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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.'"

9 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. 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/

  2. 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...
  3. 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".

  4. [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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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

  8. 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.