How to: Play Nintendo DS and/or GBA games on your computer!

Hi sythe, it's the_dealer here.
I'm posting a tutorial on how to play Nintendo DS games, and Game Boy Advance games on your computer. It's great fun if you want to test a game out before buying it etc.



Ok, first thing's first. I find, when learning something, I have to understand the basic principles first etc. so I'm going to outline as simply as I can about the files in DS and GBA cartridges.

The files that the DS and GBA run are called 'roms'. They are the games, extracted out of the cartridges and put into file format. There are different types of Roms, such as .nds and .gba - obviously, the .nds files are Nintendo DS games, and .gba is the GameBoy Advance.


Ok, now we need to get something to run it with - there's no use having a game that you can't play!
To play a Nintendo DS game, or a GameBoy Advance game, you need what is called an 'emulator'. These are able to run the roms, and therefore mean you can play the games!

I recommend:

For GameBoy Advance games:VisualBoy Advance.

For Nintendo DS games: NO$GBA (Note: This is a direct download link - if you don't want that, then just google it. There are plenty of downloads for it.


And yes, it is true that you can play GBA games on NO$GBA aswell, however I find that the screen is too small for that. It's much easier just to use VBA, due to it being a full-screen! It makes Pokemon Emerald so much fun


Where do I get Roms from?

There isn't really a best site for it anymore. It used to be 'Romulation' but many of their latest have been brought down. You can go onto the 'Romulation Forums' and search it though, as they haven't been taken down. Generally, just Google them, though. Remember to scan with VirusTotal, or just a regular anti-virus.

Setting up NO$GBA so that it saves, and plays games.

Ok, this can be quite tricky. I'll assume you've downloaded my file, and extracted it to the desktop.

Open up the NO$GBA.exe, and select your .nds file. A blue screen, with some kind of error message should appear - close NO$GBA. A folder called 'Battery' should have appeared in your Desktop too. Now move your .nds roms into the 'Battery' folder. This should fix any saving issues you have in the future (however there are some games which just don't save - full stop).

Now, open up NO$GBA.exe, and select the game you wish to play, which should be in the 'Battery' folder. We are now going to fix the 'blue screen error'.

Press F11, and make sure you're on the 'Emulation' tab. Copy these settings.



Now, go onto the 'Controls' tab, and set your buttons. Personally, I use 'WASD' for movement, 'XZ' for the 'X and 'Y' buttons, 'Enter' for the 'A' button.. and 'B' can generally be anything.

IMPORTANT: Now press 'OK' and go to the 'Options' dropdown, and select 'Save Options'.

You should now be able to play any game on NO$GBA - bear in mind, some Roms require you to put in some 'Action Replay' codes, in order for them to run. You can get to them by pressing 'F2' or going to the 'Utility' dropdown and pressing 'Cheats'. Then copy and paste the code in.


VisualBoy Advance

This is almost exactly the same, except that you don't need to put in any codes, or settings. However, you do need to add in those buttons =)
Remember: Game Boy games are not .nds files. Don't try and run a .nds file on it because you'll just be wasting your time.



So, there it is! My very first guide =D
How did you like it? Is there anything I could change? Did I go into enough detail?

Feedback is greatly appreciated.

the_dealer

This is my own work. Plagerism will not be tolerated.

 

Thanks for this, worked a treat

 

Wait, at the second sentence. If the game works on the emulator, why would you want to buy it?

 

• You can't play people online
• It isn't available wherever you take it
• Easier to cheat on it
• You can't verse anybody but yourself
• Annoying to always be at your computer
• glitches in the game

A ds is better (in my opinion) because you can take it basically anywhere and you can verse your friends or other people.

 

Oh true true, didn't think of that [=

 

Yeah, mainly for those reasons stated above