devkitPro for Windows already contains an ndstool compiled for windows BTW.

Oh. I had just looked at their github repo, and I couldn't find any windows binaries.

Really cool work going on here, the video enablers and workaround for GBA are especially awesome!

The only feature a debugger unit is missing now is running retail ds games.

Hoping to get a debugger myself soon, maybe I can help figure something out

Edit: I know it is used just for flashing games and backup memory but I wonder if that's just a software limitation like the gba slot.

The FCC actually makes a ton of pictures/documents of the tested hardware public. This includes internal photos, tho mainly only of the radio hardware.

Considering  Dirbaio took apart a non wifi version this doc is pretty interesting:
https://fccid.io/document.php?id=509647

There are a ton more docs including pictures and manuals of the IS-NITRO-EMULATOR available here:
https://fccid.io/SRX-ISNWIRE

If you want to see some stuff about other dev hardware made by Intelligent Systems here is a list of all their hardware inspected by the FCC:
https://fccid.io/SRX
_________________________
GitHub - Kuribo64 - YouTube

Hey there!

I’m using an IS-NITRO-CAPTURE on 2 stacked CRTs (14in on top of 20in).

Anyone know if it would be theoretically possible to make a homebrew ROM which can swap the screen that the AV outs display? If it is, I’ll look into it. I see that Gericom's video controller program can make either AV out display either screen so at least that part is possible, but not sure about the ability to do it from the unit itself. Basically, since a lot of DS games tend to have one more important screen, I like to have it on the bigger CRT and I’m looking for a way to do that without having to swap cables per game.

If anyone has any input on this I’d appreciate it.

You cannot control the AV-Out registers from the DS system. You always have to do it via PC.

You could possibly mod your roms to swap the screens tho: https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#dspowermanagement

New Super Mario Bros. iirc uses that to get the gameplay on the bottom screen in some underground sections.
_________________________
GitHub - Kuribo64 - YouTube

Hmm, a little unfortunate but at least now I know. Now that you mention it, I believe some games even have screen swapping cheat codes. Maybe that will be good enough. Swapping cables isn’t that much of a big deal either, it just would have been nice to have a convenient all in one solution.

In any case, thanks for the help!

Couldn't you hook up your two AV cables to a DPDT switch? Would allow swapping the screen with a single switch


_________________________
GitHub - Kuribo64 - YouTube

Using a switch for this is quite a good idea. I’ve been meaning to get an Extron matrix switcher and one would be able to achieve exactly what I’m looking for, similar to what you describe. They can map many inputs to many outputs in any way you want which is handy. Basically, I would just have to break the S-video mini-DIN out into 2 cables for Y/C and then combine them back into the mini-DIN on the outputs.

I hadn’t really thought of this until you mentioned using a switch because most people only use these for RGB video, but I’m almost certain that they just output whatever you input to them so it should work.

I could always mod the IS-NITRO for RGB if I had to, but I think this would work fine without doing that. I’ve read of someone RGB modding one before, but I personally find the S-video output on these to be very good so I see no need.

Anyways, thanks for the idea. This may be my best bet, though it’ll probably be a while until I get the hardware to actually try it.

Hello there!

This might seem like a dumb question, but I can't seem to find any actual explanation. IS it possible to upgrade the memory module in the unit? I'm asking mostly for games like Pokemon Black 2, which is 512 MB in size, compared to the smaller size of many other games. Or, do titles like that require the use of a IS-CTR unit, since they are DSi-Enhanced titles?

I do have a spare 512 MB RAM stick which I tried in it, but the SYSTEM2 light just flashes and nothing else happens. Replacing the original RAM module returns the unit to normal. The help file in Debugger suggests that the size might be different between units, but it doesn't have a max, or even a mention of not being able to upgrade it.

Thanks in advance! And thanks for all the knowledge in this topic, this is a real joy to work with!

Completely new to posting on this forum, so sorry if this is a bad question, but does anyone know if there's a way to use the Nitro Emulator to dump ROMs from game cards, either by using the debugger software or otherwise? All I've been able to do so far is dump save data.

You may be able to use the homebrew wooddumper software like on a retail DS. Don't see why not.

The patterns at 0x1600, 0x1c00 are used for real hardware carts (both retail and the rewritable ones) for encryption/decryption of the communication. The hardware doesn't run the full encryption algorithm as specified in gbatek, it instead needs these tables "pre-cooked" and written to the flash, and reads from those.

They vary based on the gamecode. ndstool has code to calculate them, see here
https://github.com/devkitPro/ndstool/blob/master/source/encryption.cpp

I don't remember sure if the is-nitro-emulator needs them too. I think it doesn't. You do need to flash encrypted ROMs for it to work, however.

The patterns at 0x3000 are "test patterns" according to ndstool. I have no idea what these are used for, they seem to be fixed. https://github.com/devkitPro/ndstool/blob/master/source/encryption.cpp#L516

As far as we know, the hardware redirects gamecard reads to the emulation circuitry, so if you put in a real gamecard and run a dumper you'd be reading from the emulated ROM, not from the real one.

The hardware does pass-through the savedata to the real card though, so you can dump/restore saves.

It can write to the rewriteable flashcards though, so the bus is wired up and there may be secret commands to switch off the emulation and read from the real gamecard, but who knows :shrug:

hey all, just want to post an update that there is now a firmware hack to enable gba gameplay and video output by default on the IS-NITRO EMULATOR machines. There's a thread on GBATemp with the patch info/download

Sorry for bumping in first place, i just want to tell that if there's someone here that wants to sell one at a reasonable price i might be interested in buying it. It would be really useful to reverse engineer NSMB (or any other game) or to test pretty big code changes.

(Dirbaio was selling one before so i asked him in PMs. i didn't get any reply and now it's already sold anyways so)

i went through a bunch of websites, japan ones included, but i couldn't find anybody selling it
_________________________
Youtube - GitHub - NSMB Central

These days DS devkits aren't really valuable at all for reverse engineering a specific game.

You can do the same things you can do with the devkit and it's debugger with emulators.

As where to get one, the best chances these days probably are at Yahoo auctions Japan (You can proxy bid via sites like ZenMarket and Buyee). DS devkits are there relatively often. Currently for example there are multiple Wii ones.

Don't expect them to be cheap though. Over the last few years they did quite a price jump. Ones in good conditions sold for $350+.
_________________________
GitHub - Kuribo64 - YouTube