DS homebrew hero ali banana has come up with a customer application entitled Super Smash Bros. Tactics. With two confirmed playable characters in Samus and Link, along with another character being shown in Kirby, the application looks to be a huge step in the right direction. While this blogger has yet to actually download the files and get it going on the DS, maybe one of our fine readers would like to step up to the plate and comment on the gameplay?
In a complicated process which no doubt involved dark alchemy and at least one blood sacrifice, a clever member of the homebrew community has managed to get the DS and the PSP talking to each other wirelessly. The hot topic under disussion between them is nothing other than Tic-tac-toe, that ancient game born in the absence of our wonderful handheld devices.
After loading the homebrew application, users can engage in an epic battle of noughts and crosses, one of them using a DS and the other using a PSP. Very impressive indeed! Will this usher in a new utopia of cross-platform homebrew games, or is it just another Romeo & Juliet yarn in the making?
[Thanks Probot!]
[Update: Check out some discussion on this development over here. Thanks GameCop!]
Lupi is working on a lawsuit project in which Hyrule's sword-swinging savior stars in a 2D platformer. This title is to feature a hearts-based life system as that of the real Zelda titles and Link's traditional weaponry such as bombs and his trusty master sword. Lupi aims to recreate the universe and unique skills of Link, and has already implemented almost all of the green-clothed lad's sword strike maneuvers. No word as of yet on when a playable build will be available.
Liranuna seems to be quite the homebrewer homebrewster, going so far as to release a complete RPG game for the DS. Titled Tales of Dagur, the game revolves around Alex, a young lad summoned by the King of Dagur to help find the missing queen and reclaim the coveted holy stone, an artifiact which also went missing, that helps protect the kingdom.
The team comments that the game lacks a magic system and the battle system as a whole wasn't as fleshed out as they would have liked, mostly due to time constraints. Regardless, this is an impressive first step toward what we hope are many DS homebrew games to come.
We previously uncovered a nifty little homebrew program called PointyRemote that allowed the user to wirelessly view and control a PC desktop from the distant comfort of their Nintendo DS. Though we don't recall anyone balking at the concept at the time, we now present this Flickr image of the DS lording over the common beige box and barking out instructions in a Wi-Fi dialect. The DS never ceases to amaze us with its versatility (just like the nail clipper).
Remember those guys that managed to get the penguin-powered Linux operating system working on the DS, complete with Wi-Fi support? Well, they've lifted the curtain on a fully functioning web browser, months before Nintendo releases their own Opera browser.
This one's actually a specially compiled version of retawq, a text-based browser intended for Unix environments. Despite the fact that the lack of image support puts it a few steps behind Nintendo's own effort, getting it to work on the DS is an excellent achievement all on its own. Besides, there's plenty of ASCII porn out there...uh, not that we'd know anything about that sort of thing.
Proving that it can boost productivity as well as destroying it, the homebrew scene has churned out a DS organizer suite for us to download and arrange our overly complicated work schedules with. Cleverly entitled DSOrganize, the software boasts a calendar, an address book with vCard support, a day planner, multiple languages, a file browser and rudimentary handwriting recognition. The latter part is excellent news, what with my handwriting being so very rudimentary indeed.
Now, presented with this homebrew creation, you may recall a rumor about Nintendo filing a patent for something called V-Pocket, supposedly stemming from them licensing the Palm operating system for the DS. However, unless we missed something, it doesn't look like anything ever came of that. Given its stylus-based interface and Wi-Fi capabilities, the DS seems like it could be an ideal (and cheap) alternative to other handheld organizers, with an added benefit of playing some stellar games. With web browsing taken care of, would you be interested in an official organizer package for the DS?
A new DS desktop OS is in the works using the current DSLinux project as a basis. The system will include some of the following features:
A touchable on-screen keyboard.
A standard 80x25 console on the top screen that communicates with on-screen keyboard
Will use Busybox for standard commands to keep use of CPU low.
An upside-down web-browser with controls that dock on the top of the bottom screen, while the content of the browser is displayed at the top. (Dillo port)
Be sure to contact deantheappleguy[AT]gmail.com to help make the desktop a reality.
In the universal quest to get the Linux operating system running on every conceivable item ever (including, but not limited to, the Xbox, the iPod and several vacuum cleaners), the clever guys working on the DSLinux project have spent quite a bit of time with Nintendo's premier handheld device. But why port the penguin-powered software to the DS in the first place? Their website has a pretty good answer.
"You can use DSLinux as a filemanager, edit and save text files with vi, play simple text-based games, and play mp3 files."
And that's only the beginning. Most recently, PepsiMan (one of the project members) revealed on his blog that rudimentary Wi-Fi support had been added to DSLinux, thus opening the door for wireless networking and web browsing sometime in the future. It's a very interesting endeavor, to say the least, and if you find that your curiosity has been piqued, be sure to follow the link and learn more.
Wow, the homebrew community is steamrolling their way through DS features this month. In fact, they've already examined said steamroller, disassembled it and converted into a much a more useful helicopter that drops Wi-Fi enabled cinder blocks on targets selected from your DS screen. Probably.
So, we've seen the wardriving and the wireless games controllers, but how about the remote desktop viewers? Using the PointyRemote homebrew application, you can view your computer's desktop on your DS screen and, of course, operate your programs with the touch screen and the stylus. Essentially, your DS will display whatever's on your computer monitor at the time and it will allow you to click on icons, enter text and even zoom in on parts of the screen. We rather like the idea of playing some music on your PC, sitting back on the couch and adjusting the volume or skipping through tracks using our trusty portable. Note that the link takes you to some jargon-heavy pages, so if you're unfamiliar with homebrew in general, we've got just the place to get you started.
Next, could somebody from the homebrew community get started on a DS that controls minds? That would be great, thanks.
Yes, the DS Fanboys of the world continue to innovate. Hot on the heels of transforming the DS into a wireless PC game controller, the community is using the chameleon-like DS as a Wifi scanner (and using the exact same application they did for turning it into a PC gamepad).
TheYak comes through again with the details via the 3DGPU community forums: "I've idly used my Nintendo DS to look for hotspots with its limited WFC applications, but have wanted a more dedicated scanning application for awhile. Enter DS2Key - It's actually more of a wireless gamepad emulator so you can remotely control games and applications on your PC with your DS. Having some glitches in getting it set up, I checked out its 'Wardriving' section... it quite adeptly displayed signal strengths, WEP status, MAC addresses and SSID's for 6 networks around me. My wi-fi adapters only ever came up with 3. Usefulness? Checking signal strengths (it auto-refreshes) for your networks, looking for DS hotspots for on-line play. Homebrew stuff just keeps getting cooler."
The guys and girls entrenched in the homebrew scene continue to impress us, a fact that we assure you has nothing to do with their ability to make our precious DS babies explode from a mere keystroke on their computers. They're really very good. Take, for example, this latest DS application, DS2Key. Upon loading it on your DS and your computer, it turns your portable wonder into a Wi-Fi controller.
It's like a folding little Wavebird expressly designed for your emulated SNES games (of which you own the originals, by the way). Though this application only uses the buttons on the DS, we may see something that uses the touch-screen further down the line. Using the DS as a universal remote control unit for your various pieces of equipment sounds like a great idea, with each one getting its own little virtual touch-screen interface. Want to turn down the air conditioner a notch? Just spin the 2D temperature knob with your stylus. How about turning on the room's light? Just slide your stylus over the virtual switch.
A reader writes: "While swimming through your undoubted sea of DS information, have you ever come across any official or homebrew information relating to outputting the video of the two DS screens to, say, a TV or two?"
Rumor has it that Nintendo did make a few DSs capable of outputting to TV, "around 10" says one internet commenter. Any readers know of a workable solution?
There are plenty of gamers out there who have taken an interest in the homebrew scene but, due to the high level of technical knowledge required, have found that diving into the world of custom games and DS modifications is often impeded by a fibreglass sheet covering the pool. Thankfully, there are altruistic people out there that are quite willing to shun social interaction in favor of creating epic tutorials aimed at assisting complete and generally unappreciative strangers.
While this set of tutorials is far from encompassing everything homebrew has to offer, it does provide a fairly good jump-off point (see how I got back to the diving metaphor there?) and provides plenty of links to other helpful sites. You'll learn all about tricking your DS into downloading your custom code (via the DS Download Play option) and may eventually reach the point where you can emulate a version of Space Invaders, that epic saga of aliens being undone by their predictable patterns.
DS Meet is a great online resource to hook up with other wi-fi-ers, track game usage, and more. The site's motto is as follows: "DS Meet was built from scratch to allow Nintendo DS players to meet, chat, share friend codes, and have a great time. We love the Nintendo DS so much, that we decided to build an entire community around it!"
DS homebrew hero ali banana has come up with a customer application entitled Super Smash Bros. Tactics. With two confirmed playable characters in Samus and Link, along with another character being shown in Kirby, the application looks to be a huge step in the right direction. While this blogger has yet to actually download the files and get it going on the DS, maybe one of our fine readers would like to step up to the plate and comment on the gameplay?
Lupi is working on a 
Liranuna seems to be quite the 
Remember those guys that managed to get the penguin-powered Linux operating system working on the DS, complete with Wi-Fi support? Well, they've lifted the curtain on a fully functioning web browser, months before Nintendo releases their own Opera browser.
Proving that it can boost productivity as well as destroying it, the homebrew scene has churned out a DS organizer suite for us to download and arrange our overly complicated work schedules with. Cleverly entitled DSOrganize, the software boasts a calendar, an address book with vCard support, a day planner, multiple languages, a file browser and rudimentary handwriting recognition. The latter part is excellent news, what with my handwriting being so very rudimentary indeed.
A new DS desktop OS is in the works using the current DSLinux project as a basis. The system will include some of the following features:
In the universal quest to get the Linux operating system running on every conceivable item ever (including, but not limited to, the Xbox, the iPod and several vacuum cleaners), the clever guys working on the DSLinux project have spent quite a bit of time with Nintendo's premier handheld device. But why port the penguin-powered software to the DS in the first place? Their website has a pretty good answer.
Wow, the homebrew community is steamrolling their way through DS features this month. In fact, they've already examined said steamroller, disassembled it and converted into a much a more useful helicopter that drops Wi-Fi enabled cinder blocks on targets selected from your DS screen. Probably.
Yes, the DS Fanboys of the world continue to innovate. Hot on the heels of transforming the DS into a wireless PC game controller, the community is using the chameleon-like DS as a Wifi scanner (and using the exact same application they did for turning it into a PC gamepad).
The guys and girls entrenched in the homebrew scene continue to impress us, a fact that we assure you has nothing to do with their ability to make our precious DS babies explode from a mere keystroke on their computers. They're really very good. Take, for example, this latest DS application, DS2Key. Upon loading it on your DS and your computer, it turns your portable wonder into a Wi-Fi controller.
There are plenty of gamers out there who have taken an interest in the homebrew scene but, due to the high level of technical knowledge required, have found that diving into the world of custom games and DS modifications is often impeded by a fibreglass sheet covering the pool. Thankfully, there are altruistic people out there that are quite willing to shun social interaction in favor of creating epic tutorials aimed at assisting complete and generally unappreciative strangers.
DS Meet is a great online resource to hook up with other wi-fi-ers, track game usage, and more. The site's motto is as follows: "DS Meet was built from scratch to allow Nintendo DS players to meet, chat, share friend codes, and have a great time. We love the Nintendo DS so much, that we decided to build an entire community around it!"
