Usually when we think of homebrew, we think of awesome games and tech demos and things like that. Not this, which is brought to us by Steve, who wished to work with his camera out in the real world, but didn't want to drag his bulky laptop around with him everywhere he went. So, he came up with his own solution by hacking a DS to work with his big fancy Canon camera, which allows him to do precise shooting and mess with a whole bunch of other settings. Good job, Steve!
[Via Engadget; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
One of the benefits to any DS homebrew cart is the sheer number of homebrew games you can pack in to one small space. With the variety of well-crafted homebrew titles out there, from the simplest games (and apps) to the more elaborate, you can find something for nearly any occasion.
The occasion today is Word Find DS, which is just a word search game (albeit it one with amazingly silly, chirpy sound effects). Simple, yes, but very clean, if not complicated, and a little addictive. It's the perfect thing for a little zone-out session, and we can't think of a better way to spend a Monday afternoon. Veg with us.
If you've often daydreamed of running Neo Geo games on your DS, but never thought it'd actually happen because of your technical incompetence, unfounded fears, or bad credit, Racketboy will make your dreams come true with a homebrew guide for loading up NeoDS and playing these expensive arcade releases.
Though the process is a bit more complicated than emulating (non-pirated) games for other systems on the DS, this walkthrough breaks down all the required steps for getting started. Jump past the post break for a video preview of Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves, King of Fighters 2003, and Metal Slug X will look like on your portable once you get NeoDS running.
Seriously, we thought the only people who could create such sound first-person shooting were Renegade Kid. But, homebrew creator Smea has gone ahead and disproved that notion with the tech demo you see in the video above. With some impressive lighting effects and a custom 3D collisions engine, you can bet we're impressed.
Celebrating the one-year anniversary of Knytt Stories's release for PCs, homebrew programmer rrc2soft has released a video for his DS port prototype of the freeware game. in case you've never had the pleasure of playing the original game, it's a neat 2D platformer from Nicklas "Nifflas" Nygren with a heavy emphasis on atmosphere and exploration. instead of graphics and combat.
As with the PC release, Knytt Stories DS looks to be a collection of short adventures starring Juni, an agile character that can learn several abilities, such as a double jumping and wall climbing. Rrc2soft also hopes to eventually allow you to download and play through user-created levels, a feature we've already seen implemented wonderfully in StillAliveDS.
The clip only shows the tutorial level, but expect to see more as development continues!
We didn't even know that we wanted Black Tiger ported to the DS, but now that programmer Alekmaul has revealed that he's working on a homebrew emulator for the Capcom arcade game, we are all over this business like hair on the floor of a barber shop. Really, it's quite disgusting.
Alekmaul hasn't revealed much about the project, except that it's coming this September sporting a 60 fps frame rate, likely without any sound due to technical difficulties implementing the audio. For now, you'll have to settle with the screenshots below!
If this is your first time hearing about the game, Black Tiger was originally released to arcades in 1987 before later being ported to various home computer systems and game compilations for the PSP/PS2/Xbox 360. Designed to be the spiritual successor to Ghosts 'n Goblins, the game stars a barbarian on a quest to slay three dragons.
Promoting the 1.2 update for StillAliveDS (and drumming up votes for his Neoflash homebrew coding competition entry), programmer T4ils put out this trailer for the new version of his 2D Portal remake.
The release piles some impressive additions on top of an already exemplary stack of features; in addition to its polished mechanics, in-game level editor, and online custom game directory, StillAliveDS now features custom campaigns/stories, DS Motion support, online leaderboards, a skinning system for tilesets/sprites, and cool new elements like the wall that reflects your portal gun's shots.
If you haven't downloaded and played it yet, you should! This great game isn't a lie!
Never one to put out a boring release, programmer Multiple: Option joined this summer's Neoflash Coding Competition with a title most pervs won't be able to pass up -- Sexy Blackjack Trainer.
We've featured NSFW card games for the DS before, but this one has two special features that really show the developer's attention to detail:
Controls designed specifically for one-handed play
As you've probably surmised, Sexy Blackjack Trainer teaches you basic strategies and card-counting techniques for 21, rewarding your wins with NSFW pictures.
The game comes in two flavors, each featuring photos from a different adult movie star -- Sunny Leone, who appeared in Star 69: Strap Ons, and Sora Aoi, who you might remember from her 2005 film, Sora Is Your Do-Exactly-As-Told Toy.
Hedging his bets for the coding contest, Multiple: Option also entered a new version of his unique trivia game, Game Trivia Catechism. The update adds two new modes, new chiptune tracks, and, presumably, more questions.
Magnetic Shaving Derby serves as both a homebrew game and a cautionary tale for those of you out there intending to shave your face using nothing but a razor blade and a U-shaped magnet. Razor blades are only good for two things -- slitting your wrists and cutting lines of cocaine -- not shaving.
According to programmer Nyarlu, you score points in MSD for each hair you cut, but you also lose points for cutting yourself or if your beard starts to regrow. Apparently, there are also pimples you can pop to reverse the polarity of your magnet and earn double points, just like in real life.
What really makes this game, however, are the victim's anxious eyes as he watches the blade drag across his cheeks, threatening to draw blood and carve off a chunk of flesh without warning. You can't see it in the screenshot, but his lips, two plump hot dogs pressed against each other, are trembling.
After impressing us with the first ever video of Bob's Game, Robert Pelloni is back with a second piece of footage for his homebrew title. This time it looks and sounds more like a game, in that it shows gameplay. The mission in the video above forms part of the title's tutorial, and sees protagonist Yuu hunting around for batteries for his mother. We're yet to figure out how to complete this quest, but then again we're a bit thick at this kind of thing.
In other news, Robert reveals on his blog that "several publishers have expressed interest" in Bob's Game, including a "large, well-known" company. After half a decade of development, a publishing deal is probably the least Pelloni deserves.
Homebrew development has always been a pursuit with few tangible rewards -- personal satisfaction, a love for the hobby, and/or an eventual desire to enter the industry professionally is what drives most to brew home.
So three cheers for GBATemp.net, which has announced the creation of a Monthly Homebrew Bounty. This is precisely what it sounds like: a monthly prize pool of cash that will be rewarded to the best new (or "significantly updated") DS homebrew game or application. For the opening month of the contest, the prize pot is currently over $600, including donations from readers (who can donate $10 towards the monthly prize for a right to vote), and sites such as NDSS.nl, Dev-fr.org, and Nentindo. Hey, $600 is better than a kick in the teeth. Quite a bit better, actually!
You've still got time to enter for the first month, but we'd advise you hurry -- the deadline is the end of August! Head here to learn more.
Alas and alack! Team-DSX, the doujin developer behind Half-Elf Tentacle Assault has announced that it has canceled the homebrew hentai game. You'll have to get your half-elf-assaulting kicks elsewhere!
According to media reports, the preparation committee behind comic convention Comiket -- where Team-DSX was expected to debut and sell the title -- declined the developer's registration for the event. The group has since taken down its official page and posted an apology for the cancellation at its blog.
Presumably, the Comiket rejection was due to Team-DSX's publicization that the game's ROM requires a flashcart. In fact, the developer went so far as to distribute double-sided flyers promoting Half-Elf Tentacle Assault on one side and advertising an R4 distributor on the other.
And so it goes, the lewd game has disappeared just as quickly and as quietly as it slithered into our lives, wrapping its slimy tendrils around our limbs and devastating our orifices, promising, "I'll call you sometime," before taking its leave. We'll spend a week waiting by the phone for that call, but we won't be surprised when it never comes.
What drove Robert Pelloni to spend over five years creating a Nintendo DS game by himself? The same thing that motivates most homebrew programmers: "It's the game I wanted to play when I was younger, a vision I've been following since then."
The video above isn't a proper representation of his 20-hour-long adventure game, as it's only a technical demo of its assets and features (in fact, you would be better off watching the annotated version at the clip's Youtube page), but Robert reassures us that the finished product will be like an RPG, except focusing on "story, puzzles, items, and communication instead of repetitive battles with palette-swapped enemies."
The project, tentatively titled Bob's Game, doesn't have the high production values of big-budget titles backed by major or even minor dev teams, but the code, sprites, music, tiles, and everything else are all original, making for a very unique game. Who knows, it could be the next Cave Story! Robert is currently seeking a publisher for the project.
"It is a matter of life and death, a road to game over or to win!"
Ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which kicks off tomorrow in Beijing, homebrew developer Anti-Social Gaming has put out a polemic game titled Olympic Battlefields.
Unlike Mario and Sonic's Olympic outing, however, you won't jump into any traditional events to win the gold for their respective franchises. Rather, you'll pick from one of four countries to represent their tacit agendas and "fight terrorism."
For instance, if you choose the Tibetans, you'll be tasked with dragging Chinese people out of your country before they "turn militant." If you decide to side with China, you'll need to tap the "revolting Tibetans" and turn them into farmers, otherwise "they'll suicide bomb." Also, for some reason, the Chinese farmers and terrorist Tibetans look like Raiden and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.
If that isn't controversial enough, you have the option of playing as Israelis or Palestinians, too. On the Palestinian side, you'll be charged with converting Jews to Islam by dragging them off the map. If you play as the Israelis, you will have to tap and convert Hamas terrorists into Jews. Again, if you don't neutralize them in time, they blow up!
Looks like RanAway and In the Afternoon Sunshine have some serious competition now when it comes to the most offensive homebrew DS game.
Looking to satisfy the legions of perverts interested in its upcoming homebrew release, Half-Elf Tentacle Assault, doujin-developer Team-DSX has posted a potential design for the game's CD-ROM cover -- to cut down on costs, the group plans to release the ROM on CDs instead of traditional carts, so that customers can transfer the game to their flashcarts.
The screenshots featured on the packaging give you a good idea of what to expect from the visual novel (if the Half-Elf Tentacle Assault name wasn't descriptive enough) and are, naturally, very NSFW. Even with stars and white spots covering all the naughty bits on the images, we've hidden the cover past the post break, away from chaste eyes.
Just one last quick caution -- the boxart depicts half-elf Colin and another heroine in suggestive scenes of forced sodomy. Also, a green pig-man with killer abs has his head totally slashed off. You've been warned!
Wacky Japanese games, emulation, DS Fanboy's recommendations, naughty homebrew, independent projects: our recent week of homebrew coverage had it all. Don't be put off if you're a beginner, either -- we have guides and a glossary for the newest of newbs.
One of the benefits to any DS homebrew cart is the sheer number of homebrew games you can pack in to one small space. With the variety of well-crafted homebrew titles out there, from the simplest games (and apps) to the more elaborate, you can find something for nearly any occasion.
We didn't even know that we wanted Black Tiger ported to the DS, but now that programmer Alekmaul has revealed that he's working on a homebrew emulator for the Capcom arcade game, we are all over this business like hair on the floor of a barber shop. Really, it's quite disgusting.
Never one to put out a boring release, programmer Multiple: Option joined this summer's Neoflash Coding Competition with a title most pervs won't be able to pass up -- Sexy Blackjack Trainer.
Magnetic Shaving Derby serves as both a homebrew game and a cautionary tale for those of you out there intending to shave your face using nothing but a razor blade and a U-shaped magnet. Razor blades are only good for two things -- slitting your wrists and cutting lines of cocaine -- not shaving.
Homebrew development has always been a pursuit with few tangible rewards -- personal satisfaction, a love for the hobby, and/or an eventual desire to enter the industry professionally is what drives most to brew home.
Alas and alack! Team-DSX, the doujin developer behind Half-Elf Tentacle Assault has announced that it has canceled the homebrew hentai game. You'll have to get your half-elf-assaulting kicks elsewhere!
Interested in "adult" homebrew games for the DS? Make sure to check out Naughtiness on the Nintendo DS ands its sequel, More Naughtiness on the Nintendo DS. Also, you'll want to have a look at our homebrew guide for more information on how to play these saucy games!
Looking to satisfy the legions of perverts interested in its upcoming homebrew release, Half-Elf Tentacle Assault, doujin-developer Team-DSX has posted a potential design for the game's CD-ROM cover -- to cut down on costs, the group plans to release the ROM on CDs instead of traditional carts, so that customers can transfer the game to their flashcarts.
