Homebrew How would you feel about music albums on the Nintendo DS?

Project68K

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A few months ago, I found out about a music label OasisLtd, who make GBA cartridges for visual albums. Here is an article about it: https://vapor95.com/blogs/darknet/the-fascinating-world-of-gba-music-albums

For about a year or so, I've been doing some experimentation on the Nintendo DS as a little side hobby. I've managed to find a way to get albums on the Nintendo DS using some tricks, and due to the recent newfound knowledge of these GBA cartridges, I wanted to know what this place thought of releasing music albums on a DS rom, or DS cartridge.

My implementation would potentially have:

- The music album itself
- A digital CD booklet (if the album has one), that the person is able to see on the DS.
- A tracklist to pick from songs from
- 10 second looping video snippets accompanying songs that have music videos.

Feature 1, 3 and 4 has been implemented, while feature 2 has not. I have some prototypes that have been done with some hip-hop albums and mixtapes. I intend on being able to actually SELL albums on the DS later down the line similar to how OasisLTD does it, but for now, I'm fine posting them for free. Any thoughts?
 

UK_Ray

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I'm all for modifications and the like but I don't think I would enjoy watching a music video on a DS as most people have a phone with a bigger screen than the DS and the screens on the phone are of a much better quality, It would seem like wasting the life span of the screen and battery for very little gain.

That's just my opinion though, everyone likes something different so I have no doubt that there would be a lot of interested in this if you attached a video of it working etc.
 
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mrparrot2

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When I only had a DS and those specialized media players were expensive, my DSlite was my portable media player. Moonlight and DS Organizer were powerful software for that mean. If we were in 2006 I'd say you would actually profit from this, but today with smartphones, YouTube, etc I don't think so.
 
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Ryccardo

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Do "the Chinese" even know how to make DS cards anymore?

(DS bootlegs were a thing in the early DSi age but for over 10 years all that's been made is the lowest tier flashcards + factory reject microsd + a sticker not vaguely trying to hide it)

Apart from that... sure it sounds stupid but hey, it's art, it would be a first (therefore earning a place in history - see SRPM here https://consolemods.org/wiki/index.php?title=AV:Sony_Model_Prefixes#PlayStation_and_PlayStation_2 ), and some music is still being recorded to normal (type 1) cassettes :)
 

Rednorka

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That sounds awesome!

As a guy who used to frequently listen to music via Moonshell, DS would make a pretty good place to release an album on, not only aesthetically wise but functionally as well.

I can already see some potential ways to utilize what DS is for album releases - booklets could be displayed book-style (think Planet Puzzle League), music videos can utilize both screens for more interesting experience, and more probably!

Myself, I probably won't be able to buy an actual cartridge (maybe it will change in a few years) but I'm okay with having a DS rom you can put on your console. Even if the rom gets served as a demo/preview/release without extra songs, it would still be an incredible thing to exist.
 

The Real Jdbye

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A few months ago, I found out about a music label OasisLtd, who make GBA cartridges for visual albums. Here is an article about it: https://vapor95.com/blogs/darknet/the-fascinating-world-of-gba-music-albums

For about a year or so, I've been doing some experimentation on the Nintendo DS as a little side hobby. I've managed to find a way to get albums on the Nintendo DS using some tricks, and due to the recent newfound knowledge of these GBA cartridges, I wanted to know what this place thought of releasing music albums on a DS rom, or DS cartridge.

My implementation would potentially have:

- The music album itself
- A digital CD booklet (if the album has one), that the person is able to see on the DS.
- A tracklist to pick from songs from
- 10 second looping video snippets accompanying songs that have music videos.

Feature 1, 3 and 4 has been implemented, while feature 2 has not. I have some prototypes that have been done with some hip-hop albums and mixtapes. I intend on being able to actually SELL albums on the DS later down the line similar to how OasisLTD does it, but for now, I'm fine posting them for free. Any thoughts?
I think music albums released on unconventional formats (like floppy disks) are super cool, even though they're impractical.
 

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