NDS Hello World - Pikachu Demo

A beginner-friendly "Hello World" Nintendo DS homebrew application that displays text on the console and renders a simple sprite on the top screen.

Prerequisites

Ubuntu Installation

See UBUNTU_INSTALL.md for detailed Ubuntu/Linux installation instructions.

macOS Installation

See MACOS_INSTALL.md for detailed macOS installation instructions.

Project Structure

nds-hello/
├── source/
│   └── main.c          # Application source code
├── Makefile            # Build configuration
├── UBUNTU_INSTALL.md   # Ubuntu installation guide
├── MACOS_INSTALL.md   # macOS installation guide
└── README.md          # This file

Building

1. Install devkitPro first (see installation guides above)

2. Set environment variables (if not already set):

   export DEVKITPRO=/opt/devkitpro
   export DEVKITARM=$DEVKITPRO/devkitARM
   export PATH=$DEVKITPRO/devkitARM/bin:$DEVKITPRO/tools/bin:$PATH

3. Build the project:

   cd nds-hello
   make

4. Output: Creates nds-hello.nds in the project directory

Running

On Hardware (PicoDS)

1. Copy nds-hello.nds to your PicoDS micro SD card
2. Boot your Nintendo DS
3. Navigate to the file and run it

On Emulator

• melonDS: Open the .nds file directly
• DeSmuME: Open the .nds file directly

Controls

Button	Action
START	Exit application

What It Does

• Displays "Pikachu Hello World!" text on the bottom screen console
• Renders a simple 32x32 sprite on the top screen
• Shows control instructions

Troubleshooting

"Please set DEVKITARM in your environment"

Run: source ~/.bashrc (Ubuntu) or source ~/.zshrc (macOS)

Build fails

Ensure devkitPro is installed: dkp-pacman -S nds-dev

Sprite not showing

The sprite demo uses 16-color format. For more complex graphics, consider using converted sprite sheets with proper palette configuration.

Next Steps

Once you've verified this works:

1. Try modifying the sprite graphics in main.c
2. Add button input handling
3. Explore the libnds examples in /opt/devkitpro/libnds/examples
4. Learn about sprite animation, audio, and touch input

Resources

• libnds Documentation: https://libnds.devkitpro.org/
• devkitPro Wiki: https://devkitpro.org/wiki/
• GBAtemp NDS Homebrew Forum: https://gbatemp.net/forums/nds-homebrew.60/

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Created for Nintendo DS Homebrew Development