#111317 - thegamefreak0134 - Tue Dec 05, 2006 5:44 pm
I am looking into buying a top-slot loading homebrew-code-runner, so I can play around with stuff I have in the bottom slot. Since a lot of homebrew is written with libfat in mind, I was hoping to get one that could read and load from a CF or SD card, so I can actually run those types of programs. Can y\'all recommend the cheapest one, or the best one? I am not looking for something cosmetic, just something that works. Thanks a bunch!
-thegamefreak
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#111346 - josath - Tue Dec 05, 2006 7:24 pm
maybe you should clarify what you mean by 'top-slot' and 'bottom-slot'. Usually people refer to them as NDS Slot / GBA Slot, or Slot-1, Slot-2 (as they are labeled on the DS itself).
for Slot-1 / NDS Slot cards, NinjaDS is the only one officially supported by libfat. The DS-X also does some magic that makes it work with libfat, but they have not released any code, so we don't know how it works. DS-Link has some code for reading/writing to it, but it is not in libfat yet, so I wouldn't recommend it. No other Slot-1 devices support libfat afaik.
#111367 - thegamefreak0134 - Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:20 pm
OK, I can live without libfat from the topslot I guess. So assuming that I just want to get code running from the top (NDS) slot to\"play with the bottom (GBA) slot, where do I need to go? (The NinjaDS looks nice, but is a bit pricey...)
-gamefreak
PS: I assume the DS cart is way too small to allow an actual re-writeable DS cart?
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#111370 - Dwedit - Tue Dec 05, 2006 11:26 pm
Isn't the "magic key" series of devices supported by libfat?
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#111381 - chishm - Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:41 am
| Dwedit wrote: |
| Isn't the "magic key" series of devices supported by libfat? |
Yes, MK2 and MK3 are supported.
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#111416 - lyptt - Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:29 am
They're not that compatible with general homebrew though, at least not from my experience.
#111462 - josath - Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:53 pm
Yeah, I have a MK3. It works with one of my three SD cards. (they all work fine in other devices). Unless you can get it for free, or $5 or something, I wouldn't recommend it.
If you aren't using libfat, then you could always pak-swap with a gba-slot device.
1. insert gbamp/supercard/etc
2. load app...app pauses and says 'insert other cart, press A to continue'
3. remove supercard
4. insert some other gba cart
5. press A
#111571 - thegamefreak0134 - Thu Dec 07, 2006 8:24 pm
But the whole point is to be loading from the top slot, isn\'t it?
Is there an adapter that will let me plug a GBA cart into the NDS (top) slot? I think that would be the simplest solution for now. I\'ve seen several devices that look like they do this, but they say they require an actual DS cart? Hang on a sec...
OK, I stand corrected, I was apparently looking at the DS slot for the actual DS card and mistaking it for a GBA slot. Well poo...
I guess I will just have to go with a SD or CF reader anyway. Ignoring compatability with libfat and all (I can live with something primitive) what is the cheapest way to get code homebrew code running from the top slot?
By the way, I cant seem to find any info on the magickey at all. (I keep pulling up a bunch of tools that work on it, but not any actual place to buy one.) If someone could PM me that info, Ill go chek it out.
-gamefreak
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#111574 - felix123 - Thu Dec 07, 2006 10:04 pm
Well, the libfat for DSlink was released last month.
#111578 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Thu Dec 07, 2006 11:31 pm
These DS-slot flash cards are all pretty new and there's new ones coming out all the time. I would wait a while. I'm sure there will be some really cool ones available in the near future and for the looks of it, they might be pretty cheap, too.
I'm hoping that someone comes out with a DS-slot card that has something like 32 or 64MB, can automatically load up a single homebrew ROM placed on the card with no menu and which sells for something like $15. Then we could all start making printing out labels, case inserts and manuals and selling our homebrew games on the cards for like $30-40.
It would revolutionize the homebrew scene.
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#111594 - tepples - Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:01 am
But who will buy homebrew for $30-$40 when Cooking Mama is available for $20 new as an impulse buy in multi-billion-dollar chain stores?
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#111595 - Magitek - Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:15 am
I think that a market could be made out of selling either homebrew as cheap downloads or maybe as cartridges in the style of those 10-in-1 paks you always see, but maybe im just being naive...
#111653 - Lynx - Fri Dec 08, 2006 6:58 pm
Well, why would anyone pay $30-40 for homebrew when they could just buy the $15 device and load it themselves?
But, I could see if you bulk ordered the $15 devices and maybe got them for $10 or something, you could put homebrew on them and sell them for $15.. Other than that, there would be no reason to purchase your device over the original if you are more expensive and they could just download your homebrew anyway.
Now, if you didn't release the homebrew online, and only made it available on the device, that would MAYBE temp a few people into purchasing it, but it would have to be one super kick ass homebrew before someone would pay $15+shipping instead of walking into that billion dollar retailer and spending money on a commercial game.
Now, if you could get ahold of burn once slot-1 media, I would guess it would cost around $5 (no research, just a guess). Then, you might be able to actually make some money offering homebrew for $10. But, as far as I know, nobody in the homebrew scene has created a NoPass device to go along with cheap write once PROMs.
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#111675 - HyperHacker - Fri Dec 08, 2006 11:01 pm
Not to mention Nintendo probably wouldn't be very happy.
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#111769 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Sat Dec 09, 2006 11:47 pm
| tepples wrote: |
| But who will buy homebrew for $30-$40 when Cooking Mama is available for $20 new as an impulse buy in multi-billion-dollar chain stores? |
Lots of people would.
Not nearly as many as are going to buy Cooking Mama, of course, but that should go without saying. Homebrew sales have been tried before on many systems like the Vectrex, Colecovision, Dreamcast and even GBA apparently.
On the Dreamcast--though GOAT Publishing has never released numbers--it's generally known that 5000 copies of Feet Of Fury were produced, though sales didn't meet that number even close. 1500 copies were produced for each of the next two games, which had much less general interest than Feet Of Fury, and they apparently at least sold well enough to encourage more games with the same production runs.
What would be different about what I'm thinking of for the DS, though, is that there would be virtually no risk involved since you wouldn't have to make any sort of bulk production run like you do with cartridge systems or CD systems if you want professional quality. You could just offer your game for sale and if you sell only one copy, aside from the despair of having all your hopes and dreams crushed, you wouldn't really have lost anything. If you sell 100 copies, that's even better. Really good professional quality games that develop an online buzz could sell upwards of 1000 copies eventually, I bet.
And yes, I was thinking that you probably wouldn't release a free downloadable version at least not of the complete version or at least not right away. There's also just the fact that some people (not all people, of course, but some people, trust me) would prefer to have the "legit" version that comes from the developer and has all the packaging and maybe even a production number or somehting like that rather than just a they wrote to a card themselves.
Looking over the homebrew available for the DS currently, I would certainly pay $30 for AmplituDS if it had 15 or 20 tracks and came all nice and professionally packaged just like any other DS game I buy. Maybe also Gioioso! if it had more tracks or modes. Certainly also for a compilation pack, especially if it had some sort of over-arching theme. Part of the money you spend is for the game itself and part of it is for the community, to encourage more people to polish their projects and try selling them the same way.
I'm not thinking that this will be a huge money making venture or anything. You'd barely break even once all the time and materials are accounted for, but for me at least it seems like it would be a really fun and satisfying way of releasing homebrew and developing interest in the homebrew scene.
...word is bondage...
#111835 - tepples - Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:17 pm
| Sweater Fish Deluxe wrote: |
| What would be different about what I'm thinking of for the DS, though, is that there would be virtually no risk involved since you wouldn't have to make any sort of bulk production run like you do with cartridge systems or CD systems if you want professional quality. You could just offer your game for sale and if you sell only one copy, aside from the despair of having all your hopes and dreams crushed, you wouldn't really have lost anything. |
Except time spent creating extra engine enhancements and extra content specifically for the commercial version.
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