$20 Nintendo DS mod chip, PassMe

by Christopher Grant { Feb 13th 2006 at 11:00PM }

We've already considered how to make your DS more like your PSP as far as media support goes, but what about emulation? Another device that takes advantage of both the GBA and DS game slots, the $20 "PassMe" mod chip for Nintendo DS "redirects the DS to a GBA Flash cart, so you can run your own programs... on the Nintendo DS. For PassMe to work it requires the use of a commercial NDS cart (for authentication) and a GBA Flash cart to hold your DS programs."

While this mod chip will allow you to run pirated games--which we categorically disapprove of--the ability to run old abandonware or homebrew on the DS is enticing. Some Sam & Max Hit the Road via ScummVM coupled with some homebrew Mario Adventure, and you're cooking with gas.

[Via Boing Boing]

Tags: Emulation

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Derick @ Feb 13th 2006 11:15PM

This sounds like the kind of thing that could help the indie developers like (well formerly(Pre-producer)) NIBRIS. Maybe this can provide that foot in the door for those who Nintendo might choose to not send Devo Packs to.

Probot @ Feb 13th 2006 11:57PM

Isn't that the old version that was made last March? I don't believe it works with the newest firmware.

I believe Natrium 42, the maker of PassMe, has the newer version for sale on his site.

http://natrium42.com/shop/

Alkaiser @ Feb 14th 2006 1:32AM

Exactly how many homebrew GBA carts came out of the last "homebrew" device?

I'm pretty much against this. This is going to be something like 99.5% piracy, 5% homebrew. Since the DS is already region free, there's less and less legitimacy for this thing.

I don't want to be a wet blanket, but I'd rather see people spending their efforts on opening up consoles that are region locked.

jason @ Feb 14th 2006 2:03AM

Alkaiser, let the corporations fight their own battles. With emulation capability, I might actually be interested in getting a DS, now. As for homebrew software, just take a peek at the Xbox modding scene; it's huge! I soldered a chip in my box a few years back and no, I'm NOT a pirate. Seriously, piracy is the least interesting thing about modchips. If it weren't for the Xbox modding community, do you really think MS would have made the 360 so media capable?

Probot @ Feb 14th 2006 2:13AM

@Jesse,
This is pretty old, but they never posted on it before, so they might as well now.

You can also blame a lot of it on Boing Boing. Here's a great quote from their post: "[T]his functionality has been around for the DS's main competitor, the Sony PSP, for some time now ... it's nice to see the DS catching up."

The first homebrew was running on the DS before the PSP was launched!

@Alkaiser,

That's probably true, it will probably be used a lot for piracy, but the same could be said for P2P programs. Good can still come from them.

The use of homebrew is in adding optional functions like GPS, which has been done with this PassMe device on the DS. Or attatching an PDA keyboard, also accomplished on the DS with the PassMe.

I do think that for the DS, the cost and amount of time and effort needed will be a deterant for most people. You won't see as many hacked DSs as you see hacked PSPs because it's relatively easy to get into the PSP.

Err @ Feb 14th 2006 2:24AM

Wet Blanket - 99.5 and 5 do not add up to 100. What about playing old gameboy and gameboy color games? That is impossible on the DS or DS Lite without putting them on an emulated flash cart. What about old NES games? Impossible - but possible with a flash cart. In fact, you can stick about 1000 of them on some carts (assuming you owned that many NES games) and even instantly save and restore anywhere. Check out PocketNES. Loopy and those guys do amazing work. Also explore GBAGI - many, but not all of the classic Sierra games (Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Kings Quest) can all be played on the Gameboy DS, Micro, Advance, etc. You don't even need a PassMe to do so. So while homebrew may not be a HUGE scene, stuff like Zelda Challenge (http://www.cymoro.com/rha/zelda3c/ZeldaC/index.shtml) and the recent Mario Conversion and the ability to bring back old games that no longer even work on current operating systems (although there are work arounds) is reason enough to not rule out flash carts. On a side note, I own 5 different Gameboy Advances, 1 Gamecube Gameboy player and I have already preordered 2 DS Lites to be imported from Japan. I do not own a PSP. Why? It doesn't play my favorites. A simple flash cart and 20+ hours of battery life is all I need.

Alkaiser @ Feb 14th 2006 3:04AM

I love the way that your most salient point is the fact that I left out a decimal point, Err.

You own 5 GBAs? Well, what the heck do you need a DS to play your Gameboy Color and Gameboy games for?

Portable homebrew content is not only "not huge", it's "not small", either. It's infintesimal. I've got no problem with people making carts and stuff to allow for emulation, but this is going to foster piracy first, second, third, and fourth, before someone gets around to trying anything else.

Why? Because while it takes a lot of hard work and talent for someone to code up something new and useful, all it takes of parts and an internet connection for a high school script kiddie to dump ROMs. There are way more kiddies than there are talented coders.

If there was a way to prevent the d/l of the DS ROMs so the copyrighted material stayed copyrighted, and still allow for the executable code, I'd be behind this 100%, just like I'm behind peer to peer so people can download TV shows they missed, and like I'm behind the modchips, because there's at least the a substantial percentage of people who use them to just bypass the onerous region lock.

There's so much bad, and so very little good that can come from this. If there was even a way to significantly hamper the downloading of the DS carts, I'd be swayed, but this is not cool.

captain_duck @ Feb 14th 2006 6:36AM

As for one tip, you dont have to order some device soldered by natrium anymore, just buy a superpass (preferably with a supercard) or a passkey (preferably with a M3) and your done.

IMHO, get a passkey+m3, because the passkey wraps the cart around the DS, to the bottom of it, so it won't stick out as much in front.

Also beware. If you have a newer type of DS (blue ds& newer) you might need a passme2. Do research before you buy anything.

Jon @ Feb 14th 2006 7:03AM

Running homebrew games is just an excuse to hide behind a 'legal' reason when in actual fact the developers of the passme device knows that it will be used by 99.9% of its users to run pirated games.

If you want homebrew, code for the GP2X. The device is sold and licensed specifically for that reason. Don't go ruining it for the rest of us by forcing Ninty to jack up the price of games in order to cover lost costs due to the pirates.

I doubt it would happen to Ninty, but does anyone here remember one of the main reasons why the Sega Dreamcast was losing so much money, Sega had to get out of the console market?

Humans are greedy. If most people who buy such modchips of passme devices in order to run homebrew games (and not pirated NDS, GBA, GBC, GB or NES games) then I will support it, but people are not trustworthy. I view anybody who buys this with the most cynical view possible.

Lagomorpho @ Feb 14th 2006 7:07AM

"Some Sam & Max Hit the Road via ScummVM coupled with some homebrew Mario Adventure, and you're cooking with gas."

http://lagomorpho.com/photoblog/05-12-09/DSC03905.jpg
http://lagomorpho.com/photoblog/05-12-09/DSC03908.jpg

Benjamin @ Feb 14th 2006 7:46AM

1. PassMe's have been out for over a year.

2. Software piracy on the DS with PassMe's have NOT brought Nintendo and the gaming industry to its knees.

3. Almost all the work being done by the homebrew communities are that ... homebrew. Homebrewers are vastly out numbering pirates, arrrrrr. Hell, I've even made a text editing program that saves files to a CompactFlash card using a virtual keyboard, all on the DS ... just to show that there are legal programs being written to extend the functionality of the DS, and not hoards of people trading DS ROMs.

Take a look at what people have been using the PassMe's for for the past YEAR, instead of speculating on how it's going to cause cancer and rape babies.

http://www.thepernproject.com/index.php?system_id=1&page=News
http://forum.gbadev.org/viewforum.php?f=18

C. Grant @ Feb 14th 2006 9:28AM

Thanks be to Probot! Sorry to sound like a broken record, but any that's so old comments will be deleted, so don't waste both of our's time. There are plenty of people who read this site who might not have seen this before, therefore it is news to them. If you've seen it before and have something worthwhile to add (see Benjamin) please do!

That's what makes our comments fun to read (sometimes). The breadth of knowledge that many of our community brings in. What makes our comments a chore to read sometimes? "Ths is sooo OlD> ROFL!"

ry @ Feb 14th 2006 9:34AM

more people involved with coding for the "homebrew" devices are coding homebrew software, however, no one spends the money on a gba cart and passme (or run flashme) just so they can save text files.

Instead of showing us the software that is *available* for the carts, go on emule and search up some NDS or GBA roms. Hmm, lot of those going around eh?

Now that you mention it, I really COULD use a virtual keyboard and text editor for my portable gaming system... If the homebrew scene was AT ALL legit, and if there really was that much demand for homebrew and ONLY homebrew, then someone would've made a cart that does ONLY homebrew, instead of pirate carts that run homebrew as an afterthought.

Blue @ Feb 14th 2006 10:11AM

If someone made a cart that only does homebrew, why would someone buy it over one that could do both. Also, making such a thing would not be as easy as you seem to think. No one just flipped some switch to allow illegal roms or added homebrew as an afterthought. Flash carts are basically just programmable memory that a gba/ds will see. When someone makes a homebrew app, they have to put it in the form of an nds/gba rom for the ds/gba to be able to run it. There is probably very little way to tell the difference between a homebrew application and a pirated rom.

You seem to have combined the homebrew community and the game pirates into the same group, when they are in fact separate. Most homebrew forums will not even allow discussion of pirate software, and pirating is heavily frowned upon.

I am not sure why this seems to upset you so much, people run their own software, and roms, on just about every console/handheld/pc nowadays. Did you think the DS was some sort of holy ground?

I personally bought the equipment because I was interested in sgstair's work on the DS wifi. Already some of the more interesting and useful applications have come from this, and I think it will lead to a web browser being developed for the ds far before an official version comes out.

SuicideNinja @ Feb 14th 2006 11:16AM

This is just hitting joystiq now? That's odd. They even have commercial versions of this (magickey, superpass, passkey). More interesting is how new homebrew has been mentioned for the DS, but you need passme/flashme/wifime in order to use it.

As mentioned, most new DS's require a passme2/superpass2.

Anyway, a passme is great for using homebrew assuming you have a GBA flashcart. But instead of having it stick out at all, you can easily just flash the DS firmware. Then you don't need to use the passme at all (except for the initial firmware flashing).

Catching up to the PSP? Homebrew on the DS has been out for quite a while. Not to mention GBA homebrew works on it as well. Emulators just for the GBA include SNES, NES, GBA, GBC, TurboGraphics 16, Sega Master System, and Game Gear. There are even more than that. Besides that, you can use the DS as a wireless game controller for your PC, or use it even to control your PC. They have WinDS which is somewhat like Windows. DSlinux is available, although there is no GUI yet. Did I mention they have LumiDS, which is a Lumines clone? If movies and mp3s are you thing, then you can use Moonshell.

I don't think they are "catching up", I just think that there hasn't been as much media attention for DS homebrew compared to the PSP homebrew.

Osiris @ Feb 14th 2006 12:27PM

It's not the fact that this is old news, it's the fact that it's old news being posted as new news..

If you are going to post something about the Passme that has been out for pretty much a year now, you could also mention the further advancements in DS hacking such as the M3 which is much more compact/aesthetically-pleasing/useable.

If anything, products like this help to promote, piracy on the GBA was one of the reasons it has done so well.