Introduction

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Day 1
Environment Setup

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PA_Lib

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Nintendo DS Development Tutorial :: Day 2 :: Input - Pad

Okay, so you've gotten through the typical "Hello, World!" example and now you want to learn how to do something that you will actually use all the time.  Fine, let's take a look at how the PA_Lib handles input from the pad (or buttons).

// Includes
#include <PA9.h>      // Include for PA_Lib
#include <String>     // Used for C++ style strings

// Function: main()
int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
    // Variables
    std::string Button = "No    ";

    PA_Init();    // Initializes PA_Lib
    PA_InitVBL(); // Initializes a standard VBL

    // PA_LoadSplash();  // PA_Lib splash screen

    PA_InitText(1, 0); // Text system for top screen
    PA_InitText(0, 0); // Text system for on botton screen

    PA_SetTextCol(1, 31, 31, 31);
        // 1 = botton screen, 0,0,0 = R,G,B
    PA_SetTextCol(0, 0, 31, 0); 
        // 0 = top screen, 0,0,0 = R,G,B

    PA_OutputSimpleText(1, 0, 0, "Press Any Button");
        // 1 = top screen, 0 = Tile X, 0 = Tile Y

    // Infinite loop to keep the program running
    while (1)
    {
        // Determine which button was pressed
        if (Pad.Held.Start) {
            Button = " Start";
        } else if (Pad.Held.Select) {
            Button = "Select";
        } else if (Pad.Held.A) {
            Button = "     A";
        } else if (Pad.Held.B) {
            Button = "     B";
        } else if (Pad.Held.X) {
            Button = "     X";
        } else if (Pad.Held.Y) {
            Button = "     Y";
        } else if (Pad.Held.L) {
            Button = "     L";
        } else if (Pad.Held.R) {
            Button = "     R";
        } else if (Pad.Held.Up) {
            Button = "    Up";
        } else if (Pad.Held.Down) {
            Button = "  Down";
        } else if (Pad.Held.Left) {
            Button = "  Left";
        } else if (Pad.Held.Right) {
            Button = " Right";
        } else {
            Button = "      ";
        }

        PA_OutputText(0, 0, 12, "%s button pressed.",Button.c_str());
        // 0 = Bottom Screen, 0 = Tile X, 12 = Tile Y

        PA_WaitForVBL();  // Wait for VBL to complete
    }

    return 0;
} // End of main()

Code Explanation

As you can see, reading input from the pad is quite simple.

Hopefully you know something about the C++ STL String class.  If not, grab yourself a book!

Pad.Held.<button>
This is how you can find out what button is pressed.  You can also use Pad.Newpress.<button> and Pad.Released.<button> to find out what button was just pressed or released, but don't worry about that for now.

Download

Day2_Input_Pad.zip

Extract this file into your ndsdev directory.  You will find the code mentioned above in Day1_Hello_World\arm9\source\main.cpp.  Notice that we will not do anything in the arm7 directory - at least not for now.

Screenshot

Last Updated: 10/31/2005