Homebrew Content

[Skyblade]

A series of events that are entirely uninteresting led me to start looking for homebrew content for the Nintendo DS (most specifically, emulators, but also any decent homebrew games out there). The amount of info I've found on the subject is huge, but not very well organized or documented (welcome to the internet). So I'm posting here to get people's opinions on homebrew content in general, and recommendations on any particular good pieces out there.

Also not quite sure of EoFF's rules concerning this sort of content, so if it's no-no talk, one of Cid's Knights can go ahead and delete this.

[Vyk]

Homebrew's a fine topic. Linking to stuff is when it gets questionable. Generally emulation is okay as well. Though, to emulate CD based systems requires a BIOS which is intellectual property of whatever company. And games of course are as well. But talking about them is okay. I can't really say or help much for the DS, but I can relate. I just recently got my PSP to where I can play a boatload of emulators and ripped copies of PSOne and PSP games. Not all of it is illegal either. Its really nice to have a huge memory card and all my favorite games ready to go

In your researched have you learned what the limit to the DS might be? The PSP seems to struggle with SNES for some odd reason, and runs GBA a lot better. NeoGeo and TurboGraphx16 are really hit or miss, but what works runs nice. Genesis and SegaCD run perfectly. And the PSOne games have generally the same compatibility rate as any other PC/Mac/etc emulators. I haven't tried to witnessed legitimate N64 emulation. I know Saturn works in theory, though its really strenuous on the processor and a huge memory load

As for legitimate homebrew I've only tried out a few things. There's an awesome Tetris remake out there. And a zombie game. Haven't come across too many gems though. But I haven't dabbled too much in actual applications like notepads, or timers, or anything

All in all, I love the idea of homebrew. And I know big companies like Sony and Nintendo might hate losing a meager profit on releasing games for download that have been readily available for piracy for years. But even if we were limited to just the indie stuff, there's a lot of great concepts out there

I know there's a massive community out there for making and releasing all sorts of Zune applications for varying reasons. Never got into that, but I have a friend that keeps me updating. Its been tempting. But either way, I still really like that its possible and its out there

[NeoCracker]

I know for the PC emulators it's easy to patch SNES games, Johnbound being a really awesome hack for earthbound, which changes the story and sprites, as well as upping the difficulty.

[Vyk]

Those patches work for any emulator that can run the games. I have patched ROMs on my PSP, one is a re-worked Super Metroid that has Samus running around in her blue jumpsuit. They even re-did the in-game artwork to match. I also have one for A Link To The Past, that completely redoes the game. I'll have to add this Earthbound one to my collection~

Edit: I should say the patched ROMs will work on most any emulator. Actually patching them does require a computer