Aug

How to Use Digital Drawing on Your Nintendo DS R4 Cards

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How to Use Digital Drawing on Your Nintendo DS R4 Cards

The Nintendo DS r4 card is currently one of the most popular handheld gaming devices. The plethora of addicting and intriguing games available for it, and its ease of accessibility (like most Nintendo products) has made it a commercial success.

You have probably seen at least a few people carrying their DS’s around with them, often tapping away on the nifty touchpad. You may even own one yourself, and know exactly how great these little handhelds are! However, did you know that you can do far more than just play games on a DS, such as turn it into a digital drawing tablet? With a DS, the right software, and a little tinkering (nothing too difficult), you can create your own masterpieces using the touchpad!

First off, you will need to buy a Nintendo DS, and a flash cart. Flash cartridges are used by many homebrew developers, and they allow the user to load files from a PC onto a Nintendo DS. The R4 Revolution card is one of the most popular flash cards that works with the DS. It costs about , and is available online.

Once you have installed the flash card (it fits just like a normal DS cartridge), and figured out how to navigate the in-game menu, you are set to get the software for artwork. Go to download the latest version of the program ‘Colors.’ Created by Jens Andersson, it is a powerful application that allows users to draw on their DS. Once you have downloaded the program, extract the necessary files from archive using Winzip or Winrar, and then follow the Read-Me instructions on how to place the files on your Flashcard.

For the R4, all you need to do is copy the Colors.nds file to your card root directory (just copy and paste). Then, place your cartridge into your DS, turn it on, and browse for the Colors program file. Open it, and you can start creating virtual masterpieces on your DS! If you have a compatible wireless connection, you can even email images you create from your DS. Otherwise, you will need to hook the flash card (or SD card) up to your computer to extract the images. They are automatically saved in the wonderful .PNG format, and can be found in the Colors directory on your card.

The program Colors features a myriad of useful tools, including pressure sensitivity, replay/undo, hard and circular brush, 2-stage zoom. It’s quite a powerful application, and allows for some very detailed images, as seen in the online Colors gallery (see link below). It’s definitely a handy application to have on your R4 DS!