Posts with tag homebrew
Posted May 25th 2007 11:30AM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew, GBA
Fed up with
Tetris DS's infinite T-Spin? Looking for a
Tetris clone with a ruleset and play style that fits your specific needs?
LOCKJAW aims to give you that personalized experience, providing over 20 configurable options. While this
homebrew release doesn't have the visual flair of Nintendo's recent remake, you can customize nearly every aspect, from scoring methods to line clear delays.
Want to limit the amount of upcoming pieces that are displayed? Or try out a narrower well? Load up
LOCKJAW, and fashion your tetromino experience to your heart's content.
[Via DCEmu]
Posted May 23rd 2007 12:20PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew, Video
Having enjoyed Viidelectrix's Wiimote-compatible release of
Population: Tire several months ago, we're excited to see that we can now play the
Flash game with our DS styli too, thanks to Phillip Bradbury's
homebrew port.
The faux-retro title never takes itself seriously, decorating its simple bounce-a-tire mechanics with an off-the-wall premise: "In the year 19xx, the citizens of Strongbadia are terrorized by a faceless foe. As a top secret crack commando operative, it is you [sic] job to protect the last remaining citizen from touching the tainted soil. You are soldier!"
Homestar Runner favorites like The Cheat and Strong Sad wander in and out of the bottom screen, acting as score multipliers or "power-ups" when the wheel drops on their heads. Breaking Cold Ones applies a negative multiplier to your count, while letting the tire hit the ground completely resets your score. Jump over the fence and past the post break for some footage of
Population: Tire.
Continue reading Population: Tire bounces onto the DS
Posted May 21st 2007 12:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew, Screens
Setsuzoku no Puzzle, or Puzzle of Connections, is worth a playthrough just for its synthy score; besides, downloading the homebrew game and listening to the music tracks takes little to no effort. Actually clearing a level or even learning how to attack the puzzle, however, will require a considerable amount of work.
Modeled after Match It, a 1989 arcade game, you'll have to knock out 140 tiles against a timer. Each multicolored square has a symbol -- moons, stars, and other Lucky Charms marshmallows -- that you can link with an identical piece to remove them both. Though your connecting line can stretch all the way across the playing field, the catch is that the link must turn no more than two corners to be valid.
You'll suffer several frustrating losses before you get to the point where you've trained your eyes enough to spot similar tiles, but the satisfaction that comes after everything "clicks" and you complete a level is ample reward. If you get stuck, you'll be able to hit X to have the computer eliminate a match for you several times. Head past the post break for more screenshots of the homebrew puzzler.
Continue reading A puzzling connection
Posted May 2nd 2007 5:20PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News, Homebrew
Though we hate to think of the Nintendo DS as a system overrun with ports of old games, we won't raise any arguments when those ports consist of PC classics.
Homebrew developer Beathwho has started work on bringing over a DS version of
Warlords, one of the finest turn-based strategy titles to hit home computers in the early 90s. If you've played
Puzzle Quest, then you're already familiar with the series' fantasy world of Etheria.
With
Infinite Interactive already planning a commercial release of
Warlords 2 for the DS, we can't imagine that they'd be too happy seeing games from their franchise put out for free. Still, it's great to see someone deliver these old favorites to our handhelds. Now all we need are ports of
X-Com and
Civilization!
[Via PAlib]
Posted May 2nd 2007 4:25PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Homebrew, DS Fanboy poll
We've been known to ask you guys a
question or two, but this one is long overdue. Sure, we post the stories in the homebrew community, but do you care? Are you a
homebrew aficionado or could you care less? Do us a favor and let us know in the poll below and share your horror stories in the comments. Or your favorite homebrew apps.
Posted Apr 30th 2007 5:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew, Screens
The Nintendo DS is rife with
Sudoku releases, both commercial and unofficial. Dress them up with
mini-cakes or
martial arts if you want to, but it's getting harder and harder for these games to keep us interested with each passing week.
Leave it to
homebrew superstar Mollusk to add some life to the number puzzle. As its name implies,
Skinz Sudoku allows you to customize almost every visual detail of its interface. Dropping a PNG template into the game's included PAFS.bat file spits out a unique
Skinz Sudoku ROM with your graphics. Jump past the post break for some examples of the different themes.
Think of the possibilities! Design your screens with lightning bolts! Replace all of the numbers with
Pokémon heads! Scan in a photo of your secret crush with a word balloon that says, "I luv u! Plz date me!" Just don't let anyone catch you locking lips with your DS after staring into his or her eyes for too long. Seriously guys, that's weird.
Continue reading Give the Sudoku grid a new look
Posted Apr 24th 2007 1:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew
We go nuts over puzzle games that put our near-limitless lexicon to good use, so we take
every opportunity to highlight releases like Bob Fossil's
Word Wrap. His
homebrew project digitizes the word hunt games found in daily newspapers where you have to form as many words as possible with a restricted set of letters. The end result is not only fun, but it manages to improve on the traditional pencil/paper experience.
You spell out your text by tapping the characters on the
touchscreen, sending them to the top screen's list of completed words. Jumbling the letters to get a new perspective of your selection has also been simplified with a "wrap" button. Call us lazy if you want, but this setup beats the pants out of having to write everything out by hand!
There are two Time Attack styles where you can work against the clock by either finding the longest word or collecting a specified amount of words. There's also an Endless option where you can sift through the shuffled letters at your own pace. Each mode comes with three difficulty levels, but being the word geniuses we are, it's "go hard or go home" for us.
[Via Drunken Coders]
Posted Apr 23rd 2007 3:15PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew, GBA
Developer DHG Games poured its heart into completing
Motocross Challenge. The small studio built the
GBA title from the ground up, hoping to one day see the game on store shelves. Despite months of negotiation, however,
Motocross Challenge's planned publisher backed out of the project, citing
declining GBA software sales. After having invested three years into creating
Motocross Challenge, DHG found itself with a finished game and no way to commercially release it.
Not wanting to see its hard work go to waste, DHG has made
Motocross Challenge available to the public, offering the GBA ROM for
FREE to anyone who will play it. We've already put a couple of hours into the
racing game, and it plays a lot like an updated
Excite Bike or
Motocross Maniacs. There's a slight learning curve with figuring out how to land, managing your boosts, and memorizing the tracks, but it's all worth it when you start hitting ramps at full speed and racking up points with mid-air stunts.
The fact that
Motocross Challenge's publisher dropped the game says nothing about its quality. If you are a fan of motocross titles and want to support independent developers who slave over a project for the sake of making a great game, it won't cost you anything but a few minutes to try this one out. Head past the post break for a trailer of the different tracks and game modes.
Continue reading Motocross Challenge loses publisher, passes savings onto you
Posted Apr 17th 2007 1:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew, GBA
Originally intended as a demo to entice interested publishers,
The Old Well has been sitting in Athletic Design's vaults since 2004. The Swedish developer abandoned its hopes of a commercial release for the
GBA title as years passed, and has decided to hand the puzzle platformer over to the
homebrew community.
The Old Well starts with a cute introduction to the game's story and controls, but it's easy to pick up after a few seconds. Avoid the falling bricks that track your position, don't get trapped in a pit, and line up the slabs to progress to the next "level." You can punch, push, and jump over the
blocks, so you aren't a complete slave to their whims. There's a limited amount of punches that you're able to throw before becoming tired, but you can get your energy back during the lunch breaks that come every ten levels.
The game plays out like a reverse
Mr. Driller, forcing you to constantly move around and climb the accumulating landscape until you can pull yourself out of the well. It's a fun diversion, and you can't argue with the
price.
Posted Apr 16th 2007 8:20PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew
Still in the alpha stage of development,
Constellations DS already looks like a useful tool for amateur astronomers. The
homebrew application combines the
portability of a star chart with the lighted display and interactivity of a notebook computer. Users will be able to zoom in and out of clusters, panning the night sky with their
styli. Tapping a particular star displays its name, position, and other relevant information.
Only thirteen constellations have been mapped so far, but developer Nameless plans to add 75 more. Future builds of the program will also use the date and your location to lay out an approximation of how the night sky should look. If anything,
Constellations DS serves as a great excuse to escape the light-congested
city limits and spend a warm evening outside.
[Via Drunken Coders]
Posted Apr 10th 2007 7:15PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew
Though we've already spent the afternoon filling your plate with enough puzzle posts to feed you for the next week, we'd be remiss not to mention today's full-version release of
WordUp!, one of the finest
homebrew games to ever hit the Nintendo DS.
WordUp! follows the footsteps of other stylus-driven puzzlers like
Tetris and
Zookeeper, combining accesibility and portability for an addictive mix.
Linguaphiles will take great pleasure in connecting the game's adjoining letter blocks, spelling out words to clear chunks of the playfield. The top screen serves as a window to your inevitable doom, colorcasting the continuous stream of blocks piling on top of letters you've neglected. The game ends if you go too long without clipping a column, but you're presented with a satisfying record of your longest word, the number of words rubbed out, and which word was repeated most often.
In addition to its solid gameplay, developer Superpanic sweetened
WordUp! with an unlockable arcade mode, three difficulty options, and an original and catchy
soundtrack. Drop past the post break for more screenshots of this excellent game.
[Via Drunken Coders]
Continue reading Tetris and Boggle's illegitimate love-child
Posted Apr 9th 2007 6:35PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew
Kana DS won't teach you how to translate
Famitsu magazine scans for your favorite games, but it will help you strengthen your
hiragana and katakana skills. Think of the homebrew application as
Brain Age for Japanese charsets, minus the floating, decapitated head.
An alpha release of the project has been posted, demonstrating its "number sorting" mini-game. The only other implemented feature is a character reference mode, but we can already see a lot of potential for this polished application. Developer Julio Gorgé plans to include handwriting recognition, progress tracking, and difficulty scaling in future builds.
It might not be as mind-blowing as
Kanji Ken, but few games are. Check past the post break for a preview video of
Kana DS.
[Via DCEmu]
Continue reading Train your Japanese-writing brain in minutes a day!
Posted Apr 7th 2007 7:30PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Homebrew
NeoFlash's MK6-Motion is proof that not all flash cart manufacturers are out to capitalize on video game piracy. The cart's 16 megabits of flash memory gives users enough room to burn a passme ROM or a small homebrew project, but not commercial releases. As its name suggests, the MK6-Motion's appeal lies in its built-in accelerometer and gyro sensor.
Since the release of the DS Motion Card earlier this year, over a dozen homebrew games have already incorporated motion sensing features. The MK6-Motion slot-1 cart improves on the technology, bypassing the need for a flashed DS or an additional passthrough device to load software. The hardware doesn't have complete compatibility with existing games yet, but developers will be able to update their homebrew projects to work with the new cart.
You can pre-order NeoFlash's MK6-Motion for $49. The DS Motion Card is available at several online shops for about $30-40.
[Via DSDev]
Posted Apr 5th 2007 5:00PM by Jason Wishnov
Filed under: News
There seems to be a very positive correlation between ease of use and price in the
world of homebrew, and the latest all-in-one product is no exception. The DS-Xtreme 2GB is touting itself as a PSP killer, featuring a decent amount of space for homebrew applications, music, and movies. It's an elegant solution, connecting to the PC via standard USB and fitting in the standard DS-cartridge slot with no extra hardware required ... but the damn thing costs $129.99.
If you're
very rich looking to break into the homebrew scene, which is actually quite developed on the DS, this is an excellent option, but we do highly recommend a bit of
intelligent shopping before making your decision. The DS-X is not yet released, but it's close, so keep an out at their website for the official date and further details.
Posted Mar 26th 2007 6:15PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News, Homebrew
Remember Moon Books? It seems they've gotten pretty popular, since mastermind Brandon is in the process of upgrading to an expansive new site. Since we
first reported on the project, several new titles have been added for use with the homebrew text viewer; no matter your pleasure, from Herodotus to T.S. Eliot, if you're a litgeek, this is some of the best stuff the homebrew scene has to offer. For now, it looks like most of those archives are on the old site, but we expect they'll be moved over directly.
If there's a title you'd like to request, or if you have questions about Moon Books, it's probably a good time to ask, before the spankin' new forums get cluttered.
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