NDS Passkey
Wouldn't you love to be able to play some homebrew or opens ource games on your NDS Lite instead of just running them on an emulator?
Introducing the M3 adapter coupled with the Superkey. These are the two carts that make it possible for you to play homebrew or open source on your NDS.
Unlike GBA carts like the EZF Advance which can run on its own, the NDS needs something called a Passkey which tricks(?) the NDS into playing roms saved to the M3. Whats nice about the Superkey is that it doesn't stick out the top like the old Passkeys so make sure you get this.
Now we need a compatible cart that allows you can save roms to. Different carts are compatible with different Passkeys so beware if you are choosing a different combination other than Superkey+M3. The counterpart to the Superkey that I recommend is the M3 Adapter - roms are loaded into the NDS via this cart which slots into the GBA slot.
What I like about the M3 is that you dont need a Linker cable (like the ones that came with the old GBA carts and you can save the roms directly to an SD or CF card which is then slotted into the M3. The M3 does stick out of the NDS Lite body but this shouldn't bother you too much when compared to the amount of money you will save (I let you work that one out yourself ;-)
Just to recap, here are the steps that you need to go through before you can start to play homebrew...
- Get yourself the Superkey and M3.
- The Superkey goes in the NDS cart slot. It doesnt do anything much if you turn on the unit without a cart in the GBA slot.
- Get hold of some homebrew or open source roms - here are a few keywords to get you going... HOMEBREW EFNET GBATEMP...
- Once you have gotten your grubby mitts on those roms, follow these instructions to burn them to an SD or CF card (depending on the type of M3 you decided to get). I dont know of a way to burn these using a mac so you'll have to use Windows or run Virtual PC.
- Remove your SD or CF card from your PC and slot it into the M3 - the M3 goes into the GBA slot in your NDS.
- Obviously make sure the Superkey is in the NDS slot before turning on. You will then be presented with a menu - choose the game menu and then choose the rom you want to play.
- Enjoy...
Folks in Japan can get their hands on these carts from Gamebank - the Superkey cost 2,780 yen and the M3 cost 8,980 yen.
The Superkey cart unlike old Passkey's fits snugly into the NDS slot.
The M3 Movie Media Player comes in different shapes and sizes - this is the SD card version. They also have a mini SD card version too.
This is how much the M3 will stick out the bottom of your NDS Lite.
And this is what it will look like from the front.
