The October issue of EDGE seems a little Nintendo-centric, and among all the big articles like “How Nintendo fell out of love with hardcore gamers” and an Animal Crossing preview, a small news-bite caught my eye.

It was about the scourge of anyone who published or developed a video game for the Nintendo DS, the R4 DS flashkart. The article mentions that the maker of the flashkart may have met its judicial maker in Japan following a suit filed by Nintendo and 54 associate companies which stated that the flashkart is “causing severe damage to our company and software makers”.

Would It Happen Here?

I’m not sure whether anyone in Malaysia (I live here!) would want to file a lawsuit of that manner. Piracy is pretty rampant in Malaysia and taking a popular local online forum for example, PS3 gamers can talk about their original purchases alongside PSP guys who are good, if not adept at downloading games from the Internet and discussing which brands of Memory Stick (pirated or otherwise….it extends to hardware too) are fast enough to run pirated games.

Here, you can secure your bragging rights as an “ori gamer” (one who plays original games) with 5 or more original games to your name; some even go to the extent of relating how they scrimped, saved, and starved over their purchases. Noble as it sounds, this tends to make a majority of them akin to frogs under a coconut shell.

The Usual Justifications And Then Some

Given the scenario whereby you have little money and have to choose between a game from an established franchise or a sleeper hit (or one that is on its way to becoming one) or an obscure title with an obscure rave review, the choice is usually the game from an established franchise.

So rather than limit themselves and spend an indecent amount of money on original games, Malaysian DS owners tend to go the route of the flashkart.

I Have One Too!

Regular readers would know that I’ve a got a library of original Nintendo DS games, which numbers a whole lot more than the average Malaysian Nintendo DS gamer would have. And even so, I own a R4DS. It has become an indispensable item to me.

It has allow me to, among other things, use homebrew software on the DS and play Nintendo DS games that normally people would shy away from, e.g. obscure, strange, weird Japanese imports. I would be lying if I said the expansion of my own library wasn’t due to my R4. It enabled me to discover new games beyond established genres and franchises, that are worth buying and keeping.

The Official Line and What Nintendo Should Do About It

Now, I also happen to own a DSVision, and probably am the only Malaysian to own one. The DSVision is an official flashkart from Nintendo for the Nintendo DS.

Here’s my 2cents: Nintendo should take advantage of the download service for the DSVision to provide game demos for users to try out using the DSVision. Pirate mentality is not that difficult to comprehend, by not buying a game, pirates tend to discard it soon after they start playing as there is not much of an investment in the first place. The pirated games are treated as demos!

Providing demos is more than a stop-gap measure as they allow gamers to make informed decisions by trying out the game (besides the reading of reviews) on whether to purchase a game or not. Nintendo can then have a direct hand in creating sales opportunities and converting these opportunities into actual sales.

At the moment, I’m stuck with reading books, manga and viewing movies on the DSVision. I don’t think it would be difficult to get games running on this flashkart and if there are game demos available to be downloaded, I’ll gladly participate in the downloading.

Curious about Nintendo’s official flashkart, the DS Vision for the Nintendo DS? Well, Nine Over Ten 9/10 has a treat for you today as the flashkart arrived in my mail box along with a Pokemon movie!

I made the order for the two items on the 10th of September and they arrived today (16th September) with the free shipping option from Play-Asia. That’s actually pretty fast as it normally takes 8-10 working days for an order to reach my place. Total cost of the order: USD 48.90.

Let’s start with the DSVision. This official Nintendo DS flashkart is made by AM3 and is designed to allow users to play movies, view comics, etc, on the Nintendo DS.

Like the R4, this flashkart is actually an adapter that reads off a microSD memory card which you can slot in via the side of the flashkart (notice the notice in the picture above?)

You can purchase the DSVision Starter Kit which comes with the adapter and a 512 mb microSD card (presumably filled with stuff), but in my case, I purchased only the adapter. So what content I’m going to run on this flashkart? That’s where the Pokemon movie comes into play.

Maboroshi no Pokemon Rugia Bakutan (DSVision) looks like any other Nintendo DS game, packaging wise, but the contents inside the box might suprise you.

Yup, it’s actually a Pokemon movie stored within a 512mb microSD card meant to use in conjunction with the DSVision adapter. So, what happens when you put both together?

Here’s a video I’ve taken:

Success’ latest game for the Nintendo DS, Johnny no Dasshutsu Daisakusen, may spring a little surprise for those who downloaded the pirated ROM of the game. Here’s the gist of it, if you are running the game on a flashkart like the R4, you might be stuck playing the introductory level over and over again.

Basically, the game is a point and click 3D adventure game, not unlike those pixel hunt fests you find on the PC (Myst comes to mind). The introductory level will have you in a room, and you’ll need to find the key to unlock the door. But if you are running the game using a flashkart, the game will basically just restart once you open the door.

This is where you separate the man from the boys.

LOL. Taken from the game and how apt. So, if you are looking to play the game, go get the original copy. The game is available at Play-Asia. Click here for further details.

First there was the DSVision Starter Kit released by am3 and marketed as Nintendo’s official flashkart for the Nintendo DS. Bundled together with a 512 MB MicroSD card, this flashkart allows the user to view movies, tv shows, comics, and stuff that an adequately equipped un-endorsed flashkart such as the R4 can do, minus playing ROMs of course.

Anyways, it looks like AM3 is going to release the DSVision Adapter Package sans microSD card come this mid-September. Play-Asia lists the item to be available on September 11th with a price tag of USD 19.90 (to pre-order, click here).

Also being released on the same date are content for the DSVision cart and I suspect are sold in microSD format as they require the DSVision cart to work. The list (obtained from Play-Asia) is as follows:

• Maboroshi no Pokemon Rugia Bakutan (click here for further details)
• Serebi toki wo koeta souguu (click here for further details)
• Myuu to hadou no yuusha rukario Special Pack (click here for further details)
• Kesshoutou no teiou entei (click here for further details)

It would be interesting to note that these are actually Pokemon movies. The last I heard, Sony’s UMD movies were pretty much with a lame response. Perhaps a repeat of Sony’s missteps eh Nintendo?

This Kid Icarus stuff is rather tough. No wonder I have got no love towards platformers. However, the “I’m Finished!” message had me in chuckles the first time it appeared after the character plunged to his death.

I still think it’s due to a programming issue (deliberately or otherwise) that doesn’t allow the player to descend down levels, leaving only one way, up.

The game actually looks grittier than its own cover, and an interesting note for collectors, the game was released as part of Nintendo’s Famicom Mini Series, number 24 to be exact. Sold out on Play-Asia, I can only find one used copy on eBay.

R4DS owners and other flashcart owners would be happy to know that the game runs pretty well on the nesDS, with no problems so far. Now if only I can get pass that old hag..

The last ROM Report was written like months ago, on how to run Sega MegaDrive games on the Nintendo DS. Pretty retro stuff huh.

Well, in this edition of The ROM Report, we’ll take a look at something that I can relate better, running an all time favourite PC game of mine, Quake II on the Nintendo DS.

We Go Way Back

Yup, back in the day, I went to the PC Fair just to get parts to assemble a brand new PC in preparation for Quake II. I was a big fan of Quake, and after having a jaunt of unsatisfactory Quake I on a DX4-100MHz (subsequently a Pentium 133 MHz) machine, I decided to build one that can handle its sequel, albeit neary 2 years after it (the sequel) was released.

Blame that on me being a poor high school student.

I remember buying a brand new AMD K6-2 500 MHz processor, a new motherboard running on a VIA chipset, some RAM and a brand new casing. Complementing this new setup was an equally brand new Permedia 2 video card with 4 MB Video RAM.

What We Need is Hardware

Fast-forward to today, running Quake 2 on the Nintendo DS, like running it on a PC at that time, requires some extra work. Firstly, you’ll need a Slot-1 flashcart like an R4 or EDGE. Normally this would be sufficient to run any homebrew software on the DS, but in the case of Quake II, you’ll also need a Slot-2 flashcart with at least 16MB of RAM.

In my case, I got myself an EZ Flash 3-in-1 Expansion Pack to pair up with my R4.

And Software

What else do you need? You’ll need the Quake II DS homebrew software, which is available here at Drunken Coders, and some other stuff such as a configuration file (available in the aforementioned link), and the .pak file from either the shareware or release version of the game.

Prior to running the game, the Slot-2 flashcart must be set to expansion RAM mode, and after that it is the simple matter of selecting the Quake II DS .nds file.

Gameplay: Same Old Same Old But With Touchscreen

Movement is controlled by the D-pad while the fire buttons control weapon swapping, jumping and shooting. One highlight here is that like Metroid Prime Hunters, the touchscreen is used for targeting…yay!

Quake II basically survives the transition from PC to DS with a few bruises here and there. Textures “whiteout” once in a while and the draw distance for enemies tend to be a little suspect. I don’t remember enemies appearing out of plain air and in mid-stride when playing it on the PC, but this is the DS we are talking about.

In any case, if you have both Slot-1 and Slot-2 flashcarts, Quake II DS is worth checking out. For more of The ROM Report, check out the rest of the entries here.

I finally managed to find the box art for the official Nintendo DS Flash Cart, the DS Vision by am3. Here’s a shot of the front cover, taken from Play-Asia’s catalogue (click here for more details)

As the title mentions, there is a problem when it comes to running Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games on the Nintendo DS: the emulators have not found a way to produce sound!

It’s a rather quiet experience playing Sonic the Hedgehog but even though the lack of sound is a shame, the game runs really fast on a particular emulator: jEnesisDS 0.5.

I’ve tested two Genesis/Mega Drive emulators, PicoDS and jEnesisDS 0.5. Both have their similarities but only one had the larger set of advantages. Both emulators run without sound and while both CAN run whatever I’ve thrown at them, jEnesisDS is faster,smoother and has a way nicer user interface.

Kind of like comparing a European supermodel to one of those local race queens and the supermodel has some brains to boot.

I’ll be writting a more in-depth review in the future but for the moment, get jEnesisDS 0.5 at DCEmu. Registration is required, but free.

The ROM Report is a series of articles that I started writting back when Nine Over Ten 9/10 was on Blogspot.

The gist of the articles is mainly on retro games from consoles such as the NES, SNES, Megadrive, etc and how to run them on the Nintendo DS courtesy of emulation from a rich variety of homebrew software.

The response has been great towards The ROM Report articles to the extent they are one of the cornerstones of Nine Over Ten 9/10. I’ve now ported all 11 TRR articles from the old blog to nineoverten.com.

Look forward to seeing brand new The ROM Report articles in the near future! Kindly subscribe to Nine Over Ten 9/10′s feed to keep yourself up-to-date. Click here to read previous TRR articles!

The idea for the 10th Edition of The ROM Report came to me when I was talking to a couple of my colleagues about 80s cartoon series. I remember being glued to the tube and being fed a diet of Thundercats, Transformers, Centurions, and Spiral Zone.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was also a favourite series of mine. I wouldn’t really call them turtles, they are more like tortoises but like blondes, turtles seem to be more fun. The cartoon came out in 1987 and the NES game was release in 1989.

It’s pretty fun to play, as you can see in the video I’ve taken earlier of the game.

On the otherhand, I didn’t really watch Beetlejuice on TV. However, the video game, released for the NES is a little tough and presents a challenge. See for yourselves:

Now, if you think difficulty levels are over-rated, you have not seen Transformers: Convoy No Nazo. Yup, it’s based on the Transformers cartoon series and stars Ultra Magnus.

The game is so tough that I can’t even get pass the first level. Here’s a video of my attempt:

All 80s inspired games featured in this article can be run on the Nintendo DS with the use of nesDS. Check out the rest of The ROM Report for more information on how to run older generation games on the Nintendo DS.