Backing up DS and 3DS prototypes

I have a decent amount of DS Nitro carts and was wondering if there is a somewhat simple way to back them up. Some appear to be final versions of games, while others are very early tech demos or have level selects and other menus implemented into them. Any help would be appreciated!

 

A 3ds with GodMode9 should be able to make dumps of the carts. https://github.com/d0k3/GodMode9

 

I think there is unfortunately still no way to dump DS cards 100% correctly, and this does include retail games. We can check this by comparing official Wii U Virtual Console roms.
For example, if you check Mario Kart DS, the Virtual Console rom has data from 0x1000 to 0x2FFF (called "SecureData" by the SDK) and 0x3000 to 0x3FFF (called "Segment3 data" by the SDK) which is completely absent in roms you dump yourself. The data from 0x4000 to 0x47FF ("Secure Area") is different but can be restored by re-encrypting that area.
Dumping DSi dev cards seems to be even more broken. The DSi exclusive areas are completely invalid, the dumped data does not match the original data at all.

 

Ah, thanks for the reply, but what a bummer to hear! I have a bunch of the dev systems for the DS and 3DS, but the actual carts are the most interesting to me.

 

Well, you *can* dump them with GodMode9 to be used with emulators, flashcarts etc. like @Sopris said, but it won't be a true lossless copy. Better hold on to the original carts until true preservation becomes possible.

 

I'm curious about the carts you have? Could you list them? Also, do you think you'd be interested in posting the dumps (or at least their checksums)?

Also, the developer of GodMode9 may be able to improve support for DSi dev carts if you open an issue on the git repository.