Tools
The tools used to mod NSMB DS with a general overview of how to use them
Fire Flower
Fire Flower has been replaced by NCPatcher
Fire Flower is a patcher for Nintendo DS games. It works different to any other patchers and aims towards performance, user-friendliness and practicability.
NCPatcher
NCPatcher is a program that modifies the executable binaries of a Nintendo DS ROM.
It was created because of the need to have more flexible patching features that other patchers did not have.
Check out the documentation over at the NCPatcher GitHub.
A tutorial will be created on using this tool for NSMB DS specifically soon
NSMBe
TODO: Maybe a different screenshot?
NSMBe is a multipurpose modding tool for New Super Mario Bros., capable of editing levels, graphics, tilesets, and backgrounds.
The editor is currently maintained by Mamma Mia Team. You can download the latest release from GitHub.
Recognized NSMB ROMs
When a ROM is opened in NSMBe, it checks the ROM's game code to see which release of New Super Mario Bros. it is. The following releases are recognized by NSMBe:
- North American (A2DE)
- European (A2DP)
- Japanese (A2DJ)
- Korean (A2DK)
- Chinese (A2DC)
If the ROM opened is not one of these versions (such as a kiosk demo ROM, or a ROM besides New Super Mario Bros.), NSMBe will not show the Level Listing, Tilesets, or Backgrounds tab.
Known Bugs
TODO:
- Does the "Data Finder" button throw an exception in the latest version?
- Can .nml files be imported over MvsL Download Play levels as of the latest version?
- Does 8-8 area 2 open properly as of the latest version?
- What is the last version the "Decompress overlay" button is known to work on? It's functional in v5.3 b6
- The "Decompress overlay" button in the ROM File Browser tab is nonfunctional
- Certain levels from the vanilla game (such as 1-4 area 2) cannot be opened and instead thrown an exception
- Colour 0 is always rendered as transparent in the graphics editor, even in textures that are not meant to render it as transparent
- Certain models (such as w8.nsbmd) will show a message stating "This file is already being edited" even when not opened in the graphics editor; they are suchly uneditable through NSMBe's graphics editor without modification
- The "Edit Properties" button in the Backgrounds tab will not apply changes made to file IDs
- The undo button in the tilemap editor will not properly undo tiles drawn over tiles which use a palette greater than the amount of palettes opened (such as the blue coins in the jyotyu tileset tilemap)
- The object preview in the tile object editor does not accurately render the behaviour of slope control tiles as they function in-game
- NSMBe will regard files closed in the graphics editor by right-clicking as still "open" and will throw an error upon attempting to reopen said file, even after closing the graphics editor window
Other Tools
TODO:
- Sorting and general touching-up.
- midi2sseq & sseq2midi; I believe NitroStudio makes the former obsolete... I'm not quite sure where the latter came from, originally.
- Actually, there should be more sound tools in general.
- bnbl & bncl editors under legacy tools?
- Perhaps list the original NitroStudio under legacy tools?
- Make mirrors of downloads?
- Some descriptions should be improved (Nitro Studio 2 in particular)
- Also, there seems to be a Nitro Studio 2 Deluxe (forked from the original), but I'm not sure what all's different. Should it replace Nitro Studio 2 here?
- ^Goes for other random ass forks of programs listed here
- Add this?
- if your reading this why not add more tools
This page lists tools useful for modding which don't need a dedicated page.
New Super Mario Bros. Tools
Tools specifically made for New Super Mario Bros. modding.
Goombatlas
A world map path editor.
Download — GitHub repository — NSMBHD thread
NSMB Titlescreen Editor
Arranges titlescreen logo graphics as needed for importing.
Title Logo 256 Colors ASM Image Tiler
Tiles titlescreen logo graphics as needed for the 256 colour title logo code patch. Can reverse tiling.
NSMB Save Editor
A tool for modifying game save files.
Download — GitHub repository — NSMBHD thread
Address Helper
A simple tool which converts Ghidra database addresses to memory addresses and vise versa
ASM Converter
Converts legacy code patches written in assembly into patches for the NCPatcher template.
Credits Tool
A python program which generates a code patch to edit the game credits.
ClassID Tool
A python program for modifying the objects IDs (class IDs) assigned to stage object IDs. Useful moreso for simple modifications than, for example, assigning custom actor IDs to stage object IDs (for which a code patch is more advisable).
Graphics
Tools for modifying game graphics.
NitroPaint
Supports a wide variety of NDS graphical formats and handles colour quantization, texel compression, and image-to-tilemap conversion with superior fidelity than NSMBe's importers.
Spa Editor
A tool for editing particle textures.
Paint.NET ENPG Plugin
Allows Paint.NET to open and save ENPG files.
Emulators
Tools to emulate NDS hardware for playing, recording, or debugging mods.
MelonDS
Author: Arisotura
A highly accurate emulator capable of emulating the NDS's wireless play capabilities. Advisable for screenshots and testing, especially for multiplayer hacks or when real-hardware testing isn't viable.
Download — GitHub repository — Webpage
DeSmuME
A less accurate emulator with a number of nifty features, such as a disassembler, memory viewer and watcher, and cheat code and Lua script support. Useful for debugging.
No$GBA Debug
An emulator with powerful debugging faculties.
Code Modification
Tools useful for code hacking.
Ghidra
An open-source reverse-enginering tool.
NCPrePatcher
A preprocessor for NCPatcher
Sound
Tools for changing game sounds and music.
Nitro Studio 2
Capable of opening and editing sound data archives (SDAT files).
3D Modeling
NNS Blender Plugins
Blender plugins which allow models and animations to be exported from Blender in the Nintendo Nitro System intermediate formats.
Apicula
Command line tool to convert Nitro System runtime formats into more common 3D model formats.
Miscellaneous
Tools which don't flushly fit in prior categories.
Every File Explorer
A multipurpose file viewer and editor with support for a wide swath of formats beyond NDS ones and plugins. Useful for adding files to your ROM and fixing file overlap.
GitHub repository — GBATemp thread
NDS Banner Editor
A tool to create NDS game banners. Also allows for the creation of animated banner icons, as supported by the DSi.
Legacy Tools
Tools whose use have been superseded by other tools; most are no longer maintained. These can still be quite useful, however, depending on your workflow.
Legacy Code Patching Template
Author: Dirbaio
A code patching template which uses outdated devkitARM libraries and NSMBe's code patching syntax. No longer advisable since the introduction of more comprehensive NCPatcher code template.
NSMB Worldmap Editor
An open-source worldmap editor made after development stopped on Ray and Freeze's worldmap editor. Notable in being able to create worldmap path animations, which is not supported by Goombatlas (though doable using the NNS blender plugins).
Download — GitHub repository — NSMBHD thread
Worldmap Editor
The first worldmap editor, listed here only for posterity --- its functionality has been entirely suceeded by Goombatlas and RicBent's worldmap editor.
MKDSCM
That is, Mario Kart DS Course Modifier. Has some model-related faculties, such as an OBJ to NSBMD converter, but basically all of the features it has which made it useful for NSMB modding are handled by other tools now.
Download — Source (3.0.0.2) — GBATemp thread
AssToIMD
Command line program for converting various 3D model formats into the NDS intermediate format. Functionally superseded by the blender plugins, but perhaps useful for those who don't use Blender.
Background Tiler
Command line tool to convert images into tiled backgrounds, meant to be used when NSMBe's importer didn't net good results. Nowadays, NitroPaint's importer is perhaps the best option.
Zoom Sprite Helper
An HTML tool which models zoom actor behaviour visually. No longer needed as NSMBe now shows the same information.