Nintellivision

NINTV-DS
NINTV-DS
General
Author	Dave Bernazzani (wavemotion)
Type	Console
Version	4.8
License	Mixed
Last Updated	2024/01/24
Links
	Download
	Website
	Source

Nintellivision, also known as NINTV-DS, is an Intellivision console emulator running on the DS/DSi.

Features

All known games run at full speed on a DSi or above.
Many games run very close to full speed on the older DS-LITE and DS-PHAT hardware but you can play with config settings to get the most out of these games.
Custom Overlay Support. See the extras folder for details.
Manual/Instruction Support. See the extras folder for an example.
Save Sate support (3 save slots per game).
High Scores for up to 10 scores pre game with various sorting options.
Tons of button/controller mapping options. Dual-Controller support (run and shoot at the same time).
JLP support for accelerated functions, extra RAM and flash memory. When loading a game, use the X button to load and force JLP support ON if not auto-detected.

Installation

Note: You will need to prepare the BIOS files (grom.bin, exec.bin) in order to use. Optional is ivoice.bin for Intellivoice games.

Place the nds file on your flashcart or SD card which you can launch.

Put the BIOS files in the same directory as your ROM files (can be changed in Global Options).

User guide

Technical Specs

Up to 1024KB (512K words) of ROM memory emulated.
JLP 16-bit RAM emulated (8K Words)
JLP Flash support of 168 rows (21 sectors) for a total of 32K bytes (actual 32256 bytes). Each game gets their own 32K of file-backed flash.
Up to 2K of 8-bit RAM emulated for the ECS module or for games like Chess or Land Battle.
Up to 32K of 16-bit RAM emulated beyond JLP/ECS RAM.
Paging on all segments of memory provided binary is 1024KB (bytes) or less.

How to use

When you load the emulator, select LOAD to select a cartridge/game to play. The emulator supports two types of files, raw binary files (BIN or INT) and intellicart ROM files (where the .ROM contains the loading information, popular among newer homebrew games).

Once loaded, the configuration (or default settings) is loaded with the game. You can pick your overlay, and tweak key mappings and other settings in configuration.

Controller Types

You can select Player1 controller or Player 2 controller.
More importantly you can select "Dual Action A" or "Dual Action B".
Dual Action A uses the disc/buttons from Controller 1 and the Keypad for Controller 2 (perfect for AD&D Cloudy Mountain or Tron Deadly Discs).
Dual Action B uses the disc from Controller 1 and the Buttons/Keypad for Controller 2 (perfect for Astrosmash, Buzz Bombers and any game you move and shoot).

Customization

Please see to the enclosed tutorial (in the extras folder) of how to create custom overlay.

You can find a number of custom overlays and manuals from the release thread:

Overlays by MrioKartFan.
Manuals by ts-x.

To use overlay, rename .txt to .ovl for your game, then copy it along with the .png file to your card or sd card. Note that the file names should be the same as your rom name and they can be placed together with the rom (can change to /roms/intv/ovl/ or /roms/ovl/ via Global Option).

Manuals can also be placed with your rom files (can change to /roms/intv/man/ or /roms/man/ from the Global Option).

New palette can be created using text file and store it as /data/NINTV-DS.PAL (see example).

Once you loaded the game, go to CONFIG to change overlay settings and option for game manual is located in MENU.

Screenshots

Compatibility

Many games run close to full speed on DS-LITE and DS-PHAT hardware, but you can play with config settings to get the most out of these games (even if you have to disable sound to gain the speed).

Also tested on emulator iDeaS and melonDS.

Known issues

No ECS support - ECS games will not load/play. No bankswitch support either.

Changelog

V4.8 2024/01/24

.int files are now auto-detected as either .bin(+cfg) or .rom files. This allows you to rename .rom files or .bin files to .int and let Twilight Menu++ auto-launch Nintellivision.
Slight improvement to the Intellivoice driver to give a minor boost in performance (mostly for DS-Lite/Phat).
Added new keyclick enable option in Configuration (page 2) that produces the typical Intellivision keyclick when you press the 12-button keypad (on the DS lower screen).
Added a new level of sound quality 'Ultimate'. The default for the DSi and above is still 'High' as 'Ultimate' consumes significant CPU time but you can enable it on a per-game basis for some of the more simple games (e.g. Astrosmash, Beauty and the Beast, AD&D Tarmin, etc)
DS-Lite now enables Intellivoice on World Series Major League Baseball - sound quality is a bit rough on the older handheld but very playalbe.
Fixed save/restore state including when backtab latched is TRUE (Stampede, Masters of the Universe)
Fix for intellivoice games so there are no more glitches on the updated version of Same Game and Robots.
Fix for ecs games so they don't inadvertantly write over the last graphics card in memory (causing minor graphics corruption on some games)
Correction of one intellivoice coefficient value (thanks to documentation in JZINTV) so voice games sound their best.
Other minor tweaks and cleanup as time permitted.

V4.7 2024/01/19

Major refactor of the audio processor for a big speedup in rendering especially with more than one audio processor (i.e. ECS or Intellivoice)
Switched from individual pixel output to 16-bit (two pixel) output when dealing with scrolling games (big speedup for games like Tron Solar Sailor, Space Spartans, Sorrow, TNT Cowboy, etc).
The DSi now defaults to NO frameskip on any game and the 'High' (best) sound quality.
Aggressive frameskip no longer an option - it's not needed for any game even on the older DS hardware.
The DS-Lite/Phat gets a 15% improvement in sound quality and many of the classic games now run without frameskip.
Fix for B-17 Bomber so it doesn't flash the screen when in Pilot/Gun view.
With the many updates, the config format changed and will be wiped back to defaults - sorry!

V4.6 2024/01/15

Massive overhaul to the core emulation to reduce memory footprint. The older DS-Lite/Phat (with 4MB of memory) can now load all of the newest homebrew games!
Optmizations in Video, Audio and CPU cores providese 10% speed up across the board.
Improved sound quality for the DSi including a new "BEST" option (not enabled by default) that will render the sound as good as I can make it on the handheld.
A few small fixes for the CPU core to improve the cycle accuracy.
With the improved speed, the DSi largely disables frameskip for the best visual experience.

V4.5 2024/01/01

Added new Screenshot handling (press and hold the L+R shoulder buttons for ~1 second to take a .bmp snapshot written to the SD card)
Added new meta key mapping to un-throttle (Speedup) the emulator. Useful for games where your character is resting and you want the emulator to run the frames as fast as it can.
Minor cleanup on the internal database for the latest and greatest homebrew games.
Lots of new and improved overlays in the extras.zip pack.

V4.4 2023/10/30

Major overhaul of configuration to provide for better future enhancements. Your old configurations will be wiped in favor of the new defaults.
Major cleanup of overlay support - gone are the built-in overlays except for the normal Intellivision controller graphic and the mini-ECS keyboard. All other overlays are stored externally and a library of more than 40 custom overlays for personal use are provided.
Simplified use of custom overlays - if the .ovl file exists (with the same base name as the .ROM or .BIN file), it will automatically be loaded and used (you no longer need to specify that the overlay is 'Custom').
Other minor cleanups and tweaks as time permitted.

V4.3 2023/09/25

Improved 8-bit RAM support to provide a full 8K of 8-bit RAM (the ECS 2K of 8-bit RAM comes from this pool).
Added parsing of the .ROM enable/access table so that we properly allow for writable memory segments (allows the 'lilBro' games to work).
Added opening jingle.
Other minor cleanups and tweaks as time permitted.

V4.2 2023/08/15

Improved JLP 16-bit RAM when it contends with similar 16-bit RAM specified in a config (.cfg) file (games like TNT Cowboy and A-F now run properly).
JLP Flash maximum increased to 64K per game.
Other minor cleanups and tweaks as time permitted.

V4.1 2023/07/04

Added the ability to map any DS key to the DISC UP and DISC DOWN which makes platform games like Rick Dynamite much more enjoyable.
Force load of JLP/ECS/IVoice will now save out to configuration for the game so you don't have to do that more than once.
Games of 16K or less without a specific .cfg or database entry will load at 5000h which is very likely where it wants to load.
Numerous homebrews and hacks added to the internal database.

V4.0 2023/04/22

Small optimizations and cleanup across the board - utilizing every bit of the NDS instruction cache to squeeze out another frame or two of performance.

V3.9 2023/03/05

Improved ECS keyboard handling so we can handle 'transposed' scanning of columns/rows (allows demos like Adventure to run).
Improved banking / page-flipping for faster page switches and more robust. There should be no more small audio 'gaps' when page-flipping music.
For the DSi we now support 1024KB (512K Words) of binary ROM which is almost unfathomably large in the world of Intellivision games (130% larger than anything I'm aware of).

V3.8 2022/12/26

Improved memory handling so we don't run out of memory on the DS-Lite/Phat and no more crashes!
ECS and extra cart RAM now in faster VRAM to improve performance.
Fixed sound channels so that PSG + ECS + Intelivoice can all play nice together (mostly for World Series of Baseball)
Improved .ROM parsing support - now checking the CRC integrity and properly parsing the compatibility tags so more games run with the right settings (Intellivoice or JLP or ECS, etc).
New Game/Emulator Information screen to let you know if you are running in DS compatibility mode (less RAM, slower CPU) or DSi compatibilty mode (more RAM and faster CPU).
For the DSi or above we now support a much wider range of binary files (up to 512K) with page flipping.
New menu to allow you to launch a game with specific hardware configurations. Use X to load the game instead of A (launch instructions are on-screen).
Lots of small improvements and cleanup as time permitted.

V3.7a 2022/12/23

ECS style page flipping (aka bankswap). DS-Lite will support World Series of Baseball without voice. DSi and above will support any binary up to 512K including WSoMLB with voice.
Improved error handling with better messages on-screen to help diagnose problems with missing roms, roms that are too big/complex, etc.
Cleanup across the board - reorganized memory to free up more resources for the future.

V3.6 2022/05/24

Added cheat support. Place NINTV-DS.cht into /data directory. See 'extras' folder.

V3.5 2022/03/01

Added support for ECS and ECS-Sound-Enhanced games.
Improved internal database so more games are recognized correctly.
Save states changed with ECS support. Finish your 3.4 games before upgrading or lose your progress.

V3.4 2021/12/04

Added support for more ROM segments so games like DK Jr Homebrew will run.
New global nintv-ds.man manual support - see extras folder.
Other small cleanups as timer permitted.

V3.3 2021/12/02

Added use of generic.ovl which replaces the generic overlay if found.
Fix for custom overlay manual/instruction meta key.
Cleanups for .bin file reading and other small tweaks under the hood.
Code commented throughout for better maintainability.
More than 50 manuals added thanks to ts-x! See extras folder.

V3.2 2021/11/04

Fixed .cfg file reading (last line was skipped if there was no CR).
A few homebrew and missing games added to the internal database.
A slight speedup on Intellivoice games which really helps the older DS hardware.
Another half-dozen game manuals added to extras.zip (thanks ts-x).

V3.1a 2021/10/31

Favorites support - you can select up to 64 games as 'favs'.
Sound sync when running faster than 60FPS.
If BIOS files not found, emulator will search for them (slow but effective).
Tiny bit more speed and optimization.

V3.1 2021/10/31

Favorites support - you can select up to 64 games as 'favs'.
Sound sync when running faster than 60FPS.
If BIOS files not found, emulator will search for them (slow but effective).
Tiny bit more speed and optimization.

V3.0 2021/10/25

Sound fixed - no more zingers.
New global menu option for green vs white font.
New Aggressive frameskip to help with older DS-LITE/PHAT play.
Many small cleanups and improvements under the hood.

V2.9 2021/10/24

Minor sound improvement across the board.
Significant speed improvement - games run 6-12% faster. DS-LITE will run more games.

V2.8 2021/10/21

First round of sound cleanup - two new improved settings in configuration.
Fixed crash with 'complex' custom overlay (out of memory) coming out of menu/config.

V2.7 2021/10/19

Fixed graphical glitches on D1K and D2K.
Proper fix for Q-Bert so it plays perfectly (no patch needed).
Fix for .man manuals sometimes missing last line.
Minor sound cleanup and other under-the-hood improvements for speed.

V2.6 2021/10/18

Added disc controller direction support to custom overlays. See Vectron.ovl in extras.
Patched Q-Bert so it doesn't lose a life after each board.
Fixed save states so we can save games with extra RAM (old save states will not work - sorry).

V2.5 2021/10/15

Horizontal Stretch/Offset now saved on a per-game basis.
Custom Palette support (see example in 'extras' folder).
Ability to map DS key to bring up manuals.
Added combo key mapping (AX, XY, YB, BA) for diagonal shooting.
Updated example .man manuals (see 'extras' folder).

V2.4 2021/10/12

Fixed horizontal and vertical offset/scrolling. Christmas Carol should now work.
Improved memory handling so we can load larger games.
Allow Manual/Instructions to be mapped to keys.
Improved generic overlay graphic.
Beta version of screen stretch/offset.

V2.3 2021/10/10

New Custom Overlay Guide (see 'extras' folder).
New Manual/Instructions Support (see 'extras' folder).
Improved speed, reduced memory usage.
Full JLP flash support.
DS-LITE/PHAT sound improvment.

V2.2 2021/10/07

Stampede graphics fixed.
Minor artifacts in Masters of the Universe fixed.
Centipede working again.
Improved speed across the board.

V2.1 2021/10/03

Nova Blast fixed.
JLP random fixed and improved JLP compatibility.
Reduced dynamic memory allocation.
Added headers and cleanup under the hood.

V2.0 2021/10/02

Improved loading from command line so overlays work again.
Improved first-load of a game so it's faster/smoother.
Added new SWAP handling to instantly swap left/right controller (for Swords & Serpents "co-op" play).
Patch for Q-Bert so lives are not lost (ever... it's not a great patch but makes the game playable).
Another frame or two of speedup.
Other cleanups under the hood.

V1.9 2021/09/27

Removed reliance on knowncarts.cfg. Internal database handles most games and you can use a "romname".cfg for new .bin games.
Added command line support so it can be called via TWL++.

V1.8 2021/09/26

Reworked configuration options - new game specific and global options available. Unfortunatley your old config will be wiped out in favor of the new format. Sorry.
Improved sound quality for the DSi.

V1.7 2021/09/24

New Palette options.
New Brightness options.
New Save State options.
New MENU button for custom overlays (and START defaults to MENU now).
Other cleanup as time permitted.

V1.6 2021/09/23

Save State support added.
Fixed EVEN frameskip.

V1.5 2021/09/21

Better .ROM support (CVDEMO will now play)
More CP1610 optmization squeezing out a few more frames of performance.
Improved Frameskip and Speed options in Config area.
Cleanup for custom overlay support.
Other minor cleanups where time permitted.

V1.4 2021/09/14

Custom overlay support. See custom-overlay.zip in the distribution.
Hide bios files from game listing.
New d-pad configuration options.
Ability to map DS keys to meta-functions such as load, config, score, etc.
Other cleanups as time permitted.

V1.3 2021/09/12

Basic JLP support for Accelerated functions and extra 16-bit RAM (hello Grail of the Gods).
Major internal cleanup for better memory management.
Squeezed out a couple more frames of speed improvement.

V1.2 2021/09/10

More speed - many games now playable full speed on the DS-LITE/PHAT.
On the DSi, even the Intellivoice games should be running full speed now.

V1.1 2021/09/09

Big boost in speed. Just about everything full speed on DSi.
A few more overlays added.

V1.0 2021/09/07

First major release.

V0.9 2021/09/06

Major sound improvement (finally).
High Score Support added.

V0.8 2021/05/05

Two types of Dual-Action controllers supported (A=Standard, B=buttons on Controller #2).
More overlays added (Astrosmash, B-17 Bomber, Atlantis, Space Spartans).
Switched to a retro-green font for Game Select/Options.
More new homebrews supported.
Minor sound improvements.

V0.7 2021/09/04

Ability to save configuration on a per-game basis (START button in Config).
Minor sound improvements.
Moved FPS and Turbo mode to Config.
More homebrews added to "knowncarts.cfg".

V0.6 2021/09/03

More speedup and polish - especially for intellivoice games.
New config options for frameskip, sound quality.
New overlays for MINOTAUR and ADVENTURE (in Config settings).
New dual-action controller support (in Config settings).
Can now map START and SELECT buttons.

V0.5 2021/09/02

First pass release.

Credits

Special Thanks to BLISS - Intellivision Emulator. Originally developed by Kyle Davis. Contributions by Jesse Litton, Mike Dunston, Joseph Zbiciak.

External links