MoonShell

MoonShell
General
Author	Moonlight, Infantile Paralysiser
Type	Media Players
Version	2.1.0 child zwai
License	GPL-2.0
Last Updated	2012/05/04
Links
2.1.0 EXE - Old Versions
Website
Source

MoonShell is a homebrew multimedia player for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS lite and Nintendo DSi. It is a well known, popular piece of Nintendo DS homebrew software, and offers a way to play videos and audio on the DS, along with other homebrew games.

The initial version 0.1 was released on 2 August 2005. It supports DPG video files, MP3 / OGG / MOD / SPC / MDX (no PCM) / GBS / HES / NSF / XM / MIDI / WMA / low bit rate AAC audio / non-progressive JPEG /BMP / GIF / PNG images, text files, and ebooks. The latest version 2.10 can play FLAC files, though with some audible sound distortion. Both screens on the DS are used, with the bottom screen allowing file selection and control via touchscreen.

The integrated plug-in system provides extensibility of program features. To add a feature, the plug-in files are simply copied to the appropriate folder. In order to function as a media player, several plug-in files are distributed with the software.

Installation

The release comes as an exe file, if you prefer the files in their extracted form, you can download this instead.

Two versions are included, stable and child zwai. The latter prioritized on sound processing but may lead to slower performance compared to the stable version. You may notice more frequent skipping of high-quality music files (like M4A/WMA, MDX, and SPC), especially when playing text or images simultaneously.

The improved sound quality is only noticeable when using DSi/DSiLL or ROMEO2 (a slot2 sound board) with earphones. There will be little improvement in sound quality when using NDS/DSLite alone despite the slowdown.

Full instructions:

• Connect your SD card to your PC.
• If you have 7zip, right click on the exe and select "open archive", then copy the contents to your PC.
• Double click on the setup.exe to run it.
• Choose the language, then from "Install to..." select the drive for your SD card.
• Click the "Open More" check box for other addons/plugins/tools.
• Click "Install" to continue.
• Double click LanguageSelect.exe to configure your MoonShell 2's language settings.
• Insert the SD card into your console.
• Run either moonshl2.nds or moonshl2_directboot.nds.

Alternative instructions:

• Extract the exe file to your PC (double click on it or use 7zip).
• Copy the following to the root of the SD card:
  • moonshl2 folder
  • moonshl2.nds
  • moonshl2_DirectBoot.nds
  • (moonshl2_AltLoader_DKPr27.nds is an alternative to moonshl2.nds for AceKard2, it also fixes a sound issue with R4)

Update patch for v2.10 child zwai:

• Note: Only use the update files with v2.10 child zwai. Do not use it on other versions (i.e. stable).
• Copy and overwrite the moonshl2.nds and moonshl2 folder. If you are booting directly without going through the standard firmware, use the files in the DLDIPatchedFiles folder.
• To check if the update is installed, press Start on the file list screen. It should display "MoonShell Ver 2.10 for child zwai May 4 2".

User guide

Support file formats

Music	MP1, MP2, MP3, OGG, WAV, M4A, AAC, WMA, TTA, MID, RCP, R36, FLAC.
MOD	MOD, IT, MTM, S3M, XM, 669, MED, STM, AMF, GDM, ULT, UNI, ASY, IMF, OKT, STX.
Chiptune	SPC, NSF, GBS, HES, AY, SAP, KSS.
Playlist	M3U, WPL.
Picture	JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, PSD.

Also supports DPG movie files and text files.

Limitations concerning formats

NDS	Not support commercial NDSROM files.
WMA	Not support "loss-less" and "voice mode" format WMA files.
M4A, AAC, WMA	Not support encrypted files.
MID	Not support "Standard MIDI file format.2" format.
SPC	Tone quality is very bad.
Chiptune	Only the first track is performed. The FM sound chip cannot be emulated.
Playlist	Support encode is ANSI, S-JIS, UTF-8, CP437, CP850, CP1252.
Text file	Support encode is ANSI, S-JIS, UTF-8, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE. Auto detection only.

Information is displayed in the file list. MP3, JPEG, BMP, PSD, DPG only.

Screen capture

You can save a screen capture by pressing and holding the Select button for three seconds or more on any screen. After saving, the NDS will stop. Please open the BMP file with your computer (??_pmain.bmp, ??_pover.bmp, ??_psub.bmp).

If files with the same name exist, they will be saved with an added sequential number in the file name. If there is insufficient memory, it will not be created.

When capturing on DSi, please check "Enable Screen Capture Function (DSi)" in the overall environment settings.

Misc tools

AutoDLDIPatch	Auto DLDI patch tool for not DLDI patch firmware.
DPGTools	Movie encoder.
DPGTools_AltVer	Movie encoder (old safe?).
HandWriteModelsManager	Hand write models manager for text editor.
ImageViewer	Album (IPK) maker.
JacketImageConverter	Jacket image maker.
MakeBGPack	Slide show bg-pack file maker.
MakeSplashAniForMS2	Splash anime file maker.
MoonMemo	Readme of memo.
MoonShell2_AlternativeLoader	When failing in the start, this boot loader is used.
PluginsText	Plugin attached text files.
SetPassword	Simple boot password setting tool.
SkinTool	Skin maker.
sndeff	Sound effect converter.
SoundFont8bit	Low quality and small size, sound font file for software MIDI emulator.

Controls

File list

Standard:

Up/Down/Left/Right - Move cursor

A - Open file

A (hold) - Start the music player if it's a music file

B - Stop music (exit the folder when stopped)

X/Y - Change volume

Start - Open system menu

Start (hold) - Delete this file

Select - Open sub menu

Select (hold) - Screen capture (DSi default to adjust brightness, can be changed in settings)

R Triple Click - Start standby mode (power off after 10 minutes of inactivity)

Key combos:

L/R+Touch - Start Notepad in new document creation mode

L+Left - Show MP3 control panel

L+Right - Next music

L+Up - Pause music

L+Down - Change play mode

L+A/B - Previous/Next music

L+X/Y - Change backlight level

R+Left/Right - 1% forward/backward MP3 seek

R+Up/Down - 5% forward/backward MP3 seek

R+A - Play all songs in the folder

L+R+A - Play all songs in the SD card

Text reader

Standard:

Up/Down - Scroll one line

Left/Right - Scroll one page

A - Scroll one page

B - Return to file list

X/Y - Open bookmark save/load menu

Start/Select - Open settings menu

Key combos:

L/R+X/Y - Adjust backlight brightness

Image viewer

Standard:

Up/Down/Left/Right - Screen scroll

A/X/Y - Change zoom ratio (Y=50%, X=200%, A=100%)

B - Back to file list

Start - Set current image as wallpaper

Select - Open settings menu

L/R - Start direct moving mode

Key combos:

L/R+X/Y - Adjust backlight brightness

Video playback

Standard:

Left/Right - Previous or next 5sec seeking

Up/Down - Previous or next 30sec seeking

A - Pause video

B - Back to file list

Start/Select - Open settings menu

X/Y - Change volume

Key combos:

L/R+Left/Right - Move to the previous/next video file

L/R+Up - Pause video

L/R+Down - Change playback mode

L/R+X/Y - Adjust backlight brightness

L/R button combinations

L+R Simultaneously - Pause music

L/R Single Press+Long Press - 1% forward/backward MP3 seek

L/R Double Click - Play previous/next song

L Triple Click - Pause

Screenshots

Media

NDS HomeBrew #1 - Moonshell 2.10 in 2022 (Al1en99)

Changelog

v2.10 child zwai update 2012/05/04

• Fixed a bug causing abnormal termination near the end of DPG file playback.
• Fixed a bug in implementing touch panel combination commands (unable to seek by long press).
• Added an option to play DPG files on the lower screen to moonshl2.ini. Please refer to moonshl2_DPGOption.ini.

v2.10 for child zwai 2010/08/31

• Added support for MDX file playback (since it's software emulation, the quality is lower than MDXOffline).
• Added option to output only video audio (useful for web radio, etc.).
• Added support for outputting video audio from Romeo2.
• A button long-press selection for playlist editor only within the same folder as playback mode.
• Added ChannelsMapSelector to the SELECT button submenu.
• Significant changes to MoonMemo. (Try pressing the right/left, X/Y buttons).
• Fixed bug where thumbnails were not updated when the content of an image changed in automatic thumbnail generation.
• Added equalizer to music player. Adjust levels with R+up/down/left/right or touch screen. (Unified behavior with Romeo2).
• Fixed bug where automatic DLDI patch was not applied when launching large HomeBrew.
• Enabled song control via touch panel during screen saver. Since you can operate with the backlight off screen by making a "beep" sound, it may be a bit difficult to explain, but please try it.
• Changed behavior of play icon. When exiting a folder while playing music, a music note icon is now also added to the folder containing the playing file.
• Added ScreenSaver_ShowClock and ScreenSaver_ShowMusicInfo to the [FileList] section of moonshl2.ini. Options to toggle display/show for screen saver clock and song information, respectively.
• Fixed bug where S-JIS text files couldn't be opened if there wasn't enough memory when starting the text reader.
• Fixed bug where album art was not displayed when returning from music player to file list.
• Added simple preview of BMP files when cursor is placed on them in file list.
• Added ability to cancel with START/SELECT buttons in addition to clearing everything with B button on new file name input screen.
• Adjusted CPU load balance of DPGEnc for recent CPUs, speeding up encoding by about 2-5 times.
• Added a simple toy drum set.

Text Editor-related:

• Added submenu for creating new text files to SELECT button.
• Changed initial settings of textedit.ini to connect the left and right edges of the prediction conversion window, making it easier to convert single kanji characters.
• Saved clipboard (copy-paste buffer) and made it possible to paste into other files.
• Reversed the button layout for kana/Kana input mode.
• Added ability to copy & paste with L button as well as R button. (L+X/Y is for backlight adjustment, L+up/down/left/right only).

Not Fixed:

• The bug where DPG video files may stop playing has not been fixed this time.

External links

• Author's website - http://home.att.ne.jp/blue/moonlight