DS Homebrew and Flashcarts

[hillgroover]

I know there are at least a few of you out there that use these and I'm trying to get an idea of how popular they are amongst us here and whether anyone is into DS homebrew?

Anybody? What are your thoughts?

If you've no idea what I'm talking about check out www.ndshb.com or nintendo-ds.dcemu.co.uk for all the homebrew info you could need.

If you're completely oblivious to this then as far as you know your DS plays DS games and that's it! Homebrew means software that's made (brewed) at home, by ordinary people not involved with Nintendo. With homebrew you can get your DS to do more than just play DS games, you can get it to do a whole lot more than that.

There are three ways of running homebrew on your DS;
The first would be using the 'WiFiMe' option. WiFiMe requires the firmware of the DS to be patched then you download the homebrew software from a pc or laptop to the DS using the download play option. This method isn't all that popular as you can't store your homebrew and take it with you other than on a laptop.

The second, and more favoured option is by using a special game cartridge that goes into Slot-1 of the DS which has all of your homebrew on it ready to boot straight away. Nothing else needed for this method.

The third option which is favoured by some is to use Slot-2 devices (gba carts). These still require a cartridge in Slot-1 to pass the encryption and code checking of the DS but the homebrew is stored within the Slot-2 device.

With one of these methods you can still play your DS games but can run homebrew applications and games aswell as load basic imitation versions of Windows, a linux distro or even MacOS, you can view your pictures/slideshows, play music or videos, surf the internet, chat on irc/msn/aol/icq etc anything you can imagine you can do on your DS with homebrew.

Edit:
Cards that are recommended, by myself and others on the site and links to their official sites;
R4DS Revolution - link
R4-III - link
M3DS - link
G6 - link
TopToyDS - link
DS-Xtreme - link
CycloDS - link
AceKard - link
SuperCard - link
EZFlash - link
DSLinker - link
Games 'n' Music - link
iTouchDS - link

Edit:
The two links I had for motion paks are gone now, the official page for them is here.

Edit:
Some other useful links would be:
http://dslinux.org/
http://www.dualscene.net
http://dl.qj.net/
http://www.dev-scene.com/NDS
http://scummvm.drunkencoders.com/
http://forum.gbadev.org/index.php?c=8

If anyone (like me) is interested in making stuff for the DS whether it be useful or useless then these links may be of some use also;
http://www.patatersoft.info/manual.php
http://www.double.co.nz/nintendo_ds/
http://drunkencoders.com/

If anyone is interested in teaming up to make something for the DS then PM me.

[Megas]

i wish i could do it but i have a risk of breaking my DS

[hillgroover]

Originally Posted by Ryan i wish i could do it but i have a risk of breaking my DS

There's no risk at all, it's just like putting in a normal DS cartridge

You don't need to open the DS up or write anything for it, no need to mess about with firmware or anything else. All you do is download the games/apps you want to run and copy them to the cart and put the cart in the DS, couldn't be simpler

[Xer]

I've been looking into this to try to make my DS like a PSP and be able to bring movies and mp3 with me. I'm a little bit stuck on which to get, as I don't know what one has more options, greater quality and better price. I hear that R4 is good, but its just hear say. What do you think has the most options and is the pest one to pick up price wise?

[hillgroover]

Originally Posted by Xer I've been looking into this to try to make my DS like a PSP and be able to bring movies and mp3 with me. I'm a little bit stuck on which to get, as I don't know what one has more options, greater quality and better price. I hear that R4 is good, but its just hear say. What do you think has the most options and is the pest one to pick up price wise?

The R4 is the best by miles. It's not just hearsay, it is as good as it sounds. I've got one for each of my ds's. This should only cost the same, or less, than a normal ds game

The majority of the cards will use a standard peice of software called moonshell, this is a basic media player for movies and music, it supports the mp3 format natively and the movies are in .dpg (nDs-mPeG) which you can encode using the dpgtools that come with the card or can download from the net. There are other homebrew media players that run seperately too and there a couple of alternatives to moonshell aswell but moonshell in my opinion is better.

[Xer]

Are these available in any stores, or will I have to buy the R4 from online? If they're only online, you think you could point me to a site where they have good prices, or where you bought them from? I searched but a lot of the places are around 50 bucks, and I don't know if they're reputable or not. Thanks.

[hypocrite]

i have the supercard i got it from this page. It's a Shop in Germany dont know if it ships to your country but i think it will. This Shop is very reliable i've orderd many things from there. Here is the link

http://www.flashlinker-shop.com/prod...28&language=en

The R4 and M3 DS Simply are the same products only sold under diffrent names. You can update both of them with the same firmware. My friends have the M3 and it's running perfect dunno about the R4. SUpercard One can also do all the things M3 and R4 can. The only diffrence is that M3/R4 have built in moonshell and supercard hasn't. It doesn't matter which card of these you buy all of them can do the same things. But i wouldn't buy a card from other manufacturers. What i heard they don't get as mach support as R4/M3 or supercard.

[hillgroover]

Be advised that the M3,G6,Supercard,EZ-Flash,DS-Linker and the R4 are all completely different cards, they all achieve the same end result and do it using the same methods but they do have differences between them.

I can't remember where I bought my first one from...... nope, wait, just remembered it was on ebay. The second one I got was from here

Other places you can them from are listed here or you could go to;
volumerate.com
amazon.com
ecrater.com
gameyeeeah.com

If you're not convinced by the R4 then I would say the M3 DS Real would be the next best option.

@hypocrite, is there any homebrew software you'd recommend or use quite often?

[hypocrite]

hmm i used ComicBookDS to read mangas on the DS it runs very good.
And DSOrganize looks very interesting but it always damages my filesystem now i'm only using Moonshell.

[LadyHood]

I have an M3 DS Simply.


It works beautifully.

[hillgroover]

Originally Posted by hypocrite hmm i used ComicBookDS to read mangas on the DS it runs very good. And DSOrganize looks very interesting but it always damages my filesystem now i'm only using Moonshell.

Never did like DSOrganise, had a couple of problems with it myself.

Originally Posted by LadyHood I have an M3 DS Simply. It works beautifully.

Cool, any software or games you'd recommend?

[Omega-Xis]

what is that anyway?