I recently started playing Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS. This is an awesome little game that is fun to play.

There are plenty of cut scenes and storyline to keep the game moving along and the difficulty level definitely isn't too hard. Gamespot has done a good review of Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass as well.

I won't write much more about it, but you definitely need to check it out. It recently made it to the top of my Best Games For Nintendo DS list. The controls are simple, the graphics are smooth, and it is very easy to play. Very good use of the stylus as well.

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One of the best homebrew games has just become better. QuakeDS had its 3rd release this week. If you haven't read my other articles on QuakeDS and DSQuake then check them out.

Both of these are homebrew applications written for the Nintendo DS that play the original Quake game. Both had their pros and cons and I preferred DSQuake, but this has changed. QuakeDS has released a version that offers performance improvements, all the textures are now mapped, and there is almost nothing I can see wrong with this game.

It installs the same way as release #2 did so you shouldn't have any problems. For instructions on how to get it working, check out my article QuakeDS - Quake For The Nintendo DS. It has everything you need to get going.

I have found one problem though. I cannot seem to change the configuration file to allow me to jump using the double-tap motion. Perhaps someone will figure this out or it will get added in the near future.

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Nintendo is is coming out with a television tuner for the Nintendo DS.

NDS TV Tuner Article

I was wondering when this would happen. Way back in the day, I had a Sega Game Gear (yeah, back in the day). An 8-bit handheld system with a backlit colour display. Was pretty cool at the time. Anyhow, they had tv tuners then, but we haven't really seen it since.

I will be impressed to see how well it actually works. Apparently it is only being released in Japan at this time, so you will have to order via eBay or something else if you want it.

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If you have not tried out Colors! for your Nintendo DS then you should. It is a nifty little homebrew application for drawing in a "painting" fashion. You can read more about it in my article Colors! - Drawing On The Nintendo DS. I have also featured it in Best Nintendo DS Homebrew.

Anyhow, there is a new version out. 1.6 to be exact. I notice the file is up to 1.6MB in size now, so they definitely added something. Here is a feature list from the Drunken Coders site.:

• Major precision overhaul
• Opacity slider in brush-screen
• Pressure-Controls-Size option in brush-screen
• New user-interface with graphics by madwurmz.com
• Playback controls with the option to continue painting from mid-playback
• The possibility to send your painting directly to an e-mail address
• Unlimited save slots
• One additional zoom-level

Getting the game to run is he same as before. Just read my article on Colors!.

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Someone did a version of Risk for the Nintendo DS! Seriously. The game has been quite well done.

Basically there is a large map and 7 other computer controlled opponents. The map is divided up into little countries and you have blocks stacked on them to represent your men. Each turn you are allocated more blocks based on how many countries you own and then you can attack the countries adjacent to you. You win or lose based on the odds of how many men you have. Anyone who has played Risk will understand.

Here is an image I took from their website. The graphics are very bright and clear. When you select a country it sort of raises up out of the ground to give you a clear picture of what is going on too.

My Hardware

I have Nintendo DS Lite (NDSL) with a Supercard Lite and Super Key. The Supercard Lite takes a microSD card for memory storage. I use the 1GB Kingston microSD.

Getting It To Run

The setup is very simple. Make sure to check out the site and go to the DiceWars DS project page if you have any other problems or want further instructions.

• Download the latest version from the DiceWars DS homepage. You will have to look through the blog to find his latest release. At this time I am using 0.2.0.
• Unzip the download into its own folder. There is only one file, dicewars.nds.

• I don't know if I need to, but I patched the dicewars.nds file with the DLDI for my hardware.

  I have written an instruction page on doing this called Patching NDS Homebrew With DLDI. Follow the instructions there and then continue on here.

• Copy the dicewars.nds file onto your memory card.
• Boot your NDS and start playing.

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One of my all time favorite games for the PC was called Flashback. For those of you who remember, it was one of the early games that had the smooth, fluid character motions in the game. The main character ran in a human fashion. I was addicted. Throw in the science fiction story line and it was a "geek's dream".

Anyhow, it has been resurrected on the Nintendo DS with the extensive homebrew scene going on now. I had some problems getting it to work, but I finally figured it out the other night.

Performance

Pretty good. The game itself runs quite smooth. The only thing that I do notice being slow are the cinematic scenes in the game.

I have also had it freeze once. I have played a dozen times, so we will have to wait and see if it becomes more frequent or not.

Sound works as well. You have music and sound effects.

My Hardware

I have a Nintendo DS Lite with a Supercard 3 and a Supercard Lite with microSD.

To Get It Running

This was a bit of a pain actually. The main page I used was found on Troy Davis' site. Here you will find a link for the latest binary.

You also need the game files from the DOS version of the game. How you get these is up to you. Find an old copy of the game from someone or go searching on the internet.

If you want sound, you need the audio files from the Amiga version of the game. This is even harder to find, but I did manage to find them on one website. I found them at this web site.. One of the files is called mod.flashback-ascenseur if you need to look for another site because the link I provided does not work.

Basically, you just need to do the following.

• Create a folder called data\flashback\Data on the root folder of your flash card. I do not think capitalization matters, but this is how mine looks, exactly.
• Copy all the data files from the Data folder of your DOS Flashback installation into the \data\flashback\Data folder on the flash card.
• Check to see if you have the files LOGOSSSI.CMD, LOGOSSSI.POL, MENU1SSI.CMD, and MENU1SSI.POL. If you do, rename them to drop the SSI portion off the end of each filename.
• Copy all the Amiga audio files into the \data\flashback\Data folder as well.
• Download the DLDI patch file and patcher if you don't already have them at the DLDI site.

  I personally downloaded the SuperCard Lite DLDI and Win32 GUI DLDI Patcher.

• Patch the REminiscenceDS.nds file with DLDI.
  • I started the Win32 Gui by unzipping the Win32 zip file I downloaded and double clicking the dlditool32.exe file inside. It opens a window.
  • I clicked the ... button to the right of the DLDI File field and selected the folder I saved my SuperCard Lite DLDI file from above. The picklist then shows the available DLDI's.
  • Select the SuperCard Lite(TransFlash MicroSD) option.
  • Click the ... button to the right of the Binaries field. Select the file REminiscenceDS.nds from the zip file you downloaded earlier and click Open.
  • Click the Patch button. The existing REminiscenceDS.nds file will be overwritten with a new one.
  The file should now be patched.

• Copy the file in to the root folder on the flash card.
• Boot it up.

Problems You Might Have Getting It To Run

cannot find logos.cmd

You need to make sure you renamed the logosssi.cmd and other files before you put them on the flash card.

cannot find menus1.cmd

You need to make sure you renamed the logosssi.cmd and other files before you put them on the flash card.

It freezes when I try to save.

I got this by using 0.23 of the REminiscence application. If you download the latest and patch it with DLDI, it should be fine.

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Colors! is another homebrew application that I have loaded on my Nintendo DS. In short, it is a drawing program using the stylus. This isn't just Microsoft Paint though. It is a fantastic little program that can create some really nice images.

The interface is very simple and allows you to choose colors, brush sizes, opacity to your paint, and more. You can even zoom in and scroll around your canvas to look at it better. A super handy eyedropper tool is available to pick colors from your canvas as well.

I won't go much more into, but download it and load it up. The drawing experience is incredibly simple and refined to feel like you have a lot of control. You can save your images directly onto the flash card as well.

Getting It To Run

The setup is very simple.

• Download the latest version from the Colors website. I am using 1.05 as of August 14th, 2007.
• Unzip the download into its own folder. The important files are the colors folder and the Colors.nds file.

• This application reads and writes to the memory card so you will need to patch the Colors.nds with the DLDI for your hardware.

  I have written an instruction page on doing this called Patching NDS Homebrew With DLDI. Follow the instructions there and then continue on here.

• Copy the colors folder into the root of your flash card. The Colors.nds file can go anywhere I believe, but I have not verified this.
• Boot your NDS and start playing.

Here is an image I took from their website. Someone definitely has some talent. You can check out more digital paints at this gallery.

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I got into the Nintendo DS homebrew scene as soon as I got my DS. I am always fascinated by the effort that goes into making applications and games for free. Some very useful programs come along and there are neat games that are both new and ports of the classics.

Unfortunately, depending on the DS hardware that you have, it can take a little bit of work to get things running. Each game has its own requirements, but a lot of them need to be patched with DLDI before they will work. That is what this posting is about.

What Is DLDI?

It is an acronym for Dynamically Linked Device Interface. Any homebrew application that wants read and write access to the memory card will most likely need it. This would be saving text files, accessing music, saving a game, or whatever else you can think of.

The main site is the dldi Wiki hosted on drunkencoders. You can find all the information you need here. I will provide a brief tutorial on how I patch most of my programs though.

How Do I Know If I Need To Patch With DLDI

Read the instructions and comments on articles for the release of these applications. They will say.

If you try to load the application and you get a libfat error or an error regarding file access, then that is a good indication you need to patch as well.

How To Patch A File With DLDI

Here are the steps I would follow to patch a homebrew application from scratch. Keep in mind that I use the Supercard Lite (microSD).

1. Download the DLDI patch file at the DLDI Device page. Click on what type of device you have (Slot 1 or Slot 2). Slot 1 is the NDS cartridge sized slot on the top of your DS and Slot 2 is the Gameboy Advance sized slot on the bottom of your DS. In this screen, click the link for the brand of device you have. You then download the link for the .dldi file on the following screen.

   I personally downloaded the SuperCard Lite DLDI

2. Download the DLDI patcher starting at the DLDI Tools page.

   I personally use the Win32 GUI version of the DLDI patcher. It is pretty simple to use. This one comes in a zip file so you will have to unzip into a folder after you download it.

3. Patch the .nds file with DLDI.

   There are also instructions with pictures here.

   • Start the Win32 Gui double clicking the dlditool32.exe file inside in the folder you unzipped the Win32 patcher into. It opens a window with just a few items in it.
   • Click the "..." button to the right of the DLDI File field and selected the folder you saved the .dldi file from above. The picklist then shows the available DLDI's.
   • Select the DLDI you need. For me this was the SuperCard Lite(TransFlash MicroSD).
   • You can...
     • drag and drop the .nds file for you program into the bottom window or
     • click the ... button to the right of the Binaries field. Select the .nds file for you application and click Open.
   • Click the Patch button. The existing .nds file will be overwritten with a new one. You can tell by observing the date on the file and see if it becomes the current time.

The file should now be patched and ready to use.

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I wrote an article about a Nintendo DS version of Descent called DScent. I just got it working recently. It has been very well done. You can read about it on kayvenm's blog. It is the main resource for latest releases and help on getting it to run.

Performance

Fantastic. It runs around 25 fps on my NDS. I have had it crash a few different ways. If I start a new game and read through all the text screens and advance each screen by pressing A or tapping the screen, it locks when I get to the end. Easy to fix. I just press B when I am almost through the screens and it goes to the next level just fine.

I have also had it freeze a couple times when I kill an enemy. This is rare though, but I would say you need to just make sure you save frequently.

Sound works as well. You have music and sound effects.

New Features

He did a good job of getting it to function on the DS nicely. You can use the buttons for full control or use the directional pad for moving and the touchscreen to turn. Shooting is trigger based as usual. But keep in mind, you can configure the controls.

One of the best features is the gun graphics on the touchscreen. You can just tap the weapon of choice to switch to it. Very handy and a lesson the DSQuake and QuakeDS guys could use.

My Hardware

I have a Nintendo DS Lite with a Supercard 3 and a Supercard Lite with microSD.

To Get It Running

Follow the instructions on kayvenm's instructions page.

You can download the latest binaries with this link.

DScent v. alpha 4.2, but check the blog link above occasionally to see if there is a new version.

Basically, you just need to do the following.

• Create a folder called dscent on the root folder of your flash card.
• Unzip the downloaded dscent binaries on your computer.
• Download the DLDI patch file and patcher if you don't already have them at the DLDI site.

  I personally downloaded the SuperCard Lite DLDI and Win32 GUI DLDI Patcher.

• Patch the DScent.nds file with DLDI.
  • I started the Win32 Gui by unzipping the Win32 zip file I downloaded and double clicking the dlditool32.exe file inside. It opens a window.
  • I clicked the ... button to the right of the DLDI File field and selected the folder I saved my SuperCard Lite DLDI file from above. The picklist then shows the available DLDI's.
  • Select the SuperCard Lite(TransFlash MicroSD) option.
  • Click the ... button to the right of the Binaries field. Select the file DScent.nds from the zip file you downloaded earlier and click Open.
  • Click the Patch button. The existing DScent.nds file will be overwritten with a new one.
  The file should now be patched.

• Copy the files in to the dscent folder on the flash card.
• Copy the .HOG and .PIG files from your registered, version 1.4a or higher copy of Descent into the dscent folder on the flash card. Where can you find an original copy of the game? Dig through your attic or look for it on the internet at your own risk. I used the Ultimate Descent package (Descent I and Descent II patched for Windows) and it worked just fine.
• Boot it up.

Problems You Might Have Getting It To Run

fatInitDefault () failed

You need to patch that .nds file with DLDI. Follow the DLDI patching instructions I have above or find instructions on the internet.

Error: Cannot open file DESCENT.TEX or DESCENT.TXB

You need to put the .HOG and .PIG files from the registered, patched to at least 1.4a version of Descent. They need to be in the root folder of your flash card or in a folder called dscent in the root directory.

Error: Not enough strings in text file - expecting 621, found 514 You most likely do not have the proper version of the data files You need atleast v1.4a REGISTERED

I got this by using the demo version of the .PIG and .HOG files. Get the registered full version.

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I just saw a posting today for Descent for the Nintendo DS. Some guy is porting it and released the source code as well. Definitely worth checking out. It will be interesting to see how far this project goes and if he can have as good a results as the two Quake ports.

I will load it up and post a review with instructions on getting it going in a few days.

In the mean time, check it out at kayvenm's blog. He talks about it here.

UPDATE (August 12, 2007): There is a newer version out now that you can download on the Alpha 4 page.

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