I was talking to The Brother this weekend about DS hackery and the sort. I was actually bemoaning computer controllers (see dual mice below) and mentioned that the DS itself could make an excellent controller. From there I complained (I was really drunk and whiney apparently) about not being able to simply develop for the DS on a computer and offer software to the DS via wifi (we had just gotten done with a single card game of Metroid Hunters).
He mentioned that in reality you could, and by that he meant WiFiMe, a substitute wifi driver which allows for DS downloads from Windows XP. It's a shame that this kind of development has to be regulated to homebrew hackery. Homebrews follow a pretty hard road for development and, let's be honest, usually offer mixed results.
One game that might buck that trend is No Place To Hide (via GameSetWatch), a game of mini games that even boasts wifi and online stats.
But gosh darn it ... why make it so hard for people to do this? Ok yeah, the obvious answer is copy protection. So control the carts, I get that. I'd even be OK with some kind of online verification or certification setup. It's just frustrating to see the pieces of the puzzle so close together and yet the picture so far apart.
tagged: nintendo, gaming
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Mini-Game DS Homebrew and WiFiMe
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5 comments:
Oh... He's your brother! I fought him in Metroid Prime: Hunters last night. I am still hanging in the STOB. W00t?
Problem is, WifiMe doesn't work on the newer firmwares. I'm not really sure why Nintendo felt like they had to close that hole.
WooT!
I'm guessing the big N is afraid people will create some kind of wifi jukebox of pirated software. Doesn't feel like a justified fear in the face of the kind of hobbyist development it could support though.
Well, but how much could someone honestly pirate? They only get 4 megs of memory.
Not what you meant, but a wifi jukebox on the DS would be badass. Set it up to access an .mp3 directory by samba. I used to do something like that with my PocketPC, but the DS speakers are much better...
Mmmm. That would rock. Actually, it could be neat as a satellite device in general - mp3's, mov's, jpgs.
A shame the DS won't support audio/video ... otherwise that could be made to suffice.
But I agree, the wifi piracy seems way too hacky/limited to be pervasive. If people are going to pirate, they'll burn carts.
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