A guide to homebrew on the DS

by Scott Jon Siegel { May 20th 2008 at 5:00PM }

The homebrew community lurves the Nintendo DS, and it's no surprise why: a portable system with WiFi capabilities, two screens, and none of the firmware-updating nonsense that the PSP has become infamous for? If we had the skills, we'd be 'brewing it up too.

Luckily, our BFF's over at DS Fanboy have put together an incredibly handy guide to the best DS homebrew peripherals, and what to do with them once they arrive on your doorstep. It even comes with a handy glossary, so you can feel cool and start dropping terms like "MoonShell" and "DLDI." Instant homebrew cred!

Tags: diy, homebrew, r4

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Spirit @ May 20th 2008 5:03PM

Who actually uses their flash carts for legal reasons?
If you aren't running an NDS rom, you are probably running an emulator with an ILLEGAL ROM.

Of course, the 10 people who may actually use a flash cart for legitimate reasons for reply saying this is false...

Leilock @ May 20th 2008 5:14PM

As an independant game developer these are not only a way to express my own creative stuffs, but to see the hard work others put into their spiffy games. But if you wanna enoble ROMS as the only reason for this, you're silly.

chez @ May 20th 2008 5:16PM

*raises hand*

That said I don't really play my DS much anymore. I had a whale of a time up until late last year.
The most illegal thing I did was dump my Pokemon game and have it set up so when I "finish" it I can modify the save file to give my proper NDS cart Pokemon (via the friend card feature) the tickets to unlock the final set of Pokemon... Phew.

I'm just against piracy in general. I've always gone by thinking if you can't afford something then save up and buy it.

Jody Anthony (cookingrebels.com) @ May 20th 2008 5:42PM

i use my flash cart almost exclusively for Colors

bobartig @ May 20th 2008 6:43PM

My use was at first pseudo-legitimate, then a bit less so, then back. I got some M3 chips because between my GF and I we own about 25 DS lite games. It was too many to carry around, so I concatenated them onto microSD card and put them all in storage. This also means that we don't have to pass brain-age between the two of us, for instance. So, not legal, but nothing I really am bothered by.

Then, I used it to "sample" a few new titles to see how they were. But I still mainly use it to play backed up games that I actually own.

Geist @ May 20th 2008 7:29PM

I use my flash cards to murder people and rob banks.

KeenCommander @ May 20th 2008 8:18PM

(a.)There's lots of good homebrew DS games: Quake, Tetris Attack, DOOM, DSAIM (ok, so that's not a game - but it's useful), Mahjongg, Lemmings, LumiDS, Touch of War, etc. and (b.) for a lot of us with large retro game libraries those roms are perfectly legal, thank you very much.

born2kill @ May 20th 2008 5:11PM

holy crap is it 2006??? who doesnt know all this stuff already

Noshino @ May 20th 2008 5:27PM

"none of the firmware-updating nonsense that the PSP has become infamous for?"

and yet the PSP still more famous around the homebrew community?...

brandon_r87 @ May 20th 2008 6:15PM

I agree, I think the whole firmware "nonsense" is the reason that the PSP homebrew community has done so well. If you have a friend who can hook you up with Pandora's Battery, you can run homebrew without spending any money at all, unlike DS where you have to buy expensive flash carts. Even if you do end up buying a Pandora's battery, or any of the older solutions, they are cheaper than flash carts. Trust me, I have both systems, and I looked into homebrew for both. Guess which one of mine has it, and which doesn't.

chez @ May 20th 2008 6:22PM

Your maths must be b0rked.

DS Lite- £100
M3 Simply- £18
8gb Micro SD- £27

PSP Slim- £130
8gb Pro Duo- £88

So WTF. Granted the price is bumped up by Sony's extortionate proprietary memory card.

Ninjakamster (XBL: RNK2K) @ May 20th 2008 5:29PM

I'm betting Sony really wished they didn't use memory sticks for the PSP? Or that they should have capped the capacity at 32mb with a firmware limitation?

I'm curious as to why the PS3 has been out so long and there is no homebrew for it, I hear there was a recent "Hello World" exploit for it I think.

BigD145 @ May 20th 2008 5:50PM

You can use SD on the PSP. It's a huge pain and will cost you $20 bucks, but there you have it. Sony? Either stop making those damn memory sticks or start making some microSD to MS adapters. Your format reinvented square wheels and the world doesn't need square wheels.

Abscissa @ May 20th 2008 6:00PM

Regular SD was already way too small. MicroSD is just garbage.

JaKa (Because 666 gives a wrong impression!) @ May 20th 2008 6:07PM

I'm curious as to why the PS3 has been out so long and there is no homebrew for it, I hear there was a recent "Hello World" exploit for it I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps3_linux

Does that count as homebrew?

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ May 20th 2008 6:40PM

BigD, there already is a microSD(HC)->MSPD adapter...
http://www.amazon.com/MicroSDHC-Memory-Stick-Static-Package/dp/B00176F2RC

Chyld989 (MKWii: 5241-2307-2882) @ May 20th 2008 5:42PM

I can honestly say that I don't use my R4 for anything TOO illegal. Yes, I download ROMs of games, but only to test them out. If I like them, I buy them. I'll then rip the game onto a MicroSD card so I don't have to carry a bunch of games around.

I'm probably one of the few though.

bobartig @ May 20th 2008 6:45PM

I'm with you. I used to make video games, so I feel strongly about paying for them. Heck, I picked up phantom hourglass just so my GF could get the crystal stylus.

deaftly @ May 20th 2008 5:45PM

Im lovin the R4

superted @ May 20th 2008 5:46PM

tbh, if Nintendo offered legal downloads of full titles in .nds format then i'd totally buy them, it's just such a pain carrying around 10 or so of my retail carts... the fact that you can't back them up alone counts me out.

if i loose Nesville in Animal Crossing i'd mourn for weeks

BPM [MKWii: 2578 3585 8392] @ May 20th 2008 6:41PM

I don't know about with Slot-1 flash cards, but I can backup my games (and saves) with my M3 Lite.

Only reason I don't is because I prefer using the original Game Cards...

fischju @ May 20th 2008 6:03PM

It's all about Wii homebrew now! All you need is Twilight Princess and an SD card!

JaKa (Because 666 gives a wrong impression!) @ May 20th 2008 6:08PM

And I'm from FBI, reading you comments and ip-tracking :P

bender @ May 20th 2008 6:25PM

my grandpa used to smuggle Coors across the mississippi, so it only natural.... Hold on, I got T Boone Pickens on the other line...

BMErdin @ May 20th 2008 7:02PM

The only games currently on my R4 are the games I own. I have 20+ games and got tired of carrying them all with me or picking a few that I might want to play.
Yes I have put games on it that I did not own, but I then either bought them (if they were good) or deleted them (if crap).

Donald @ May 20th 2008 7:19PM

I do a lot of game testing and space saving with my R4.

But the main reason for its existence is Diamond 493. Hommina.

Chase @ May 20th 2008 7:52PM

"Lurves", "BFFs", and ending sentences with prepositions? What is this some celebrity gossip blog?

LionheartAce @ May 20th 2008 8:01PM

Hey, way to backstep Joystiq! What happened to the DS Vision image?! huh?! :) Just kidding, I love you guys.

nxtiak @ May 20th 2008 10:02PM

Where's the M3 DS Simply (R4 clone) or M3 DS Real?
The M3DSReal is better than the R4.

nxtiak @ May 20th 2008 10:03PM

Oh also, this should be a "Guide To Nintendo DS Piracy" not a guide to homebrew. Seriously, 99.9999999999% of anyone who has these DO NOT USE THEM FOR HOMEBREW.
That being said, I LOVE MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jesus_bon_jovi @ May 20th 2008 10:33PM

First Rule about Flash Cards: Don't talk about Flash Cards.

Ridgecity @ May 20th 2008 11:08PM

isn't that card for piracy? you have to be pretty naive to think those are just to run homebrew...

Thanks to stuff like that is we only get sequel after sequel, no one buys original stuff and even then they don't buy the sequels once they have one of these...

Superstar90 @ May 20th 2008 11:36PM

Ummm... I play Japanese exclusive games that are being fan-translated such as Tales of Innocence, Jump Ultimate Stars and Soma Bringer.

Jamesology @ May 21st 2008 2:30AM

LOL The R4 is the only reason I play with my DS. Heck no I would spend money on the DS. The only time I buy real games is for my Wii, 360, PS3. Why would I carry stupid 50 cartridges when I can carry one.

Finess @ May 21st 2008 4:13AM

^ True lol. Man i can't wait for Wakfu DS i'm gonna have like 20 of em on my R4 ready for the MMO version n get sweet stuff mwhahaha. *I'm still going to buy it though*

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ May 21st 2008 4:29AM

I'm all for homebrew, heck, it's tempting me like crazy (who wouldn't like an open-source browser on the DS, instead of that Opera nonsense?). But hear my plea that no one's really going to pay attention to: please don't pirate games and never intend to buy them, because it takes incredible effort and investment risk to make good ones.

chez @ May 21st 2008 5:44AM

Try telling that to Mike and the other twats who pirate games.

I don't understand why people just can't buy games. If you're too poor to buy them then boo hoo. Get a better job. It's always a shame when kids piss away their education and end up resorting to stealing.

CJJB @ May 21st 2008 4:36PM

I got a R4,haven't looked back since =)

Only homebrew I ever downloaded was pocket physics,at least I think thats what it was called.

Other than that you can play your legally backed up ds cartridges ;)