Supported games

The USA, European and Japanese releases are all supported. Any other GBA game also runs (set show_all = 1 to list them); it just plays on one screen, with the second screen dark.

Game	Codes (USA / Europe / Japan)	Second screen	Map button
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow	A2CE A2CP A2CJ	map	Select
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance	ACHE ACHP ACHJ	map	Select
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon	AAME AAMP AAMJ	map, with the completion rate	Select
Metroid: Zero Mission	BMXE BMXP BMXJ	map	Start
Metroid Fusion	AMTE AMTP AMTJ	map	Start
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past & Four Swords	AZLE AZLP AZLJ	world and dungeon maps	L
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (SK8 in Japan)	ATHE (USA and Europe) ATHF ATHD ATHJ	the goal sheet for the current run	—
Mario Kart: Super Circuit (Mario Kart Advance in Japan)	AMKE AMKP AMKJ	the race HUD, results and podium	—

The codes are what <CODE> means in logo and overlay file names (see Playing and Map screen surrounds and overlays).

How the maps work

GBA DS runs a second, silent copy of the game next to the one you're playing. About every 1.5 seconds (Map Refresh in the pause menu), and right after each room transition, it copies your game's state into the silent copy, presses the map button there, waits for the map screen, and records a short loop of frames so blinking markers still blink. Before showing a map it checks two things: a memory flag that's only set while the map screen is open, and fixed pixels of the map screen itself. Title screens, cutscenes, menus and fades are rejected, and the last good map stays up. Your game is never paused or touched.

You see the game's own map, with everything it shows (explored rooms, save and warp rooms, completion, area names), at sharp 4× scale on the RG DS Plus.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Harmony of Dissonance, Circle of the Moon

• The map is shown with a border taken from the game's own menus (see Map screen surrounds and overlays).
• Circle of the Moon's map screen has no completion rate, so GBA DS copies the percentage shown after "RATE" on the game's pause screen onto the map: in the top-right corner, which stays clear of rooms even on a fully explored castle (the bottom-right corner is the fallback).
• The Japanese Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance keep their data at different addresses; GBA DS knows both.

Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion

• Mini-map: with the full map always up, the small 3×3 mini-map in the top-right corner of the game screen is hidden. It's left out when the picture is drawn, so the game itself is unchanged; map = 0 brings it back along with the normal one-screen view.
• Map screens show the pause screen's map in its frame, tidied up (map_crop, on by default):
  • the button labels and area name are erased, and the scroll arrows and play-time clock left out;
  • Fusion's "A OBJECTIVE" prompt and its row of ticked item icons are left out, and the map grid behind them rebuilt;
  • Zero Mission's corner minimap gives way to the map underneath, with its "SELECT / CHANGE AREAS" prompt covered by a piece of the bezel;
  • the coloured plates are recoloured to the frame's greys so they don't stand out.
• map_crop = 0 shows the pause screens exactly as the games draw them. The European versions' label erasing was checked in English and German.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

• The cartridge also holds Four Swords, which needs linked GBAs. The game list shows only A Link to the Past, and maps are only captured while it's being played.
• L brings up the world map outdoors: GBA DS shows the zoomed-out whole-world view, which doesn't scroll with Link. In a dungeon, once you have its map, it shows the dungeon map.
• Where L does nothing (houses, caves, dungeons without their map), the last map stays up, dimmed.
• After Save and Quit, the second screen goes back to the logo.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

• The second screen shows the goal sheet for the current run (Free Skate, Single Session and the career checklist), without the sprites the game draws over it. It stays up through the run, pauses and loading, and goes back to the logo at the menus.
• An optional four-button layout, like the console games, is under Controls on the second screen: see Playing.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit

The HUD is moved off the game screen rather than copied: GBA DS draws each frame twice, once without the HUD for the game screen and once with only the HUD for the second screen, so nothing behind the HUD is lost.

• Racing:
  • The game screen shows the track and the karts, with the item box (and your item) in its top-left corner and your place in its top-right corner. The "turn ahead" signs stay where the game puts them.
  • The second screen has the coins, lap and time along the top, the top-four faces centred down the left, and the course map with every racer's dot, twice as big (1.5× if a course's map wouldn't fit comfortably), in the middle.
  • Behind it all is a dimmed picture of the course's own sky and scenery, captured as each race starts.
• After the finish, the lap times and the results table are shown on the second screen.
• After a cup, the podium's CONGRATULATIONS!, the cup name, your portrait, place, rank and cup table move to the second screen over the game's dimmed logo; the podium, crowd and trophy stay on the game screen.
• The game's pause menu stays on the game screen, with the last HUD below it. In the menus, the second screen shows the logo.
• With one screen (layout = single), the HUD stays where the game draws it.