DS will now properly host a single-card multiplayer game.
  • No more slowdowns during ROM reads from the SD card with wireless comms.!
  • Compared to prior versions which implemented SWI Halt hooking, some optimizations have been made to reduce slowdown from said hooking. No slowdown has been found in known games which had those prior, such as CTGP Nitro (v1.0).
• Fixed an overlooked bug (which occurred since v1.1.0) which caused a Data Abort crash when attempting to connect to PBR via Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum.
  • The same disconnection bug will likely persist.
• Cut the Rope no longer shows black screens for Memory Pit users!

Known bugs

Due to moving SD R/W operations to main loop, the following will occur.

• Compared to previous versions, there may be some minor slowdown in certain games (such as Pokemon B/W 2, during the title screen).
• On DSi consoles, Nervous Brickdown & Big Bang Mini will crash on black screens after the company logos. Both will still run on 3DS consoles, as those games are pre-loaded to RAM.
• If you still encounter random connection dropouts, try turning off the Card read DMA setting in either TWLMenu++ or the forwarder per-game settings menus.

v1.6.0

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z or .zip file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

Bug fixes

• Improved stability of wireless communications by moving SD R/W operations from vBlank & IPC Sync IRQs (of arm7) to main loop (of arm7) (once again, achieved by hooking SWI Halt calls)!
  • This means little to no random connection dropouts (may vary, depending on the game).
  • Mario Kart DS will now properly host a single-card multiplayer game.
  • No more slowdowns during ROM reads from the SD card with wireless comms.!
  • Compared to prior versions which implemented SWI Halt hooking, some optimizations have been made to reduce slowdown from said hooking. No slowdown has been found in known games which had those prior, such as CTGP Nitro (v1.0).
• Fixed an overlooked bug (which occurred since v1.1.0) which caused a Data Abort crash when attempting to connect to PBR via Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum.
  • The same disconnection bug will likely persist.
• Cut the Rope no longer shows black screens for Memory Pit users!

Known bugs

Due to moving SD R/W operations to main loop, the following will occur.

• Compared to previous versions, there may be some minor slowdown in certain games (such as Pokemon B/W 2, during the title screen).
• On DSi consoles, Nervous Brickdown & Big Bang Mini will crash on black screens after the company logos. Both will still run on 3DS consoles, as those games are pre-loaded to RAM.
• If you still encounter random connection dropouts, try turning off the Card read DMA setting in either TWLMenu++ or the forwarder per-game settings menus.

v1.5.5

Included in TWiLight Menu++ v27.5.3

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z or .zip file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

Bug fix

• Fixed an overlooked bug which caused pre-loadable NTR ROMs to not properly load into RAM while in DSi mode.

v1.5.4

Included in TWiLight Menu++ v27.5.2

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z or .zip file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

Bug fixes

• A few DSiWare titles such as Petit Computer now boot again on SD cards smaller than 32GB!
• Removed nds-bootstrap.7z from inside nds-bootstrap.zip.

v1.5.3

Included in TWiLight Menu++ v27.5.1

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

Bug fix

• Fixed an overlooked bug (arm9 binary misdetected as uncompressed) which caused the Japanese version of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story to not boot.

v1.5.2

Included in TWiLight Menu++ v27.2.1

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

Bug fixes

• Fixed long-standing crash in Zelda: Phantom Hourglass when attempting to move a statue.
• Added failsafe checks for the files screenshots.tar, ramDump.bin, and apFixOverlays.bin placed in sd:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/. On boot, if one of those files are not created properly, it'll first delete one before recreating the file. If the file then isn't created properly, it'll display an error message.

v1.5.1

Included in TWiLight Menu++ v27.2.0

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

Bug fixes

• Fixed Power Pro Kun Pocket 12 not booting in DSi mode without a donor ROM.
  • In other words, the bug where Power Pro Kun Pocket 12 would only boot in DSi mode for DSiWarehax users has been fixed, so users who don't use DSiWarehax and instead uses Unlaunch or a 3DS console are now able to play it in DSi mode.
• Reverted from the ASM memcpy code back to tonccpy, in order to fix bugs where parts of the graphics would not be restored when exiting the in-game menu, as well as the Anno games not properly displaying graphics.
• Other minor fixes.

v1.5.0: Earth Day Release

Included in TWiLight Menu++ v27.1.0

Instructions:

1. Download the .7z file.
2. Extract the nds-bootstrap .nds and .ver files, to root:/_nds/.

What's new? (B4DS mode)

• Nintendo Countdown Calendar now runs on DS & DS Lite without a Memory Expansion Pak!
• Clash of Elementalists is now supported on DS & DS Lite! Memory Expansion Pak is required.

Bug fix

• Fixed homebrew incorrectly detecting a RAM disk if path is empty.