DS Pico Might be the Most Powerful Nintendo DS Flashcart Yet, Thanks to Raspberry Pi

The DS Pico cartridge simply slots into a Nintendo DS slot like any other, but that’s where the similarities end. It’s a flashcart that quietly reimagines what these devices can achieve. Built over four years by the LNH Team, it all began with the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, which set the project on a very specific course.

The open source approach encapsulates the entire project: the hardware schematics, firmware, software, and even the 3D-printed or moulded shell designs are all available on GitHub for anybody to view. That means you may study the layout, send the design to a fab provider like PCBWay, and construct your own unit, or modify the parts to meet your needs. Because the community is actively involved, the cart continues to receive support even after the original development team has moved on, which is in stark contrast to closed hardware, which just dies away once its owners lose interest.

You can assess the cart’s performance in basic, real terms. For example, it can read data from a microSD card at up to 6 MB/s, allowing games to load faster and films to play more smoothly than on earlier carts. The power consumption is also surprisingly low, averaging around 57 milliwatts, extending battery life on a DS Lite or DSi during marathon gaming sessions. Finally, there is a micro USB connector that allows you to update the firmware and transfer files without removing the card.


In terms of compatibility, the cart is far more useful than you can imagine. Games run just perfectly in basic DS mode across the board, and switching to DSi mode gives you access to all of the DSi-enhanced titles as well as homebrew, which many earlier carts lack. The cart also allows you to convert between the two modes on the fly, so it works as well on a conventional DS, DSi, or even a 3DS in DSi mode.

In addition to running full DSi games, you can load emulators for Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, and NES titles without trouble, giving you access to a much wider range of content than just actual DS games.


When you first boot the cart, you’re met by a unique menu called Pico Launcher, which is sleek and simple, with a snappy design reminiscent of an old-school digital music player. It allows you to browse files without difficulty, with smooth scrolling and optional background music to make things feel a little more spiffy. If you don’t like Pico Launcher, you may always switch to an option like Twilight Menu++, which installs quickly, and the underlying Pico Loader handles ROMs flawlessly, supporting both retail and homebrew titles.


In terms of expansion, the card has a lot of possibilities, as it includes a development port with GPIO pins that encourages people to experiment with add-ons that the RP2040 can drive. For example, you could use an infrared module to enable wireless connection features in games like Pokémon, or perform various experiments to convert a DSi into a makeshift webcam or microphone input for a computer. The USB examples are also very intriguing, demonstrating how you can use the cart to read an SD card from a computer or simulate a gamepad, which is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how far this thing can go beyond simply loading games.
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