Can the Nintendo DS Play Game Boy Color Games? No—Only GBA

No. The Nintendo DS cannot play Game Boy Color cartridges.

Technical Reasons

• Different cartridge slot: DS uses a smaller, differently keyed card slot; GBC cartridges physically do not fit.
• Incompatible architecture: The DS's ARM9/ARM7 processors and memory map cannot natively execute Game Boy Color (Sharp LR35902/Z80-based) code.

What It Can Play

The DS (and DS Lite) includes a built-in Game Boy Advance (GBA) slot and hardware compatibility layer, allowing it to play Game Boy Advance games only.