Chapter 7

PortMaster

Getting PortMaster, installing ports, playing and quitting them.

PortMaster installs ports: Linux builds of games and game engines, packaged for handhelds. On nibOS it runs on the top screen with the DS+’s controls, installs ports over Wi-Fi, and DSlot lists them on its Ports page.

Getting PortMaster🔗

PortMaster isn’t on the card when you install nibOS: some of the files in its release can’t be passed on in an image, so nibOS downloads it from PortMaster’s own site the first time you ask for it.

1. In DSlot, go to the Apps page (or the Ports page) and choose Get PortMaster.
2. nibOS asks before downloading. It turns Wi-Fi on if it is off, downloads the PortMaster release it was tested with, checks it, and unpacks it.
3. PortMaster opens. From then on the entry reads PortMaster, and PortMaster keeps itself up to date.

Installing and playing ports🔗

Open PortMaster from the Apps page, or from Get more ports, the first tile on the Ports page. Ports it installs go in Roms/PORTS on the games card and appear on DSlot’s Ports page when PortMaster closes, each with its name and picture.

Choose a port on the Ports page to play it, as you would a game. It plays on the top screen; the bottom screen shows its name and how to leave it:

• Select + Start or Menu + Start quits the port.
• Holding power opens the power menu; the port is stopped first.

Ports keep their own saves, in their own folders.

What doesn’t work yet🔗

• Ports that need RetroArch don’t start: nibOS has no RetroArch.
• Ports that need 32-bit libraries aren’t offered: nibOS is 64-bit only.
• PortMaster and the ports it downloads come under their own licences; nibOS includes neither.