Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

Nintendo e-Reader Gets Homebrew Dot-Code Games 208

Posted by simoniker from the gotta-love-dem-hackers dept.
figa writes "Tim Schuerewegen announced that the Reed Solomon error correction used by the Nintendo Game Boy Advance e-Reader has been figured out. This was the last remaining obstacle to creating custom dot-code printouts for use with the GBA e-Reader (more info), which scans special Nintendo trading cards to load in mini-games on your Game Boy Advance. This should be a boon to homebrew GBA developers who want to print their own games - Schuerewegen has examples and documentation on his site, and has released a dot-code version of the homebrew BombSweeper game by SnowBro."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Nintendo e-Reader Gets Homebrew Dot-Code Games More

Nintendo e-Reader Gets Homebrew Dot-Code Games

Comments Filter:

  • Homebrew? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pig Hogger ( 10379 ) <pig...hogger@@@gmail...com> on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:32PM (#8907242) Journal
    So, when can we load Linux on it, so we can make a beowu...

    • Re:Homebrew? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by InfinityWpi ( 175421 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:39PM (#8907327)
      Given that there are connectors that allow you to hook your GBA up to a USB port, it -is- reasonable to assume that, with way, way too much time on your hands, you could hack together some code that would let you beowulf these things... lesse, figure 16 UBS ports would let you hook 16 GBAs to a PC... code up a very simple kernel... of course, you'd then need 16 GBAs and 16 E-Readers... probably not worth it beyond being able to say "Hey, look what we did."

      But then, that's a good enough reason for most geeks.

      • Too much work (Score:5, Interesting)

        by oGMo ( 379 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:55PM (#8907516)
        lesse, figure 16 UBS ports would let you hook 16 GBAs to a PC... code up a very simple kernel... of course, you'd then need 16 GBAs and 16 E-Readers... probably not worth it beyond being able to say "Hey, look what we did."

        There's no need to go to the trouble. You can already get flash carts that let you load far more code than one of these cards. Plus, on the GBA SP, there are both the regular 4-way serial connectors and the secondary I/O connector. I'm not sure the actual limits of either, but worst case you could chain them together, no USB hackery necessary.

        Of course, the GBA is hardly very powerful to begin with, as you imply, and this isn't really worth it besides the geek factor. However, 16-player doom might be fun, if you can find 16 people with GBAs...

        Or Tetrinet. I wish someone would port Tetrinet. 6 players there, and the GBA seriously lacks a good tetris.

        • Re:Too much work (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Jace of Fuse! ( 72042 )
          16-player doom might be fun, if you can find 16 people with GBAs...

          With MILLIONS of GBAs sold... you should have no trouble finding someone with a GBA. Odds are you know lots of people with them, or people who have bought them for their kids.

          I personally own the original GBA and the SP, and I personally have at least 6 close friends with GBAs, and some family members.

          They're out there. You just might have a hard time finding people who want to huddle around for a game of DOOM.

          • Yeah, I know a few people who have them, but not 16 or even half that. I'm sure I could find more if I asked around or something. It'd be nice to find some people to play FF:CC or Zelda:4S with.

        • and the GBA seriously lacks a good tetris.

          Probably why they didn't sell so many Gameboys with that title ?
          ...Ohwait :P

          • The original game boy seemed to include it, didn't it?

            Given that GBA reads GB and GB Color games, I don't see why GBA needs a Tetris port. GB Tetris is two player capable that I remember. It might be a nice fun project though because the color emulation doesn't yield many colors to make it look its best.

        • Re:Too much work (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Hatta ( 162192 )
          Doom on the GBA? Do they have mice and keyboards now?
          • Doom was ported to N64 just fine, I don't remember any N64 keyboards. There are plenty enough buttons on GBA to be able to control a FPS.

          • Re:Too much work (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 )
            Well, considering I have a store bought game called....oh.......Wolfenstein for the GBA...I'd think Doom would be pretty easy to pull off.

            • Re:Too much work (Score:3, Insightful)

              by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 )
              I know you're not supposed to complain about moderation, but whoever moderated this flamebait is an idiot. Parent said you wouldn't see doom on the GBA because it lacked a keyboard and mouse. I pointed out that he was wrong, and that a FPS had already been brought to the GBA successfully, Wolfenstein, which was already released by someone for the GBA. Thus proving that Doom would be no problem. Seriously....I never usually complain about mods, but this one was just plain WRONG.

          • Please, folks. Doom, Doom 2, Wolfenstein have already been ported to the GBA and sold commercially, let alone by hobbyists.

            Whinning about keyboards and mice is a boring lament from those PC gamers who can't be bothered to learn how to use anything else.

          • Mice? Keyboards? What? (Score:3, Insightful)

            by oGMo ( 379 )

            You must be forgetting we're talking about Doom here, not Quake... I never used a keyboard for Doom, only my Gravis Gamepad. Doom did not require aiming, jumping, ducking, mouselook, or any other myriad of 3D activities. It plays _very_ well with just a pad and a couple buttons. Part of the magic of it, in my opinion.

        • I gather you're not fond of Tetris Worlds.
        • the GBA seriously lacks a good tetris
          The original and best version of Tetris was none other than the one that shipped with the original Gameboy model in 1989. You can pick it up at most used game shops for USD$1.

          Slap it into a GBA and it plays in color.

  • Thanks to the awful Job Market (Score:5, Funny)

    by RicJohnson ( 649243 ) * on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:33PM (#8907253) Homepage Journal
    Now I can develop my own games
    Thank god for the awful job market for Geeks like us to have to to reverse-engiNerd this stuff so I can play with it

  • Wait...I see a 6! (Score:5, Funny)

    by gevmage ( 213603 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:34PM (#8907264) Homepage
    Wait, the dots resolve into a 6!

    Does that mean I owe my optometrist a bunch of money?

  • C&D (Score:5, Insightful)

    by glam0006 ( 471393 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:34PM (#8907267)
    How fast can you say "cease and desist"?

    • Just wait. Lik Sang got made to stop selling cartridge writers because they were capable of copying games.

      But photocopiers can copy these barcode games. So how long until Nintendo shuts down Xerox? ;-)

  • Place You bets (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Cyberglich ( 525256 ) * on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:34PM (#8907268)
    How long till nintendo has this place shut down under the DMCA!
    • Wouldn't that mean that the dot code was created as a security feature to prevent copy protection?
      I can see the headlines now:
      Samuel Morse Cracks Copy Protection, Sued Under DMCA

    • Re:Place You bets (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Schnapple ( 262314 ) <tomkidd@gmail.cMONETom minus painter> on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:56PM (#8907527) Homepage
      How long till nintendo has this place shut down under the DMCA!
      I could be wrong, but I don't see Nintendo giving a damn about this. I finally picked one of these e-Readers up a few months back, only to find out Nintendo has essentially abandoned the thing. Those 13 NES games small enough to fit on five cards are the only ones being released. Most e-Reader cards are trite gimmicks, and the one release that looks rather interesting, the Game & Watch series, has been postponed so many times it looks like it'll never be released. Couple that with the fact that Nintendo is re-releasing some of the e-Reader NES games on GBA cartridges this summer and I don't think they'll give a damn that someone reverse engineered code that anyone can see.

      What I find interesting is how these things are to be printed or used. I was always on the impression that the information was too tiny to be reproduced except by high-end printers and scanners, making "piracy" a rare thing. Oh well, I guess I'll print some out on cardstock at work and see this afternoon...

      • Re:Place You bets (Score:2, Interesting)

        by t_allardyce ( 48447 )
        Maybe, but thats not how management works: the legal departments lawyers see this and think "hmm big case, money" and then they make a presentation to the higher management featuring plenty of buzzwords including 'violation, intellectual property, copyright, stealing and terrorism' the management has no idea whats going on so they say "yeah heres some money fix it" The fact that this probably isnt even a DMCA violation doesnt matter, they are a big corporation and therefore they are _always_ right, even if
        • Well you might be right. But on the other hand, this should increase the demand for GameBoys (maybe the reason the reader was created in the first place).

          The more games for the Gameboy means increased interest for the Gameboy, which would seem to me something Nintendo would want.

          But as you said, there is a disconnect between some companies and their legal department, so you never know.
      • I don't see Nintendo giving a damn about this.

        Considering Nintendo's licensing policies, I don't see Nintendo not giving a damn about this. Every game that someone can make for the GBA doing something like this is a game that Nintendo doesn't make money off of. Remember what happened to Tengen?

        And it doesn't matter that no one's going to make a commercial game doing this; Nintendo doesn't take any threat to its exclusive control over its systems' content lightly.

        Rob

        • Every game that someone can make for the GBA doing something like this is a game that Nintendo doesn't make money off of

          A valid point, but this is the e-Reader we're talking about here. One strip on one side of one card is 2.2KB of information. Ten of these constitute a first generation NES game, or a very small GBA game (notice how the "games" with SNES-level graphics are incredibly simple affairs). Also, I think the e-Reader itself doesn't have much memory to begin with.

          No, I see this being used for s

  • I'm telling (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Just wait until Nintendo gets home and finds out. You are going to be so buuuussted.

  • Who cares about a demo game.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:36PM (#8907286)
    Where is the information on the reed solomon code? Get that information out before Nintendo takes this site down. Stupid closed source hackers..
    • Most insightful comment on this page. Nintendo could bring the FBI to bear on them and shut down their site near instantly if they wanted to, and with this closed source we'd still have no idea how to create our own versions of this software. Sure, the binaries could be spread, but we'd be limited to what's already there.

    • Re:Who cares about a demo game.. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Geoffreyerffoeg ( 729040 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @03:56PM (#8908859)
      Uh...dude, R-S codes are common and well known in academia. My dad works with R-S codes.

      And the point of open source is not to evade the law. If it is, you're here for the wrong reason; go find some warez group on IRC. (Disclaimer: that does not count as an endorsement of warez.)

  • Who needs E-Readers (Score:5, Funny)

    by Munden ( 681257 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:36PM (#8907291)
    I want P-Readers for punchcards and the ability to swap and exchange thousands of punchcards per games.

  • OMG, OLD SCHOOL JOKES (Score:5, Funny)

    by lotsofno ( 733224 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:37PM (#8907295)
    Now if only they could get the games to work without having to blow into the e-reader all the time...

  • Resolution? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ameoba ( 173803 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:37PM (#8907298)
    I remember, when these first came out, somebody was talking about the crazy-mad wicked resolution these things were printed at. Have they figured out how to get my HP Deskjet 500 to print these things?

  • Damn you Dave (Score:3, Funny)

    by nevek ( 196925 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:43PM (#8907379) Homepage
    Maybe this will give me somethign to do with my HU (football/p3) Card!!

  • Hacked eReaders (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dmayle ( 200765 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:47PM (#8907423) Homepage Journal
    With this, I think you'll start to see people hacking their eReaders to have enough memory to hold Nintendo ROMS and an emulator, or some such... I think the hardcopy computer code is a pretty cool idea...
    • Why bother?

      An 8 megabyte flash rom cartridge is down to about $40 now. It's a lot easier to use than cards, more durable and about the same price as the eReader.

    • Re:Hacked eReaders (Score:3, Informative)

      by iantri ( 687643 )
      Um.. it has an NES emulator built-in to it: http://www.nesworld.com/ereader.htm [nesworld.com]

      Now, it only supports enough of the NES's features to work with anything but very simple or very old games, but this is exactly why they are able to distribute Excitebike, Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, etc.

      They are the NES games running under emulation.

      Theoretically, I guess one could convert some of the older games by yourself to play on it.

  • Curious like me ? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rcastro0 ( 241450 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:52PM (#8907472) Homepage
    E-reader, uh ? I had never seen one of these. In fact, had never heard about them. So, to save you some time, this is what I found after looking for some info:
    Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. provides the "Dot Code Technology" used by the e-Reader to read data embedded on each e-Reader card. Each card can hold up to two code strips. A long bar holds 2.2 kilobytes of information and a short bar holds 1.4 kilobytes. The memory configuration in the e-Reader is 64Mb mask ROM and 1Mb flash memory. The scanned information transforms into a digital display on the Game Boy Advanced screen.

    More in this site [vidgame.net]. Frankly, it looks too large a device, and the info stored (4 kB) too little. Its price is cheap (US$ 39), but probably not so much for the young kids which would be interested. I would discard it as destined to fail if I didn't know the tremendous attraction that card trading games have for kids (see Magic The Gathering, Yu Gi Oh and Pokemon).

    • Re:Curious like me ? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Maestro4k ( 707634 )
      • I would discard it as destined to fail if I didn't know the tremendous attraction that card trading games have for kids (see Magic The Gathering, Yu Gi Oh and Pokemon).

      Actually considering that Nintendo is once again failing to promote a cool idea (the e-Reader) you might as well discard it. Currently there's little to no marketing to push the e-Reader, and it's dying a slow lonely death (at least by mass-market standards). Nintendo's let this happen before with other addons in the past, and only the

    • Re:Curious like me ? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @02:37PM (#8907975) Homepage Journal
      the info stored (4 kB) too little

      Come on now. I bet quite a few Atari 2600-like and better games might be small enough to fit into that. No, you probably aren't going to fit a 3D game or RPG into that but there's plenty of potential.

  • Also used in CDs (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:54PM (#8907491)
    Reed-Solomon codes are also what does error correction in Compact Discs [navy.mil]

    • Re:Also used in CDs (Score:3, Informative)

      by spinkham ( 56603 )
      As well as par and par2 files, digital television, ADSL, and many other places.
      Reed-Solomon coding is one of the most popular methods for data recovery in use today.

    • Re:Also used in CDs (Score:3, Informative)

      by Cryptnotic ( 154382 )

      Reed-Solomon codes are of a class of codes called block codes because they work on fixed-length blocks. They will take a message of length M bits, add K bits of extra parity data and output a codeword of length N. R-S codes are systematic, meaning that the first M bits of the N-bit message have the same content as the M bits of the message, so in the case where there are no errors, the message can be read out directly. R-S codes can detect up to K bit errors and correct K/2 errors.

      BCH codes are similar,

  • I want one on my buisness card! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Flat Feet Pete ( 87786 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @01:55PM (#8907514) Homepage Journal
    I want a line on my card, along with a QR code [denso-wave.com]. Scan me, Scan me!

    Saying that a website where you could upload a gamboy sized image and have it produce a pdf encoding an image viewer would be very nice.

  • Anti-piracy measures? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm not familiar with the actual e-reader mechanism, but from the description I've read of them, they're just fancy printed dots. It looks to me you could just pirate games with a good photocopier or scanner/printer. What are Nintendo's security measures? A special ink, or something?

  • Bill Gates sues... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Frank of Earth ( 126705 ) <frank.fperkins@com> on Monday April 19, 2004 @02:07PM (#8907642) Homepage Journal
    .. for dot-code infringement. Err.. dot-code is the same as .Net right?

  • Finally! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mrseigen ( 518390 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @02:22PM (#8907798) Homepage Journal
    I bought one with the intention that something like this would happen. I'll have to wait until after the slashdotting to translate my games to tiny little paper cards...

    Almost an anachronism, really. :) What's next, the "T-Reader"? I bet a GBA tape deck would really own.

  • I whish.... (Score:2, Funny)

    by I_l00P ( 714392 )
    ...they manage to produce some good n' old Dot Code Pr0n!!

    • Good idea! (Score:3, Funny)

      by Trejkaz ( 615352 )

      Actually that might not be too hard. An image viewer is pretty trivial, and then you just need to see how much data you can compress into the size they allow for the code.

      OMG, imagine printing fake eReader cards which look just like the original, but when run display TubGirl on the GameBoy!!!!

  • The one thing Nintendo should do... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TwistedSpring ( 594284 ) * on Monday April 19, 2004 @02:31PM (#8907910) Homepage
    Is open up the GBA to home-brew developers. I am one of them, and I'm constantly annoyed by how Nintendo keeps me out of creating junk to run on their product that I paid for. I know all other consoles do this, but with such a simple little device, anyone can hack it and their sales of the thing would be even greater. Nintendo also lock out developers of games -- you have to go thru Nintendo and if you don't, you'll never sell anything. Independent developers cannot compete with Nintendo itself, and consequently the game market for the GBA is swamped with games costing $40 a whack that are usually not much more impressive than an old Sega Genesis game and don't appeal to me (I'm not into the whole faceless-anime-nonsense deal with characters and games that have no personality). It's very sad that such a sweet little machine is so closed up.
    • I am one of them, and I'm constantly annoyed by how Nintendo keeps me out of creating junk to run on their product that I paid for.

      Obviously you're not [rit.edu] looking [gbadev.org] very [thepernproject.com] hard [gameboy-advance.net].

      games [square-enix-usa.com] that [square-enix-usa.com] have [metroid.com] no [goldensun-games.com] personality [warioware.biz]

      I mean, really, you sound like a whiny film student...

      • Re:The one thing Nintendo should do... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Abcd1234 ( 188840 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @03:53PM (#8908824) Homepage
        Indeed. The only console that rivals the GBA in terms of the size of it's homebrew community is the Dreamcast. Frankly, the GBA is *ridiculously* easy to develop for. You can use the standard GNU compiler chain (built to cross-compile for the ARM7TDMI), and the memory interfaces to the various hardware (VDP, etc) are incredibly simple and well documented. As for working on actual hardware, flash devices for the thing are dirt cheap, easy to find, and very easy to use. And for initial development, the emulators out there are excellent (hell, VBA can interface directly with gdb!). TBH, I can't think of a better platform for console hacking/experimentation, other than the DC, of course. :)

        • Indeed. The only console that rivals the GBA in terms of the size of it's homebrew community is the Dreamcast.

          Umm... call me crazy, but I see far more homebrew for the Xbox than I do for the GBA.

          The GBA may be ridiculously easy to develop for, but the Xbox is a PC.

    • Dude, if you wanted an open system, then you shouldn't have bought the GBA and, instead, should have bought yourself a GP32 [gamepark.com].

  • Paperdisk (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymouse Cownerd ( 754174 )
    Does this remind anyone else of Paperdisk? Paperdisk [paperdisk.com]

  • I'll better clear some things up. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lord Graga ( 696091 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @02:49PM (#8908102)
    As a 1337 homebrew GBA coder, I think I should clear some stuff up:
    First of all: Yes, you can write your own code for GBA. The most used language is C, and ASM for heavy optimizing. The compiler used is called Devkit Advance, but there's an even better one called... DEVKIT ARM [devkit.tk] (which also supports Gamecube and Gp32).
    The GBA is reverse engineered pretty much 100%, and everything documented in some way. It's really simple too. Just set a few registers, and ZOOOOM, you have everything ready to use, I recomend it to everybody who needs a short break from everyday coding.
    Also, ARM ASM is really cool to code for too :)

    • Re:I'll better clear some things up. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Abcd1234 ( 188840 ) on Monday April 19, 2004 @03:57PM (#8908880) Homepage
      Actually, the compiler used is called GNU GCC. Credit where credit is due, people. Devkit Advance is just a nice, convenient packaging of GCC cross-compiled for the ARM, and the same is likely the case for that other kit you mentioned.

      Of course, personally, I just built my own development environment by downloading and building my compiler and related tools by hand.

  • If memory serves, (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Absurd Being ( 632190 )
    There was a gameboy printer out at some point. I'll be REALLY impressed when somebody figures out how to get the GBA to print its own cards for itself...
  • hmm, in a while, their slashdot error correction will fail as well. mmmyes.
  • Well, I can't seem to get it to work, printing on cardstock on my HP Deskjet 990C..

    I found something else interesting, though. From the index.htm file:

    <!--
    <span class="title2">Modified version of VisualBoyAdvance with e-Reader scan support</span>
    <br>
    <span class="normal"><a href="../download/">VBA 1.7 + e-Reader scan support (version 1.1)</a></span>
    <br>
    <span class="normal"><a href="../download/mfc71.zip">MFC71.DLL</a><
  • One of the things that has irf'ed me about PC's is a lack of long term storage. While CD's are said to be long-term, I can tell you from experience that I have several original discs that already started to have issues on being read. There are some certain small files that I would love to archive to paper. Does anyone know of any PC software that would could print dot codes and use a scanner to reencode them?
  • Hopefully someone will make the source open so ROMs could be converted & printed.

    Imagine printing out and playing Zelda :P It'd kinda suck without a save feature, but it'd be cool nonetheless.
  • Now we might actually see some Game & Watch cards like Nintendo promised back when the E-Reader system was initially released.
  • Has anyone made an emulator for Mac OS X or Windows for the reader?
    • Visual Boy Advance can play eReader saves - the eReader stuff is saved in the SRAM, I believe, and a ROM image of the e-Reader is loaded into the emulator. In short, the eReader cards act as a save file for the eReader rom.

Slashdot Top Deals

Too much is not enough.

Close