This is an SDK for Nintendo DS. It builds on the work of several people, and it has the following goals:

• To create an easy-to-use NDS software development kit based on GCC with as few dependencies as possible.
• To encourage developers to hack and improve the SDK by letting them have all the source code of the SDK. This also shows how easy it is to build the whole codebase. The exception is the tolchain, which is non-trivial to build. Because of that, Wonderful Toolchains is used instead of asking the users to build it themselves.
• To try to keep compatibility with pre-existing C projects. In theory, it should be enough to replace the makefile by one of BlocksDS to build any project that uses libnds.

This project is currently in beta stage, and most features are working. Please, check the libc port documentation for more information about the supported libc functions.

If you want to port a project built with devkitPro, follow this guide for instructions.

For detailed information about the design of BlocksDS, check this other document.

For licensing information, check this.

Important note: Native Windows support is experimental.

The following instructions describe how to install BlocksDS on Windows natively. If you want to use it in WSL, follow the instructions for Linux instead.

1. You will need to install the ARM toolchain of Wonderful Toolchains. Follow the instructions in this link: https://wonderful.asie.pl/docs/getting-started/#windows-via-msys2

2. Now, install the ARM toolchain of Wonderful Toolchains, as well as the BlocksDS packages.

   wf-pacman -Syu
   wf-pacman -S toolchain-gcc-arm-none-eabi

   Install the following if you plan to develop binaries for the DSP of the DSi:

   wf-pacman -S toolchain-llvm-teak-llvm

   For the latest stable version of BlocksDS, run:

   wf-pacman -S thirdparty-blocksds-toolchain

   For the latest unstable version, run:

   wf-pacman -S thirdparty-blocksds-git-toolchain

3. (Optional step) You can also install some third party libraries like NightFox’s Lib and Nitro Engine using wf-pacman:

   wf-pacman -S thirdparty-blocksds-nflib \
                thirdparty-blocksds-nitroengine

4. Whenever you need to update the SDK, run:

   wf-pacman -Syu

If you are using Linux, MinGW, WSL, or any similar environment, you can install the SDK using wf-pacman, Docker, or the native installation instructions.

If you are on Windows, you need to install WSL and follow the Linux instructions, or to use the Docker instructions.

The Docker images of BlocksDS can be used in any OS. They require more disk space than the native installation, but they may be needed if a native installation isn't possible.

This is the easiest option, but you may not get the latest version of the SDK right away.

1. You will also need to install the ARM toolchain of Wonderful Toolchains. Follow the instructions in this link: https://wonderful.asie.pl/docs/getting-started/#linux

2. Now, install the ARM toolchain of Wonderful Toolchains, as well as the BlocksDS packages.

   export PATH=/opt/wonderful/bin:$PATH
   wf-pacman -Syu
   wf-pacman -S toolchain-gcc-arm-none-eabi

   Install the following if you plan to develop binaries for the DSP of the DSi:

   wf-pacman -S toolchain-llvm-teak-llvm

   For the latest stable version of BlocksDS, run:

   wf-pacman -S thirdparty-blocksds-toolchain

   For the latest unstable version, run:

   wf-pacman -S thirdparty-blocksds-git-toolchain

3. (Optional step) You can also install some third party libraries like NightFox’s Lib and Nitro Engine using wf-pacman:

   wf-pacman -S thirdparty-blocksds-nflib \
                thirdparty-blocksds-nitroengine

4. wf-pacman installs BlocksDS in /opt/wonderful/thirdparty/blocksds/. This isn't the standard location (wf-pacman can only write files to /opt/wonderful/) so you need to do one of the two following options:

   4.1 Create a symlink:

   ln -s /opt/wonderful/thirdparty/blocksds /opt/blocksds

   4.2 Set your environment variables correctly:

   export BLOCKSDS=/opt/wonderful/thirdparty/blocksds/core
   export BLOCKSDSEXT=/opt/wonderful/thirdparty/blocksds/external

5. Whenever you need to update the SDK, run:

   wf-pacman -Syu

Follow the instructions in this file to use the Docker images.

This is the option you should use if you want to help develop BlocksDS, or if you want to always use the cutting edge version of BlocksDS.

Follow the instructions in this file to see how to build the SDK from source.

To test that everything is working, you can try building one of the templates.

There is a template that lets the programmer write the code for both CPUs of the NDS (templates/rom_combined) and a template that uses the default ARM7 core that comes with Blocks DS and lets the programmer focus on the ARM9 core. There are also two templates to create static libraries.

For example, go to the combined template folder and run:

cd templates/rom_combined
make

This should have generated a NDS ROM that you can run on any emulator or flashcart.

To do a verbose build, run make like this (this also works for the Makefile of the SDK):

VERBOSE=1 make

NOTE: The paths in the Makefile that refer to source code, includes, graphics, data, etc, must be inside the folder of the project. That means you can't use .. in a path to go one level up from the Makefile. If you really need to use folders outside of the folder of the project, create a symlink to the destination, or build the other code as a static library and link it with the project.

This section has a list of tools and libraries that support BlocksDS and can be installed in /opt/blocksds/external:

Libraries:

• NightFox’s Lib: Library designed to make development of 2D games easy, with support for sprites, backgrounds (even "infinite" maps), and it also has limited 2D graphics support using the 3D engine.
• Nitro Engine: Library to create 3D applications. It supports dual screen 3D, static and animated models, supports all texture types, and has basic 2D support using the 3D hardware. It's compatible with NightFox's Lib.
• gbajpeg: Library designed to load JPEG files on GBA with very low resource usage, which also makes it a good library for NDS.

Tools:

• ptexconv: Tool to convert images to files in the format of the NDS. This tool is one of the few available tools that can output files in the very efficient tex4x4 format used by the GPU of the NDS.

You may keep multiple versions of this SDK in your PC. The location of the active SDK is stored in the environment variables BLOCKSDS and BLOCKSDSEXT, so all you need to do is to change their values and point to the version of the SDK you want to use.

By default, the paths are assumed to be /opt/blocksds/core/ and /opt/blocksds/external/. The first one is used for core BlocksDS libraries and tools, and it is managed by BlocksDS. The second one is left for users to freely install third party libraries and tools.

This project wouldn't have been possible without:

• Many thanks to asie for his help and advice, and for Wonderful Toolchains
• devkitPro
• picolibc
• libnds
• dswifi
• maxmod (and mmutil)
• grit
• GCC
• make
• And many others!