retro games for a dsi xl

[broch kenny]

sorry I am a bit of a newbie to the homebrew/retro
I have just bought a dsi xl with a r4i sdhc card and 8gb micro card
this was loaded with the relevant operating system (moonshine)

I have managed to download and get the normal ds games to work

I fancy revisiting my childhood and getting amiga etc games to play on it ( chaos engine / klax etc)

I was wondering what my best starting point would be.
do I need to load on another system/emulator and then download the games to work with that.

if so what is the best one to download and work with my dsi
I was looking at the snemulds with sfc file downloads. obviously the normal ds games are nds
how would the other format work

sorry loads of questions. probably all already answered somewhere on the site

thanks in advance

[Zorlon]

The emulators for DS work just like normal DS games for running them

the emulators though will load there own format roms, sfc is one example yeah

For Chaos Engine ect I wouldn't look at Amiga emulation on a DS, but instead look at Megadrive/Genesis emulation via a little emulator called picodrive

Snes emulation unless you have a very good flash kit like the DSTWO is going to suck for the most part (it's not even all that good on the DSTWO either)

Other emulators to look at are going to be 8bit systems though like NES Mastersystem GameBoy GameGear and a few others

Just read the documentation that comes with each emulator so you know what format files it is after and where it will look for those roms

Of the 16 bit emulators picodrive is the only one really worth looking at

There is much than emulators though available for the DS, there are various port as well including things like DooM and ScummVM (Lucas Arts point n click games mostly but this can also play tons of others as well, including talkie versions)

[broch kenny]

i am bamboozled
i have downloaded a klax game with a file ext .md
i can't seem to find a ds emulator to work it
sorry i can't get my head round these non .nds extensions
is there a quick way of searching by ext and finding an emulator for the ds that will work on the ds
thanks

[Zorlon]

Do not run the roms through moonshell

Just grab one or both of the emulators I link

http://www.cryptosystem.org/archives...codriveds-016/
or
http://www.emuparadise.me/Sega_Genes.../Nintendo_DS/6

the later is more recent the first one called jEnesisDS is the last update that was made to picodriveDS both are very good megadrive/genesis emulators
Some games may run beter in one to the other and vice versa so it might be worth getting both

You may need to rename the rom to .bin instead of .md

I tend to just keep my emulated roms in a folder in a folder called roms in the root of the microSD

[47iscool]

Hey Zorlon, I just wanted to know something. Is picodrive faster the jEnesis for DS? I'm really interested in Genesis/MD emulation for DSi...once it (R4i Gold) arrives that is.

[Zorlon]

Get both, both are fast, both have different compat issues aswell

jEnesis is going to be the main one though from what I remember

I do have a PSP for most of my on the go emulation

[47iscool]

Okay thanks, won't ask any more on this thread since I didn't start it.

[broch kenny]

hi zorlon

i managed to get picodriveds.nds to work
i have downloaded klax and chaos engine
i had to change both from .md to .bin but they seem to be working as i remember them
the only downside is the high score doesn't seem to stay once the machine has been turned off
any help for that

if i am downloading any other games which are not .nds
should most games work if i change the ext to .bin

i tried to download the other link you gave but i couldn't get the link to work

thanks again

[Zorlon]

I don't remember off hand but I was sure one of those emulators supported save states

Anyway those games never had official support for keeping high scores on the megadrive

Download Links:
Links are hidden from guests. Please register to be able to view these links. try the above to get jEnesisDS

[itsnotmyblood]

Retro gaming is a bit of a passion of mine also, so either reliving some of those old titles or new titles that have an oldschool feel is a big thing for me too and I'm a passionate portable gamer, primarily gaming on a PSP Go and DSi.

As Zorlon mentioned 8bit console emulation on the DS is generally the way to go for speed, overall emulator features and maturity. As far as 16bit is concerned For SNES I run a DSTWO kit and use the accelerated emu CATSFC (without its hopeless). There's not currently an accelerated MD/Genesis emulator for for DSTWO, personally I've had better success with jEnesisDS overall. Another which is usually overlooked and doesn't need DSTWO is TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine emulation, this opens up a number of great titles with that oldschool feel, some you'll know from the arcade, most will be obscure, but investigating the library with the emulator Nitrografx is something I'd highly recommend.

As mentioned 8-bit can be done pretty solidly, So the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Master System(and Game Gear) emulators are well worth the effort, a lot of old retro games will often have a port to at least one of the two systems (There's Klax on both) and then there are the system exclusives also. With one fork of NesDS still seeing occasional updates it's a pretty flawless and feature rich emulator now. S8DS has been the better SMS/GG emulator in my experience and runs most games well but is a bit rough round the edges.

I disagree with Zorlon on the DSTWO's SNES emulation, while not perfect it runs a most games well, same goes with the GBA emulation. If you really grow to love your DSi XL, the kit is seriously worth the investment for those features. A lot of this improvement has come off more recent development in the last 18 months or so, as newer coders picked up work on those emulators (and the GBA emu source was released), the newer forks known as CATSFC and TempGBA. Having GBA functionality on the DSi opens up an absolutely massive and awesome library, there's a ton of rereleases of old games and retro style games on GBA, the SNES has a decent library also.

The other emulator I'll mention is GameYob which is a Gameboy Color emulator, there's quite a few gems hidden in the GB / GB Color library and the games take up a tiny amount of space.

Some other homebrew you might want to check out is Lode Runner Origine, LemmingsDS, Still Alive, Cannon Fodder DS, ScummVM

There are some good retro-like DS titles that are worth your time also of course, Geometry Wars and XG-Blast! are great if you like Robotron 2084 style mechanics, the Space Invaders Extreme games are likewise great, There's a decent Boulder Dash for DS, Arkanoid, Mr Driller, Puyo Puyo Fever, Nervous Brickdown and of course Tetris as well as heap of other titles.

If set up well the DS is an awesome platform for retro/retrostyle gaming on the go, especially if you have GBA support (via gba slot hardware on fat and lite consoles or a DSTwo kit on any and the only option on the DSi series & 3DS series at the moment.)

Rather than a load of offsite links with my first post on this account (was a member years ago, Dreamcast Days ), I'll just throw you a place to get started on the emulators and remember google is your friend for the rest.

This is in my experience the best maintained list of emulators for the DS on the net and will get you to any of the emus I mentioned. http://gbatemp.net/threads/list-of-a...for-ds.255764/

Good Luck.