Chapter 5

Games, BIOS and saves

Which folder each system's games go in, the files each takes, the BIOS files some need, where saves are kept, and using a second card or a slot CFW card.

The folders🔗

Games go in Roms/<folder>, one folder per system, on the DSlot card’s NIBOS-DATA drive or on a second card in TF2, exFAT or FAT32, named anything (Which card). The folders are the ones the DS+’s stock system uses, so a games card you already have works as it is. DSlot makes the folder of every system it has an emulator for, each with a _README.txt saying what goes in it; nothing on a card is ever renamed, moved or deleted.

• Zipped games: a cartridge game may be a .zip holding one game. Disc games (PC Engine CD, Mega-CD, PlayStation, PSP) are never zipped. An arcade set is a zip, but of the board’s chips, named as FinalBurn Neo’s list names it: the shelf shows its title, maker, year and board, and doesn’t show a BIOS set.

• The folder decides: .chd and .cue belong to the PC Engine CD, Mega-CD and PlayStation, and .chd and .pbp to the PSP too, by the folder they are in. A Pico cart is a Mega Drive dump, known by its folder.

• PSP downloads: a game in a folder of its own, Roms/PSP/<Game>/EBOOT.PBP, is one game named after the folder; its box art and saves go by that name.

• Discs: put a .cue with its .bin tracks beside it; DSlot lists the .cue and hides the tracks. A PlayStation game of several discs is an .m3u, a text file listing the discs, one file name a line:

  Game (USA) (Disc 1).chd
  Game (USA) (Disc 2).chd

  DSlot then shows the .m3u and hides the discs it lists.

• Names: the shelf shows a game by its file name, less what is in brackets (Lantern Tide (USA) (Rev 1) shows as Lantern Tide). DS games show the title stored in the game itself.

BIOS files🔗

A few systems need a BIOS file: a copy of the console’s own start-up program. DSlot doesn’t come with any: bring your own, from your own console. Put them in BIOS/ at the root of either card, named exactly as below. A system that needs one won’t start without it, and says which file is missing and where it looked.

Without a PlayStation BIOS, the emulator’s own replacement plays most games, and the game’s menu says which file to add. The DS and GBA need no BIOS: DSperate has its own replacements built in, and the PSP’s emulator implements the PSP’s firmware itself. An arcade board’s BIOS set (neogeo.zip for the Neo Geo) goes in Roms/ARCADE beside its games, not in BIOS/.

Saves🔗

Every game’s saves are kept together in one folder, Saves/<folder>/<game>/, on the NIBOS-DATA partition of the DSlot card (Which card): its battery save (the game’s own save, as the cartridge kept it), its clock, its save states and its resume point. A game is known by its system folder and its file name, so moving a game between cards, or between Roms/ and a slot CFW Games/ folder, keeps its saves.

Save states are snapshots of one emulator’s memory: they can’t be loaded by another emulator, or by a different version of the same one. Battery saves carry over anywhere.

To start a game again from the beginning, clear its resume point (DSlot’s menu (X) → Game → Clear resume state). Delete saves in the same place deletes everything in the game’s saves folder, after asking twice.

Writing a newer image over the card keeps Saves/, Roms/ and BIOS/ on a card set up by 0.1.0-alpha1 or later (Updates). Copying Saves/ to your computer first is still wise.

Which card🔗

The DS+ has two card slots. The DS+ starts from the card in TF1; a second card in TF2 is optional.

• Games are found on both cards: Roms/ on the DSlot card’s NIBOS-DATA partition, and Roms/ on the card in TF2. A game on both is listed once.
• BIOS files are found in BIOS/ on either card.
• Saves always go in Saves/ on NIBOS-DATA, on the DSlot card in TF1.
• A card in TF2 can be formatted exFAT or FAT32 and named anything. On a card with several volumes, one named DS is the one read. FAT32 names in Japanese and other scripts read right.

A card set up for slot CFW🔗

A card set up for slot CFW works as it is, beside the stock layout, and nothing on it is moved:

Battery saves: slot’s aren’t picked up by themselves yet, except for Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, whose .sav beside the game is copied in the first time the game starts. For a GBA game, copy its .sav into Saves/GBA/<game>/ yourself, named after the game file (<game>.sav). Save states don’t carry over between slot and DSlot. Details: DSlot’s slot card guide.

Box art🔗

Optional: see The DSlot shelf.