wiki.mbirth.de/know-how/hacking/nintendo-ds/_posts/2009-03-23-dump-games.md

created	language	layout	layout_old	redirect_to	tags	title	toc	updated
2009-03-15 14:41:43 +0100	en	redirect	default	https://blog.mbirth.de/archives/2009/03/15/dump-games.html	know-how hacking hardware nintendo gaming	Dump Games	false	2009-03-23 01:04:47 +0100

Dumping game cartridges is done the same way like [dumping savegames]({% post_url 2009-03-15-backup-savegames %}).

EZFlash 3in1 method

The only difference here is that you might have to swap the cartridges more often since the Flash memory of the [EZFlash 3in1]({% post_url 2009-03-15-ezflash-3in1 %}) is only 32 MiB and some games are up to 128 MiB in size.

There's a nice tutorial with pictures at monroeworld.com.

Here are some estimated times for dumping different sized game cartridges (copied from that page):

Game size	Number of passes	est. time needed
4 MiB	1 pass	2min 30sec
8 MiB	1 pass	3min 15sec
16 MiB	1 pass	4min 45sec
32 MiB	1 pass	9min 30sec
64 MiB	2 passes	14min 15sec
128 MiB	4 passes	19min 00sec
256 MiB	8 passes	38min 00sec

Wi-Fi method

Be warned that the Wi-Fi transfer speed is somewhat "limited". Dumping a 128 MiB game takes almost 2 hours. So make sure your NDS is connected to its power adaptor.

ROM Trimming

Game cartridges have the typical memory ICs in binary sizes (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 MiB) although the game often doesn't occupy the whole memory. That means if a game is 35 MiB in size, it is shipped on a 64 MiB cartridge. When dumping, you'll dump the whole 64 MiB although the last 29 MiB are empty (filled with 0x00). So you can save a lot of space if you trim a ROM down to the real size.

Games which use the WiFi feature mostly store their connection info in this empty space so using the wrong program to trim a ROM will break online capability of games.

A good trimmer is NDSTokyoTrim which can detect WiFi-games and leaves the space for their settings.