Do you want to play DS games straight from your home menu on your 3DS without using the Twilight menu? This guide will show you how to do just that. We will install DS games as if they were a CIA file onto our home menu. However, they are not a CIA file, so the steps are a little bit different.
To get started, we need to use the Universal updater. If you already have it, you can skip this step. But if you don’t have it, you can download the Universal updater.cia and throw it on your SD card. Once you have that, go into your cias folder and drag Universal updater inside of it.
Now, make a folder for your ROMs. Right-click on your SD card, click new, create a new folder, and call it ROMs. Go inside of that folder and create another new folder called NDS. This is where we’re going to place our DS ROMs.
You can now add your DS ROMs to the NDS folder. Your DS games should be an NDS file. Once you have it in there, you can also add other games. Just make sure they are in NDS format.
Once you’ve done that, eject your SD card and insert it into your 3DS. Go into your FBI software, press A on SD, navigate to cias, and you should see Universal updater there. Click A on it and choose install and delete CIA. That way, it’ll install it to your system and delete it off your SD card.
Now that it’s installed, press the home button, and you should see it on the home menu as new software. Open it up and go to the search icon. Type in NDS, press OK, and switch over to the information icon. Scroll over on the top screen until you see NDS forwarder. When you’re there, click A, click A again, click A to confirm, and now you should see it downloading on your 3DS.
Close the software and head over into your Homebrew Channel or Homebrew launcher. Scroll down until you see NDS forwarder generator, and click A on it. Now, you should see your folders on your SD card on the top screen. Navigate to where you put your DS ROMs, scroll down until you see your game, and click A. It’ll ask you if you wish to install the game. Make sure it’s on yes, press A, and it’s done.
You can now check out your home menu. The game you installed should be there. You don’t even need the Twilight menu to play this game. All you need to do is get it onto your home menu and have it on your SD card.
That’s pretty much it for the tutorial. If you run into any issues, you can comment below or join the Discord server. And if you want to learn how to use the Twilight menu, which will allow you to add the widescreen patch and use cheats, keep an eye out for that video in the future.