The Nintendo DS is a popular handheld gaming device which has sold millions of units around the world. Nintendo DS games come on individual cartridges and they are quite expensive. One of the main advantages of the Nintendo DS is the fact that it is so portable. However if you want to play multiple games you have to take all of the cartridges with you and while they are quite small this can be annoying. One solution is to purchase a Flash cartridge with a large amount of memory and load several Nintendo DS ROMs onto it.

ROM images are computer files which contain all of the data from a read-only memory chip, in this case a video game cartridge. You can load ROMs onto a Flash memory device and then play them on the Nintendo DS. This allows you to have several games on one small device.

An alternative is the R4DS cartridge which you can insert into the card reader on your PC and load multiple ROMs onto. It is the same size as a normal game cartridge and allows you to play several games on your Nintendo DS.

It is important to point out that this practice is completely illegal and Nintendo are trying to crack down on it. Various websites offer information and Nintendo DS ROMs as free downloads but these are illegal cracks of the games. There is no support for them and you may encounter problems running them.

If you are seeking multiple titles stored on one cartridge you can also purchase cartridges which hold up to 200 titles on one game card. There are websites selling these cartridges but once again this practice is completely illegal. These companies are basically taking Nintendo DS ROMs and packaging them up onto blank cartridges themselves before selling them on at massive profits.

As is generally the case if you purchase an illegal product you do so at your own risk. There is a lively trade in illegal ROMs and game cracks in general, partly because video games are very expensive. For the most part they pose no risk to your hardware but if your purchase doesn’t work for any reason then you have nowhere to turn for help.

Nintendo have certainly made moves to crack down on websites circulating illegal ROMs but the sale of things like the R4 chip have continued unimpeded. There is actually very little the company can do about this because the R4 chip does not break any copyright laws. It is just a storage device and as such it can be legally sold by any retailer.

They aren’t having much luck preventing the circulation of illegal Nintendo DS ROMs either and more and more sources pop up just as fast as they shut them down. Although there is no doubt they will continue to crack down on an illegal trade which they claim is costing them millions every year.

Game piracy is wrong and the companies that produce games do so at great cost so they deserve to make a decent return. The operating margins at many developers are a great deal tighter than the public might imagine. However there is no doubt that games are very expensive and without illegal ROMs many gamers would be unable to afford multiple titles.

It is worth pointing out that there is also a Homebrew scene where amateurs are developing games and applications for the Nintendo DS and releasing them for free. This scene uses the same technology but it is not illegal so there are Nintendo DS ROMs out there which are legitimate.