The dirt on Cave Story DS, Cave Story-engraved DS

by Eric Caoili { May 13th 2008 at 9:30AM }

Praised by almost everyone who's played the freeware PC title, Cave Story is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the "Metroidvania" genre, a polished action platformer embellished with endearing characters and a catchy soundtrack. No matter how many times we're reminded of the fact, it always astounds us that the game was designed and developed by a single programmer, Daisuke Amaya, or Pixel, as he's more commonly known.

As you might should know, homebrew developer Ravenworks has been working on a DS port for Cave Story. As it turns out, however, Pixel doesn't own a Nintendo DS, so it would be unlikely that he'd be able to play the port once it's completed. In fact, he hasn't owned a handheld or home console since the Nintendo 64! Isn't it a crime nowadays for gamers in Japan to not own a Nintendo DS?

To keep Pixel out of jail, Ravenworks and the rest of the "All Things Studio Pixel (ATSP)" LiveJournal community raised $410 and put together a care package of handheld treats as a "thank you" for the DS-less developer's work. Here's everything the group purchased and sent:

Onyx Nintendo DS Lite system (laser engraved with Cave Story characters and a message that reads, "Thank you")
R4 cart with 2 GB microSD (for playing Cave Story DS! and perhaps DS development one day?)
DS carrying case
Mother 3
Game Center CX

So, how did Pixel take to the package? You can read his reaction, as well as the community's reasons for picking those two particular games for their offering, past the post break! We also used this effort as an excuse to catch up with Ravenworks on Cave Story DS's progress.

Gallery: Pixel's Cave Story-engraved DS

Pixel's response, as summarized by ATSP community member ufo_z: "Basically, he's very happy about the DS (his treasure!), and he's feeling kind of strange to see Cave Story working on it so well. Also, he's loving GC:CX a lot. Apparently, it reminds him of hanging out at his friend's [while] playing on the NES as a child. So, looks like, all in all, this was a triumph!"

DS Fanboy: What made you decide to send those two particular games -- Mother 3 and Game Center CX?

Ravenworks: I think it was Shih (Shihtzu, one of ATSP's maintainers and Cave Story's English translators) who first suggested Game Center CX. It seemed perfect since Pixel certainly seems to have a fondness for the era of video gaming that game is built around. It seemed like more of a fit than, say, something like Brain Age ... Not that Brain Age wouldn't have been good, or Phantom Hourglass, or any of the other ones tossed around, but a "retro games" game seemed more topical.

Mother 3 also seemed like a good fit, just for being a game with lots
of love and effort poured into it and a charming cast of characters
(from what I can tell without being able to read the text, anyway). It turned out to be tricky to track a copy down actually, but ufo_z pulled it off in the end! Hopefully, Pixel will enjoy it.

What is that case the the DS is in?

The case is just a $10 case from Best Buy. It looks like metal, but it's mostly shiny plastic. It's pretty sturdy, though, which was my main concern, in case the package got jostled around. All the breakable stuff went in there, but everything else (including the DS's box) was sent along with it.

How's development going with Cave Story DS?

As a matter of fact, a while ago, I brought a friend of mine in on the project (with Pixel's permission) to help, because I've been so busy with work lately. But as it happens, his programmer-fu is much stronger than mine, and he wound up proving wrong my initial assumption that a straight-up port like the PSP version couldn't work well on something lightweight like the DS. So, a week after starting from scratch he had it running farther than the first several months of my half-port/half-remake version. It's now pretty much his port instead. It's actually really far along by now; he should be releasing a public demo sometime soon.

Tags: case, cave-story, cavestory, Doukutsu-Monogatari, earthbound, game-center-cx, joystiqfeatures, metroidvania, mother, pixel, port, ravenworks

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Very Metal @ May 13th 2008 12:14PM

I can't wait to play it on the DS...loved it on my desktop! Thanks Pixel!

Safiel @ May 13th 2008 2:05PM

Sweet might have to get me a R4, I've heard great things about this game. Though I could just play it on my psp and not buy any new hardware. It'd be sweet to see this as a real release for the DS, I'm sure it'd be $30 well spent.

elend @ May 13th 2008 2:32PM

Oh my! It's still being worked on? That's great. They shall hurry, because I'd LOVE to play that game again. It's one of the best freeware games around and more people should be able to play it. An official DS release would be the hit.

Author X @ May 13th 2008 3:31PM

Wow, this was kind of a trip to see on DS Fanboy. I was part of the group, too - I designed the engraving (someone else cleaned it up, though), and helped with picking out the R4 :3

I didn't put as much work into the gift as Ravenworks or ufo_z (who actually bought the japanese games, and got the entire package together in Japan), but for all the fun I've gotten from Cave Story and other Pixel games, it was nice to give something back. This was more fun (hopefully for Pixel as well) than just sending in a paypal donation, anyway.

BPM [SSBB: 5026 4120 1186] @ May 14th 2008 3:47AM

Did you guys put the latest version of Cave Story DS on the microSD card? :V

Author X @ May 14th 2008 4:42AM

Yes, but it's a non-public demo, apparently >.>

berserkerlxl @ May 13th 2008 10:02PM

Well, I am excited about the port but I don't think that my ds lite can handle the buttonmashing.

Reid Young @ May 14th 2008 2:04AM

Even though the game is still a mystery to me, this is awesome, and so is pretty much every Cave Story fan I know. Definitely going to buy a copy of this.

Author X @ May 14th 2008 3:15AM

There's nothing there to buy. The game is completely freeware on the PC, and the DS port is homebrew, not a commercial game (which is why we bought Pixel an R4 card, you need a flashcard or something similar to play it).

If you are interested in the game itself, though, you can download the PC version in the meantime.

Reid Young @ May 14th 2008 3:50AM

Thanks for the correction :) I didn't notice the mention of the R4 cart so I assumed there was going to be some kind of publishing involved.

I hate to admit it, but I've never actually played a homebrew game on a handheld. I'm going to be buying a flash cart soon, though, so a portable copy of CS will be further justification for that purchase.