So far we have made available the following documentaries, so head on over and enlighten yourself:
BBS: The Documentary (if you are unfamiliar with BBSes and want to know what people did before the Internet, check this out!)
Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist: Addendum
Also, we have launced a review website for games, movies and other cool stuff called Moon Books Magazine, we know it’s not very original, but it works… :p
]]>So far we have made available the following documentaries, so head on over and enlighten yourself:
BBS: The Documentary (if you are unfamiliar with BBSes and want to know what people did before the Internet, check this out!)
Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist: Addendum
Also, we have launced a review website for games, movies and other cool stuff called Moon Books Magazine, we know it’s not very original, but it works… :p
]]>libnds 1.4.4
Refactored and improved eeprom detection code.
changed timerStop() to clear the entire register and an internal variable.
added timerTick(), timerPause(), timerStop(), timerUnpause() and cpuGetTiming() functions.
fixed overflow bug in timerElapsed.
restored stderr output on default console.
added oamClearSprite() to clear a single sprite.
corrected keyboard = symbol.
improved and extended doxygen documentation.
default arm7 0.5.13
recompiled with latest libraries.
nds-examples 20100724
updates for new libnds.
added several new timer examples.
With thanks to Vuurobin for his major contributions to this release.
]]>libnds 1.4.4
Refactored and improved eeprom detection code.
changed timerStop() to clear the entire register and an internal variable.
added timerTick(), timerPause(), timerStop(), timerUnpause() and cpuGetTiming() functions.
fixed overflow bug in timerElapsed.
restored stderr output on default console.
added oamClearSprite() to clear a single sprite.
corrected keyboard = symbol.
improved and extended doxygen documentation.
default arm7 0.5.13
recompiled with latest libraries.
nds-examples 20100724
updates for new libnds.
added several new timer examples.
With thanks to Vuurobin for his major contributions to this release.
]]>
For those not aware Angband is a dungeon-crawling roguelike computer game derived from Umoria. It is based on the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, in which Angband is the fortress of Morgoth.
FAangband is based on Oangband. Changes have been made principally with the intent of immersing the player in the world of Tolkien’s Silmarillion late in the First Age. While it is certainly not perfectly consistent (all the bad guys are still alive; all the good guys are dead, or at least have lost their best equipment), an attempt has been made to remove as many anachronisms as possible.
As well as the binaries for the NDS, source is also available for FAAngband, for homebrew coders to tinker with.
]]>For those not aware Angband is a dungeon-crawling roguelike computer game derived from Umoria. It is based on the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, in which Angband is the fortress of Morgoth.
FAangband is based on Oangband. Changes have been made principally with the intent of immersing the player in the world of Tolkien’s Silmarillion late in the First Age. While it is certainly not perfectly consistent (all the bad guys are still alive; all the good guys are dead, or at least have lost their best equipment), an attempt has been made to remove as many anachronisms as possible.
As well as the binaries for the NDS, source is also available for FAAngband, for homebrew coders to tinker with.
]]>Also available is the graphic novel version of Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now.
Download comics for the NDS and then download ComicBookDS to read the comics.
]]>Also available is the graphic novel version of Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now.
Download comics for the NDS and then download ComicBookDS to read the comics.
]]>Digging into our archives of public domain content, we have pulled out three Jack Nicholson films for your viewing enjoyment.
The Little Shop of Horrors – Albeit a small part as a masochistic dentist patient, the film itself is a classic.
The Terror – With such minds as Roger Corman and Francis Ford Coppola on this one it has to be good, right?
and
The Wild Ride – This one has the most Jack in it, as he has the main role, as a rebellious beatnik ne’er-do-well.
]]>Digging into our archives of public domain content, we have pulled out three Jack Nicholson films for your viewing enjoyment.
The Little Shop of Horrors – Albeit a small part as a masochistic dentist patient, the film itself is a classic.
The Terror – With such minds as Roger Corman and Francis Ford Coppola on this one it has to be good, right?
and
The Wild Ride – This one has the most Jack in it, as he has the main role, as a rebellious beatnik ne’er-do-well.
]]>
I have been hard at work on the latest and greatest version of Moon Books. For those not familiar with The Moon Books Project it is a website dedicated to bringing classic literature, films and other cool stuff freely to the Nintendo DS community, for use on the Nintendo DS.
We currently have a growing collection of homebrew, books, movies and even audio books and audio drama for download and use on the Nintendo DS via the Moon Shell homebrew application.
Head on over to Moon Books and enjoy some books by Mark Twain, Edgar Rice Burroughs or listen to the audio book of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. Maybe you would prefer to watch Night of the Living Dead or play Jeff Lait’s latest version of his roguelike Powder.
Oh, and our science fiction audio drama section is now in podcast format, for all of your podcatching fun!
]]>I have been hard at work on the latest and greatest version of Moon Books. For those not familiar with The Moon Books Project it is a website dedicated to bringing classic literature, films and other cool stuff freely to the Nintendo DS community, for use on the Nintendo DS.
We currently have a growing collection of homebrew, books, movies and even audio books and audio drama for download and use on the Nintendo DS via the Moon Shell homebrew application.
Head on over to Moon Books and enjoy some books by Mark Twain, Edgar Rice Burroughs or listen to the audio book of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. Maybe you would prefer to watch Night of the Living Dead or play Jeff Lait’s latest version of his roguelike Powder.
Oh, and our science fiction audio drama section is now in podcast format, for all of your podcatching fun!
]]>http://code.google.com/p/nitrotracker/
This doesn’t only mean people can have the source, but also that I’m opening up development to the community. Or, to put it a little differently: NitroTracker needs coders!
I think there’s a lot of benefits working on NitroTracker. I’ll give you some examples of what I like about it:
What I’m looking for are motivated people with good DS programming knowledge. Musical skills are a plus, but not required. Just check out the source (setup instructions here) and contact me if you’re interested. There’s really no commitment. You’re just part of the project and work on it whenever you feel like it.
Who’s in? :-)
Tob
]]>All example apps are now compatible with libnds 1.4.3 and devkitARM r30 (latest versions as of April 2010) and have been updated to the latest devkitpro nds templates. KaosDS, DS MIDI Keyboard and the OSC Example now use the default ARM7 binary, which means they are much less code now. Thanks to Wintermute who kindly provided patches to libdsmi and the OSC Example!
Have fun!
Tob
Graphics: 4
Sound: 4
Music: 4
Controls: 4
Network: 0
Fun: 4 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 29 / 40
Very nice work, an RTS is not a small endeavor and your game is playable if somewhat lacking in polish. The graphics
were a bit sparse but they worked. An amazing amount of room for improvement with a good start…I can see this game
actually being playable soon.
amazeds
Graphics: 5
Sound: 4
Music: 2
Controls: 4
Network: 0
Fun: 4 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 28 / 40
Was pretty fun, if only it had a goal and one more board/enemy type. The graphics were great if a bit glitchy at
the polygon seams.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 3
Music: 4
Controls: 3
Network: 0
Fun: 4.5 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 28 / 40
Very simple gameplay that turned out to be rather addictive…enough so that my 8 year old wanted it on his DS and my Mother-
in-law spent several minutes playing it. Good work.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 0
Music: 3
Controls: 3
Network: 0
Fun: 2 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 19 / 40
Comments: Cute little maze game with quality graphics and nice sound. Not terribly exciting
but well done for what it was.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 0
Music: 3
Controls: 3
Network: 0
Fun: 3 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 21 / 40
Graphics: 3
Sound: 2
Music: 2
Controls: 2
Network: 1
Fun: 2 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 19 / 40
Well..not much of a christmas trivia buff so didnt do all that hot. Seemed a bit buggy at times with the snow
ball animations rolling up/down the hill.
Graphics: 3
Sound: 0
Music: 0
Controls: 3
Network: 4
Fun: 0 x 2
Theme: 0
Total: 10 / 40
Not very wintery and not very gamey but pretty useful in and of itself…could not actually get it to connect
but probably an error on my part and did not try to hard since without a wintery theme or gameplay its pretty
difficult for an entry to compete.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 3
Music: 4
Controls: 4
Network: 0
Fun: 3 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 26 / 40
Pollished and interesting presentation, the gameplay was a bit challenging. It could have used an interactive
tutorial to demonstrait the purpose of each elemental power as i never quite go the hang of employing them.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 0
Music: 0
Controls: 4
Network: 0
Fun: 3 x 2
Theme: 4
Total: 15 / 40
Well, the wintery theme was a bit slapped on but the gameplay was pretty fun if a bit too hard to be engrosing.
The lack of sound and music really hurt you…and how hard would it have been to slap in a sleigh in instead of a
helicopter! :)
Graphics: 4
Sound: 4
Music: 4
Controls: 4
Network: 0
Fun: 4 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 29 / 40
Very nice work, an RTS is not a small endeavor and your game is playable if somewhat lacking in polish. The graphics
were a bit sparse but they worked. An amazing amount of room for improvement with a good start…I can see this game
actually being playable soon.
amazeds
Graphics: 5
Sound: 4
Music: 2
Controls: 4
Network: 0
Fun: 4 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 28 / 40
Was pretty fun, if only it had a goal and one more board/enemy type. The graphics were great if a bit glitchy at
the polygon seams.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 3
Music: 4
Controls: 3
Network: 0
Fun: 4.5 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 28 / 40
Very simple gameplay that turned out to be rather addictive…enough so that my 8 year old wanted it on his DS and my Mother-
in-law spent several minutes playing it. Good work.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 0
Music: 3
Controls: 3
Network: 0
Fun: 2 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 19 / 40
Comments: Cute little maze game with quality graphics and nice sound. Not terribly exciting
but well done for what it was.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 0
Music: 3
Controls: 3
Network: 0
Fun: 3 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 21 / 40
Graphics: 3
Sound: 2
Music: 2
Controls: 2
Network: 1
Fun: 2 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 19 / 40
Well..not much of a christmas trivia buff so didnt do all that hot. Seemed a bit buggy at times with the snow
ball animations rolling up/down the hill.
Graphics: 3
Sound: 0
Music: 0
Controls: 3
Network: 4
Fun: 0 x 2
Theme: 0
Total: 10 / 40
Not very wintery and not very gamey but pretty useful in and of itself…could not actually get it to connect
but probably an error on my part and did not try to hard since without a wintery theme or gameplay its pretty
difficult for an entry to compete.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 3
Music: 4
Controls: 4
Network: 0
Fun: 3 x 2
Theme: 5
Total: 26 / 40
Pollished and interesting presentation, the gameplay was a bit challenging. It could have used an interactive
tutorial to demonstrait the purpose of each elemental power as i never quite go the hang of employing them.
Graphics: 4
Sound: 0
Music: 0
Controls: 4
Network: 0
Fun: 3 x 2
Theme: 4
Total: 15 / 40
Well, the wintery theme was a bit slapped on but the gameplay was pretty fun if a bit too hard to be engrosing.
The lack of sound and music really hurt you…and how hard would it have been to slap in a sleigh in instead of a
helicopter! :)
devkitARM release 30
devkitPPC release 21
libogc 1.8.3
For information on creating and using portlibs see the wiki portlibs article. Ccfreak2k has also added an excellent GX primer article.
]]>devkitARM release 29
libfilesystem 0.9.6
libnds 1.4.3
default arm7 0.5.12
libnds 1.4.2
default arm7 0.5.11
nds examples 20100313
For problems, comments and support please use the forums and not the post comments.
devkitARM release 28
libnds 1.4.1
libfat 1.0.7
dswifi 0.3.12
libfilesystem 0.9.5
default_arm7 0.5.10
The program is available here.
Sample text files available here (place under /database/ on the root of your card and load the program).
For problems, comments and support please use the forums and not the post comments.
devkitARM release 27
libnds 1.4.0
dswifi 0.3.11
libfat 1.0.6
default arm7 0.5.8
libfilesystem 0.9.4
The provided examples for wii have also been updated with mp3 and ogg playback examples.
As usual these releases are available through the windows installer/updater. For other platforms see the getting started section of the wiki.
]]>devkitPPC release 19
libfat 1.0.6
devkitPPC release 18
libogc 1.8.0
libfat 1.0.5
With thanks to Tantric, Dhewg, Rodries and Shagkur for their contributions to these releases.
]]>It’s really worth checking out the top-20 list! There’s some great stuff in there:
]]>Passons.Il y a peut être un an, j’ai découvert les FPGA, grâce notamment à Pitt et Refix sur les forums Dev-FR et PlayerAdvance (sujet). Il s’agit (en gros) de “puces programmables”, mais pas au sens habituel : c’est à dire que ce ne sont pas des microprocesseurs : ce sont vraiment de gros circuits intégrés dont on peut programmer via ordinateur le comportement : cela permet de concevoir des circuits logiques. Bref, cela m’a paru comme un étage intermédiaire entre l’informatique (programmation, interface avec le PC) et l’électronique (circuit logique, etc). De plus, j’apprends qu’une boîte américaine, Digilent, en vend à prix plutôt bas par rapport au prix habituel de ces bestioles. Après avoir longuement hésité, je décide donc d’acheter une carte Nexys 2.
Je reçois la fameuse carte, je la branche, le “programme” de test préinstallé se lance, et tout fonctionne bien. Je reboote sous Windows, afin d’installer l’environnement de développement. Il s’agit en l’occurence du ISE de Xilinx. Après avoir durement combattu avec le site de Xilinx et le système de licenses (gratuites pourtant…) du logiciel, je réussis à télécharger un installateur. Lequel m’annonce qu’il y a un peu plus d’un gigaoctet de données à télécharger. Soit. Une fois le logiciel installé, je le démarre (c’est lent, mais mon ordinateur n’y est pas pour rien).
C’est parti ! Je recherche donc un cours sur le VHDL, puisqu’il s’agit du “langage” qui permet de spécifier le comportement d’un circuit logique. Le code écrit sera ensuite “compilé” (on dit “synthétisé” ici) puis transcrit en un fichier binaire qu’il suffira d’envoyer sur le FPGA (via le logiciel Windows “Impact” fourni par Digilent, j’y reviendrai après). Je ne raconterai pas tous les déboires qui s’ensuivirent. En effet, en vrac :
Je finis quand même par réussir à piloter les LEDs et l’afficheur 7-segments grâce aux boutons et aux interrupteurs. Youpi !
Après un long séjour dans le placard, je décide un jour de ressortir mon FPGA, et je me dis : “je vais voir si je peux le programmer avec Linux !” Quelle idée malheureux !
L’environnement de développement ISE est disponible pour Linux, mais évidemment, il faudra pour ça que j’affronte à nouveau le site de Xilinx (qui a bien sûr été modifié depuis !), et que je recharge le gigaoctet de logiciels. Bien. En tout cas, ISE fonctionne bien sous Linux, je peux synthétiser mon code et obtenir le fichier de programmation du FPGA. Reste le vrai problème : envoyer le programme sur le FPGA, via le port USB. En effet : le logiciel Impact de Digilent et propriétaire, et seulement pour Windows. Je me jette sur Google, et me voilà parti pour des heures à errer sur des forums, à lire des messages remplis de termes que je ne comprends pas, mais qui semblent parler du même matériel que moi. Je fini par abandonner, puis je réessaie quelques mois plus tard et … enfin je le trouve. Ce message. Le message du type génial qui dit à peu près cela : “Salut ! J’ai acheté ce matériel là l’autre jour, et ça ne marche pas sous Linux, alors j’ai vite fait bricolé un outil qui permet de le faire marcher, et je vous le file.” Vraiment, c’est pour ça que j’adore le monde du libre. Bref, le message est ici, et l’outil en question est là. Comme je suis content de l’avoir trouvé, je le mets en gros, voilà.
nexys2prog, l’outil pour prog la nexys2
Et ca marche diablement bien. Relativement simple à mettre en place (un petit paquet à installer, une lib à compiler, et puis il faut aussi s’autoriser un certain accès au périphérique USB), il est en tout cas très simple à utiliser : on lui file le fichier “.bit” à envoyer, et il programme le FPGA en quelques secondes !
Me revoilà donc aussi bien installé que sous Windows pour bricoler mon jouet. Je décide au passage de changer de langage pour programmer mon FPGA, et de passer à Verilog. Ce dernier, concurrent du VHDL, me semblait avoir une syntaxe plus claire, plus proche du C, et plus adapté à un débutant en provenance du monde de la programmation. J’ai bien fait, ce langage a jusqu’à maintenant été bien plus clément avec moi que VHDL. Peut-être parce que les cours qu’on trouve le concernant sont plus abordables (notamment celui-ci qui m’a bien aidé).
Pour l’occasion, je décide de fouiller dans mon tiroir à vieux composant, et j’exhume ainsi une vieille mémoire SRAM, qui devait servir pour le BIOS d’un bien vieux PC. Je trouve sur internet le “datasheet” associé (un pdf avec toutes les informations techniques), et je sors mon fer à souder. Quelques heures plus tard, tout fonctionnait : je pouvais lire et écrire dans la vénérable mémoire avec mon FPGA ! J’avais enfin fait “revivre” un de ces vieux composant électronique de mon tiroir.
Enfin, après un nouveau grand séjour au tiroir, j’ai ressorti mon FPGA avant-hier pour compenser une lacune de mon installation. En effet, sous Windows, je bénéficiai du logiciel “Export” de Digilent qui permettait de communiquer avec le FPGA via l’USB (et un peu plus, m’enfin bon). Rien de tel sous Linux. Comme j’ai un peu peur des interfaces USB, j’ai décidé de fouiller mon tiroire (encore lui !) pour trouver un bon vieux cable série (Null-Modem comme on disait dans le temps !) et connecter la carte à mon ordinateur. J’ai ensuite programmé en Verilog une interface permettant de gérer le port série (réception et émission), et voilà mon ordinateur et mon FPGA qui, après quelques couacs, se parlent ! C’est beau la technologie, et utile, en plus ! ^^ Enfin, maintenant, je peux envisager d’interfacer mon ordi avec tout un tas de trucs, via ce port série et le FPGA.
Voilà voilà… C’était mon article le plus long. Peut-être trop long d’ailleurs ?
With that out of the way the new DS/DSi flashcart iPlayer will be released worldwide on july 1st for more information visit the launch site to celebrat I’ve upped a very preliminary review of it so check that out here.
]]>It’s only a few days old so it’s missing a few things but hopefully it should be playable.
- Registered Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny builds are available
- Status bar on bottom screen
- (Hopefully) All 320×200 screens should be drawn properly rather than hacked into 256×192
- Basic sound effects, no music or item pickup sounds yet. I wasn’t happy using an opl emulator for those so I’ll use a more suitable format later.
- Saving/loading should be working properly now
Bugs and incomplete things:
- No left handed mode yet
- No automap
- On screen keyboard does not allow capital letters for some reason
- Demos do not play properly
Keys:
Move forward: Up arrow
Move back: Down arrow
Move left: Left arrow
Move right: Right arrow
Strafe left: L shoulder button
Strafe right: R shoulder button
Fire: A
Use: B
Run: Y
Change weapon: X
Pause: Start
Back to menu: Select
Menu OK/Y: A
Menu Cancel/N: B
Installation:
Put your data files in /data/wolf3d, it doesn’t matter where you put the executables though.
DLDI Patch for your device if you need to.
Notice:
The zip file contains 4 nds binaries:
wolf3d-ds_sdm.nds : Spear of Destiny demo
wolf3d-ds_sod.nds: Spear of Destiny registered
wolf3d-ds_wl1.nds: Wolfenstein 3D shareware
wolf3d-ds_wl6.nds: Wolfenstein 3D registered
Another way of looking at it is the _xxx binary goes with the extension of your data files.
]]>
TheRain has released the first version of the DSMI library for the iPhone! This library enables iPhone developers to create wireless MIDI controllers like xy-controllers, drum pads or keyboards! The iPhone applications can talk to any MIDI software on your computer through the DSMI server, making your iPhone a full-blown MIDI instrument! libDSMI for iPhone is available from the downloads page.
MIDI Motion Machine
TheRain has also released an exciting new app called MIDI Motion Machine, a tilt-based MIDI controller including 16 note trigger pads. The source code of a reduced free version of this app is available from the DSMI SVN. This should help you get started writing your own iPhone MIDI apps in no time!
You can get the commercial full application and the reduced free version (out soon) form the Apple AppStore. For more information on MIDI Motion Machine, check out the official site.
To make collaboration easier, I set up a Google Code project for DSMI, which is now the official place to download the library and applications. Google Code features a nice source browser so you can check out the source code more easily. Also, there is an issue tracker that you can use to inform us of bugs.
One more thing: Collin Meyer has ported DSMI to the iPhone and released the first DSMI-enabled iPhone application! iXY is a Kaoss Pad style MIDI controller that lets you control your synth parameters or light effects with the touch of your fingers. iXY is available from the App Store for 99US cent / 79EUR cent. The library itself is work in progress and will be released soon, so everyone can write MIDI-enabled iPhone apps!
It turns out DSMI keeps facing trouble regarding its name. It first started off as DSMIDIWiFi. After I added hardware MIDI support through the DSerial, the “WiFi” part of the name was no longer appropriate, so I changed the name to DSMI. I didn’t call it DSMIDI in order to avoid the name collision with Collin’s DSMIDI hardware hack. It turned out this was the right choice, because fishuyo came along and added OSC support which would have made the MIDI part of the name inappropriate anyway. Now that Collin has ported DSMI to the iPhone, the DS part of the name would have to go. Nevertheless, we decided on keeping the name in order to avoid confusion. If anyone has an idea for a new meaning of the DSMI acronym, please let us know :-)
]]>OSC is an emerging standard for exchanging music control signals that is much more flexible and modern than MIDI. For example, OSC can directly communicate via network, so the PC-side DSMI server is not required.
fishuyo also made a nice demo of the new OSC capabilities with a Kaoss pad and sliders. It comes with a pd patch that is a nice little synth. Check out the demo’s source code! OSC is really easy to add to your application. And it’s the future! So, get libdsmi v3.0 now!
]]>Blogging continues at http://malcolmparsons.blogspot.com/
]]>jEnesisDS is a more recently updated Genesis emulator for the DS, with sound emulation and other features.
]]>I do not get motion sickness in cars, trains, buses, planes, pirate ships, waltzers or roller coasters.
I do get motion sickness on boats.
]]>
Je me suis enfin décidé à finaliser cette nouvelle version de Lapinou. Amusez-vous bien (ou pas), et n’hésitez pas à me rapporter tous les bugs que vous pourriez trouver, à me faire part de vos impressions, et à me proposer des améliorations. Vous pouvez dès maintenant télécharger Lapinou !
Site officiel de Lapinou: http://thoduv.drunkencoders.com/lapinou
Nouveautés:
- 21 Juillet 2008:
[VERSION 1.2] Un gros gros paquet de nouveautés, de nettoyages de code, de correction de bugs ! Le nouveau Lapinou est là ! Maheureusement, il faudra surement attendre pas mal de temps la prochaine, si jamais il y en a une.
* Ajout d’un bloc aide, placé au début du jeu, pour expliquer un peu ce qu’il faut faire (pour les gens qui n’auraient pas envie de lire le LISEZMOI !)
* Ajout d’un bloc secret, qui coûte très cher, mais qui permet d’obtenir… un secret !
* Meilleure protection contre la triche !
* Petite musique (héhé) et animation pour ceux qui arrivent à finir le jeu !
* Menu permettant d’acheter des blocs. Début d’intégration d’un système “modulaire” pour la boucle principale.
* Modification du tri des polygones translucides pour corriger des bugs de transparence.
* Mode veille quand on ferme la DS.
* Passage à ASlib pour le son, ca m’évite tout plein d’ennuis avec mon propre lecteur MP3 qui n’en fait qu’à sa tête.
* Grosse modification du menu principal. Le code est toujours crade, mais c’est plus joli !
* Modification de la force de gravité (plus “réelle” et avec un “flottement” pour les objets très légers)… … En fait non, ca a l’air de casser le gameplay…
* Système de sauvegardes qui fonctionne (bloc “nds”). Fichier de scores/sauvegarde renommé en “lapinou.sav”.
* Envoi des scores sur internet direct de la DS.
* Ajout bloc “slide” et “nds”.
* Blocs qui tombent sont solides, et se brisent à l’atterissage.
* Ajout d’un petit système de particules (moches pour l’instant).
* Petites améliorations au système de vthreads: possibilité d’arrêter un thread gentiment, et de lancer des threads en cascade (à l’intérieur d’autres threads). Ajout de plein d’effets sur les menus.
* Support ADPCM, et passage de tous les sons en ADPCM = gain de place dans la ROM (200ko gagnés).
* Fond moins monotone (change selon la hauteur).
* Système plus solide d’IPC (InterProcessor Communication) “lapinou-ipc”.
* Système d’abstraction “lapinou-io” pour les fichiers.
* Collisions objets-objets.
* Nettoyage du code (particulièrement boucle principale).
Note to english peoples: The site and the game are in french only, but I think it’s playable even without understanding what is written. If you don’t understand how something works, you can contact me for an explanation.
]]>NitroTracker v0.4 is finally here!
The main new features are:
Minor improvements:
Read the full story here!
]]>
I am pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to get started with coding for the Wii! As a first little project, I ported the Box2D physics engine and made a little demo app called Box2DBalls (source included).
I think the Wiimote and Box2D play together very well. There are a lot of possibilities for fun 2D physics games, so go make some! :)
Box2DBalls comes with source code. Check the Readme for instructions on compiling Box2D for Wii. It’s dead simple!
]]>Due to a change in the MySql from my provider, Wordexpress was not working correctly since some months. I was hoping that the bug will get fix itself but it seems I needed to upgrade Wordexpres. Anyway it seems ok now…
]]>edit: should be finished now
R3: New features added by Ole:
This is quite interesting if it is able to run some MIDP-compliant games, but we’ll need to do some testing to see how the speed compares to your average mobile phone.
UPDATE: He’s made a few more updates since I originally made this post. Be sure to check out ole’s site for the latest info and download links.
]]>Anyway, the Opti compo is still going along, but it’s getting close to the end – right now there are 11 days before the compo ends. I’m adding this informational post to remind people and also to alert people to a new revision of the test system, better rules for whether an entry will be accepted or not, and various other things. I’ll reiterate the important parts on the competition page.
Firstly, the test system update: this update will probably be the final update of the test system code for this competition. Unfortunately I didn’t get all the stuff I wanted in it, I’ve been short on time and have had more than enough stress to go around :) So, this update does not contain the statistical time-sampling profiler that I wanted to add to the test app. It also doesn’t include a fractal explorer section which I had wanted to add. But on to the features that I did get around to adding: There is now a new default test set of 6 tests, they zoom in quickly on a specific point in the fractal, and are pretty complex areas to render (the number for max_iterations on the 6th image is 1400, and the horizontal and vertical steps are in units of 2^-44). I’ve included a modified example that is designed to serve as a lower bound for correctness – passing implementations should have a smaller amount of error than the lower bound. I don’t think this will be too hard, the lower bound currently exists as a modification to the multiply code that loses 3.5 bits of precision with each multiply. This actually caused less difference from the reference implementation than I had thought; currently across the 6 tests, there is a total difference of 7044 iteration counts, notably the 6 tests render a total of 147456 pixels, so this value is really barely even noticeable.
There was also a bug in the test app that caused it to only display the last test’s cycle count rather than the sum of all of them, this has also been fixed, and (in no$) the cycle count for the “lower bound” test is 0x0004CC483E1E cycles – which is 307 seconds of cputime, about 5 minutes. As the default test behavior also runs the example code alongside it, this means a test run of the lower bound takes about 10 minutes; not very good for repeated testing. I’ve added a way to start the tests without checking them, by pressing start instead of A, so the code execution time you have to sit through is purely your own fault ;) It will be pretty obvious if there are big errors, but it will still take a long time to check results against the reference function.
Ok, that’s all I have for now; I’ve been working on my own implementation just lately in assembly, but I really have no idea how well it will perform just yet. I’ll post some numbers in the comments on the Opti site once I get them.
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Just a tiny update to my homebrew mandelbrot browser for Nintendo DS. This version merely adds DLDI-support, meaning you should be able to save screenshots as .PNG from pretty much any flashcart. Check the previous post for screenshots, more info, etc. To the right is an actual image saved from the program.
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Even if you don’t have Pocket Physics, do check out the site. Thanks a lot to Sh4wn and emeric for their efforts!
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libntxm is now used as part of NitroTracker instead of being just a stripped down version of the NitroTracker arm7 code. Also, libntxm is now hosted on Google Code and has an SVN repository there. So, you can now easily add new features to libntxm, and I can integrate them into NitroTracker just via a simple “svn up”.
libntxm project page on Google Code
Currently, I’m searching for someone who wants to implement support for loading / saving new file formats like .it, .s3m, etc. Also, .wav saving and .xi loading / saving would be useful. If you want to help out, please contact me!
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Since I’m not going to do any further development on this (for various reasons), I have decided to release libellen - a sprite handling library for the Nintendo DS, based on libnds.
The library is released under the terms of the WTFPL.
The source and "example" are super documented, and evena Doxyfile is attached if you want to create documentations.
The library was tested and compiled using devkitARM r21 with god-knows-what libnds version. If you find incompatibilities, I’ll be happy if YOU would fix them.
Have fun and happy coding!
For those who are intrigued by the name - lib-ell-en (L - N, my name’s initials) could also be read as libellen - dutch for "Dragonfly" which is what the logo is based on. For those who wonder, the logo is also released under the terms of the WTFPL.
Some history:
libellen was first made as the low-level library for ToD2, but was quickly got good enough to be expended. My second goal was also to get people to stop using PAlib, an old, slow and deprecated library which people insisted on using. The library was not complete, but the sprite handling was. after more then 6 months of inactivity, I have decided to release the library to just handle sprites.
Source could be downloaded from HERE.
]]>Although the competition technically started a day and a half ago, I haven’t posted it yet because I didn’t have the test package ready, but is ready and posted now.
So, it is with great anticipation that I submit it to you, for review: Opti’s First Competition
Anticipation like, waiting for a pie to hit me in the face, or be run over by a car, or something similar ;) I do however want to see what level of interest there is, and try to make this into something that more people will be more seriously interested in next time (I am highly curious about how many people will be interested this first time) – So, to that end I am very interested in any sort of feedback. Anyway – That’s all I want to say for now, I’ll shut up before I ramble on about it for a very long time; Thanks for looking :)
]]>No word on when this will see a public release.
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You can run up to System 7.5.5, but don’t.
It’s very slow at 1X speed on the PC version, the DS
port which runs at 1/2 to 1/4 speed is just unbearable.
Not to mention that if you use the 2.5MB build you will only
have 1MB of free memory once the OS has finished loading.
So basically, stick with 6.0.8.
]]>This mini tutorial will show you how to download Macintosh
files on a PC and extract them under Mini vMac.
Before you begin you must have:
1) PC Version of Mini vMac
2) HFV Explorer
2) Bootable system disk
3) Stuffit Expander installed on your system disk
Here we go:
Step 1) Download your application
Step 2) Open your disk image in HFV Explorer
Step 3)
Drag your application onto your mac hard disk.
When the “Select copy mode” dialog comes up select
“Raw copy, data fork” from the drop-down list and press ok.
Step 4) Run Mini vMac and boot with your system disk.
Step 5) Run Stuffit Expander, select your archive and extract it.
It also doesn’t help that some of the utilities used are becoming more and more rare.
This mini tutorial assumes that you have a bootable hard disk image already prepared and have the PC version of Mini vMac ready to go.
1) Get HFV Explorer (Click Mac EMU Tools link)
2) Get and extract binUnpk
3) Get stuffit_expander_40.bin
4) Run HFV Explorer and open up your hard disk image.
Next, browse to where you downloaded stuffit_expander_40.bin.
Drag stuffit_expander_40.bin onto your disk. (on the left)
A window will appear titled “Select copy mode”.
From the drop-down list select “Raw copy, data fork” and press OK.
Exit HFV Explorer.
5) Run the PC version of Mini vMac and start up using your bootable
hard disk image.
Now, drag binunpk-1.0.1.dsk into the Mini vMac window.
Run the binunpk application and select File->Open from the menu.
Click the “Drive” button until your hard drive shows up above the
“Eject” button.
Double-click stuffit_expander_40.bin and extract it anywhere on
your system drive.
Exit binunpk.
You will notice a new application called “Stuffit Expander 401 Installer”,
double click the installer application and follow it’s instructions.
6) Installation complete!
Delete the installation files and shut down Mini vMac.
Source code available on request.
This should work with most homebrew devices, I cannot guarantee
all of them since a few have broken DLDI drivers.
You can test your driver by following the instructions here:
http://dldi.drunkencoders.com/index.php?title=Testing_instructions
Thanks to everyone who helped me out with this, it’s been such
a long time though I don’t remember everyone.
If you did help out in some way please comment or email me
so I can update the post/zip with a list of credits.
About documentation:
If you sent in documentation but it’s not in the zip there
is a good chance I lost it.
Please re-send it so I can update the zip file.
Thanks to: (List incomplete)
Tripsk8er333 (Mac6onDS)
Tux Droid ONLY works on systems running Linux, NOT Windows PCs or Macintoshes.
]]>The project is hosted on the Japanese Source forge and bottom of the page says "Copyright © 2006, 2007 Nintendo Co,. Ltd.", although the license are fully free to change/distribute…
“We propose an extensible component operating system architecture in which an operating system kernel uses reflection to process C++ pure virtual function based system calls and upcalls to provide a unified programming environment for application, server, and kernel development. We found that we could even develop file subsystems and a TCP/IP protocol stack on an existing operating system based on this architecture.”
ES seem to use Squeak and SmallTalk as environment. The page and documentations (PDF) are in Japanese, which I cannot read.
I hope this will be more then just "Research" operating system and Nintendo might give opportunity to homebrew developers like Sony is
(kinda) doing with the "Install OS" on the PS3.
The ES Operating system (Google Translated version)
Edit: The page is now hosted on GoogleCode, and there isn’t any mention of Nintendo…
For those who are interested, the new page is http://code.google.com/p/es-operating-system/
Now, I’ll take a few moments to relate some of the things that are going on in my life at the moment; as you might have noticed my online presence has been rather very thin, and my projects have been crawling along, if that – and this isn’t just for the projects that are public, even the private ones are not moving much… The culprit I’ve decided is stress, it’s the only logical cause I can come up with.
To that end, I’ve decided to quit my current job – I’ll be working for the next 2 weeks and then I’ve arranged to quit. At that point I’ll probably get some rest for a week or 2, I’m planning to visit some relatives and then I’ll devote some time to getting my currently idling projects done.
I hope I can get the optimisation contest site running in the next week or 2. January though will bring work on the nds_test_apps, probably dstunnel (due to popular demand), and some other things I haven’t figured out the order of yet. So, onwards! We will see what the future brings.
]]>freetype-2.3.5-nds-dka-r21.zip (1.2MB)
It’s been compiled with devKitARM r21, no guarantees it will work with any later/earlier version. In fact, no guarantees it will work at all, I haven’t actually tested it…but it compiles without any errors. I had to disable two checks in in the configure script, because it kept getting confused when I told it to compile for arm-eabi.
If anyone uses this, would be nice to know, drop me a line in the comment section.
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I’ve uploaded a new batch of DS demos that are free to download. I’ve put them on a new page, separate from the old one, so it’s easy to see the new ones. There are a bunch of fun looking ones, be sure to check them out!
]]>The change log is as follows:
general:
-Fixed possible segfault in ROMReader on ia64 and amd64. [evilynux]
-Fixed a crash bug with 2D background corrupting memory [shash]
-Flag check optimization [carlo_bramini]
windows port:
-DirectInput control interface with joystick support [CrazyMax aka mtabachenko]
-Matrix and Light viewer [Acid Burn]
-Cheat finder and basic cheat support [Normmatt]
-Menu reorganization [Normmatt]
-More Languages supported [Normmatt]
-Added OAM layer toggle [Normmatt]
-Misc bug fixes in the windows port [Normmatt]
Download (NOTE: this is an alpha and there will be bugs)
Source code
Cheat support is very basic it only supports single line cheats and only those which are ether 8bit/16bit/32bit writes but it can be helpful in some case.
An example of an acceptable cheat is:
description = 999 Coins
code = 021336FC:0000270F
both sides of the code must be 32bit or else it wont work and might crash the program
Other people can check this release too, it reduces the battery consumption and includes a button to hide the GUI.
http://snemul.com/ds/SNEmulDS06-WIP2.zip
Off-topic :
I want to wish luck for a new project made by friends : a new way of paying for creators, PEPITA !
A digital store where you can sell your music, artworks, pictures and software. You can even include creations of others!
I included my store here, and you can donate for SNEmulDS this way instead of paypal 
I’m releasing this test build of the Spear of Destiny demo mainly test MP3 playback and find some hidden bugs that may be lurking around somewhere.
Known issues:
1) Scaled screens flicker every second or so
2) Saving/loading large files will cause MP3 playback to break up
3) Demos do not play properly
4) Keys are not yet configurable
Don’t worry about #2, if you save and the mp3 playback starts to break up just go back into your game and it should restart normally.
Keys:
Turn left: DPAD Left
Turn right: DPAD Right
Forward: DPAD Up
Backward: DPAD Down
Strafe Left: L Shoulder
Strafe Right: R Shoulder
Shoot: A
Use: B
Next Weapon: X
Run: Y
Installation:
Copy the wolf3d folder into the root of your media card, run.
Unfortunately there will be no source release until everything is ready.
However, the ARM7 MP3 player source is available. I’m not 100% happy with how I did things but it seems to work fine.
NOTICE:
This game WILL FAIL if your DS homebrew device does not support unaligned reads!
EDIT:
By unaligned reads I mean a broken DLDI driver, to test your driver check out this site: http://dldi.drunkencoders.com/index.php?title=Testing_instructions
Game files:
http://rapidshare.com/files/67764655/speardemo-mp3testrelease.zip.html
ARM7 Binary source:
http://rapidshare.com/files/67935995/7mp3play-src.tar.bz2.html
Please report any bugs to: the_lazy_one_09[__at__]hotmail.com
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Just a change from DS projects 
The project du jour is, however, the NDS test apps project. It is a prerequisite for some other fun things I’d like to do, and it’s also very useful to the community (if I do say so myself) – I’ve set up a new IRC channel for it – on irc.blitzed.org channel #nds_test_apps – feel free to join if you’re interested, have suggestions, want to code for the project, etc. I’m still not entirely sure where these projects are really going to go, but I’d like to get a few of them done if possible, and I really don’t mind the help from interested parties!
]]>The GUI artworks are not ready, so you have a “naked” and not very pretty GUI, but at least, you have the multi languages support!
You can check if your language is correct.
You can choose one of the language in the firmware or some language by editing the snemul.cfg :
# Language of GUI
# -1 -> Use firmware settings
Firmware languages:
# 0 -> Japanese (Katakana only)
# 1 -> English
# 2 -> French
# 3 -> German
# 4 -> Italian
# 5 -> Spanish
Non firmware languages:
# 106 -> Portuguese
# 107 -> Catalan
# 108 -> Polish
# 109 -> Dutch
# 110 -> Danish
Various External RAM packages can be used to improve large rom emulation, see snemul.cfg for more informations.
Scaling support has three modes :
- Full screen : nearly like snezzids
- Half scaling : “smart” scaling, only reduce half the backgrounds, and doesn’t squish sprites. It looks quite fine in games.
- No scaling : no scaling at all, classic SNEmulDS mode, still default
Here is the complete list of changes compated to 0.5 beta:
- New GUI using framebuffer for sub screen
- Better human interface, improved file selector (alphabetical sorted), buttons, check boxes, multi choose zones, etc.
- New GUI supports joypad (joypad is not supported when emulator is running however).
- Multi language support (more than 10 supported, including katakan japanese !)
- Memory pak support (Opera RAM, Slot 2 card reader, etc. using libram) with paging or with large ROM mapping
- Scaling with pseudo bi-linear filtering and sprites squishing : full screen scaling (like snezzids), half scaling (half scaled and without sprites squishing), and no scaling (classic snemulds mode)
- Autiomatic SRAM saving when needed
- Some other bugfixes and improvements in GUI
The tools to extract and convert the music will be released very shortly, there is one bug on PowerPC platforms that is causing the delay though.
There are a few more glitches for me to work out but soon I will release a test mp3 player and one track from the shareware wolf3d for people to test out.
I just want to make sure there will be no problems with playback on most devices.
Keep in mind that there is a lot more work to do on the port itself since a lot of changes were lost in the weird project folder disappearance incident.
Once I can verify that MP3 will work for everyone you can be assured that work on this port will go VERY fast.
Après avoir essayé de programmer NES, j’ai trouvé que c’était pénible, principalement à cause du processeur 8 bits et du PPU (Processeur d’image) limité et difficile à manipuler.
La semaine dernière, j’ai donc voulu essayer de programmer sur cette console de légende qu’est la Super Nintendo. Les spécifications techniques (voir article Wikipedia) m’avaient toujours donné envie, mais j’avais été rebuté par le fait qu’il faille programmer en assembleur, et par la réputation qu’a la SNES d’une console difficile à programmer. Et quelle bonne surprise ! La Super Nintendo (SNES) est vraiment une console sympa à programmer:
Il s’agit donc véritablement d’une bonne console, et après m’être amusé avec, je comprends mieux pourquoi on y trouve d’aussi nombreux jeux, et pourquoi certains se sont hissé au rang de légende.
Néanmoins, il reste des points négatifs, qui ralentissent nettement le développement:
Si vous aimez programmer en assembleur, sur de “vieux” systèmes, je vous conseille vraiment la Super Nintendo.
Liens dont je me suis servi (tout est en anglais):
Voilà voilà ! 
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The new version of SNEmulDS 0.6 comes closer… The new GUI is nearly finished and is being integrated to the main core. I’m waiting for artworks from my friend to complete the GUI design.
A new feature of the next release will be multi-language support. For the moment, the language setting is read from the DS firmware, and the charset used is ANSI Western occidental (Windows-1252) so the translation is limited to : English, French, German, Spanish, and Italiano. But in future, Japanese and other language will be included.
TRANSLATION PROCESS CLOSED!
TRANSLATION PROCESS CLOSED!
All language has been translated already ! Thanks to all who contributed!
Others languagues are welcomed to, but will be not included in next release. Don’t hurry to send new translations because i will not spend much time on translations now.
If you are interested in translating SNEmulDS, this is very simple.
Here are the current files containing the string ressources.
If you want to helop, You just have to translate strings, without changing anything else.
First people to translate his language will be included in credits 
To give your translation, send me a mail (archeide at yahoo.com) or post in this forum :
http://boards.pocketheaven.com/viewtopic.php?t=6017
As I’m french, the french version should be the main source. If you can find better translation for english, tell me!
Thanks,
Archeide
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There are limited restrictions on the style of blogs, just make sure they are interesting. 
Please note: Most of the blogs hosted here are development/Dev-Scene related. The planet might contain some personal/off-topic blog updates.
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