Action Replay DS

Action Replay DS
Developer: Datel Publisher: Datel Platform: Unlicensed Nintendo DS Released in JP: 2006? Released in US: July 2006 Released in EU: July 2006 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences.

The first cheat device for the DS (not to be confused with the older Action Replay MAX Duo, which only offers save-based operations on DS games). Unfortunately quite prone to spontaneous failure, with many reports of storage corruption and white-screen bricks.

Luckily, with access to a flashcard, a ROM of an older firmware can be loaded, the defective Action Replay swapped to, and a newer firmware installed over USB.

Now you can be a dirty cheater on the go... and, with the optional Slot-2 based Trainer Toolkit, debug games at home!

Unused Banner

ACTION REPLAY NDS
Datel D&D

Like every other Nintendo DS game, the Action Replay DS has a banner (an icon and a description). However, since the Action Replay is designed to bypass the DS' menu regardless of the system's start-up setting, it's never seen - though given the icon is just a black square, you're not really missing much.

The DSi and 3DS don't even acknowledge the Action Replay DS when inserted.

(Source: Ferrox)

Version Differences

To do: A Japanese version also exists. → http://blog.claranguyen.me/post/2022/08/06/ards-breakdown-pt3/

Hardware

The Action Replay DS was manufactured in multiple versions. The most obviously-different ones would be the pictured pair: one has a small protrusion for housing the semiproprietary USB connector, while the other has a much larger box housing a longer PCB allowing for a "passthrough port", giving the ability for a game card to be inserted directly in the Action Replay without the need to swap between the two cards.

Confusingly, not all of the large models have a passthrough port, while its existence is mentioned even in the small version's manual.

As mentioned in the changelog below, there is also the matter of internal revisions using artificially incompatible firmware due to truly incompatible USB interfaces.

(Source: [1])

A Media Edition (black labeled) with a microSD slot was later released, being effectively a 3-in-1 bundle of Datel's products: it combines a new-type AR, a Games'n'Music (a basic MP3 and D3V player, and a homebrew NDS loader), and an analogue of the DataMax save dumper (released as a standalone product in Japan only, but comparable to the DS mode of the original AR MAX DUO).

Other not-necessarily-compatible variants include the Action Replay DS EZ (red-and-white labeled) and the non-upgradeable Action Replay Ultimate Cheats; the series was then succeeded by the Action Replay DSi, on which the last "Action Replay DS" (3DS compatible, indigo-labeled) is actually based.

Software

• v1.00: First release for old-type hardware; dumped as ards.nds.
• v1.02: Adds undocumented NoPass (PassMe) feature, accessed by holding Select while starting up. Dumped as ARDS_hw0_1.02.nds.
• v1.??: Round "GO" button (start game) replaced by rectangular "START" button.
• v1.52: Codes can now be manually typed-in and deleted using on-screen controls. Adds support for the Trainer Toolkit.
• v1.55: Final release for old-type hardware (backport of v1.71)
• v1.60: First release for new-type hardware?
• v1.71: Final release for new-type hardware. Includes fixes for Pokémon Black and White and Professor Layton and the Lost Future. Dumped as ARDS_hw1_ME_1.71.nds, can also be used as a base for recovering the Media Edition.
• v2.01: Exclusive to the Media Edition.
• v2.05: Final release for the Media Edition. Compared to 2.01, improves game compatibility but breaks code loading from microSD.

ards-firmwaretool can be used to convert, with some restrictions documented in the program, between a ROM dump and a firmware image.