Mass Market DS Homebrew Cart Released 104
Croakyvoice writes "Datel has finally released the Games
n Music Homebrew cart for the Nintendo DS, this mass market entry level cart
features a 128mb Micro SD card and comes with a 25 game CD of the best of DS homebrew
games." Games 'n' Music contains everything you need straight out
of the box. It even comes bundled with a 25-game CD, offering some of the best
games the DS home brew scene has to offer, as well as a video conversion program."
Royalties? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Royalties? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a thing you buy when you *can't* get a Supercard. You know, not everybody has a credit card, feels good about buying things in some shop in HongKong or has a specialized video game store that actually sells Supercard near his home. Actually getting a Supercard or a similar device is by far the hardest part when one wants to get started with homebrew stuff. This card from Datel on the other side actually has a change to end up in a shop near your, so you can just walk in and buy one, that way it might end up in the hands of people that didn't even know about homebrew before buying it, which a Supercard never would.
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Re:Royalties? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's one of the reasons I won't use services like Steam. The iTunes/URGE model, which so many of us have come to loathe is just around the corner for the game industry.
As always, though, I've got my money on the hacker-innovators of the world to do to these efforts what they are successfully doing to the rest of the IP gangsters.
I heard an interesting interview on NPR today with a vice-president from some telecom anti-regulatory outfit. Everytime the interviewer (Brooke Gladstone from "On the Media") asked him why we can't get call-timers or non-crippled Bluetooth on our cellular phones, he just kept chanting "Free Market, Free Market, Free Market". He referred to the telecom industry as one of the most competitive of all. I wish people would learn that there is a very dark side to this worship of the "Free Market" and that regulation is often a very very good thing.
I salute the subversive efforts of the people who sell and use the Supercard and the gizmo in TFA. They may not realize just how revolutionary they are or how necessary such efforts will be for consumers. A corner has turned a while ago, and industry can no longer be absolutely viewed as friendly.
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The truth is, you can buy an unlocked phone and provided it is compatible with your choice of provider's network protocols, you can get cellular service without a contract and be in complete ownership of the hardware.
It is a common misconception that you MUST sign a contract to get phone service, and that the phone is not owned by you. Cell phone stores don't sell phones, they sell contracts. You can buy the phones without the
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A lot of people want that, but the so-called "free market" doesn't offer it. Does that mean it's really a free market? Just in case you're not clear on it, the idea of "free market" as used by the industry shill I referenced means "the market will offer what people want". Something's b
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Yes, and yes. The phone you use just needs to support it. My crappy free LG 1400i I got from Cingular way back when has a running timer for call durations. The HTC tytn I just picked up has full bluetooth capabilities and thanks to the help of xda devs, I can do damn near anything wi
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That's what it sounds like with the Bluetooth complaint, but I've had 5 phones from Verizon and every one has had a call timer. I don't think they sell a single phone without that feature, especially now that their UI is standardized across brands.
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Sounds like the Chewbacca Defense to me. After all, since when was anything about the cellular market even sli
Re:Royalties? - they worry about 'revenue leakage' (Score:1)
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I cannot stress enough my adoration for how Nintendo is taking a "we don't really care" approach to backup devices. I even end up buying games that I really like simply because I want to collect them (I've done thi
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Debate, Illegal + Legal is better than just Legal vs Getting arrested sucks and we don't get better stealing.
Conclusion: Homebrew SHOULD be able to compete with legal and getting arrested DOES suck.
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Why is the Supercard superior?
Which is better for development? I have no intention of using my DS as an MP3 player or for "backups", but I do have a game I'd like to develop there...
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Hmm (Score:5, Informative)
I think it's a good start, though I can't say I like all of the Slot 1 solutions yet. They still don't have a way to play games that need GBA mode, which is a bit of a deal breaker for me. The only way to play GB/GBC games on the DS is through a Slot 2 adapter with the Goomba emulator on it. (It's much easier to do that than to carry around my GBA SP with a ton of cartridges.
I myself have an M3 Adapter with a Passcard 3, which does the same thing that this does except it requires both a Slot 1 and Slot 2 cartridge. It takes standard SD cards but sticks out of my DS Lite a lot, though I'm probably going to get myself an M3 Lite soon which will require Micro SD, just like the one in the story does.
I will say, though, that this is a great way to show people what the DS is capable of doing. I use DS AIM fairly frequently, and DS2Key is great for war driving. MSN users will like BeUP, and there's all sorts of other applications for it, such as text writers, calculators (TI-85 emulator), and so on. Moonshell is an excellent audio player. That's not even mentioning all of the wonderful homebrew games, most of which I haven't played with much. Among my favorite are DSudoku, a clone of Text Twist, A Touch of War, and there's a Civ-like game whose name slips my mind at the moment. All are completely free and run well.
I hope that this particular release further encourages the DS homebrew community.
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SuperCard and M3 (Score:3, Informative)
Uhm, doesn't atleast one of them work for GBA games to? I don't remember which one thought, I guess the M3 simply doesn't.
SuperCard CF, SuperCard SD, SuperCard miniSD, and SuperCard Lite work for GBA homebrew. (SuperCard Rumble does not work in GBA mode, and SuperCard DS One is for DS homebrew only.) CycloDS is a rebadged SuperCard. All "M3 Perfect" cards work for GBA homebrew. (M3 Pro has reduced features, and M3 DS Simply is for DS homebrew only.) The original GBA Movie Player [pocketheaven.com] works for GBA homebrew developed to run in multiboot mode [pocketheaven.com], such as most of my own projects [pineight.com].
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In addition to running homebrew apps, I was hoping to run DS Linux, ScummVM, maybe some emulators, and possibly use it as a media player as well. Again, sorry t
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I'd never say never about that.
When the DS hardware is in GBA mode, it's using the slower of the DS's two processors, and at only half the available clockspeed. It's possible--not necessarily practical, but possible--that a reasonably playable GBA emulator could be implemented in software allowing GBA titles to be run from Slot-1.
But since actual hardware compatibility is available for the cost of a Slot-2 card, I don't think we'll see much hobbyist ef
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I own a passcard 3 with an m3 perfect. I also bought a M3 simply.
This datel thing looks exactly the same as the simply. Even the packaging is the same. Only the color is different.
The o
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originating from the same factory. (www.maxconsole.net)
Its possibly the best DS homebrew flashcard on the market right now. The only
thing differentiating the two is a single bridge, I've converted my R4 into an M3 and back just
to check it out. My only gripe is it uses the more expensive MicroSD / Transflash memory stick
format.
I would not be at all surprised if this datel offering is actually the same thing, the
oem manufacturer se
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The sticking-out is mildly annoying, but as I've found out, in geek/technical circles having a translucent piece of circuitry sticking out the bottom of your DS is a great conversation starter.
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Though I do understand where you're coming from with that.
not going to happen (Score:2)
I don't believe you'll ever see GBA stuff running from Slot 1. It is my understanding that it's a physical architecture problem; the Slot 1 stuff simply cannot access the GBA bus.
See this section of the DSLinux Wiki "About Slot 1 Devices and RAM." It's obviously concerned with DSLinux and not GBA access, but the restri
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Perhaps have a Slot 1 card with the memory in it, and then have an additional Slot 2 card that has an extra 32MB of RAM in it as well as rumble and a tilt sensor (basically, a combination of three existing products) that can do the reverse of a Passcard 3 and allow the GBA games to be read from the Slot 1 card.
I don't know whether or not it's technically possible, but I can say that I would buy such a produc
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Enlighten me please (Score:5, Funny)
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Oh, I'm sorry I'm sorry.... was that already asked already asked?
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Homebrew, apply directly to the DS (Score:1)
Homebrew, apply directly to the DS. Homebrew, apply directly to the DS. Homebrew, apply directly to the DS.
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And the really sad part is that probably 95% of the population are oblivious to that fact.
I'd probably be a multi-millionaire if I were slightly more cynical and evil:
Magic Sand, put it in your pockets! Magic Sand, put it in your pockets! Magic Sand, put it in your pockets!
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I'm not sure why, but you've got me chuckling here :-)
And oh yeah, so you don't forget, call before midnight tonight.
Re:Enlighten me please (Score:4, Funny)
From the Dept. of Redundancy Dept. (Score:4, Funny)
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Typical.. (Score:1)
The "Games 'N' Music" cart looks interesting, though it's hardly an innovation, and these kinds of things have been available for a while now. I haven't heard of homebrew applications being bundled with any other ones, though, and that could be an interesting feature - though I do wonder by what kind of process they select the "best".
I also wonder about the ethical (pe
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Don't buy a DS-Xtreme (Score:5, Informative)
The problems look to be rather common. It seems like the manufacturing plant slightly tweaks each batch, causing unexpected problems each time.
The DS-X is also $125 for a 512 MB cart. This Datel product is $40, so it's looking pretty good to me right now.
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The M3 simply is $45, add whatever microsd, preferably 2GB or so.
Not that M3 products are perfect either but atleast they are well known and proved =P
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OTOH, if you have a swing set and it falls apart killing a toddler, you can bet that company would be liable regardless of their stated guarantees.
I'm not sure how the "Bag O'" line is affected however. Their products are clearly labeled and precisely what they claim to be. i.e. Bag O' Glass or Bag
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I have a "batch two" DS-X and liked it so much I bought a "batch four" unit for my wife. Both have been flawless. It sounds like you gave up after the last firmware update. I can't imagine that Aphex or Guru left you with a bricked unit. Besides, most problems people have with 1.10 are because they didn't follow the instructions.
You say these problems are "rather common." What leads you to that conclusion? Yes, there was a change at the plant once. That caused the infamous "qkin" problem that was f
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I did have one problem where the FAT managed to get corrupted. The problem seemed to be related to DSOrganise, since it was only after using DSO that the problem occurred. After formatting (and not installing DSO again, I don't use it anyway) it's been ok, although I do now backup the contents of the cart from time to ti
One question: (Score:5, Interesting)
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make compilation of them
give people a way to play them
???
profit!
ok, not the best 1,2,3: profit joke out there, but it had to be done
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From the GPL:
"If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code."
Assuming they did not modify the games (and I doubt they did) and that they downloaded the games pre-compiled (not source, and I assume they did), then they only have to m
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Not true. They may have gotten their copy from some web site, but they're performing another distribution by including it on the CD, and according to that same section of the GPL that you quoted, commercial users must either include the source on the same media or includ
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Did the homebrew writers get a fair deal when Datel took their work and sold it at a profit?
Did the author of $RANDOM_LINUX_APP get a fair deal when Mandriva/Linspire/Red Hat took their work and sold it at a profit? If it's free software [gnu.org], like my own GBA homebrew projects [pineight.com], then Datel is just exercising "the freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2)".
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I don't know, google around a little =P
Try devkitARM (Score:4, Informative)
Great News (Score:1)
M3DS Simply (Score:1)
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I would have assumed the M3 could do h
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This has been released for MONTHS...recalled even! (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=14541 [maxconsole.net]
Re:This has been released for MONTHS...recalled ev (Score:1)
Re:This has been released for MONTHS...recalled ev (Score:2)
"Mass Market" Pass-Me? DMCA? (Score:4, Informative)
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Second, this thing doesn't "bypass" the DS startup handshake. It implements it (it was cracked some time ago, as I understand it).
When It Ships With (Score:1)
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The homebrew authors diden't get much... (Score:5, Informative)
Some people are asking whether the homebrew games were made by Datel and if not, how were the authors compensated...well, I'm one of the authors of one of the games on that disc, Super Snake DS. Everyone got $180 worth of stinky Datel products...honestly...i'm starting to wish I never gave them permission to include my game, even if it is freely downloadble already.
Though, it's not like anyone gave them full rights to the games, there "contract" over e-mail basicly just allowed them to include the game and that's it, otherwise the original authors can do whatever they want. Though, then again, it's not like I can technically enter into a legally binding contract to begin with, so I guess the little e-mail I sent them means nothing further more.
Though, I'm sure the fact that I wrote a game for the Nintendo DS at the age of 17 that got onto a commerically aviable product that can be purchased at your local Best Buy will look good somewhere...so it's not all bad.
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A release granting us the rights to distribute your game or app with our products. Note this is only the non-exclusive publication rights copyright remains with you, and you're still perfectly entitled to distribute it online or however you see fit.
Claiming your prize constitutes acceptance of these conditions, but to keep the lawyers happy, could you cut and paste the following text into your reply:
I, [YOUR NAME HERE] hearby grant
Wal-Mart has similar hardware on the shelf (Score:2)
"MAX Media Player is the most exciting product ever released for the Nintendo DS. Combining a pristine app launcher for home brew software and an easy-to-use media MP3 and video player"
The interesting thing is this is right there on the shelf at my local Wal-Mart, when it apparently can be
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However, this device is different. While the MMD is a slot-2 device th
Bought one (Score:2, Interesting)
the encoder uses ffmpeg (Score:2, Informative)
Old news?!? (Score:2, Interesting)