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DS development > Starting developing on NDS

#145632 - elbarto - Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:11 pm

Hello all.

I lke to start developing on NDS and I research some information that I can't find on this forum nor the link on the different post about NDS development.

- What is the format of an NDS executable ? (I could read the ndstool source code but if someone have something more readable it would be cool)
- What is the boot sequence of the NDS after selecting game on firmware ?
- At what address is loaded an .nds via a linker (I've got a R4 and Neoflash)

Well basically I don't want to use PA_Lib nor ndslib (I'm not saying there bad, just if no just to code with some pre-done work) so I research anything about deeper structure of the NDS.

Thanks a lot in advance.

#145633 - Mighty Max - Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:27 pm

elbarto wrote:

- What is the format of an NDS executable ? (I could read the ndstool source code but if someone have something more readable it would be cool)


http://www.bottledlight.com/ds/index.php/FileFormats/NDSFormat
http://nocash.emubase.de/gbatek.htm#dscartridgeheader

elbarto wrote:

- What is the boot sequence of the NDS after selecting game on firmware ?

Basically: copying the chunks from the .nds file into the location they are expected to be (i.e. arm9 bin to wram) and start execution.
In more detail: check the gbatek link

elbarto wrote:

- At what address is loaded an .nds via a linker (I've got a R4 and Neoflash)


The address specified in the linker script/written into the nds header

Quote:

Well basically I don't want to use PA_Lib nor ndslib (I'm not saying there bad, just if no just to code with some pre-done work) so I research anything about deeper structure of the NDS.


Hmm, even when i don't understand the need to, just don't use it.
But what your questions point to is not to the use of the libs but the use of the toolchain.
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