The Mod Gods

Paid Indie dev coming to Wii...

2007-06-27T08:59:00.000-05:00

With all the gutsy browser-based games on the Wii - Nintendo sensibly decided to monetize the trend. WiiWare - it's like the virtual console except the games are made by kids instead of by dead men. However that sounds - it is wonderful news and a reversal of Nintendo's stated position on the matter.

Naughtiness on the DS

2007-05-07T09:59:00.000-05:00

A safe-for-work look at homebrew games for the DS that fall squarely in the NSFW category... unless perhaps you're at work in a locked bathroom stall. Hey - the DS does encourage touching.

Don't judge me. Don't you dare judge me.

Via DSFanboy

Wireless/Wii Hack for SNES and NES Controllers

2007-05-01T10:36:00.000-05:00

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

WARNING: Opening your original NES controller to insert, among other things, a TXC1 ASK transmitter module (Cost $10) will void your Nintendo Entertainment System warranty!

TURN BACK NOW!

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!javascript:void(0)
Publish

Metaversatile. Linden Labs gets it right....

2007-04-19T15:54:00.000-05:00

Second Life keeps getting smarter and smarter. They're the front runners in the race to build the immersive Internet of the future - you know, the one with goggles and gloves? The one where you make out with flying geometry?

Anyway - they're getting closer to that Internet all the time - and here they are talking about their newest improvements to make that possible....

• We’ll be open-sourcing the back end so sims can run anywhere on any machine whether trusted by us or not.
• We’ll be delivering assets in a totally different method that won’t be such a burden on the simulators.
• Very soon we’ll be updating simulators to support multiple versions so that we don’t have to update the entire Grid at once.
• We’ll be using open protocols.
• SL cannot truly succeed as long as one company controls the Grid.

Read the rest on 3pointd

Overclock your DS lite tutorial

2007-04-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

You'll need to have the GBaccelerator DS overclocking chip to start - but check it out anyway for the pretty page design and lush pics of your overclocked onyx lover without her case on.

Smutty.

Opera Wiiquests: Wii have overcome....

2007-04-13T14:36:00.000-05:00

The updated Opera browser is now available for download and we did in fact get quite a few of our requests fulfilled....

1) Multiplayer Browsing
The first quasi-concession. We didn't get full proper multiplayer browsing (which, I agree has its ticklish aspects) but we did get floating hands. Each wiimote now controls a floating hand to point with while only the dominant wiimote can click. Not amazing. Not bad.

2) For God's sake: use the d-pad as back/forward & scrollup/scrolldown.

A win. We got exactly that - and we got hardware button based BACK/FORWARD. Follow the link to get the dirt on all the new shortcut keys on your Wiimote.

3) Autohide the taskbar

I actually don't know if we got this or not. Anyone?

N64 Emulator for PSP

2007-04-02T10:11:00.000-05:00

PSP homebrewmeister StrmnNrmn released the newest fixes for his Nintendo 64 emulator Daedelus. Basically: if you've got a PSP with firmware 1.0 or 1.50 - you've got a Ocarina. What's an Ocarina? Well - its for time. Not neccesarily for time as of time. Y'know? It's hard to explain. Anyway - they're great.

DS Browser: I got good news, and bad news....

2007-03-08T12:35:00.000-05:00

Good news? It's finally coming. We'll see it in June. Price unknown - probably around $50.

Bad news? It has no support for Flash, video, sound or PDF. What a kick in the dick - what the hell CAN you use the browser for? Will I buy it? Certainly. But I'm not going to like it.

For now: DS Linux has a browser. Any other contenders want to take up the mantle of the single most important app any wi-nabled device can have?

$40 Micro SD Card adapter for DS

2007-03-05T08:06:00.000-05:00

Inexpensive, bundled with games, and an 128Mg memory card: this device represents the first mass market homebrew product for the DS. The kind of product you could imagine sliding off a clamshell rack at a Minneapolis-area Super Target.

This is a tech product so significant to the wider community of tech wonks that it made it onto Slashdot this weekend. Sure - we don't always get the biggest scoops on Sunday - but I prefer to think that they couldn't wait until Monday to share the big news!

Via DSEmu

UPDATE:

I see that the manufacturer of the DS homebrew tool is the same maker of the homebrew Wii (Gamecube functionality) launcher kit. Datel is gunning for Nintendo - are they agents of Wario? Almost certainly yes.

Wiicade develops Wiimote API for Flash

2007-03-01T12:10:00.000-05:00

What does it mean for homebrewers and independent developers? It means that you don't need Nintendo's permissions to build Virtual Console style games for use on the Wii. What does it mean for Wii-tards? FREE GAMES!

[Wiicade's] new Application Programmer Interface allows Flash developers to easily make use of every button on the Wiimote in their Flash games, even allowing multiple simultaneous button presses while the pointer is in use.

From WiiFanBoy

DIY Modchips: now we're talking.....

2007-02-28T15:06:00.000-05:00

For the Wii....

The Wiip is going to be available for a mere $20 retail (and that includes shipping!) and will appear in their online shop around 2/27/07.

Also, the schematics, code, and software will be available so you can make one yourself for less than $10!

From WiiHacks

Homebrew Quake for DS Pre Release Available NOW!

2007-02-19T11:23:00.000-05:00

Horseshoes and Handgrenades....

2007-02-15T16:40:00.000-05:00

Looks like someone's jockeying to knock that Rbt. Williams quote out of our logotype...

Stop buying this crap. Just stop it. You don't need it. Wait a year until the reviews come out and the other suckers too addicted to having the very latest and greatest buy it, put up a review, and have moved on to something else. Stop buying broken products and then shrugging your shoulders when it doesn't do what it is supposed to. Stop buying products that serve any other master than you. Use older stuff that works. Make it yourself. Only buy new stuff from companies that have proven themselves good servants of their customers in the past. Complaining online about this stuff helps, but really, just stop buying it.

...and:

If you write like another stupid fanboy who ricochets a pillar of spunk off the roof of his gaping mouth just because something is glossy and uses electricity, you're just doing the work of the companies trying to get rich selling us broken promises.

From Gizmodo.

Waterproof iPod Shuffle retrofit....

2007-02-12T18:07:00.000-05:00

Got an email from a cool company that buys 2nd Generation iPod Shuffles - waterproofs the insides - and resells them to the public. Haven't tried the product myself, but the concept is... sound... (gulp) and the 1 year warranty puts money where mouth is.

Anyone try it and want to submit a review?

New DS copy protection?

2007-02-11T15:07:00.000-05:00

"...a new type of protection was found in the commercial DS game cart Jet Impulse/DS Air. We don't know exactly the differences with previous hardware yet, but this game cannot be dumped with the usual methods. "

-From GBATemp.net

This may mean additional difficulties for DS owners wishing to backup their legally acquired game cartridges. Pity - lord knows these dutiful dopes have it harder than anyone. Lay off, Nintendo - can't you see they're hurting?

Launch day = chipped. New Years day = bricked.

2007-02-07T12:50:00.000-05:00

From Engadget...

Wiinja, CycloWiz and WiiKey chips all fail to work with Wiis running the D2B Panasonic chipset, which shows up in certain Wiis, mostly ones purchased in late January / early February. The only way to check for the chipset is to pry open the Wii and look for yourself, and the incompatibility means that even the DVD upgradability won't allow current modchips to run on these systems.

That's right - only the very oldest batch of Wii will work with the freshman suite of mod chips. Our prayers go out to all you intrepid early mod adopter that have payed the ultimate price.

Open Sim: a simple open.

2007-02-06T16:12:00.000-05:00

It was only a matter of time.

When Metaverse-in-a-teacup: Second Life recently went open source the obvious killer app was a local version of the Second Life "sim". A pocket version of a single Second Life island running on your servers (instead of Linden Labs') would enable safe world-building and could eventually make possible a decentralized grid of simulators mirroring and interchangeable with the existing web. Imagine it: a free 3D gamespace as media-rich as Second Life - as a virulent as blogs.

We've now got our first serious contender in Open Sim . And Second Life insider reports that it's also pretty easy to get started. Check it out, and consider lending your considerable talents to make the Metaverse a reality.

Comic Book DS 2.0 Final posts....

2007-02-05T13:29:00.000-05:00

Version 2 of the cool Comic-book viewer for the DS was released today.No word yet on whether DS-Xtreme owners get their fix.

M3 DS Simply reviewed....

2007-02-05T13:06:00.000-05:00

M3 DS Simply is a writable DS card available for $45. Cheaper than the next competing product: DS-Xtreme, but requiring a separate micro-SD card for file storage.

Wii modchip reviewed....

2007-01-31T15:30:00.001-05:00

Running homebrew and emulators on the Wii tutorial....

2007-01-31T14:19:00.000-05:00

A good tutorial for getting your fix without a Wii modchip that's sure to be patched over by Nintendo while you sleep.

Via DCemu

First Wii Modchip? The WiiNJA

2007-01-26T11:39:00.000-05:00

F ake until proven otherwise. Preorder here.

...But consider this - now that every updated Wii has a News Channel dumping only the propagandistic Associated Press news into your home - your helpless Wii has never been more deserving of a mercy bricking.

Grand Theft Auto jacks cops, hookers, PSP firmware...

2007-01-26T11:27:00.000-05:00

Famed PSP hacker Fanjita has taught an old crack a new trick as the Grand Theft Auto saved game exploit has once again brought Sony's PSP security measures to its knees, enabling any and all firmware versions to run homebrew applications.

Via Joystiq

Comic Book DS versions up!

2007-01-25T15:17:00.000-05:00

This really exquisite little homebrew app for the DS lets you take your comic books with you and the new version posted just this week!

The 2 part application comes with 1) a converter that lets you take your archived comics in .CBR format and convert them into DS format, and 2) a DS player for reading these newly converted files with sufficient control to manage even the biggest and most non-standard book sizes.

There exists a booming comics-trading community and a stellar way to get current on an unfamiliar comic storyline is to find a torrent with the collected. Now that there's a way to make that portable without the risk of bending up that near-mint ish we're near - so very near to having a feasible form of portable digital comics.

When I get the newest version running on my own DS - I'll pass along impressions.

UPDATE:

Turns out that my card, DS-X, will occasionally have problems with this app - as chronicled here, so the review will need to wait.

...But

That shouldn't stop you from bulking up on digitized comics. Try Demonoid.com for comics torrents and stay current with their crucial comic torrents RSS feed.

Nintendo cracking down on bittorrents.

2007-01-24T15:07:00.000-05:00

I know that nobody reading this site has any idea what a ROM is or precisely how to play unsanctioned software on a device - but the time may be coming where you'll be required to demonstrate that you've purchased Nintendo DS Games 1-500 and then some time later 500-780. Did you keep your receipts for all those (U), (Eu) and (J) titles?