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DS Homebrew
Well, I'll say it right now, my goal in this thread is to not teach what DS homebrew is. If you do not know, there are wikipedia articles about it if you want to know.
Anyhow, I've been strongly looking getting into the realm of DS homebrew lately.
So, if any of you homebrew, what device(s) do you use and where did you buy them?
In before "fuck you pirates", because:
1. I know some [if not most/all] of you guys pirate stuff.
2. There are many legal things you can do with homebrew, like turning your DS into a media player, free web broswers, fan made games, etc.
Anyhow, I've been strongly looking getting into the realm of DS homebrew lately.
So, if any of you homebrew, what device(s) do you use and where did you buy them?
In before "fuck you pirates", because:
1. I know some [if not most/all] of you guys pirate stuff.
2. There are many legal things you can do with homebrew, like turning your DS into a media player, free web broswers, fan made games, etc.
Comments
I too would like a definitive choice of device, but it seems like such a thing does not exist.
The main reason I was interested is emulation of NES and SNES;
Using it as a media player would be nice but I don't think it's powerful enough.
a. it's limited storage-wise to the size of your micro sd card, which is probably only 1-2gb, which isn't that much for music.
b. it only plays dpg video, which is more or less garbage, from what I hear.
Today I just ordered a CycloDS. I've heard great things about it. I was thinking of getting the R4, but I heard that it rapes your battery. So I figure the extra $10 I spent on the Cyclo is going to a good cause.
I guess I'll get a CycloDS also.
Working out what size card depends on how you plan to use it. For just apps, games and books you will only need a one or two gig card. I wouldn't recommend using it for music unless you are getting the 8GB card as, while there is an iPod emulator available, there isn't a good way to organize a collection. Movies also might not be such a great idea, as you might already have something like an iPod which can play commercial formats whereas to convert to DPG requires some patience. That said, I was able to fit a whole episode of Victorian Romance: Emma into 70mB ish and it looked pretty good.
Now for things you will be wanting to fill your memory card with: Manga and comics through ComicbookDS works really nicely and you can fit a whole manga series into between 0.5 and 1 GB. Emulators for the DS are at the point where it is possible to carry quite a retro collection in your pocket. You can also use your DS as a mail and RSS reader with DSMail.
Another thing you might want to buy is an EZ Flash 3-in-1 which will let you run GBA roms and use the DS browser as well as rumble in games.
I will have to try the Linux version. Usually I just use the Windows programs for such things but I'll give it a try.
As for ComicBookDS, does it support jpg files or only the archive format?
Another question: Why can't you play GBA roms with slot-1 cards? Is it a RAM issue or is it something else? I never really understood that...
In other news, I got my CycloDS yesterday. I got my micro SD card today (ordered them from separate places). Putting stuff on the card now. I'll report in later on the results.
Oh, I was just wondering, am I a terrible person if I download a game my mom won't import for me? I really wanna play Jump Ultimate Stars after hearing about it from a podcast, but it's Japan only, and my mom doesn't wanna get it for me. Maybe I shouldn't have spent all my money on this MicroSD card...
Fuck, if you get any emulator on there and then get roms for it, that's just as illegal...though it's less morally wrong since you PROBABLY don't have the original console or anywhere to buy the games you want to play. Whereas you obviously have a DS and you can easily get imports (hell, check ebay if she doesn't wanna jump to Play Asia).
Anyhow...I said I'd report back, so I'm reporting back.
So far, I have a few DS games, a few emulators (and a bunch of roms for each), a few homebrew games, and a few homebrew apps.
Ds games: I'm not gonna mention what I have or where I got them. But all I can say is that they work perfectly and save perfectly, so I'm content with them.
Emulators: so far I have an NES emu (nesDS), a SNES emu (SNEmul), and a GB/GBC emul (lamboy). The NES and GB/GBC work perfectly, but the SNES one is buggy. It plays some stuff fine, but graphics need to be tinkered with for most (which isn't that hard to do), and a few roms (that are good dumps, BTW, since they play on the emulators I have on my comp) won't even play. Also, it took awhile for me to even find an SNES emu that worked. The other one I tried (snesDS) worked horribly.
Homebrew games: I have a bunch...DSDoom (which is more of a pirate of Doom, actually), GeoWars (which is an obvious ripoff of...I'll let you fill in the blank, LemmingsDS (also more of a pirate, it's still fucking awesome, though), Lockjaw (tetris clone), OpenTyrian (original vertical scrolling shooter), Pocket physics (awesome), StillAliveDS (not a portal clone, but a portal ripoff. It's actually more of a platformer, since it's not first person, and it's all 2d. great game, though. A lot like the flash game, if you've played it...but at the same time, it's NOT the flash game, nor does it have the same levels, as far as I can remember), population tire (awesome port of the homestar game, if you guys remember it)...and that's about it. Oh, I also have a kinda shitty starcraft ripoff (starlite).
Homebrew apps: Colors (awesome drawing app), animanatee (great animation program), NitroTracker (a music sequencer of sorts), ProteinDS/DScratch (amazing DJ scratching program. Though right now it's limited in the fact that I can't really get my uploaded .wavs to work), RickrollDS (old meme is old, but funny since I named it "Battletoads", and thus it can still work on people).
Battery life- actually, not so good. I've had to recharge it twice since getting it. So really, twice in around 2 weeks. Prior to using this, I'd have to charge once a month at most. I'm playing a little more than I normally do, but not THAT much. And since battery life was a big reason why I got the Cyclo over the R4 (I heard the cyclo has good life), I'm a bit upset.
All in all- worth the ~$70, easily. Though I'd go for the R4 because it's a lot cheaper and the microSD card has a spring-loaded slot, so you don't have to pry the damn thing out...
I thought I'd give everyone a quick rundown of what I have on my card.
PADict DS - Awesome little app that turns your DS into a Japanese-English dictionary. I use the full Dictionary. I also swapped it to take over from moonshell as the middle button on the main menu (just rename and replace). The Kana input is useless as you can't use ten-ten but Romanji input makes up for that. Also has radical and drawing input.
SNEmulDS - Great Snes emulator. Works with most games and supports save states. [Note: The article at the top of the page says SNEmulDS 0.3 but on the right the download section has 0.6]
Jenesis - Mega Drive emulator, stable and fast with sound, also has save states.
ReadMoreDS - Neat little book reading program where you hold the DS sideways.
I have a lot more but those are the few I use with any regularity.
More information here.