[h2]5 years of DS roms celebration- day 1 covering year 1[/h2]
In the middle of E3 was a special day for the DS scene- it marked the 5 year point since the first proper release of a DS rom. We had a thread and as mentioned in it this weeks sees a 5 years in 5 days series of articles that look back over the events of the year in question. Today is year 1 which started with Electroplankton from the group trashman and ended with Digimon Story from WRG and in between saw around 700 releases in with nukes, patches releases, rips, trainers and demos.
Year 5
Year 4
Year 3
Year 2
Year 1
[h2]Some history[/h2]
The 5 year celebration thread had a quick history but in addition to the first few releases we saw many things that went alongside the roms themselves.
Picking a few dates
2005-06-19 saw some rom dumping tools in NDS_Rom_Dumper_1.0-SMT and MAGICKEY_Tools_V2.0_NDS-DMT
As well as this we also saw Ensata_1.3c_NDS_Emulator_PATCHED-SMT- an emulator that could play commercial roms.
2005-10-26 saw LoadMe_v1.0-WRG- a standalone patching program for roms that for the time had fairly good compatibility.
2006-05-10 saw Super_Princess_Peach_Plus4_Trainer_NDS-VENOM . Scene originated trainers never really took off for the DS scene although in their place cheats and home made trainers with the likes of DSATM flourished. Granted in the first year with did see cheats thanks to project dipstar but there will be more on that later this week as it would not be until later in the timeline that cheating really came to the fore.
It was also around this time we saw most companies put a DS oriented cart (albeit in GBA form factor) out on the market and not too long after that the first nopass from datel and the flood of other nopass devices shortly after that.
[h2]The releases[/h2]
That over onto the releases, every release is valuable and in making these threads we realised that if we covered every great game it would probably read like a slightly condensed version of the entire DS release list so rather than make a massive list we will pick out a few that meant something to us or the DS scene in general and then kick it over to you for some discussion. It should be said that a large number of the present GBAtemp crowd were not around for these days so if you were not around or just want a refresher do read on as you might find something you missed. We ask that like us you confine yourself to the relevant year for the thread in question, the folks over at ABGX do a nice simple text list with dates.
Now while it was the first year of DS roms it was not the first year of DS games- the DS hit the US in late November 2004 so we had several months of games (even if a comment at the time was the DS suffered from a lack of them) by the time of the first proper ROM release and several more by the time the ability to play them on hardware became widespread (not to mention this first year saw a couple of E3 shows). As you might expect it did mean a massive flood of games early on- the 17th saw 32 releases including GST hacked releases and the 18th saw 25 releases with several similar floods after that.
On the DS in general it was widespread knowledge that Nintendo pretty much strong-armed developers into adding touchscreen functionality into a game (even at the cost of being a gimmick) and we also saw what amounted to the first real shovelware games.
[h2]The games[/h2]
Mr_Driller_Drill_Spirits_USA_NDS-ETY
Those of you who have not seen Mr Driller you have been missing out. Do note the Japanese and European versions have more modes and functionality.
This is the first DS entry and only one not counting the DSiware version. The object of the game is fairly simple- drill down to the end of the level making sure you do not get crushed and do not run out of air- one of the few DS games to manage to balance the “makes you want to launch your DS at the wall” and “just another 5 minutes” qualities in a game.
Pac_Pix_USA_NDS-TRM
The epitome of the touch screen gimmick game and always an amusing cart filler- the objective is to draw pac man shapes and once you do they will be animated. Half puzzle game and half hoping your stylus skills/the game interprets your deformed pac man as such and it works.
Bomberman_PROPER_USA_NDS-LUBE
It is debatable if you can call yourself a gamer and not know what bomberman is about. With a few exceptions the present series has left the roots of it all in favour of 3d, puzzles, RPG/story and the less said about the non XBLA 360 version the better but that is no loss as this version takes it back to the basics and in doing so earns the right to sit alongside the classics of the series seen on the Saturn and PCE/TG16.
Jump_Super_Stars_JPN_NDS-TRM
While most people who think of the series think of the sequel Jump Ultimate Stars it was this game that spawned one of the first big DS translation projects (it never saw release mind). Regardless of that it is as fun as the sequel and also went some way to proving fighting games on a handheld could be more than imitators of their arcade and console brethren.
Advance_Wars_Dual_Strike_USA_NDS-LUBE
The famicom wars series has been going on for as long as the name implies but it only really hit the West in the GBA era (and it hit big). This was the first of the DS offerings and it was good as long as you ignored the use of language in the first main CO you control (apparently gangsters were in when it came to translation here). New units, new rules/gameplay mechanics and a new art style make for a great entry to the series.
On the DS scene front between Advance Wars and the next release on our list we saw the first Chinese game (China had a special DS called the iQue DS or the short form iDS) Zhigan_Yi_Bi_CHN_IDS-WRG which was a localised version of Polarium.
Castlevania_Dawn_of_Sorrow_EUR_NDS-LEGACY
The first of the DS Castlevania games and purported reason for NDS Patcher v0.1 by ]{ain to get released. If you somehow missed this one and you like Castlevania games you owe it to yourself to go back and play it.
Lunar_Dragon_Song_USA_NDS-LGC
It was not a good game by most accounts owing to the horrible "you can run but it will cost you health" mechanic. However as hard as it may be to believe now there were next to no RPGs on the DS for quite some time and this represented the only choice for a while. While you can cheat around it today those out for an RPG back then were not lucky.
Phoenix_Wright_Ace_Attorney_USA_NDS-LGC
How could we have a best of the DS thread and not mention this. While it was a port of a GBA game one of the best translations ever seen in a game (at least until the sequels), memorable characters, a great soundtrack, a great use of DS features and above all a great game that stands up to this day make this one of the best game offerings on the DS.
Megaman_Battle_Network_5_Double_Team_USA_NDS-MODE7
While the GBA eventually saw 6* entries into this series (not counting the multiple versions of said games) the DS got a port of 5th entry into the battle network series that combined both versions. Notably it got one of the first undubs of any game- people had long been fiddling with sounds as part of shrinking roms to fit more on the limited amount of memory and equally some people had changed electroplankton but undubs were new. If you played them on the GBA then there is little need to play it again here but it otherwise represents the definitive version of the megaman battle network 5 game and for that matter probably the entire battle network series.
*can we save the debate on 4.5 real operation and battle chips challenge for somewhere else please.
Mario_Kart_DS_USA_NDS-SCZ
It is Mario Kart so you all know the drill here. It has importance in the scene as well as the early patches needed a game of equivalent save in the passme/DS slot (WRG would later chime in with Mario_Kart_DS_Patched_Thanksgiving_Day_Present_USA_NDS-WRG)- one of the fun things about early releases was seeing if it would wipe your save if you had a game in the DS slot.
It also brought wifi to the DS (previously the hardware supported it but the software was not there) and with it a rejigged version of Flashme (the hacked firmware for the DS and DSlite) in response to the new firmware that appeared as a result.
Elf_Bowling_1_and_2_USA_NDS-TRM
Not a good game by any stretch of the imagination (the original was a free shareware/flash game) but a great example of shovelware and a sign of things to come.
Tetris_DS_USA_NDS-WRG
Also Tetris_DS_Patch_For_Flash_Carts_NDS-WRG
It is tetris- you have all probably played a version of it somewhere at some point in time. The GBA suffered something of a lack of good tetris games (tetris worlds is considered broken by most and minna no soft tetris is good but was never fixed) and the DS set this right, we do have many homebrew tetris games as well.
New_Super_Mario_Bros_USA_NDS-pSyDS
Also New_Super_Mario_Bros_PATCHED_FOR_GBA_CART_NDS-WRG
What better release to end on than the game that brought the mario series back to the basics as well as a solid multiplayer that saw many hours lost for many people.
[h2]Closing words[/h2]
Now over to you, there have many releases missed (intentionally in some cases) including resident evil, animal crossing, Daisenryaku DS Great Strategy, Metroid Prime Hunters (and the many releases/nukes it took for some versions), Lost Magic, Zoo Tycoon, Nintendogs, Brain age/training, Worms open warfare, cooking mama, countless Japanese region releases that would not see US releases until much later, Daikoukai Jidai IV Rota Nova, the rub rabbits, puyo puyo fever, Sonic Rush, Super Mario 64 DS, Warioware touched, Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 2, the simple DS series, SBK Snowboard Kids, Feel the magic, Trauma Center, Nanostray, Meteos, Lost in blue/survival kids, Yu Gi Oh Nightmare Troubadour and Sprung - The Dating Game to name but a few.
As mentioned the good folks over at ABGX have a nice list with dates.
Come back tomorrow for DS rom releases year 2
In the middle of E3 was a special day for the DS scene- it marked the 5 year point since the first proper release of a DS rom. We had a thread and as mentioned in it this weeks sees a 5 years in 5 days series of articles that look back over the events of the year in question. Today is year 1 which started with Electroplankton from the group trashman and ended with Digimon Story from WRG and in between saw around 700 releases in with nukes, patches releases, rips, trainers and demos.
Year 5
Year 4
Year 3
Year 2
Year 1
[h2]Some history[/h2]
The 5 year celebration thread had a quick history but in addition to the first few releases we saw many things that went alongside the roms themselves.
Picking a few dates
2005-06-19 saw some rom dumping tools in NDS_Rom_Dumper_1.0-SMT and MAGICKEY_Tools_V2.0_NDS-DMT
As well as this we also saw Ensata_1.3c_NDS_Emulator_PATCHED-SMT- an emulator that could play commercial roms.
2005-10-26 saw LoadMe_v1.0-WRG- a standalone patching program for roms that for the time had fairly good compatibility.
2006-05-10 saw Super_Princess_Peach_Plus4_Trainer_NDS-VENOM . Scene originated trainers never really took off for the DS scene although in their place cheats and home made trainers with the likes of DSATM flourished. Granted in the first year with did see cheats thanks to project dipstar but there will be more on that later this week as it would not be until later in the timeline that cheating really came to the fore.
It was also around this time we saw most companies put a DS oriented cart (albeit in GBA form factor) out on the market and not too long after that the first nopass from datel and the flood of other nopass devices shortly after that.
[h2]The releases[/h2]
That over onto the releases, every release is valuable and in making these threads we realised that if we covered every great game it would probably read like a slightly condensed version of the entire DS release list so rather than make a massive list we will pick out a few that meant something to us or the DS scene in general and then kick it over to you for some discussion. It should be said that a large number of the present GBAtemp crowd were not around for these days so if you were not around or just want a refresher do read on as you might find something you missed. We ask that like us you confine yourself to the relevant year for the thread in question, the folks over at ABGX do a nice simple text list with dates.
Now while it was the first year of DS roms it was not the first year of DS games- the DS hit the US in late November 2004 so we had several months of games (even if a comment at the time was the DS suffered from a lack of them) by the time of the first proper ROM release and several more by the time the ability to play them on hardware became widespread (not to mention this first year saw a couple of E3 shows). As you might expect it did mean a massive flood of games early on- the 17th saw 32 releases including GST hacked releases and the 18th saw 25 releases with several similar floods after that.
On the DS in general it was widespread knowledge that Nintendo pretty much strong-armed developers into adding touchscreen functionality into a game (even at the cost of being a gimmick) and we also saw what amounted to the first real shovelware games.
[h2]The games[/h2]
Those of you who have not seen Mr Driller you have been missing out. Do note the Japanese and European versions have more modes and functionality.
This is the first DS entry and only one not counting the DSiware version. The object of the game is fairly simple- drill down to the end of the level making sure you do not get crushed and do not run out of air- one of the few DS games to manage to balance the “makes you want to launch your DS at the wall” and “just another 5 minutes” qualities in a game.
The epitome of the touch screen gimmick game and always an amusing cart filler- the objective is to draw pac man shapes and once you do they will be animated. Half puzzle game and half hoping your stylus skills/the game interprets your deformed pac man as such and it works.
It is debatable if you can call yourself a gamer and not know what bomberman is about. With a few exceptions the present series has left the roots of it all in favour of 3d, puzzles, RPG/story and the less said about the non XBLA 360 version the better but that is no loss as this version takes it back to the basics and in doing so earns the right to sit alongside the classics of the series seen on the Saturn and PCE/TG16.
While most people who think of the series think of the sequel Jump Ultimate Stars it was this game that spawned one of the first big DS translation projects (it never saw release mind). Regardless of that it is as fun as the sequel and also went some way to proving fighting games on a handheld could be more than imitators of their arcade and console brethren.
The famicom wars series has been going on for as long as the name implies but it only really hit the West in the GBA era (and it hit big). This was the first of the DS offerings and it was good as long as you ignored the use of language in the first main CO you control (apparently gangsters were in when it came to translation here). New units, new rules/gameplay mechanics and a new art style make for a great entry to the series.
On the DS scene front between Advance Wars and the next release on our list we saw the first Chinese game (China had a special DS called the iQue DS or the short form iDS) Zhigan_Yi_Bi_CHN_IDS-WRG which was a localised version of Polarium.
The first of the DS Castlevania games and purported reason for NDS Patcher v0.1 by ]{ain to get released. If you somehow missed this one and you like Castlevania games you owe it to yourself to go back and play it.
It was not a good game by most accounts owing to the horrible "you can run but it will cost you health" mechanic. However as hard as it may be to believe now there were next to no RPGs on the DS for quite some time and this represented the only choice for a while. While you can cheat around it today those out for an RPG back then were not lucky.
How could we have a best of the DS thread and not mention this. While it was a port of a GBA game one of the best translations ever seen in a game (at least until the sequels), memorable characters, a great soundtrack, a great use of DS features and above all a great game that stands up to this day make this one of the best game offerings on the DS.
While the GBA eventually saw 6* entries into this series (not counting the multiple versions of said games) the DS got a port of 5th entry into the battle network series that combined both versions. Notably it got one of the first undubs of any game- people had long been fiddling with sounds as part of shrinking roms to fit more on the limited amount of memory and equally some people had changed electroplankton but undubs were new. If you played them on the GBA then there is little need to play it again here but it otherwise represents the definitive version of the megaman battle network 5 game and for that matter probably the entire battle network series.
*can we save the debate on 4.5 real operation and battle chips challenge for somewhere else please.
It is Mario Kart so you all know the drill here. It has importance in the scene as well as the early patches needed a game of equivalent save in the passme/DS slot (WRG would later chime in with Mario_Kart_DS_Patched_Thanksgiving_Day_Present_USA_NDS-WRG)- one of the fun things about early releases was seeing if it would wipe your save if you had a game in the DS slot.
It also brought wifi to the DS (previously the hardware supported it but the software was not there) and with it a rejigged version of Flashme (the hacked firmware for the DS and DSlite) in response to the new firmware that appeared as a result.
Not a good game by any stretch of the imagination (the original was a free shareware/flash game) but a great example of shovelware and a sign of things to come.
Also Tetris_DS_Patch_For_Flash_Carts_NDS-WRG
It is tetris- you have all probably played a version of it somewhere at some point in time. The GBA suffered something of a lack of good tetris games (tetris worlds is considered broken by most and minna no soft tetris is good but was never fixed) and the DS set this right, we do have many homebrew tetris games as well.
Also New_Super_Mario_Bros_PATCHED_FOR_GBA_CART_NDS-WRG
What better release to end on than the game that brought the mario series back to the basics as well as a solid multiplayer that saw many hours lost for many people.
[h2]Closing words[/h2]
Now over to you, there have many releases missed (intentionally in some cases) including resident evil, animal crossing, Daisenryaku DS Great Strategy, Metroid Prime Hunters (and the many releases/nukes it took for some versions), Lost Magic, Zoo Tycoon, Nintendogs, Brain age/training, Worms open warfare, cooking mama, countless Japanese region releases that would not see US releases until much later, Daikoukai Jidai IV Rota Nova, the rub rabbits, puyo puyo fever, Sonic Rush, Super Mario 64 DS, Warioware touched, Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 2, the simple DS series, SBK Snowboard Kids, Feel the magic, Trauma Center, Nanostray, Meteos, Lost in blue/survival kids, Yu Gi Oh Nightmare Troubadour and Sprung - The Dating Game to name but a few.
As mentioned the good folks over at ABGX have a nice list with dates.
Come back tomorrow for DS rom releases year 2
oS.
