How to Play Roms on a Nintendo DS

Written by Jack Lloyd

Last Updated: September 7, 2022 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to play a ROM, which is a video game file, on your Nintendo DS. Keep in mind that downloading ROMs is against Nintendo's terms of service.

Steps

1
Make sure that you have the necessary items. To play a video game file on your Nintendo DS, you will need the following items:
- Nintendo DS R4 card - Used to emulate a Nintendo DS game card. You can find these online or in some tech stores.
- MicroSD card - Storage for your ROMs. Try to find a microSD card with at least one gigabyte (1 GB) of RAM.
- MicroSD card adapter - A card that can plug into your computer's SD card slot. A card adapter often comes with a microSD card. If your computer doesn't have an SD card slot, you'll need a microSD to USB adapter instead.
- ' A ROM of the game you want to play - If you don't already have the ROM, you can find one to download by typing "[game name] from Nintendo ds" into a search engine. Only download ROMs from safe websites.
2
Insert the microSD card into the adapter. The microSD card should fit into a slot at the top or in the side of the SD card adapter.
- The microSD should only fit one way. If it doesn't fit, don't force it—just rotate it and try again.
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3
Plug the adapter into your computer. You should find an SD card slot on the side of your computer (laptop) or on the computer's CPU box (desktop). If you don't, you'll need to use a microSD to USB adapter.
- Modern Macs don't have SD card slots, so you'll need an SD card to USB-C adapter.
4
Format your microSD card. You'll need to change your microSD card's file system to FAT32 (Windows) or MSDOS (FAT) (Mac) in order for it to work with your Nintendo DS.
5
Move the ROM file onto the microSD card. To do so, you'll click the ROM file, press Ctrl+C (Windows) or ⌘ Command+C (Mac), and then do the following depending on your operating system:
- Windows - Open This PC, double-click your SD card's name below the "Devices and drives" heading, and press Ctrl+V.
- Mac - Open Finder, click your SD card's name in the lower-left side of the window, and press ⌘ Command+V.
6
Eject the microSD card from your computer. To do so:
- Windows - Click the flash drive-shaped icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen (you may first have to click ^ there), click the Eject option, and then remove the card and adapter from your computer.
- Mac - Click the "Eject" icon to the right of the SD card's name in Finder, then remove the card and adapter from your Mac when prompted.
7
Insert the microSD card into the R4 card. Just like the microSD card, you should find a small slot at the top of the R4 card into which you can insert the microSD card.
8
Plug the R4 card into your Nintendo DS. It should fit into the slot that you usually use to house games.
9
Power on your DS. Press the DS power button to do so. Due to the SD card, your DS may take longer to start up than it usually does.
10
Select your card. On the bottom screen of the Nintendo DS, select the "MicroSD" or "SD" option when prompted to select a storage option.
- If your DS opens to the SD card's contents, skip this step.
11
Select a ROM to play. Tap or select a game's name on the bottom screen to open it, then wait for the game to load. Once the game has fully loaded, you're ready to play it like you would a physical copy of the game.

Community Q&A

Question

Can you play Gameboy games?

Jed Lingao

Community Answer

No. You can only play DS games. The screen shots are also wrong, since it shows a 3DS game.
Question

How can I play original Gameboy games on the R4i Gold?

Community Answer

You can't, you can only play DS games, but I imagine you could use a laptop with some emulators.
Question

If I eject the cartridge while the folder is in the DS already, will the ROM still be there?

Community Answer

It will be there, the only problem will be that it will either crash or freeze your system.