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How to Get GBA ROMs to Work on a DSi Using an SD Card

The original Nintendo DS had slots for both DS and GameBoy Advance cartridges, but Nintendo opted to remove the GBA cartridge slot on the DSi. If you want to play your old GBA games on your DSi, you must transfer the ROM file to a micro SD card and use an emulator to run the game. An emulator is a program that acts as a translator and mimics the original GameBoy Advance firmware, allowing the game to run. Download the emulator from the DS iPlayer Web site.

Things You'll Need

Micro SD card adapter
SD card reader
Computer
DS iPlayer cartridge

Instructions

- 1
  Insert the micro SD card into the DSi Player cartridge and insert it into the DSi. Turn on the DSi and the player will format the card and set up the file system.
- 2
  Turn off the DSi and remove the DSi Player cartridge. Remove the micro SD card.
- 3
  Insert your micro SD card into the standard SD card adapter that came with the memory card.
- 4
  Insert the adapter into the SD card reader on your computer. If your computer does not have a built-in SD card reader, use a USB SD card reader and insert the USB connector into a USB port on the PC.
- 5
  Click the "Start" button on the Windows task bar and select "Computer." The micro SD card will show up as a drive under "Devices with Removable Storage." Open the drive.
- 6
  Open the Web browser on your computer and go to the GBA DSi downloads page to download the emulator software. Click the link to download the "GBADSi_v1.zip" file. Choose the option to open the file. The emulator files are contained in the "Plugins" folder.
- 7
  Drag and drop the "Plugins" folder in the ZIP file to the "_system" folder on the micro SD card.
- 8
  Open the "NDSGBA" folder on the micro SD card and select the "gamepak" folder.
- 9
  Drag and drop your ROM files into the "gamepak" folder.
- 10
  Click the USB icon in the Windows task bar and select "Eject Removable Disk."
- 11
  Remove the SD card adapter from the reader and slide the micro SD card out of the slot.
- 12
  Insert the micro SD card into the DSi Player cartridge and insert the cartridge into your DSi.
- 13
  Turn on the DSi and choose the "Homebrew" option.
- 14
  Tap the "GBA" option to launch the emulator.

Nintendo DS