Dumping games is the act of taking a game from your system or gamecart and copying it into a readable format onto your SD card. Dumping is perfectly legal if you keep the dumps to yourself, however sharing these dumps is piracy and is illegal.
This guide will tell you how to dump games from various formats and for various purposes. Dumping 3DS cartriges as .cia files is good if you want to install them to your system. Dumping them as .3ds files is good for emulators. Installed titles cannot be dumped as .3ds files. NDS cartiges can only be dumped as .nds files and cannot be installed (however, you can play them with emulators or flashcarts).
Dumping the RomFS of a game is primarily for romhacking purposess. RomFS is the place where a game stores its data. If dumped and modified, these files can be used with Luma's LayeredFS feature to patch games.
Many instructions here are adapted from Plailect's Godmode9 Usage page. Check it out for more information on Godmode9's functions.
This guide requires Luma3DS, b9s and Godmode9. If you do not have any of those, please follow the guide.
This page contains a lot of information. Only follow the section(s) relevant to you!
- Insert your gamecart into your console
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Navigate to [C:] GAMECART
- Press (A) on the
<titleid>.trim.3ds
file in the drive - Select
Copy to /gm9/out
- Press (START) to save and reboot
- Your dump will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on the SD card
- Insert your gamecart into your console
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Navigate to [C:] GAMECART
- Press (A) on the
<titleid>.trim.3ds
file in the drive - Select
NCSD image options...
, then selectBuild CIA from file
- Press (START) to save and reboot
- Your dump will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on the SD card
- Insert your gamecart into your console
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Navigate to [C:] GAMECART
- Press (A) on the
<titleid>.trim.nds
file in the drive - Select
Copy to /gm9/out
- Press (START) to save and reboot
- Your dump will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on the SD card
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Hold (R)+(A) while pointing to
[A:] SYSNAND SD
to open the drive options - Selct
Search for titles
- Press (A) to continue
- Press (A) on the .tmd file of the game you want to dump
- Select
TMD file options...
then selectBuild CIA (standard)
- Your dump will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on your sd card
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Hold (R)+(A) while pointing to
[1:] SYSNAND CTRNAND
to open the drive options - Selct
Search for titles
- Press (A) to continue
- Press (A) on the .tmd file of the game you want to dump
- Select
TMD file options...
then selectBuild CIA (standard)
- Your dump will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on your sd card
- Insert your gamecart into your console
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Navigate to [C:] GAMECART
- Press (A) on the
<titleid>.trim.3ds
file in the drive - Select
NCSD image options...
, then selectMount image to drive
- Press (A) to enter the drive
- For each file you want to dump, press (A) while hovering over it and select
Copy to /gm9/out
- For each folder you want to dump, press (R)+(A) while hovering over it and select
Copy to /gm9/out
- Press (START) to save and reboot
- Your files will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on the SD card
- Insert your gamecart into your console
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Navigate to [C:] GAMECART
- Press (A) on the
<titleid>.trim.nds
file in the drive - Select
NDS image options...
, then selectMount image to drive
- Press (A) to enter the drive
- For each file you want to dump, press (A) while hovering over it and select
Copy to /gm9/out
- For each folder you want to dump, press (R)+(A) while hovering over it and select
Copy to /gm9/out
- Press (START) to save and reboot
- Your files will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on the SD card
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Hold (R)+(A) while pointing to
[A:] SYSNAND SD
to open the drive options - Selct
Search for titles
- Press (A) to continue
- Press (A) on the .tmd file of the game which you want to extract the RomFS from
- Select
TMD file options...
then selectMount CXI/NDS to drive
- Press (A) to enter the drive
- For each file you want to dump, press (A) while hovering over it and select
Copy to /gm9/out
- For each folder you want to dump, press (R)+(A) while hovering over it and select
Copy to /gm9/out
- Press (START) to save and reboot
- Your files will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on the SD card
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Hold (R)+(A) while pointing to
[1:] SYSNAND CTRNAND
to open the drive options - Selct
Search for titles
- Press (A) to continue
- Press (A) on the .tmd file of the game which you want to extract the RomFS from
- Select
TMD file options...
then selectMount CXI/NDS to drive
- Press (A) to enter the drive
- For each file you want to dump, press (A) while hovering over it and select
Copy to /gm9/out
- For each folder you want to dump, press (R)+(A) while hovering over it and select
Copy to /gm9/out
- Press (START) to save and reboot
- Your files will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on the SD card
- Obtain your game file using one of the methods above
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Navigate to your game file inside the
[0:] SDCARD
drive - Press (A) on the game file
- Select
<type> image options...
, then selectMount image to drive
- Press (A) to enter the drive
- Press (A) on any files or (R)+(A) on any folders you want to dump, then select
Copy to /gm9/out
- Your files will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on the SD card
- Boot your console while holding (START) to launch Godmode9
- Navigate to your .3ds file inside of the
[0:] SDCARD
drive - Press (A) on the .3ds file
- Select
NCSD image options...
them selectBuild CIA from file
- Your converted .cia file will be in the
/gm9/out
folder on the SD card
Unfortunately, NDS games are designed to only launch from the cartridge slot. It is therefore impossible to make them into an installable CIA file.
However, workarounds exist. The best, most stable one is to buy a flashcart for $8-20. Flashcarts can pretend to be a cartridge and natively run your dumped games. If you do not want to use money, the next best option is an app called TWiLightMenu. Although slower and not as stable, this app will let you run NDS games for free on your 3DS. The above link (NDS Forwarder CIAs for your HOME Menu) is quite old, and I recommend you use TWiLightMenu instead.