.TRIM.NDS File Extension

When a gamer uses GodMode9 or another Nintendo DS ROM-dumping utility to create a game ROM, the utility typically creates an NDS file. The NDS file's size is always the same as its associated game cartridge's total storage space, even if the game the NDS file contains did not use all that storage space.

For example, say a game was 700 MB in size and stored on a cartridge with 1 GB of storage. When GodMode9 creates an NDS file for that game, the file will be 1 GB in size, not 700 MB. The extra 300 MB of data the NDS file contains is dummy data, which is not needed to play the game in an emulator.

Gamers who want to trim this dummy data from their NDS files, so their NDS files take up less space, can do so using either GodMode9 or an NDS file trimming utility. The trimmed NDS ROMs these utilities produce are often saved with the .trim.nds extension.

NOTE: In some rare cases, trimming an NDS file might accidentally delete relevant game data stored in that file, rendering it unusable. Therefore, you should always keep a copy of your trimmed NDS files until you have checked that your TRIM.NDS file functions correctly.

You can open a TRIM.NDS file and play the Nintendo DS video game it contains in DeSmuMe (Windows, Mac), OpenEMU (Mac), RetroArch (cross-platform), Delta (iOS), and other Nintendo DS emulators.