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Guide: melonDS

melonDS, a Nintendo DS emulator.

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Where to put the games

NDS games should be put under the retrodeck/roms/nds/ directory.

What file formats are supported?

File Format Description
.app Nintendo DS application file
.bin Binary file
.nds Nintendo DS ROM file (Recommended)

Does MelonDS require BIOS or Firmware?

There exists several optional BIOS and FIrmware:

Nintendo DS: 

bios7.bin
bios9.bin
firmware.bin

Nintendo DSI: 

dsi_bios9.bin
dsi_bios7.bin
dsi_firmware.bin
dsi_nand.bin

Where to put the BIOS and Firmware?

Directly into the folder

retrodeck/bios/

Example:

retrodeck/bios/bios9.bin

Folder structure

Type Folder Comment
ROMs Folder retrodeck/roms/nds/
Saves Folder retrodeck/saves/nds/melonds/
States Folder retrodeck/states/nds/melonds/
Config Folder ~/.var/app/net.retrodeck.retrodeck/config/melonDS/ melonDS.ini
BIOS Folder retrodeck/bios/

Change Language in games

Requirements:

  • Check if the game has multiple language support over at this link GamesTDB: DS.
  • You need to have your bios ion the retrodeck/bios/ folder.

Instructions:

  1. Open Configurator -> MelonDS
  2. Click Config -> Emu settings -> DS-Mode -> Enable Use external BIOS/firmware files
  3. Click File -> Boot firmware -> DS icon (bottom of the screen) -> ⚙️ -> 🌍 -> Set language.