How To Emulate Scribblenauts
I usually don’t care much for DS games, or any games from a portable game device, but Scribblenauts is just too unique not to have a crack at. Since I don’t have a DS and don’t really like the idea of having to buy a DS just to play Scribblenauts I figured I’d enter the ol’ Emulator scene in the hope this game plays nice with the most popular emulators of today.
What You’ll Need
- The Scribblenauts NDS image file: Downloaded from your favourite torrent search engine.
- An Emulator, of which there are currently two options. There are reported problems for both of them so you’ll need to find the one that works best for you:
- Note: The following has been tested on Windows XP and Windows 7.
- NO$GBA 2.6a – Old but very good emulator. Very basic. Reported problems with Scribblenauts:
- Very low quality crackly sound.
- There appears to be a subtle dull blue hue over the screen.
- DeSmuME 0.9.4 - Another mature emulator. Has many options including the nice ability to increase the size of the screen. Reported problems with Scribblenauts:
- The sky appears to be the wrong color (white instead of blue) – It may not be displaying all the layers.
Instructions (Using DeSmuME)
- Open DeSmuME 0.9.4 change the following settings:
- Config -> 3D Settings -> Choose SoftRasterizer as the Renderer.
- Config -> Emulation Settings -> Tick Use 8MB debugger mode when starting execution.
- Done! Reload the cartridge and play!
Instructions (Using NO$GBA)
- Open NO$GBA 2.6a and run Scribblenauts, then change the following settings:
- Options -> Emulation Settings -> Change NDS Cartridge Backup Media to EEPROM 64KBytes.
- Options -> Save Options.
- Done! Reload the cartridge and play!
Always looking for feedback – Have you had success? Failure?
Woohoo! Both methods tested to work just fine! DeSmuME has better colors, though. And these tips only work in Windows, for now. DeSmuME has a Mac version but it currently does not run Scribblenauts.
DeSmuME would just endlessly load for me it says (00%) in the top left corner if it matters?
GBA worked but had terrible audio so i disabled it
@suran
That’s odd Suran. The game was only tested in Windows XP 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit. If you are running something else, that could be why.
Also, try playing around with the Save Types in DeSmuME:
Config -> Save Type -> EEPROM 64Kbit.
Tell me how you go.
Ah the save type did it thanks a load! Audio is great
Well actually it seems to have been a 1 time thing, I am using XP 32-bit and it wont go again
@suran
You may need to re-apply all the configurations. It could be that one didn’t save.
Also try deleting the config and save files DeSmuME creates in the same directory as the Scribblenauts image.
desmume worked like a charm on Vista 32bit, cheers for the help!
Thx desume worked great!! LOVE IT. I’m gonna go buy it right now!!!
oh my!
Thank you so much! C:
The no$gba worked but the sound was crackly.
So I’m usng the DeSmuME, it works just fine
But I have a problem… how do you save your game with these? It completely wiped my data when I closed it ToT
@BluuMuu
DeSmuME should save just fine. It creates the save files in the same directory as the Scribblenauts ROM. So make sure that place is writable and that you haven’t moved it around since.
If not, check out Config -> Save Type in DeSmuME. Works fine for me in auto-detect, but you may have better luck with another type.
Yea, it works fine^^
I am using DeSmuME 0.9.4
Nice one. I was already thinking of buying a DS because of this game but now I changed my mind. I hope the DS emulator for psp will improve.
Do you know when they will be coming out w/ a mac version of scribblenauts?
Hi, DeSmuME does not work for me! The name of the app. be “DeSmuME 1″, and both screens be black. In no$gba, i can play only in free play, if i try to go challenge the game stops(!!!).
Is this considered pirating or hacking? Is it illegal?
It is illegal if you don’t own the game, of course.
this tutorial was great! very helpful, thank you!
help all it says is cannot read data
please turn power off
and reinsert the ds card
Man, i tryed to get this working. I followed the steps exacly, but it didn’t work.
I was wondering about one thing..how do you get the image file set up after downloading the torrent file? I tutorial of this would be nice, as I’ve never messed around with this stuff before and would really like to play scribblenauts, thanks.
Should be able to just open the NDS file within the emulator to run it.
Everytime I turn it on, it just shows a blank screen : / i’m using a mac with a desmume, and I tried the 64bit thing, did I miss something?