My themes for YSmenu. YSmenu is a free (but closed-source) alternative menu system / firmware for R4 cartridges for Nintendo DS (Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, ...).
For more information about YSmenu, see YSMenu on gamebrew.org and YSMenu on gbatemp.net
For more information about R4, see articles on Wikipedia: R4 cartridge, R4i_SDHC
I bought "R4 SDHC 2020" on AliExpress. But I was disappointed with the original firmware because of the awful user interface and moreover, I found out it has a "timebomb feature". The "Timebomb feature" causes a "failure" of the firmware after five years! So shameful!
I found out somebody clever modified an R4 firmware to boot directly to the YSmenu to fix the "timebomb".
But I couldn't find a YSmenu theme I would be satisfied with...
See "How To Setup An R4 Card" video on YouTube describing how to install YSmenu to "R4 SDHC 2020". Link from the video to download YSmenu: "R4 Card TimeBomb Fix.zip" Or an alternative video: "How to Install YSMenu on your DS Flashcart" And link to get YSmenu: "YSmenu.7z")
Probaly the original YSmenu R4 firmware mod: "multi-cart-update" by retrogamefan on gbatemp.net.
You can simply copy YSmenu.ini, YSMenu1.bmp, YSMenu2.bmp to <your_SD_card>/TTmenu/
If you have custom YSmenu.ini then overwrite only sections [FILELIST] and [FILEINFO]...
Color definitions are in the sections [FILELIST] and [FILEINFO]
YSmenu.ini uses color codes in a format "BGR15". For converting colors to this format, you can use my simple Python script html2bgr15.py For more information see source code or run:
python3 html2bgr15.py --help
Alternatively, there is an online converter http://www.conradshome.com/html2bgr15/
Background images. YSMenu1.bmp for the top and YSMenu2.bmp for the bottom screen.
Resolution is 256 × 192 pixels for both.
Images have to be saved in the format:
- no color space information
- 24 bits color - R8 G8 B8
If you can't find the firmware for your R4, check flashcard-archive.
See the excellent ZX Spectrum emulator ZXDS written by Patrik Rak
You can still buy a new R4 cartridge (At least now, in 2022), for example on AliExpress or on eBay.
Some cheaper R4s from AliExpress use a different R4 firmware. They require file _dsmenu.dat or _ds_menu.dat. They usually work well with firmware "R4 Kernal" or "R4 Wood" and they have no "timebomb feature" (as far as I know).