Chapter 5

Games, BIOS and saves

Which folder each system's games go in, the files each takes, the BIOS files some need, where saves are kept, and using a second card or a slot CFW card.

The folders🔗

Games go in Roms/<folder> on a card, one folder per system. The folders are the ones the DS+’s stock system uses, so a games card you already have works as it is. DSlot makes the folder of every system it has an emulator for, each with a _README.txt saying what goes in it; nothing on a card is ever renamed, moved or deleted.

• Zipped games: a cartridge game may be a .zip holding one game. Disc games (PC Engine CD, PlayStation) are never zipped.

• Discs: put a .cue with its .bin tracks beside it; DSlot lists the .cue and hides the tracks. A PlayStation game of several discs is an .m3u, a text file listing the discs, one file name a line:

  Game (USA) (Disc 1).chd
  Game (USA) (Disc 2).chd

  DSlot then shows the .m3u and hides the discs it lists.

• Names: the shelf shows a game by its file name, less what is in brackets (Lantern Tide (USA) (Rev 1) shows as Lantern Tide). DS games show the title stored in the game itself.

BIOS files🔗

A few systems need a BIOS file: a copy of the console’s own start-up program. nibOS doesn’t come with any; they are yours to supply, from your own console. Put them in BIOS/ at the root of either card, named exactly as below. A system that needs one won’t start without it, and says which file is missing and where it looked.

Without a PlayStation BIOS, the emulator’s own replacement plays most games, and the game’s menu says which file to add. The DS and GBA need no BIOS: DSperate has its own replacements built in.

Saves🔗

Every game’s saves are kept together in one folder, Saves/<folder>/<game>/, on the NIBOS-DATA partition of the nibOS card (Which card): its battery save (the game’s own save, as the cartridge kept it), its clock, its save states and its resume point. A game is known by its system folder and its file name, so moving a game between cards, or between Roms/ and a slot CFW Games/ folder, keeps its saves.

Save states are snapshots of one emulator’s memory: they can’t be loaded by another emulator, or by a different version of the same one, which refuses rather than loading one wrongly. Battery saves carry over anywhere.

To start a game again from the beginning, clear its resume point (DSlot’s menu (X) → Game → Clear resume state). Delete saves in the same place deletes everything in the game’s saves folder, after asking twice.

Writing a newer image over the card keeps Saves/, Roms/ and BIOS/ on a card set up by nibOS 0.1.0-alpha1 or later (Updates). Copying Saves/ to your computer first is still wise.

Which card🔗

The DS+ has two card slots. nibOS starts from the card in TF1; a second card in TF2 is optional.

• Games are found on both cards: Roms/ on the nibOS card’s NIBOS-DATA partition, and Roms/ on the card in TF2. A game on both is listed once.
• BIOS files are found in BIOS/ on either card.
• Saves always go in Saves/ on NIBOS-DATA, on the nibOS card in TF1.
• A card in TF2 must be formatted exFAT and named (labelled) DS; one with any other name or format isn’t read. To rename one, on a Mac use Disk Utility (or click its name in the Finder), on Windows its Properties.

A card set up for slot CFW🔗

A card set up for slot CFW works as it is, beside the stock layout, and nothing on it is moved:

Battery saves: slot’s aren’t picked up by themselves yet, except for Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, whose .sav beside the game is copied in the first time the game starts. For a GBA game, copy its .sav into Saves/GBA/<game>/ yourself, named after the game file (<game>.sav). Save states don’t carry over between slot and nibOS. Details: DSlot’s slot card guide.

Box art🔗

Optional: see The DSlot shelf.