DS Daily: Homebrew Support Group

by JC Fletcher { May 23rd 2008 at 8:00AM }

All week, we've been presenting articles designed to turn homebrew noobs into homebrew ... oldbs. Or something. But there are a lot of DS Fanboy readers who are adept homebrewers, experienced with all kinds of different hardware and software.

If you've got questions about homebrewing, let us know! If you're having some kind of problem getting up and running, someone around here, on staff or otherwise (most likely otherwise!) will be able to help. Be warned, though: we don't want to see piracy talk. Legal homebrew only, please! If you're having trouble running commercial DS games from your flash card, good.

Tags: hb08

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

C02M0 @ May 23rd 2008 8:36AM

1.what games whould you reccomend as a must try ?
2.what is the best media playing homebrew in youre opinion?
3.is there a media player thet can read .avi ?

please answer me !

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 9:36AM

1. Phoenix Wright series, the best series for the DS.

2. Moonshell of course.

3. There is no media player that can is stable enough to transfer .avi files fast enough to a flash carts chip. So in other words no.

C02M0 @ May 23rd 2008 10:47AM

Jeff you do understand those are homebrew questions , why do you think phonix wright count >?

still waiting for an answer !
what HOMEBREW games whould you reccomend as a must try ?

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 12:15PM

Sorry thought you meant games in general... the homebrew I would use would be Doom DS or svip witch isn't really a game but its awesome, it changes your DS into a phone.

Rob @ May 23rd 2008 9:24AM

I'm curious to know if Nintendo has taken any action against rom distributing sites or the people downloading/using them. Call me paranoid.

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 9:36AM

Of course they have! Don't be silly, if you are a greedy corporation that makes billions of yen, would you take those sites off? No seriously they do they will obliterate the site they find.

Flint @ May 23rd 2008 9:23AM

I've heard various comments about cards like the R4 using more power and draining the DS's battery a lot faster than regular gamecards. How much battery life do you get using an R4? Is this the same for all of these flashcards? Which ones have the best and worst power consumption rates?

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 9:29AM

Yes the R4 does drain your DS's battery fast. I played on the brightest setting for the DS Lite and on a fully charged battery for about 3 hours before it was completely depleted. It should normally last for about 8 hours.

fdisk_format @ May 23rd 2008 12:21PM

I usually get about 7 hours on my M3 (which is the same hardware as an R4) with the brightness turned one notch lower than full. Using a normal cart, I get about 12 hours.

Puddles @ May 23rd 2008 9:26AM

I'd like to know if there's a decent homebrew DS web browser.

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 9:39AM

DS2Win Fusion v0.81b

It's an absolutely awesome program. It basically lets you view your computer through your DS

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 9:27AM

You guys seem to have strayed off of what the site is about. News, competition/giveaways, polls. I dont need to know how to hack a DS thats what we have GBAtemp for. Its like someone a dsfanboy just discovered homebrew.

JC Fletcher @ May 23rd 2008 10:44AM

It's almost as if we did a whole bunch of homebrew stuff in the same week, isn't it? Kind of like a THEME?

Peter S @ May 23rd 2008 10:34AM

I don't think this is completely off topic. Think of it as a way of expanding people's awareness of the possibilities available to them on the DS.

I don't think we ever got a complete answer on the "most efficient" card, though. I'd be interested in that. I think the first comment was asking about homebrew games, not commercial games or did I miss something in that Phoenix Wright is homebrew? ;-)

Personally, I like the idea of being able to use ScummVM on a portable game system. I also like the idea of being able to take games that I own for other systems and being able to use them on the DS in some emulated fashion. (Limited selection for me, but still....) As was noted in an earlier post on this topic - the idea of taking some of these games along with you in a portable fashion is just really cool. I still remember my original GB system - B&W, limited games, and those lines that started disappearing from my unit making games unplayable. Ah, those were the days. :)

And I'd argue that getting commercial games to run isn't necessarily a problem _if_ you own the games in question. Isn't one of the benefits of these cards that you can copy your games onto the card and then just take the card with you instead of each game? That's appealing to me just so I'd always have the originals and not worry about losing one of those small cartridges somewhere. I'd also agree that there are better sites to support that sort of activity, but still....

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 10:46AM

Oh I wasn't saying it was a bad thing its just not something I would really expect. And the best card in my opinion would be the Acekard 2. The first comment didn't say anything about homebrew but if thats what it meant then there really arn't many top notch games out there but I would have to say DS Doom.

paul @ May 23rd 2008 11:11AM

I do feel bad for the people who are experts at this but, I am quite excited with all of this because I'm pretty sure I'm getting the R4DS. and so you could call this "positive feedback" about this theme. and so my question is, who and how do these people make homebrewed games?

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 11:34AM

I highly do not recommend the R4 because it is so out dated and rarely puts out new firmware. I'm currently waiting for a new firmware for the Yume Neko DS game and they will not release a new firmware that fixes everything until a big game comes out and doesnt work. They also cost $70 and up when most flash carts are usually $20-$35 and are WAY better. I do indeed have a R4 and it does in fact drain your batter like a thirsty little bastard. So take my word and do not waste your money.

Donald @ May 23rd 2008 11:10AM

There's some homebrew I want to try that was designed for the GBA. I have a R4 already, so is there an easy way to get it to recognize GBA files? Or is there a good slot 2 solution?

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 11:34AM

The one and ONLY way for any slot-1 flash cart to read .gba files is to use a slot-2 flash cart.

fdisk_format @ May 23rd 2008 12:28PM

I use my R4 for commercial ROMs of all the cartridges I own. I have 163 DS games, and I can carry all of them around on a few MicroSD cards instead of carrying a huge case with all the original cartridges. I don't feel that makes me a pirate, though. I'm only using it for games I actually have.

Now, as for the homebrew, I have an M3 DS Simply, and have never gotten Tower of Defense to work properly, though it looks like a great game. The Lone Wolf game hasn't gone too well for me either, as it tends to not let me save. Everything else I've tried has worked great.

j @ May 24th 2008 9:08AM

About Lone Wolf, I found that you need to DLDI patch it yourself. Then it saves fine.

Patching is not as scary as it sounds - you just need a patch and a patching program. Go to http://dldi.drunkencoders.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

paul @ May 23rd 2008 2:09PM

what do you suggest then jeff? I am eager!

Jeff @ May 23rd 2008 5:06PM

Sorry had to sleep. Now what was it you were wanting me to recommend? Games? I choose DS Doom and Svip.

MrTyzik @ May 23rd 2008 9:20PM

== OK/Decent DS homebrew games:

AmplituDS (port)
Arcomage
Closed
Codename Hacker
Cube Breakout
Dicewars
Everlasting Love
Explosion of an Aeroplane
GeoWars
Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp
Lectruo Quizz
Meteora
Monky
New Caisse
NightFox's Colors
Perilous Wheels
Puzzle Maniak
River Crossing
Rubber Bands
Tyrian DS (port)
WarCraft Tower Defense (port)
Word Wrap

== OK/Decent DS homebrew non-games:

Colors!
Constellations DS
DS Organize
Pocket Physics
World of Sand

== OK DS flashcards:

R4 (old, requires DLDI patching)
M3 DS Simply (same as R4)
CycloDS Evlolution

== BAD DS flashcards:

M3 DS Real (slow, buggy, kills battery even faster than others)

I have not had experience with other cards. Hope this helps someone.

nixy @ May 23rd 2008 10:02PM

I use the M3 DS Real. I keep my brightness turned down, because I'm usually playing in dim to poor light anyway, so I get a decent amount of battery life out of it. That being said, I usually play with my DS plugged in whenever I can, so it works. The M3 Real has some menu lag, but runs games perfectly. It's also compatible with more homebrew than the R4 and with the GBA expansion pack you can emulate GBA without buying another card. I feel like it was an upgrade from the R4 to the M3, even it all it means is that I can use a 4 gb MicroSDHC card and I can play Hexavirus.

Also, to the author of the article, I think your closing bit is blatantly discriminatory against people who emulate legally. Not everyone who plays roms is a pirate, and if we're calling out pirates for ridicule, then why not all pirates? Software is software. I think that if someone wants to condense their collection of media that they legally own, then foo on physical media.

I think if you're going to tell people that they shouldn't emulate DS games that they legally own physical copies of, then you may as well tell people that no one should own mp3 players and that everyone should either carry every CD they own on their person at all times or do without.

Sorry to stray off topic, I get a little worked up about media rights.

math0ne @ May 24th 2008 5:32PM

NitroTracker: http://nitrotracker.tobw.net/

NitroTracker is the best homebrew project in my opinion.

JK @ May 25th 2008 4:27PM

I'm having trouble installing Morning Timer (v1.2) from Infantile Paralysiser. I don't really have a clue what I'm doing wrong and the readme isn't really helping. I've installed the zip to my root flash card menu, I'm using DSTT card so there shouldn't be any need for a DLDI tool. Still it didn't work. I've tried clicking everything inside the unzipped folder aswell (there are some dos files) Could anyone give me a step-by-step guide to installing this thing? It'd really help me and my sleeping ;]

billy @ Jun 25th 2008 10:33AM

im having trouble with pocket physics... it doesnt save my sketches. Im using a games n' music card which i know isnt the best but everything else works fine. I did DLDI patch it. Is it that i dont have enough memory on the card or that its not in the right place on the card? I cant figure it out.

john @ Jun 26th 2008 4:22AM

i`ve been useing m3 ds simply with moonshell for the past year but in the last 5 months 98% of the games say " could not read data please re insert card" please help thanks

Balrogs Pain @ Aug 3rd 2008 12:11AM

Hey everyone, im ordered a cyclo and its on its way. and right now im downloading everything i need. and all my games. So i need advice and help. I downloaded SSBR, stillalive, animanatee, otaclock, and moonshell (Didnt get dsorganize because i dont need it.) But some of my homebrew come with a .GBA file, so what do i do with it? And if you can like give me specifications on where i would put my homebrew.