How to Download a Game to SD for DSI

By Michelle Varsallona

Updated September 22, 2017

Items you will need

  • Micro SD to SD card adapter

  • R4i card

  • USB SD card reader (if applicable)

SD cards can be used as extra memory or to transfer files.
i sd - karte front image by Otmar Smit from Fotolia.com

You can add DS games to a microSD card to transfer and play on your Nintendo Dsi. SD cards can store gigabytes worth of DS games. After downloading the games to the card, you can easily play them on your system by using an R4i adapter. The R4i card also allows you to view and save media on the DS.

Setting Up Your Adapter

Download the latest R4 software for your R4i card (see Resources). Save the file to your computer. Unzip the files by right-clicking it and selecting “Extract all.”

Insert the microSD card into the SD adapter and insert the adapter into the SD card port on your computer. If your computer does not have this port, use a USB SD card reader.

Click “Open folder to view files.” This opens your microSD card.

Highlight the files you just downloaded from R4, right-click them and click “Cut.” Right-click within the microSD card and click “Paste.” This moves all of the files to the card.

Downloading Games

Open your web browser and navigate to your favorite DS game website. A few suggestions are ROM-Freaks, Romulation and Mega DS ROMs (see Resources).

Browse through the list of available games and click “Download” to download and save the game to your computer.

Open the folder that contains the game files on your computer, highlight them all, right-click them and click “Cut.”

“Paste” the files in the microSD card folder.

Playing the Games

Remove the microSD card from the computer and from the SD card adapter.

Insert the microSD card into the R4i adapter, and then insert the adapter into your Dsi.

Press the “Power” button to start your DS.

Tap the Pac-Man icon with your stylus for the list of games.

Tap a game to begin playing it.

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