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Nintendo e-Reader Gets Homebrew Dot-Code Games

Posted by simoniker on from the gotta-love-dem-hackers dept.

figa writes "Tim Schuerewegen announced that the Reed Solomon error correction used by the Nintendo Game Boy Advance e-Reader has been figured out. This was the last remaining obstacle to creating custom dot-code printouts for use with the GBA e-Reader (more info), which scans special Nintendo trading cards to load in mini-games on your Game Boy Advance. This should be a boon to homebrew GBA developers who want to print their own games - Schuerewegen has examples and documentation on his site, and has released a dot-code version of the homebrew BombSweeper game by SnowBro."

12 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. C&D by glam0006 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How fast can you say "cease and desist"?

  2. Who cares about a demo game.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Where is the information on the reed solomon code? Get that information out before Nintendo takes this site down. Stupid closed source hackers..

    1. Re:Who cares about a demo game.. by TheSpoom · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Most insightful comment on this page. Nintendo could bring the FBI to bear on them and shut down their site near instantly if they wanted to, and with this closed source we'd still have no idea how to create our own versions of this software. Sure, the binaries could be spread, but we'd be limited to what's already there.

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  3. Resolution? by ameoba · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I remember, when these first came out, somebody was talking about the crazy-mad wicked resolution these things were printed at. Have they figured out how to get my HP Deskjet 500 to print these things?

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  4. Why? by zeroclip · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Ok.. just why. Woulden't it be easier to use tiny ROM's? or even some kind of magnetic card?

    1. Re:Why? by outofpaper · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Can you print tiny Roms or magnetic strips? Enh? Enh? Didn't think so. Ok posibly you can but some one just geting into programing for the game boy probably dosn't have a rom writer or a magnetic strip writer (and definetly dosn't have a magnetic strip reader for thier gameboy). Don't kick this for no reason it's neat and fun and if it turns more people on to programing then good for them. If not, atleast some game boy programers can share there games more easly.

  5. The one thing Nintendo should do... by TwistedSpring · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is open up the GBA to home-brew developers. I am one of them, and I'm constantly annoyed by how Nintendo keeps me out of creating junk to run on their product that I paid for. I know all other consoles do this, but with such a simple little device, anyone can hack it and their sales of the thing would be even greater. Nintendo also lock out developers of games -- you have to go thru Nintendo and if you don't, you'll never sell anything. Independent developers cannot compete with Nintendo itself, and consequently the game market for the GBA is swamped with games costing $40 a whack that are usually not much more impressive than an old Sega Genesis game and don't appeal to me (I'm not into the whole faceless-anime-nonsense deal with characters and games that have no personality). It's very sad that such a sweet little machine is so closed up.

  6. Re:Curious like me ? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the info stored (4 kB) too little

    Come on now. I bet quite a few Atari 2600-like and better games might be small enough to fit into that. No, you probably aren't going to fit a 3D game or RPG into that but there's plenty of potential.

  7. Re:Too much work by Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Doom on the GBA? Do they have mice and keyboards now?

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  8. Re:Too much work by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Well, considering I have a store bought game called....oh.......Wolfenstein for the GBA...I'd think Doom would be pretty easy to pull off.

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  9. Mice? Keyboards? What? by oGMo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You must be forgetting we're talking about Doom here, not Quake... I never used a keyboard for Doom, only my Gravis Gamepad. Doom did not require aiming, jumping, ducking, mouselook, or any other myriad of 3D activities. It plays _very_ well with just a pad and a couple buttons. Part of the magic of it, in my opinion.

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  10. Re:Too much work by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I know you're not supposed to complain about moderation, but whoever moderated this flamebait is an idiot. Parent said you wouldn't see doom on the GBA because it lacked a keyboard and mouse. I pointed out that he was wrong, and that a FPS had already been brought to the GBA successfully, Wolfenstein, which was already released by someone for the GBA. Thus proving that Doom would be no problem. Seriously....I never usually complain about mods, but this one was just plain WRONG.

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