How to Make Your Own DS Flash Cartridges

By Joshua Bailey

Updated September 22, 2017

Items you will need

  • SD card

  • Card reader

  • ROM

  • Emulator

i BananaStock/BananaStock/Getty Images

The Nintendo DS is a handheld video game console that uses SD cards as its gaming medium. Like with many other video game consoles, the DS was hacked not too far into its life span. The hacking allowed owners to create their own game cartridges on the flash SD cards. Creating one of the game cartridges can be done using any SD card and a few game files.

Download one of the SNES ROMs (see Resources). Connect your card reader to the computer and insert the SD card into the card reader. Game ROMs are copies of the physical game in their digital form.

Click the "Start" button and "Computer" to open the list of drives on the computer. Double-click the SD card image to open the SD on the computer. Click the "New Folder" option on the top portion of the window to make a new folder. Type in "snes" to rename the folder to the proper title. Click the "New Folder" button again and type in "apps."

Right-click the downloaded ROM file and click "Copy." Right-click the newly created "snes" folder and click "Paste" to transfer the game to the SD card.

Download the snes emulator (see Resources). Right-click it and click "Copy." Right-click the "apps" folder and click "Paste" to transfer the emulator application to the SD card.

Remove the SD card from the card reader and insert it into the DS. Select "SNEmulDS" option from the DS menu to start the emulator and select the ROM from the list of games that appears to start playing.

Tips

Installing emulators on the DS is legal but will void your warranty.

×