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Nintendo DS accessories

This article is about accessories for the Nintendo DS.

Official accessories

Although the secondary port on the Nintendo DS does accept and support Game Boy Advance cartridges (but not Game Boy Color or original Game Boy cartridges), Nintendo has emphasized that its main intention for its inclusion was to allow a wide variety of accessories to be released for the system, the Game Boy Advance compatibility titles being a logical extension.

Rumble PAK

The Rumble Pak was the first official expansion slot accessory. In the form of a Game Boy Advance cartridge, the Rumble Pak vibrates to reflect the action in compatible games, such as when the player bumps into an obstacle or loses a life. It was released on October 24, 2005 and bundled with Metroid Prime Pinball. It can be used in games such as Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, Star Fox Command, Metroid Prime Hunters and 42 All Time Classics and is sold as a separate accessory. A specially designed Rumble Pak was released in Japan in late May, 2006 for the Nintendo DS Lite The cartridge is about 1cm shorter to prevent it from protruding out of the Nintendo DS Lite as standard Game Boy Advance cartridges do. A North American version of the accessory is assumed following the June 11, 2006 release of the system.

Magnetic Stand

A magnetic stand with a tethered stylus was released for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite in Japan and Europe. It connects via the DS Slot 2, aka the GBA Slot on the DS, and can either be folded in a triangle to hold the DS up, or flattened to stick it to a magnetic surface. Its purpose is to hold a DS up while running Cookbook Software so the person using it can easily see the screens and the instructions.

Opera Web Browser

On February 15, 2006, Nintendo announced a version of Opera, a cross-platform web browser, which will take advantage of the dual screens for either zooming in on certain sections of a website or having a longer vertical view. The browser went on sale in Japan on July 24, 2006, for JP¥3,800 (approx. $33). It was released in Europe on October 6, 2006.

Memory Expansion Pak

The Nintendo DS Browser ships with a 10MB RAM pack which fits into the accessory slot, and which is required for the browser to run. The Expansion Pak is not used by any other software.

Nintendo MP3 Player

Nintendo of Europe released the Nintendo MP3 Player in December 2006. It is very similar to the Japanese Play-Yan Micro, however the MP3 Player cannot play video files. Music is played from an SD Card inserted into the MP3 Player Cartridge (which fits into the GBA Slot), and a special Headphone port is included in the cartridge to enable playback during sleep mode, and in a higher quality than the DS speakers. It has two menu themes, a Stickman theme and a classic Super Mario Bros theme.

The Nintendo MP3 player is compatible with any device that can play GBA games, however it is not recommended for the Game Boy Advance or GBA SP due to short battery life.

DS Camera

The DS Camera is a camera that plugs into the GBA slot of the DS. It is included with Face Training, in which it is used to give the player a view of their face as they use the game. It is currently only available in Japan. No release date has been given for the rest of the world.

Slide Controller

Launched in Japan on August 3, 2007, the Slide Controller is bundled with the game "Slide Adventure: Mag Kid". The Mag Kid is a little magnet that stays all of the time in the center of the touch screen. The Slide Controller is attached to Slot 2, a.k.a. the GBA slot, of the DS, which makes use of the technology of a computer's optical mouse, being that the pak emits red light from a LED light located at the bottom of the controller. In order to move the Mag Kid across the screen during the game, the player has to slide the whole Nintendo DS system with this controller (combined with a slant angle) on a table surface, thus given the name "Slide Controller". On August 3, 2007, the bundled package of the Controller with the game was released at the price of HKD310 (USD39.9) across Hong Kong.

Nintendo DS Digital TV Tuner

The Nintendo DS Digital TV Tuner is a 1seg TV tuner that picks up TV signals and plays them on the Nintendo DS. The prototypes Nintendo had at the press conference were running via the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot, but the final version plugs into the DS card slot complete with TV areals that unfold when in use. It was released on November 23, 2007. The top screen is for watching the broadcast in 16:9 or 4:3 ratio. The touch screen is used to change the channels. Not much information is available on the product. Currently available in Japan only because it only picks up 1seg broadcast signals. It is unlikely this will become available for use in North America or Europe. Sold at an online Nintendo shop in Japan.

Third party accessories

DS Motion Card

The DS Motion Card and DS Motion Pak are motion sensors for the DS and DS Lite handheld gaming systems.

They each contain a 3-axis accelerometer and a single-axis gyroscope, and plug into the DS to enable full motion sensing on the DS and the DS lite.

They are the first tri-axis accelerometers that can be used for homebrew DS development, and the first accelerometer/gyroscope combinations available for handheld gaming.

Action Replay MAX Duo

This was an update to the Action Replay for Game Boy Advance. Not only did it function as a GBA Action Replay, but for DS users, it could hold premade game saves or "powersaves" that could be downloaded from the Action Replay site as well as user made saves. It did not, however function as a cheat device for DS games, it was only for data backup.

Action Replay DS

It is a cheat cartridge for the Nintendo DS , Nintendo DS Lite

Max Media Dock

Datel manufactures the Max Media Dock, this allows you to access, store and run media content from CompactFlash cards. It can accept cards up to 8 GB in size. This tool also lets you use DS homebrew. DS homebrew is software written for the Nintendo DS handheld games console by hobbyist programmers.

Max Media Dock is compatible with both the original Nintendo DS and the Nintendo DS Lite.

Max Media Player

Similar to the Max Media Dock, it features a removable 4 GB hard drive to accompany a software media player. A compactflash card can replace the hard drive. The Max Media Player also comes in a 1 GB "GigaPack". The add-on is similar to the 4 GB hard drive released late last year for the PlayStation Portable.

Play-Yan

The Play-Yan is an adaptor which allows the Game Boy Advance SP and Nintendo DS to play MPEG-4 videos and MP3 music from SD memory cards. It was originally marketed as a Game Boy Advance accessory, but it can also be used with the Nintendo DS. The adaptor bears a superficial resemblance to the AM3 player (which allowed playback of pre-recorded movie files from read-only memory cards on a Game Boy Advance); the memory card slides into the right hand side of the adaptor, which then plugs into the cartridge slot of the parent console.

It is estimated that it will offer over 15 hours of MP3 playback and 4 hours of MPEG-4 playback from a fully-charged Game Boy Advance SP. The adaptor launched in Japan in February 2005 for approximately 5,000 yen ($47.47). Nintendo originally planned to release the adapter in the U.S. by the end of 2005, but it appears their plans have changed, as Nintendo has not delivered an announcement of a U.S. release with specific dates as of April 2008.

WiFi MAX

WiFi MAX is Datel's alternative to the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector. Unlike the Wi-Fi Connector, the WiFi MAX can be used with Wi-Fi devices other than the DS (PlayStation Portable, PDAs, etc). The WiFi MAX can also be used as a standard WLAN adapter, while the Wi-Fi Connector is limited to acting only as an Access Point.

However, the WiFi MAX lacks the added security features of the Wi-Fi Connector, in that any device can connect to it, rather than only permitting Nintendo DS units. WiFi MAX should not be confused with WiMAX, an unrelated wireless data technology that provides wide-area coverage.

Communicator Headset

Datel's version of the VolP headset.

DS Flash Cartridges

A device primarily used for homebrew and back-ups. There are only a few DS flash cards on the market, most of which are currently based on GBA flash carts. Modern flash cards now only use slot-1, many include: the N-Card, M3, Supercard, Edge DS, EZ-Flash IV, and the G6, DSTT, R4, Acekard, CycloDS Evolution.

Trainer Toolkit

Another accessory coming soon by Datel. The Trainer Toolkit which consists of a "Dev-Card" - a dongle that connects into the GBA cart slot, An Action Replay DS "Trainer Card" that inserts into the DS slot, as well as a USB link to PC cable and "Training" software. Basically, this is a device that is used to make your own hack/cheat codes for Nintendo DS games. There is no information yet on when this product will be released. Although during October 2006 they announced that the card is available via the internet. Clips of this product can be found on You Tube Reportedly, Music and Movies will be viewable on this.

MAX Music

This small card made by Datel connects into the DS's cartridge slot and allows music and movies to be played on the Nintendo DS. Media files are loaded onto micro SD Cards which then the card is loaded into the cartridge.

Cartridge Construction Kit

Datel's version of DS Flash cards for running homebrew games. It appears to be the same thing as the Games n' Music, it even has similar packaging. Apparently Datel changed the name to something that would appeal to buyers, such as "Games n' Music" over "Cartridge Construction Kit".

GBA Movie Player

This card was originally designed for the Game Boy Advance, but was hacked by Chism, a homebrew DS developer. The firmware modification allows the GBA Movie Player versions 1 and 2 to boot DS homebrew. The files are stored on a Compact Flash card. Since the GBA Movie Player is a Slot-2 device, it must be booted using a PassMe, FlashMe, WiFiMe, or another pass device such as NoPass. The booting application must be renamed _BOOT_MP.nds, which is booted when the DS starts up. A shell program, such as MoonShell, DSOrganize, or GBAMP Multiboot, may be used to boot other applications after it boots.

Codebreaker

Another cheat device, this one is made by Pelican Accessories.

DSMem

The DSMem is an adapter for the Nintendo DS produced by the engineer amadeus in his spare time, aiming to supply the DS with a means of rewriteable storage, and to free some of the DS's 4MiB of available memory by using userspace XIP on the binaries contained within the internal flash memory. Over the last months, since the project's announcement on the DSLinux forums at 10:36 on 21 July, 2005, the device has evolved from a plan into a fully working prototype. It is to provide an RS232 interface, Flash memory, and a microSD port. The Linux kernel and uBoot bootloader will be stored in the Flash, while other data is to be stored on the microSD cards. The DS has only limited battery power, so low-power parts must be used. This influenced the decision to use the microSD card, Xilinx Coolrunner II CPLDs, and Intel P30 flash memory, with an LM3670 voltage switcher.

Guitar grip controller

The Guitar grip controller comes packaged with the game Guitar Hero: On Tour and is plugged into the GBA game slot. It features four colored buttons just like the ones that can be found on regular Guitar Hero guitar controllers for the stationary consoles, though it lacks the fifth orange button found on the guitar controllers. The DS Guitar Hero controller comes with a small plectrum-stylus that can be put away into a small slot on the controller. It also features a hand strap.

Hacking

FlashMe

One of the most prevalent booting tools is the program FlashMe. This is a modified firmware for the DS.

PassMe

After the first pass through (patching card information) got home brew code running, several people started to produce and sell the so-called PassMe devices. Currently, the BIOS of the Nintendo DS has been disassembled and will lead to pass through-less cards. PassMe v1 could simply use any Nintendo DS Game Card to operate, while PassMe v2 required on-board memory for game specific booting, which would combat with later versions of the Nintendo DS's firmware that blocked non game-specific boots. However, this required SRAM in the media that the PassMe was booting to, and thus did not operate with some media devices, such as the Game Boy Advance Media Player (CF/SD).

NoPass devices

Datel has introduced to the market the first of the aforementioned pass-throughless cards, dubbed "NoPass" by the homebrewing community. It functions similarly to a PassMe, and unlike previous generations, does not need an official game card or an SRAM-enabled storage device. This opens up the option of using the Game Boy Advance Movie Player with newer-firmware Nintendo DSs.

Wi-Fi

Ever since the Nintendo DS's release on November 21, 2004, several groups have been attempting to extend and build upon the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi protocol. Darkain was leading the reverse-engineering of the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi and Ni-Fi protocols at the time the Nintendo DS came out, which has influenced many of the available Nintendo DS Wi-Fi hacks and applications today.

Interestingly, two groups (Project Nitro and Team Xlink) had claimed to be successful in tunneling the Nintendo DS WiFi protocol over the internet creating online multiplayer possibilities around the world using the handheld and multiplayer-enabled Nintendo DS games.

However, Project Nitro never put out any software or evidence to support their claim, and has since completely disappeared (the developers moved on to create DSmeet, a place to meet other NDS WiFi users). Team XLink claimed to have a workable system, but later publicly announced they were no longer working on tunneling the Nintendo DS, saying they were not making enough progress to warrant their continued efforts.

In both cases, it is all but certain there was never any tangible product created.

Recently a new project entitled DSTunnel has come into being. It is a culmination of a hacker's work in reverse engineering the DS's Wi-Fi hardware. While it has shown promise, and a beta version has shown some success, it still has the requirement of the user having a RAlink RT2500 based Wi-Fi card for it to work.

Since early to mid 2006, Nintendo DS developers have been able to create working Wi-Fi applications through the use of Stephen Stair's NDS Wi-Fi Library. Through modifications of this library, people such as Bronto, of NDSMail, have created functional Wi-Fi apps. DSLinux has also employed Wi-Fi in their port of the Linux operating system. (See below)

Linux

There is currently an ongoing project aiming to bring the Linux operating system to the Nintendo DS, "DSLinux". As of February 2006, this project has successfully executed a 2.6 kernel, the retawq text-only web browser, simple shell, [

], SSH, telnetd, some text-based games, touchscreen support, sound (beta) and Wi-Fi support.

Voice over IP

Using the built-in microphone and Wi-Fi connection, developers have recently begun to create Voice over IP applications, effectively turning the Nintendo DS into a WiFi phone. Only DS-to-DS calls were possible, and now support for SIP has been implemented in the form of SVSIP In conjunction with a SIP provider, it allows you to make phone calls to anyone using the DS whenever there is Wi-FI available.

Cyber Famulator Lite

Cyber Famulator Lite is An add-on for the Nintendo DS Lite which allow users to play Famicom games on their Nintendo DS Lite.It can play NES games with the use of a converter.