As a big fan of the potential of the Nintendo DS, I want to point out the possibilities of developing for handheld consoles. In terms of functionality, the current handheld generation, i.e. the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP aren't far behind, if not even ahead of, cellphones and PDAs. They both have nice big screens and WLAN, which opens up a broad range of possibilities for homebrew software. For example, for the DS there is an e-Mail program, web browsers, internet radio clients, ssh (in DSLinux) and much more. The PSP has a fast CPU and a powerful graphics chip, while the DS two screens one of which is a touchscreen, so it encourages experimentation with novel user interfaces. Both consoles can deal with removable media: The PSP uses the Memory Stick while for the DS there are adapters for Compact Flash and (mini|micro)SD cards. The SDKs are both unofficial, but freely available and actively maintained. Both homebrew scenes are worth checking out, since they have produced a lot of great software, which is not only games. I admit that getting into development is a bit hard at first, but the coolness factor of having your own apps and games running on a games console is just worth it:)
Some links: Devkitpro (Compiler toolchains and SDKs for DS, PSP and others) Dev-Scene (DS homebrew news and homebrew database) DSLinux
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As a big fan of the potential of the Nintendo DS, I want to point out the possibilities of developing for handheld consoles. In terms of functionality, the current handheld generation, i.e. the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP aren't far behind, if not even ahead of, cellphones and PDAs. They both have nice big screens and WLAN, which opens up a broad range of possibilities for homebrew software. For example, for the DS there is an e-Mail program, web browsers, internet radio clients, ssh (in DSLinux) and much more. The PSP has a fast CPU and a powerful graphics chip, while the DS two screens one of which is a touchscreen, so it encourages experimentation with novel user interfaces. Both consoles can deal with removable media: The PSP uses the Memory Stick while for the DS there are adapters for Compact Flash and (mini|micro)SD cards. The SDKs are both unofficial, but freely available and actively maintained. Both homebrew scenes are worth checking out, since they have produced a lot of great software, which is not only games. I admit that getting into development is a bit hard at first, but the coolness factor of having your own apps and games running on a games console is just worth it :)
Some links:
Devkitpro (Compiler toolchains and SDKs for DS, PSP and others)
Dev-Scene (DS homebrew news and homebrew database)
DSLinux
Pictoblog (one of my projects)
My DS coding blog
Cheers!
Tob