z2

That... is actually awesome.

Oh man, that almost makes me want to get into the DS homebrew scene so I can play stuff like this (my DS is currently unspoiled)

almost

and the only reason why not quite is simply because I'm paranoid about the warranty and don't want to spend money on the supplies and blah blah blah, so basically I'm leery of the scene itself, nothing against this. This is actually really awesome.

sure, it can do town.zzt without a hitch, but how does it take something like teen priest 2??

inquiring minds want to know

teen priest 2 will be banned (from the DS)

Most of the issues with DreamZZT DS have been resolved:

* Background tiles render across the whole screen
* Status messages display at the bottom of the DS's screen, and will scroll if too long
* Improved board transitions
* Title screen starts centered, you can scroll around it by holding R and using the d pad
* Files on your card can be browsed, however saving will default to (game name).sav
* NDS file now has a proper ROM header with icon. M3 users must press Start instead of A to launch the ROM now.
* Main menu is cleaned up so it doesn't wrap, and Editor / Quit have been hidden

DreamZZT DS 0.2

Got sound working on the DS, and centered the top screen.



DreamZZT DS 0.3

That is some amazing work. And at such a fast pace too, no less!

By the way, seeing that boards already scroll in the engine, do you plan on Super ZZT support? Personally, I'd really like to see some form of a resurrection of Super ZZT.

Now, how does one go about obtaining a flash cartridge for a DS? I want to try this out.

[quote=Crackbone]
:siren: Two important rules.:siren:
Use this thread as a starting point for your purchases only.
Don't fucking talk about warez or backups.
Most homebrew needs to be DLDI patched - see the top of the second post for more info.

What's DS Homebrew?
DS Homebrew is non-commercial DS programs. Organizers, emulators, home-made games, etc.

What do I need to get started?
A flashcart, computer, and some patience. Flashcarts come in either Slot-1 (DS slot cards) or Slot-2 (GBA slot cart) versions.

Do I get Slot-1 or Slot-2?
Short version: Slot 1 cards are better. Slot-2 cards are only if you must have GBA support.
Here are the specifics:

SLOT 1 HARDWARE
Slot 1 devices go in the DS card slot. Most of these use removable media for storage (such as micro-sd cards).

Currently, the most recommended Slot-1 devices are the R4/M3 Simply.
Current Homebrew Compatibility List for R4

The R4 is a standard size NDS card, which accepts a MicroSD memory card. You plug the MicroSD into your computer using the USB MicroSD reader (included in the package). You drag and drop your programs/music/movies onto the card, and you're done! What's different between the two cards? Both cards are produced by the same company, but the R4 is cheaper, so get it over the M3.

There are many slot 1 cards - rather than list them all you can check out reviews of most of them here: www.gbatemp.net

SLOT 2 HARDWARE
Slot 2 hardware goes in the GBA cartridge slot on the DS.
Here are the most commonly recommended Slot-2 Solutions for you GBA freaks out there:

Supercard Series - Used to be the choice for DS homebrew, but slot 1s have replaced it and gba compatibility sucks balls.

M3 Media Player Series - A little more expensive, but has much better GBA compatibility, and a better interface.

EZ Flash 3-in-1 - The odd man out. The EZ Flash 3-in-1 lets you store GBA homebrew on your Slot 1 card, and copy each game as needed to the EZ Flash. A cheap solution for those who must have GBA stuff.

What size/brand memory card should I get?
As of this writing, 1G cards seem to be the sweet spot for pricing - many going for under $10 dollars on amazon now. As for quality or brand, it makes no difference for homebrew at all.
The only thing that card quality affects is two retail DS games. If you really have to have these "backups" work, check this list.
One thing for sure: avoid ebay for card purchases. There are lots and lots of counterfeit, poorly made flash cards, with no way of telling before you buy. Even these may work with no problem, but when you can grab a legit 1GB card for under 10 dollars, there's no point in risking it.

Where can I purchase all this beepity boop bullshit?
There's a few sites going around that will happily sell you what you need.

Kalibar is selling R4s in SA-Mart. Great price, and fast shipping.
Jandaman!(Gives a 10% discount for goons through this link)
http://www.realhotstuff.com (They even do bundles!)
http://www.winsunx.com
http://www.supercardstore.com/ UK site, recommended despite dodgy website.
http://us.gameyeeeah.com/ New US version of gameyeeeah's site. Good prices.
http://bamboogaming.com - Australian site. Each purchase comes with a free rabid Koala.

Other Helpful Links
http://gbatemp.net/: Reviews for most Slot-1 and Slot-2 cards.
http://www.ndshb.com/: DS Homebrew Database
http://www.double.co.nz/nintendo_ds/
http://www.drunkencoders.com/
http://forum.gbadev.org/index.php

Many thanks to Danbo Daxter & TheHeadSage, and storming vengance, who made this OP as glorious as it is.
If I've missed something, please let me know and I'll update the OP.
[/quote]

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... id=2519245

Wow, that was a pretty thorough post. I use a M3 miniSD slot 2 cart, it cost me around $99 about a year ago. Works with the default libfat driver, so I don't need to DLDI patch things. Works with GBA games too.

Only downside is that it requires Windows-only software to create the save backup files on the card (well, I can copy/paste empty files too). That runs fine through vmware, though. It also sticks out of my DS Lite a little, since it's the size of a GBA cartridge. They make a smaller one now that takes microSD cards that fits in the Lites, but those came out after I bought mine :(

As for SuperZZT support, I'll look into it.

I have a 512 MB X-ROM GBA flash cart. It's a little old and not one of the models they specifically recommend for this, but I'm guessing it'll work....

I still need the passing...thing...though. My guess is that if I got a Superkey, it'd work with the X-ROM cart and I'd be good to go.

But I'm cheap.

Experimental SuperZZT support:



It'll load games, and the regular ZZT items work, in addition to SuperZZT water and floors. I haven't implemented any of the other SuperZZT-specific objects yet. Not sure how far I'm gonna go with it, but it's started anyway.

Very nice. If you need any assistance in duplicating the behavior of the Super ZZT creatures, let me know.

(edit: floors are ascii char 176.)

SuperZZT games work on DS too:

They run a bit slow though. Also, the DS doesn't have enough RAM to hold 2 uncompressed SuperZZT boards, so the sliding board transition isn't available for SuperZZT games on DS. It will always use the passage transition.

For screen transitions, who said you had to have separate memory? Take a shortcut. If you are moving off the bottom of the screen, you can't see the top anyway. So overwrite the tiles necessary from the destination board to the current board's uncompressed memory at the top and scroll those in. Then after the scroll, load the rest. Not sure how it'll work on your port, though.