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January DS Homebrew Overview

Posted by Zonk on from the non-standard-dual-screen-devices dept.

marcellizot writes "Handheld site Pocket Gamer has a new monthly DS homebrew review roundup, which kicks off today with an update on slot-1 hardware methods, plus a look at DS Motion, Lemmings on DS, Flashback DS, Tetris Attack DS and more. From the article: 'The latest hardware is the slot-1 type, which is a DS-sized card and requires no additional hardware or modifications to the DS. These are much simpler to use than slot-2 devices, but as the majority of homebrew was designed for the slot-2 hardware and it's ability to boot GBA software, there are some compatibility issues. They are thankfully being ironed out, and as slot-1 devices become the standard we fully expect that all new homebrew will be designed with them in mind.'"

54 comments

  1. It's about time... by SighKoPath · · Score: 1

    someone decided to do monthly homebrew reviews. I spend too much time here to keep up on everything that's going on with homebrew. A those games look pretty sweet. Sweet enough to finally get me to invest in some homebrew access hardware. I've always loved Lemmings. Any predictions as to how long before Sony sends the cease and desist? My guess is tomorrow.

    1. Re:It's about time... by Kamineko · · Score: 1

      They'd be a bit slow: Lemmings has been out since Boxing Day

  2. Doesn't involve beer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...but involves Nintendo DS.
     
      Lo! A paradox!

  3. nothign much by Thansal · · Score: 1

    Only exiting parts to me are Lemmings DS (I think I will be downloadign that), and the fact that we are moving into Slot-1 devices.
    The move to slot one is kinda disapointing for me as I just was given a slot-2/passme set up, and that will possibly render my set up out dated compared to the new set ups....

    --
    Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
    1. Re:nothign much by Kamineko · · Score: 1

      That's pretty convenient for you then, because my Lemmings DS only works on SLOT-2 devices. :)

      (Feel free to ask me anything about Lemmings DS :) )

    2. Re:nothign much by tepples · · Score: 1

      (Feel free to ask me anything about Lemmings DS :) )

      How do you plan to handle a cease-and-desist letter from Sony, owner of trademarks and copyrights related to the Lemmings franchise, should you receive one?

    3. Re:nothign much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carefully, I'd imagine.

  4. Nintendo Actually by Quzak · · Score: 1

    Nintendo not Sony. But yes, I do see them doing the while DCMA thing shortly.

    --
    Support your local school shooter, give them your firearms.
    1. Re:Nintendo Actually by Thansal · · Score: 1

      the GPP was reffering to Sony shutting down the lemmings port (as aparently sony owns lemmings).

      And I kinda doubt that Nintendo will be shutting down the homebrew crowd, mainly because they havn't yet. They could easily go the route that Sony did and plug all the security holes with patches (your DS firmware can be updated via the wifi connection), but they just have not, so I susspect that they are not going to any time soon.

      --
      Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
    2. Re:Nintendo Actually by SighKoPath · · Score: 1

      I meant a cease and desist regarding the Lemmings game. Why would Nintendo send one for something Sony owns the IP for?

      I can see why Nintendo would send one to the homebrew hardware manufacturers, for enabling the play of copied games. I don't think they will, though, since a strong homebrew community can increase console sales and extend the life of the handheld.

  5. some info on homebrew by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I did some research into "homebrew" this week and ordered a M3 Perfect Simply for $45 (came to about $62 with shipping). It's a slot-1 cartridge (same slot that uses DS games). You insert a Micro SD flash card into the cartridge and off you go. It plays ROMs perfectly, without any need for conversion. Savegames are saved to the flash card. Its only downside is that it doesn't play GBA ROMs, which I didn't really care about.

    My second choice was the R4, which is basically the same thing - slot-1 cartridge with flash card - but didn't look like as good for some reason (it might be, for all I know).

    If you want GBA ROM support, you're looking at a slot-2 cartridge. They're generally more expensive and many (all?) need a booting card in slot-1. Bundles are available.

    As far as homebrew goes, the M3 Simply plays videos and mp3s straight out of the box. It has a skinnable shell. There are applications that will turn your DS into a PDA or telephone, but I'm not sure if they work with the M3 - maybe someone here knows more on this subject.

    Try to avoid homebrew solutions that require you to flash your DS bios. It voids your warranty.

    Some links:

    M3 website: http://www.m3adapter.com/
    R4DS website: http://r4ds.net/
    Review of some common methods for homebrew: http://www.metku.net/index.html?path=articles/nds/ index_eng
    Store: http://bamboogaming.com/
    Store: http://divineo.com/

    1. Re:some info on homebrew by Perseid · · Score: 1

      If you have a slot two cartridge you need a slot one passcard OR a flashed system. If you do not have one of those two it will only boot GBA games. But if you use a slot-1 only device you won't have any GBA compatibility at all. It's getting to be a pretty crowded and complicated market out there for DS flash carts.

    2. Re:some info on homebrew by despisethesun · · Score: 1

      I have an M3 (slot 2) and one of the things I like about it is its real-time save capability. Basically, it works like save-states in an emulator. Do the M3 Simply or the R4DS have this function?

      --
      This poo is cold.
    3. Re:some info on homebrew by maughanahan · · Score: 1

      Another disadvantage of the M3 simply, and many (all?) slot one cards is that download play (when you play locally against someone who doesn't have the game) does not work for many Nintendo games, including Mario Kart. There is a comparison guide for slot 1 cards here but you may have to register (free) to access it... http://gbatemp.net/index.php?dynamic=39

    4. Re:some info on homebrew by MS-06FZ · · Score: 1

      Try to avoid homebrew solutions that require you to flash your DS bios. It voids your warranty. Bah! I flashed my DS as soon as I could get the WiFi exploit working on Linux (I'm happy to say I played at least a very small role in helping to get that software working...) - it was well worth it for the benefit of bypassing the health & safety screen alone.

      Besides which, I've come up with all kinds of other ways to void my warranty - replacing the plastic casing of the DS with an aftermarket knock-off and painting the thing, for starters.
      --
      ---GEC
      I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
    5. Re:some info on homebrew by TadMSTR · · Score: 1

      The M3 and R4 seem identical to me. Look at the FAG for each. For the most part they are word for word the same.

      --
      There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.
    6. Re:some info on homebrew by Builder · · Score: 1

      The M3 looks great, but what about the software required to communicate with it ? Is OS X / Linux supported or is it all still Windows like my old GBA stuff was ?

    7. Re:some info on homebrew by billcopc · · Score: 1

      Back when I was doing homebrew on the GBA, we ran legacy GBC roms through an emulator since it would then appear as a GBA executable. Alternately there was the GB-Bridge device which is kind of like the Slot-1 passcard system, but the added cost and weight of this bridge device resulted in most people just going the emulated route.

      I would expect it to be just as easy to run a DS-native emulator for GBA roms. That gives you the benefit of a DS-native launcher app allowing for all sorts of tricks. You could even zip the roms and have the emu decompress them on-the-fly.

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    8. Re:some info on homebrew by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      Another disadvantage of the M3 simply, and many (all?) slot one cards is that download play (when you play locally against someone who doesn't have the game) does not work for many Nintendo games, including Mario Kart.

      So you have three friends and yourself, and you want to play some multiplayer Mario Kart via ad-hoc wireless.

      If all four of you possess the game cart, you can play it.
      If only some of you possess the game cart, you can play it.
      If only one of you possesses the game cart, you can play it.

      You are complaining that you aren't able to play it when ZERO of you possesses the game cart?

    9. Re:some info on homebrew by CableModemSniper · · Score: 1

      You can bypass the health and safety screen? Holy crap that really is worth it just to get rid of that annoying thing.

      --
      Why not fork?
    10. Re:some info on homebrew by BioNTechKid · · Score: 1

      I went to GBAtemp and I dont see the slot-2 game cards being reviewed for download play. Can Slot-2 cards be used for DS download play ?

    11. Re:some info on homebrew by Torne · · Score: 1

      Legality issues aside, you can play download play from any slot 1 or slot 2 device just fine if the DS being downloaded to has been reflashed with a FlashMe firmware.

      Download play works by sending a copy of part of the game data over wifi. This data is signed using RSA, to prevent tampering. However, your slot1/2 card modifies the data in some circumstances as it's being read (or in advance, if it's a device which requires a patching tool), as it can't distinguish between code that's going to be run on the local DS (and must thus be patched to run from a non-original card) and code that's going to be downloaded via wifi. The modified code no longer has a valid signature and the target DS refuses to run it.

      Flashing with FlashMe removes the signature check from the wireless download client, which allows it to work.

    12. Re:some info on homebrew by MS-06FZ · · Score: 1

      Sure! It's been the default behavior of Flashme for a long time now. Then some people wanted their DS'es to appear stock despite having been flashed (so they could resell them or whatever without having to flash them back to the standard, I guess - no one would know the difference unless they had some DS software on slot-2...) and so they made the "stealth" version of Flashme that left the Health & Safety screen intact.

      Flashme also allows you to boot unsigned code over WMB - so you can send demos, programs-in-development, small homebrew, etc. over to the DS using a computer with a compatible Wi-Fi card. With a stock DS the only things you can boot over WMB are official demos, either from the PC or a DS (in other words, signed code) and WiFiMe - the WMB hack that lets you run slot-2 software on an unmodded DS. But WiFiMe doesn't work on current DS firmware, only old ones - like pre-Mario-Kart old. But last I checked the "compatible Wi-Fi card" requirement meant specifically a non-USB device using the RT2500 chipset. There were reports that people got the Linux version working on USB Wi-Fi modules using closely related chipsets, but I don't have one so I can't personally confirm that. I don't know if the situation's changed since then. The thing is that in order to speak WMB the Wi-Fi hardware has to set some very specific parameters - so the guy who wrote the WMB client and WiFiMe for Windows made it work with just one type of hardware, and by writing a device driver to support the required operations. The Linux version had a little more API support in the existing kernel drives for doing that stuff, I guess, which is why the USB device could be made to work.

      Since the new Slot-1 adaptors use micro-SD I think it'd still be more convenient to beam over work-in-progress builds rather than copy them to the SD and run them that way - though as yet I've still not gotten off my ass to do any DS development in earnest.

      --
      ---GEC
      I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
    13. Re:some info on homebrew by CableModemSniper · · Score: 1

      Did Mario Kart update the firmware, or do you just mean DSes produced before Mario Kart came out?

      --
      Why not fork?
    14. Re:some info on homebrew by MS-06FZ · · Score: 1

      There are hardware limitations that prevent software from overwriting the main part of the firmware - a full firmware update can only be performed if the user manually shorts out the SL1 jumper, accessible through the battery compartment (underneath the "security" sticker)

      Mario Kart and other internet Wi-Fi games do write Wi-Fi settings to an unprotected area of the DS flash ROM - this area was inadvertently used by early versions of FlashMe. A DS flashed with an old version of FlashMe could be bricked by Mario Kart (I think there's still a recovery mode in FlashMe that could correct the problem - don't know about that, though.) Shortly after the problem was discovered, FlashMe was updated to correct the issue. But anyway, the Wi-Fi games don't do anything to the firmware that would affect one's ability to use PassMe-type solutions.

      What happened is that Nintendo started making DSes with firmware (v4) that prevented the use of the first-generation boot methods. This happened a little while before Mario Kart came out, and the red Mario Kart DS bundle was one of the first products you could point to on the shelf and say "that one has firmware v4 on it." With the others, it was mostly guesswork as to whether it would have v4 or an older version installed. There was a danger that a newly-purchased DS - especially one of the newer colors, or an imported model, etc. - would have the v4 firmware and thus be incompatible with PassMe v1 or WiFiMe - and no way to tell the difference without turning the machine on.

      (The story so far)
      PassMe was the first known method for conveniently running homebrew code on the DS. It worked by using a genuine DS cart to get past the DS's crypto checks, but overwriting an execution address so that one of the CPUs would jump to an address on the GBA slot. WiFiMe worked similarly - sending signed code (an official demo or the like) to a DS, but changing an address in the header to make one CPU jump to an address in the newly-downloaded header, and make the other jump to the GBA slot. Both approaches worked because firmware v3 and earlier checks crypto signatures and checksum data for the code loaded from the cart - but it gets the starting addresses for the CPUs from an unchecked area of the game header.

      V4 fixed that loophole, by checking the jump addresses against ones stored in a signed area of the program code, and by setting up the CPU to forbid jumps into the GBA ROM space - and so PassMe 2 was devised with a more complex scheme: I don't understand the whole process it uses, but a PassMe 2 device had to be specifically set up for the game cart you used with it, and it relied on some PassMe2 data being written to SRAM (game save space) on the GBA slot. On boot, PassMe2 did a buffer overrun, causing execution to jump to the SRAM (which, IIRC, was complicated by the fact that slot-2 SRAM access is a bit strange: I think each byte is memory-mapped to a word address, so in other words you only get 8 bits out of every 16. So the SRAM code had to be tailored to work under those conditions)

      The current method, "NoPass", is the result of the crypto signing system on the DS having been cracked. I don't know the exact details (can people sign their own code now? Or did someone simply devise one particular bootloader program and find a working signature for it?) but the result is that for the past year or so, it's been possible to create a slot-1 device, not licensed (or signed) by Nintendo, which can boot DS code without it already being memory-mapped. The early versions just booted to the GBA slot, like PassMe-type devices, but now there's slot-1 NoPass devices that have their own storage and boot to that. Because the NoPass bootloader actually passes the DS bootup tests, rather than bypassing them, it seems very unlikely that this mechanism will ever be defeated by Nintendo.

      As a side note: regarding FlashMe and the DS Lite, I was looking up information on FlashMe earlier today and I found mention of a danger specific to

      --
      ---GEC
      I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
    15. Re:some info on homebrew by CableModemSniper · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the info. It appears it doesn't matter anymore what firmware you have? (If it did I should be ok, I have a fat DS from launch day in the US).

      --
      Why not fork?
    16. Re:some info on homebrew by MS-06FZ · · Score: 1

      If you buy NoPass-derived hardware like all these Slot-1 devices, then no, it doesn't matter - any DS will work.

      If you do have a pre-v4 DS and a compatible wi-fi card and a programmable GBA cart of some kind, then you can take advantage of the fact that WiFiMe will work with your device and use it to run FlashMe - get up and running with homebrew at no additional cost - but if you're lacking any one of these things it's probably more cost-effective to get a Slot-1 flash cart.

      More info about NoPass and the DS encryption: gamecards have some single-key encryption that's used to authenticate a gamecard as being valid. This was cracked by dumping the DS BIOS and digging around, which made it possible for people to create their own game cards without them being approved by Nintendo. The DS Wi-Fi mode uses public-key encryption which (fortunately? unfortunately?) hasn't been cracked. This means you can't send homebrew code to non-FlashMe'd DSes via the Wireless Multi Boot protocol - and also means that people can't exploit that ability in order to send Trojan Horse programs to people's DSes.

      --
      ---GEC
      I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
  6. Homebrew... by JMZero · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think one of the things that tarnishes the "Homebrew" image is the percentage of games/content that are recycled from other games. I'm guilty of this to some extent myself in my own game dev projects: it's much easier to lift assets or ideas from completed, successful works than it is to develop everything from scratch. And this is not entirely bad - there's lots of great remakes and re-imaginings out there.

    However, it seems like - especially for consoles - there's a real dearth of quality, finished original material. If we could point to a quantity of such material then there might be a more adequate defense for hardware and efforts to allow homebrew development. Right now, there's a lot of truth to the argument that items like NDS flash cards are pretty much just channels for illegal material.

    --
    Let's not stir that bag of worms...
  7. DS firmware can't be updated that easily by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative

    They could easily go the route that Sony did and plug all the security holes with patches (your DS firmware can be updated via the wifi connection)

    Unlike the PSP firmware, the DS firmware is not intended to be upgraded in the field. The firmware is write-protected (first 64 KiB on older models; first 248 KiB on newer models including the DS Lite). Installing DS firmware requires opening the battery door using a + screwdriver (right) and pushing a metal paperclip device (lower left) into a hole in the case next to the battery slot to bridge a test point called "SL1".

    1. Re:DS firmware can't be updated that easily by LordVader717 · · Score: 1

      Mario Kart DS automatically upgraded older DS firmware to give it Internet over WiFi connection.

    2. Re:DS firmware can't be updated that easily by tepples · · Score: 1

      Mario Kart DS automatically upgraded older DS firmware to give it Internet over WiFi connection.

      That wasn't a upgrade to the code in the same sense of PSP firmware upgrades. All the WFC games did was initialize a struct in a previously unused part of the 8 KiB user settings area at the end of firmware. Early versions of FlashMe stored some code in this area, causing a DS to appear bricked after running a WFC game, but this was fixed within a week; FlashMe users could hold the failsafe keys (A+B+Select+Start+Power) to boot a SLOT-2 device and install a new version of FlashMe that stayed out of WFC's way. In order to block future homebrew booting methods, code in the protected 64 KiB or 248 KiB (depending on board revision) would need to be changed, and rewriting that needs the insertion of a pair of paperclips into SL1.

  8. The homebrew forum has an anti-piracy policy by tepples · · Score: 1

    I can see why Nintendo would send one to the homebrew hardware manufacturers, for enabling the play of copied games.

    The administrators of a major GBA and DS homebrew forum have a strict policy against the discussion of methods of piracy or "backups". Perhaps this has helped Nintendo decide not to waste its time on fighting homebrew.

  9. SLOT-2 cards allow use of GBA homebrew by tepples · · Score: 1

    The move to slot one is kinda disapointing for me as I just was given a slot-2/passme set up

    The advantage of SLOT-2 is that most SLOT-2 cards allow you to run homebrew designed for GBA compatibility mode as well, such as TOD, Luminesweeper, LOCKJAW, and everything else I've made. The SD cards for SLOT-2 adapters are also significantly cheaper at Staples than the microSD cards for SLOT-1 adapters.

  10. Euphemistiriffic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I love how "homebrew" has become the accepted slang for "playing illegally copied ROMs".

  11. That's it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the PSP homebrew and hacking scene we've gotten a full speed PS1 emulator, a downgrader for 2.80 PSPs, a fully functional java client, a keyboard implementation, and a shit load of other games and emulator releases.

    1. Re:That's it? by miro+f · · Score: 1

      errr... this is an overview of THIS MONTH in DS homebrew

      --
      being vague is almost as cool as doing that other thing...
  12. [citation needed] by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I love how "homebrew" has become the accepted slang for "playing illegally copied ROMs".

    [citation needed]

    Please show me which project listed in gbadev.org - DS Misc is pirated.

    1. Re:[citation needed] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not what I meant -- the fact is that people who just want to buy hardware to play pirated ROMs always cry "homebrew!" as their defense, while true homebrew developers and experimenters get a bad rap by association.

      This wouldn't be a problem if console manufacturers offered more legitimate ways to truly homebrew games, so people didn't have to resort to these hacks, which end up attracting a million entitlement kids screaming "H0W I C0PY M4R10K4RT DUD3ZZZ!!??!1/!?/?"

    2. Re:[citation needed] by toby1 · · Score: 1

      absolutely - whatever dork suggested homebrew is slang for roms is either misinformed, or stupid. get a life outside the internet and learn to code, not just download exe's and scripts. but on topic, the slot1 revolution is overdue, and very exciting :)

      --
      Thou Shalt Ignite That Which Burns.
  13. Yarr? by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Another disadvantage of the M3 simply, and many (all?) slot one cards is that download play (when you play locally against someone who doesn't have the game) does not work for many Nintendo games, including Mario Kart.

    Yes it does. All you have to do is turn off the DS, push on the M3 DS Simply card to eject it from SLOT-1, insert an authentic Mario Kart DS Game Card into SLOT-1, and turn on the DS. Homebrew isn't backups of commercial games.

    1. Re:Yarr? by maughanahan · · Score: 2, Funny
      Fair point! Although it is very convenient to store many of the original games that I own on one flash card to save carrying all those seperate cards around...

      ...Nah - I'm not fooling anyone am I? Yarrr.

    2. Re:Yarr? by tepples · · Score: 1

      Although it is very convenient to store many of the original games that I own on one flash card to save carrying all those seperate cards around...

      Look in any camera shop and you'll find a memory card wallet that's intended for CompactFlash and Secure Digital cards but also good for holding DS Game Cards.

  14. ebook reader ? by n3m6 · · Score: 1

    Does anybody know of a good ebook reader for the DS ? Something that can read .txt files or .pdf ?

    1. Re:ebook reader ? by Frogbert · · Score: 2, Informative

      Moonshell will read text files and play movies. It is compatable with most, if not all, flash card devices.

    2. Re:ebook reader ? by xtieburn · · Score: 1

      My M3 has an ebook section on its menu, not actually used it but I assume all you need comes with the M3 package. I know it also has music, movies etc and the encoders required to put them on. So Id assume the same for ebooks.

  15. PSP has a lot of homebrew stuff going on, too by MS-06FZ · · Score: 1

    That's pretty cool, then! Sweet that there's PS1 emulation going (what do you do about the missing buttons, though? I guess that means no Armored Core... Well, unless the analog stick is emulating the D-pad and the D-pad is emulating buttons... But Rockman X4 would work for sure, as would a lot of other great games...) for sure it sounds like the PSP homebrew has a lot of great emulation stuff going - where the DS would need to scale down and push its limits to emulate, say, the SNES, PSP can muscle straight through something like that...

    But I have to say - since I own a DS and not a PSP, the DS news is a whole lot more exciting to me.

    --
    ---GEC
    I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
    1. Re:PSP has a lot of homebrew stuff going on, too by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Well, unless the analog stick is emulating the D-pad and the D-pad is emulating buttons... But Rockman X4 would work for sure, as would a lot of other great games...) Or vice-versa. (You can use the DPad as the DPad and the stick to emulate L2/R2/L2+R2)

      The PSX emu isn't really "homebrew" though. It's hacked from the actual Sony emu (and finally made it worth it for me to buy a PSP)

  16. Don't get a slot-1 device if you want to run Linux by stsp · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The latest hardware is the slot-1 type, which is a DS-sized card and requires no additional hardware or modifications to the DS. These are much simpler to use than slot-2 devices, but as the majority of homebrew was designed for the slot-2 hardware and it's ability to boot GBA software, there are some compatibility issues. They are thankfully being ironed out, and as slot-1 devices become the standard we fully expect that all new homebrew will be designed with them in mind.'

    For DSLinux, the issues cannot be ironed out! So this new trend gives us headaches :(

    The DS has only 4MB of RAM. DSLinux has been using extra RAM present in add-on devices for some time now (usually an extra 32MB). But because only slot-2 is mapped into RAM, only slot-2 devices can provide additional RAM. Slot-1 devices can only be accessed via serial.

    So if you want to run DSLinux, don't get a slot-1 device, get a slot-2 device that provides additional RAM.

    See also:
    http://mailman.dslinux.in-berlin.de/pipermail/dsli nux-devel/2006-December/000379.html
    http://www.dslinux.org/wiki/Running_Homebrew#Recom mended_storage_devices

  17. DS Homebrew is pretty cool. by DanTheManMS · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Indeed, DS homebrew is worth investing in. Moonshell is an amazing application for viewing many different types of media, and the games mentioned on that page are pretty fun, especially Tetris Attack DS. Other notable applications include DSFTP, an FTP server for the DS, and DSOrganize, which is more than an organizer and includes functions like playing back Internet radio streams. There's also SylphAmp, which lets you stream music directly from your computer to the DS.

    Overall, there's a lot of awesome DS homebrew out there, and I'm glad I spent the money on the additional hardware necessary.

    I personally prefer slot-2 devices because:
    1. They are more supported by homebrew, although as the article said, this is slowly diminishing due to the new DLDI support.
    2. SnezziDS, one of the best SNES emulators for the DS, only runs on slot-2 cards with GBA compatibility.
    3. DSLinux works best on slot-2 devices with GBA compatibility, as explained in this post. With DSLinux, I can browse the web while listening to MP3s while chatting on IRC.
    1. Re:DS Homebrew is pretty cool. by markimusk · · Score: 1

      Hi, sorry not replying to anything, just have a question as I'm new to the DS and thought someone here might help (just got one as a belated xmas gift, belated because everyone was sold out of the black DS Lite and I was very much holding out for it...)

      I understand the Opera webrowser came out for the DS in Japan but can't find jack about a North American release, just that it's "coming". Or is there another way I can go online with the DS now?

      I think it's a great platform but would honestly like to see some practical applications, like as I mentioned, a webrowser and I think a PDA would work really well on the DS (and give me an excuse to retire my trusty Palm IIIc).

      I find myself playing it (with the whole two games I have at the moment!) and thinking... "cool, but I know this could do sooo much more!"

      Markimus of K.

    2. Re:DS Homebrew is pretty cool. by DanTheManMS · · Score: 1

      The Opera browser is out in Europe as well if you want to import it. I bought it when I was in London because I was tired of waiting for a North American release. It works pretty well, if a bit slow. Homebrew offers two text-only web browsers in the DSLinux port of the Linux OS to the DS. Getting connected to the Internet can be a pain, but once it's connected, they work good enough for me. DSOrganize is a homebrew organizer application that many swear by. It's very useful and does more than just act as a PDA organizer.

  18. DSOrganize by tepples · · Score: 1

    MoonShell can read .txt files, but it doesn't do proper Latin-alphabet word wrap because it's maintained by somebody whose first language is Japanese. Try DSOrganize, which was recently revived due to Chishm's new "DLDI" block device driver architecture.

  19. Re:Don't get a slot-1 device if you want to run Li by MS-06FZ · · Score: 1

    Couldn't you also just get a slot-1 device, and then put memory-mapped RAM in slot-2?

    I'm curious about DSLinux - at this point I have no idea if it really does anything useful (though DanTheMan's post suggests that it really, truly does) and at the moment I don't have a slot-2 device with any significant amount of RAM on it (just got a GBAMP and a GBA flash cart) but if it really is useful in a practical sense then I'd really like to give it a go, once I get a device that'll give me a decent amount of filesystem storage. (Technically the GBAMP does, potentially, but I don't have any big CF cards)

    Now I could get a slot-2 device and be done with it, but it's really exciting to me that there are now slot-1 devices that work on stock DSes, fit completely in the slot, and pack a micro-SD card for storage. That sounds like all kinds of fun, and I want in. Even though I have a flashed fat DS (and can therefore use full-size slot-2 devices that take normal SD cards, and leave the damn thing in and not think about it) it's exciting to me that they finally got running homebrew boiled down to such a simple formula.

    But I don't know what I would get for slot-2 for memory expansion to run DSLinux. Opera? Or I could get one of the other flash adaptors... which makes the purchase of a slot-1 adaptor seem a bit silly, unless I just want it as a way to run FlashMe on people's DSes...

    Do you know if it would be possible to run an ssh client on DSLinux without RAM expansion? I think it might be worth running for that alone - ability to remote-login over an open wireless access point (my Treo, unfortunately, doesn't have WiFi, so the ability to do SSH with it depends on getting sufficient phone network coverage.)

    --
    ---GEC
    I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
  20. Re:Don't get a slot-1 device if you want to run Li by stsp · · Score: 1
    Couldn't you also just get a slot-1 device, and then put memory-mapped RAM in slot-2?

    Yes, if vendors supplied a RAM expansion for slot 2 the problem would go away.

    Do you know if it would be possible to run an ssh client on DSLinux without RAM expansion?

    The ssh client works well without additional RAM. If you want to browse the web with links or run the bitchx IRC client, you are better off with extra RAM. But if you just want to ssh into some other box and do everything else there, you don't need extra RAM. See also http://www.dslinux.org/wiki/DSLinux_as_Terminal