Lightning

^ A video of the hardware running Xubuntu and Firefox. I'm more of a Fedora guy myself, but that can come later =)

...the Pandora has a PowerVR chip. Top left of the page. Whether or not it's similar enough to the DC's to allow for any sort of higher-level emulation is still up for question, however.

there's a hint-of-a-possibility. the GPU, like that of the dreamcast, is by PowerVR. so if there are any major similarities, there could be the potential of some high-level rendering emulation there... can't be too sure until we experiment a bit with it of course. but it is very exciting nonetheless =)

But most laptops don't fit in my pocket or have a gamepad+touchscreen =| If nothing else, I'll probably use this to replace my laptop for taking notes in class; rather than lugging my laptop around in a bag, I can just have this in my pocket (where I normally have my DS anyway). That is, assuming I can bring myself to stop coding and go to class once I get my hands on it =P Obviously it's not for everyone though.

For some perspective: it's approximately as powerful as the Wii. I wouldn't call it doomed, considering its main draw is homebrew and open-source support =) And as we can see with the Dreamcast, even a dead console's homebrew scene doesn't like to stop. Some people call this the "spiritual successor" to the GP2X, which was the successor to the GP32. Both of which did good enough, at any rate.

I remember seeing some video on youtube comparing the footage we had from GCN kirby's adventure and levels, enemies etc. in SSE. And how the gameplay was similar, etc. Searching for it again now, I can only find a 5 minute long boring video with some idiot narrating over the kirby trailer itself without actually showing SSE clips for comparison. Le sigh. =(

Weren't a lot of the concepts, levels, etc. from the canned Kirby game re-used in SSBB's adventure mode?

http://openpandora.org/ Sexy little handheld that's almost exactly the size of a fat DS. Has a 800x480 pixel touchscreen, a QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, SVideo, two SDHC slots, gamepad + analog nubs, fairly powerful CPU/GPU. Ships with a Linux-based (Debian-based specifically, I think) firmware. Perfect for emulating stuff on the go, like PSX, SNES, GBA, probably DS, etc.. Or just using it as a tiny laptop. Apparently preorders will be going until Sunday and they're going to try to get that many made (originally, they only planned on letting 3000 people make pre-orders). Everyone else will have to wait until 2009 =) I personally am very excited. Surprised I didn't see any threads about it on a quick search of the boards.

The thing is, it does have this ease of use. It's easier, even, and more sensible in design. The hardware problems you have had are a result of the problem I mentioned before; Microsoft makes sure vendors don't support Linux so they can remain dominant. Working around these problems is possible, and it's what we've been doing, but it takes time. Windows is a bitch to set up if you're missing drivers too, and even moreso, since much of it is undocumented or uncleanly implemented (and it is allowed to be that way thanks to its closed-source nature). Or did you just read "Oh, Lightning mentioned Linux again, time to skip reading his post and whine about my own problems" =P

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html tl;dr: remember Sony's rootkits? Vista comes with some of those standard. Avoid it like the plague. Warranties are a joke anyway. Pretty much. I'm waiting for the world to realize what a terrible hacked-together piece of spaghetti code Windows is, and move on to cleaner, more sensible programs and operating systems (I'm not talking about Mac, though it would at least be a start). Microsoft is clearly in bed with Hollywood and couldn't give two shits about its customers at this point, since their monopoly position in the industry guarantees that they can just threaten to cut off the OEMs that don't conform to their will, forcing the consumers to buy whatever Microsoft wants them to buy. It's a damn shame gamers, "familiars," and the like are tied to such an obsolete system when there are much better alternatives widely (and freely) available. Sadly, Microsoft does what it can to damage the computer/gaming industry unless the industry does what it wants it to. I certainly do commend WINE for the tremendous progress it has made in implementing the Windows and Direct X APIs on UNIX-based systems (GNU/Linux, *BSD, Mac OS X, etc.), which helps to bridge the gap created by these business practices. It is very well done when you consider what an overwhelming task it is, and they have a great many complicated programs and games working flawlessly or near-flawlessly. But yeah, fuck Windows. Fuck Vista even more though. If you can help it, stay on XP. Vista is a step in the wrong direction.

http://images.lightning.cjb.net/CubefulOfEmulation.png This was a while ago when I decided "hey let's rape my processor for all it's worth and take a screenshot of it." This was on Xgl and compiz, before AIGLX and beryl came around. The window decorations were just some generic thing I made in cgwd. Fedora 5 by the way. http://images.lightning.cjb.net/Desktops/2007-01-02_LinuxFedora6.png This is what my desktop is now. I enabled beryl and spun the cube a little for the picture because it's fun to show off =( Normally I use metacity, and my use of the heliodor window decorator for beryl demonstrates this. Theme is classic Bluecurve for window decorations, Clearlooks for controls, and ordinary GNOME icons, if I recall correctly. Fedora 6.

http://devkitpro.org/

That has to do with the older methods of passthrough--the PassMe, in particular. Nintendo made those not work any more when they released the colored DSes with newer firmware (the DS Lite has newer firmware as well). Like I said, you don't have to worry about that any more. The PassCard 3 you find bundled with M3 adapters all over the place will work fine.

yes If you see the M3 being offered bundled with a PassCard, you're fine. The type of passthrough you use typically doesn't matter, as long as it works on your DS. It's kinda hard to go wrong nowadays in the area of passthroughs, because most of them work just the same. One thing people might want to note is the pending availability of new DS-slot flash adapters for microSD cards and such which eliminate the need for passthroughs and patching--however, these lack the double-functionality that you get with a GBA slot flash adapter (which can usually play GBA games on any GBA-compatible hardware as well)

Most of them do the same thing. I'd just get a PassCard 3 in a bundle with the M3 Lite if available, so you save a bit of money.

There is indeed an M3 Lite. Just be careful not to get one from the M3 "Professional" series, which is cheaper because it doesn't have the hardware necessary to play GBA ROMs. http://iso420.com/nds.htm has good in-depth reviews of many DS homebrew and piracy solutions, and http://iso420.com/nds/m3lite/index.htm has info on the M3 Lite.

The SuperCard series can run GBA ROMs, though they've been reported to be slower than the M3 series when playing them. Make sure you don't get the SuperCard Rumble, because that doesn't have the memory required to play GBA ROMs (neither does the M3 "Pro" if you or anyone else is looking into getting one).

hi guys I have a fairly detailed comparison of homebrew solutions in the most recent chapter of this which I linked on page 2 and none of Datel's stuff is worth your money =(

By the way guys, I was totally rocking out on this: http://www.dev-scene.com/NDS/AXE last night with my DS in my dorm's lounge. Impressed some chicks and stuff Just sayin' =(

You could read the article to which I linked that I wrote, you know =P

Homebrew is very fun on the DS. http://lightning.cjb.net/!trash/DS%20Lessons.html is a bunch of stuff I am working on writing on the matter. A homebrew-enabled DS can be used to play videos, listen to music, play many console and handheld games through emulation, read books (book-style, even, considering the shape of the device), control a computer remotely, draw (see avatar), run Linux... The list goes on. Programming games, applications, and such for the DS on your own is pretty fun as well. =P

What I'm saying is that it makes more sense to use a component whose one and only job is to play audio than to invoke something that is designed for vector art and animation, scripting, etc. and all the overhead that comes with it. It's a waste of resources. It's probably hard for ordinary people to understand, but you'll see what I'm talking about if you ever get farther into the field of game programming. Additionally, it is almost trivial to extract contents of a Flash file these days =P And like LarkSS mentioned, if the user can hear the music, it's already able to be stolen.

That doesn't sound like the cheap way out; that's actually rather brilliant. I'd say the cheap way out is making your game depend on something big and bloaty like Flash just to play looping music. But hey, whatever works =P

I mentioned before that I use Fedora =P But good on you that you use Ubuntu, it's the easy way to do Linux these days.

hahah oh okay you were trying, good job =p This is a point that comes up a lot and I should probably address it. Mac OS X is based on a version of BSD (I forget which), which makes it very secure by design. Unix-based operating systems (Linux, BSD, OS X, the list goes on) are built with security in mind. Windows, on the other hand, is a big lump of spaghetti-code in comparison. It's hard for a piece of malicious code to manifest itself in your computer or to spread without your explicit consent on most Unixes, while I'm sure everyone is familiar with the existence of many viruses (as well as Sony's rootkit) for the Windows platform that do just that without asking. I guess what I'm getting at is that security through obscurity is not by any means the reason why Linux, Mac, BSD, etc. are free of viruses and such. The popularity of Windows isn't the only reason that malware is written for it; Windows just isn't cut out to protect itself from malicious code the same way that Unixes are. To Microsoft's credit, they did rewrite a bunch of code for Vista rather than just adding on to their existing XP code--though much of that did get kept anyway. I personally very much like Linux. There is just so much choice for the user: which distribution to use, which desktop environment to use, which software to install, etc., and most of the things available for Linux are free (as in "freedom," and often as in "free beer" as well). It's a liberating and educational experience =) One thing that does bother me is the attitude of lots of people (it is most obvious during arguments of operating systems, but it shows up in other places too) that says "I don't know how to use this, so obviously it sucks." When you take the time to learn something different from what you are used to, even if the difference is subtle, you end up that much smarter. It's especially smart to be able to use a computer well almost regardless of its operating system. Also, different tools for different jobs. A lot of the computer games on the market are written for the Windows platform, so if that's all you're after and you don't care much for the things at which Windows isn't so good, then by all means, use Windows. Mac computers are often hailed as being good for design and creative work due to the software available for them in this area. If that's what you're after, go ahead and use a Mac. Linux is a great system for developers and people who run servers, and BSD is a tank when it comes to security. Don't just take what you're spoon-fed by software companies; go out and give all the different things available an honest try and see which is best for you--you may find something you like more than what you've got =P hi