Tutorial: How to direct-boot DSiWare using melonDS DS core in Retroarch

[nonstatik]

FYI this has been possible since February 2025, but I have not seen this mentioned anywhere.

Note: you do need all BIOS (both DS and DSi) + NAND files for this to work.

How to do it:

1) Create a DSiWare subfolder in your DS games folder (or anywhere else really) and move all DSiWare games there

2) Copy 1 normal DS game and put it into your DSiWare folder (so you can access Quick Menu)

3) Load the normal DS game from your DSiWare folder. Once the game boots, go to the Quick Menu > Core Options > System and change Console Mode to DSi (experimental)

NOTE: If you never successfully booted a DSiWare game before in Native Mode, I would also suggest changing Boot Mode to Native to ensure the core sees all your BIOS/NAND files and can load DSiWare games to NAND as shown in this tutorial. This is the previous way we all had to play DSiWare in Retroarch, but if you can't do that properly, Retroarch will crash in Direct Boot Mode and you won't be able to get back into Quick Settings without manually editing a .cfg file.

4) Now choose Close Content in Quick Menu and Load Content with a DSiWare game in your DSiWare folder. If you did everything in Step 3 correctly, you should see the DSi boot menu and the game should be loaded in NAND (the gift box icon).

5) Once you can boot a DSiWare game the 'old' way in the previous steps, change Boot Mode to Direct and restart Retroarch from Quick Menu. The DSiWare game should now direct-boot automatically!

6) Lastly, after you've achieved the previous step, go back to Quick Menu after the DSiWare game has direct-booted, and choose Core Options > Manage Core Options > Save Content Directory Options

You should now be able to direct boot all DSiWare games in your DSiWare folder, AND your normal DS games in your normal DS folder without having to change any settings ever again. After checking that this all works, you can delete the normal DS game from the DSiWare folder.

Unfortunately there are no DSiWare videos at EmuMovies. I personally use Stacher to make my own from existing YouTube gameplay videos.

Edited May 4, 2025 by nonstatik

[jayjun911]

I have tried and not working for me. (white screen when direct boot or no gift icon in native shell boot) 

may I ask melonDS core version you're using and type of DSiWare file types? 

DSiWare never been released to *.nds, however there are decrypted nds files exist as well as encrypted eshop format which contains titlekey.bin.. etc. 

I've tried both types and wasn't able to launch for both standalone melonds nor retroarch's melonDS core

Only way I was able to play those dsiware games == install it to nand using standalone melonDS's manage DSi title menu. 

[jayjun911]

OK, Release v1.2.0 · JesseTG/melonds-ds core from here, supports dsiware directboot

 

[SiriusVI]

@nonstatik, @jayjun911

This weirdly works only with USA and EUR DSiWare titles for me, but NOT with Japanese DSiWare titles (I know you have to use a region-specific NAND). USA and EU games boot directly, but Japanese games always go into the title menu first and I have to manually select the game. Is there a specific reason you can think of why direct boot mode does not work with Japanese games? 

EDIT: Chinese games also boot directly into the game. So far it's only Japanese games that have this issue.

Edited Sunday at 10:53 PM by SiriusVI

[nonstatik]

Interesting, I had not tested any Japanese DSiWare. I was going to suggest that you create a Github issue but I see that you just did that. 😎

[jayjun911]

I'm sure you set the right Boot Mode settings, right? Other than that, I have no other idea. 

[SiriusVI]

On 8/10/2026 at 12:41 PM, nonstatik said:

Interesting, I had not tested any Japanese DSiWare. I was going to suggest that you create a Github issue but I see that you just did that. 😎

Yeah, I usually do that when I find an issue =). I'm guessing that most people don't bother with Japanese games and that's why it fell under the radar. But I can get quite obsessive, I tend to find these issues

On 8/10/2026 at 2:49 PM, jayjun911 said:

I'm sure you set the right Boot Mode settings, right? Other than that, I have no other idea. 

Yes, I set it exactly like with the USA and Europe games, but it doesn't seem to work on Japanese games.