Homebrew Is DS homebrew officialy dead?

[Boy12]

It seems that the most good DS homebrews game out between 2005 and 2008.
Just asking, is the ds dead?
Because it's a great system, and it would be sad if it's dead
Also, is it worth to make a homebrew right now for the ds? Because i know some lua, and i have a lua player.
Thanks!

 

[emigre]

No. Foxi is on a one man mission to keeping DS homebrew alive.

 

[PJM]

I don't know how anyone could call it "officially dead". Things have slowed down, sure, and I can't see anyone coming out with any new games or apps, but as long as much of this software is open source, it's always possible for people to improve on emulators and whatnot.

While it may not be dead, it's definitely in its twilight years, which is sad to see. I have a PSP, but I prefer the games on my DS, and would rather have older games emulated on my DS just to have everything in one, rather than keep my DS on my for great DS games and my PSP on me for emulation.

It's sad to see so much effort go towards smart phone games. I mean I understand it, the user base is so high, and no hacking required... but nothing can replace physical buttons. There are also other great devices out there like the Pandora you might want to look in to.

Myself, I'm holding my breath for homebrew on the 3DS, but I don't recommend anyone holding their breath with me, lol.

 

[VMM]

When you talk about homebrews,
are you also considering emulators?
If no, then they're alive, at least for a while.

Just look at NesDS,
which released 1.3a a few weeks ago.

 

[SifJar]

It's not "officially" anything, that's the point of homebrew...

 

[The Catboy]

There are still some homebrew devs here and there keeping it alive, but the smartphone scene did take over a lot of DS homebrew scene.

 

[Clydefrosch]

besides emulation, what good homebrews were there?

 

[PJM]

besides emulation, what good homebrews were there?

There is a sticky, but off the top of my head, there are ports of Doom, Quake, OpenTyrian, Duke3D, etc. Game engines for running Flashback (REminiscense) and Another World. Colors, LemmingsDS, and original games like StillAlive, Warcraft Tower Defence and World of Sand. Also the LoneWolf books... err.. games look very good, I'm gonna start getting in to them soon.

 

[SifJar]

Another great homebrew game is AmplituDS. Kinda along the lines of Guitar Hero, but instead of playing notes on a guitar, you shoot targets from a space ship.

 

[The Catboy]

besides emulation, what good homebrews were there?

There are tons of great homebrews out there!
http://gbatemp.net/topic/258689-essentials-homebrew/
And that list is just the tip of the iceberg!

 

[BassAceGold]

There's really no reward for making homebrew these days apart from self betterment. Just the fact that so many people are unaware of the current homebrew being released/worked on goes to show that the main audience for homebrew don't really care for the effort that homebrew authors put into making new stuff. In the mean time, you are free to try out all the old homebrew that have been released and ignored by 95% of the users here, maybe you'll find something you like if you aren't too judgemental before you try one.

 

[jurassicplayer]

Anyone who even suspects that homebrew is dead is dumb. Period. I take no prisoners.

 

[Foxi4]

Depends on your definition of "dead".

We've got homebrews released for the NES, still - that should tell you something. Homebrew never dies, it just slows down once there are better devices available to program for. In the past, the DS was the go-to platform to program for because there was little else to choose from. With the advent of Android, iOS and other similar devices with way superior specs, the DS became redundant. The motivation changed from I'm going to code something to I'm going to code something for the DS, which is a huge difference, as it narrows down the number of coders greatly.

 

[Cryoburner]

I don't see how anyone could consider it "dead". The DS hardware is nearing eight years old now though, and it's a bit limited in terms of what it's capable of compared to newer devices, so it makes sense that there will be fewer active developers for it compared to when the hardware was new. There is still new homebrew being released for it though, like the FPS Maker / First-Person Portal game that I see you already commented on.

If the 3DS gets made Homebrew-capable sometime in the near future, using either an inexpensive flash cart or softmod, I could definitely see that taking off, as there currently aren't any other widespread portable devices with 3D screens. It would be even greater if Nintendo ever opened up their 3DS development tools to the public, rather than requiring potential developers to be approved by them and spend thousands of dollars for the privilege. I can't help but think a more open system like that would ultimately help them remain relevant as many people move to smartphones and tablets for their portable gaming.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

I started to learn DS programming, but two screens = double the trouble not to mention the complexity of working with two processors, which devkitarm makes way easier but it is still more complicated than working with one processor. I think about continuing where I left of ds prgramming but I keep thinking about either programming for Android and/or wait for the 3DS to be hacked for homebrew.

EDIT: Also, I was just thinking how awesome would it be if my first 3ds hello world was with a 3d image saying "Hello three-dimensional world"

 

[Foxi4]

I started to learn DS programming, but two screens = double the trouble not to mention the complexity of working with two processors, which devkitarm makes way easier but it is still more complicated than working with one processor. I think about continuing where I left of ds prgramming but I keep thinking about either programming for Android and/or wait for the 3DS to be hacked for homebrew.

EDIT: Also, I was just thinking how awesome would it be if my first 3ds hello world was with a 3d image saying "Hello three-dimensional world"

Nowadays ARM7 is practically ignored unless you really, really, really want to write a custom core for it or improve upon the existing one. Communication between the two CPU's has been greatly simplified, but I can't even begin to imagine why you'd need the ARM7 to begin with, given the fact that it already takes care of a lot of things for you. If you're anything like myself, you begun learning when libnds was convoluted and hard to master - this is no longer the case. A lot of things have been simplified, and with the amount of tools to help you out and tutorials available online, it's no longer a pain. As a person who's never touched libnds until last week, I was perfectly capable of writing a few scripts for some of the other coders who had issues. Now, I still recommend NFLib for complete newbies, but libnds is no longer a fearsome monster it used to be and contains loads of wrappers for previously cryptic registers. The only problem it has is that it's updated very often and while you rarely encounter deprecated functions, the documentation and examples cannot keep up with the changes and leave a lot to be desired.

 

[EgoTrip]

I am currently working on a DS game called Subtera Puzlo, a preview version can be found on the DSGM WIP forum. So, in answer to your question, no, homebrew is not dead yet.

 

[shoyrumaster11]

I don't really think the scene is dead to be honest! I mean, i've got big plans to create a brand new scene for this old console. All you guys on GBAtemp will be the first to hear about all my betas and everything I do! That's if the mods are fine with it! The NDS Scene might be quieter than it used to but, surely it can't be dead! I mean, look at FUK Team and EgoTrip! They are all making homebrews. I will too after I finish C++ and DS Programming: From Zero to Hero! I other and simpler words. The scene can't be dead! And just to annoy realWinterMute, i'll go and say that there are still thriving C64 and ZX Spectrum scenes out there today. I mean! Just look at those scenes. And they're for 20 year old computers!

EDIT: I asked about downloading NDS homebrews once on GBAtemp and got a very similar argument about this "dead" scene!

 

[Arm73]

I don't really think the scene is dead to be honest! I mean, i've got big plans to create a brand new scene for this old console. All you guys on GBAtemp will be the first to hear about all my betas and everything I do! That's if the mods are fine with it! The NDS Scene might be quieter than it used to but, surely it can't be dead! I mean, look at FUK Team and EgoTrip! They are all making homebrews. I will too after I finish C++ and DS Programming: From Zero to Hero! I other and simpler words. The scene can't be dead! And just to annoy realWinterMute, i'll go and say that there are still thriving C64 and ZX Spectrum scenes out there today. I mean! Just look at those scenes. And they're for 20 year old computers!

EDIT: I asked about downloading NDS homebrews once on GBAtemp and got a very similar argument about this "dead" scene!

Try 30 years old computers...
But yes, you are right, I still cherish my DSiXL and I plan to use it for years to come.
If every now and then something new comes out, it'll be a good excuse to dust it off and try it....
Also I still follow the ZX Spectrum scene just so you know.....

 

[Boy12]

Thank's for all the comments!
I'm learning LUA for ds (i use a LUA player), and if i programmed something, i will post it in the Homebrew Section.
Thanks for the inspiration!