Steven Fields asked:


When I first attempted trying to learn everything about Nintendo DS Homebrew, I was fascinated by the concept that there were hundreds of games and applications available for my Nintendo DS - Absolutely FREE! I have to admit that I had no idea as to what Homebrew software was. I read about it in online Nintendo DS forums, and kept hearing about interesting and sometimes amazing homebrew applications and homebrew games that I could simply download for free and play them on my Nintendo DS or DS Lite.

The reality of cost free video games and applications would be exciting to any gamer, and I am definitely no exception to the rule. So, just what is homebrew? A NDS Lite homebrew game is software written by clever game designers for the Nintendo DS handheld. A very large number of the games being of the highest quality. Homebrew greatly increases the functionality of the DS. And boy did I dig up video games. A number of the homebrew Nintendo DS Games are lower quality, but a vast majority of them would make even the best commercial games jealous.

After spending my time searching for more information and I spent most of a full week doing nothing but research, and lots of homebrew game downloading, I realized that what I needed to buy was a device that allowed me to store and then play all of the homebrew software that I now had sitting on my PC hard drive. From my research I discovered that there are some 15 or 20 homebrew / development and flash kits available for the Nintendo DS and the Gameboy Advance. One of the most popular units was the Supercard SD and a very new one, called the M3 DS Simply. These little devices are touted by homebrew gamers as the easiest to use, and most affordable Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS Media managers / development systems.

If you have a Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS Lite hand held systems, I would recommend the Supercard SD because the Supercard SD can also be used on your Gameboy Advance. And there are literally thousands of homebrew games and applications available for the Gameboy Advance system. Nintendo DS Homebrew will catch up to those numbers too, and perhaps will have even more free games and applications. Where do you find all of these free applications and games? Just fire up your internet browser and go to your favorite search engine and type in either NINTENDO DS HOMEBREW or GAMEBOY ADVANCE HOMEBREW and you’ll get a list pages and pages long of websites that talk about, cater to, or just plain carry all of the latest FREE homebrew software. It’s almost an adventure really. And I would not be surprised if some of these hombrew programmers end up being commercial game programmers in the very near future. The quality of the games is just that good!

Both the Supercard SD and the M3 DS Simply do much more than just play homebrew Nintendo DS Roms. They play movies, mp3 music, allow you to check out your latest digital photos in the JPEG picture format that most digital cameras use. Both of these units also allow you to read ebooks right on your Nintendo DS screen in the form of TXT documents. Now, when I say movies, I really mean movies. With the included software you can convert your DVD movies to play on the Supercard SD or the M3 DS Simply, and watch your movies on the go.

The Supercard SD (SD stands for Secure Digital) and the M3 DS Simply both have an advantage over many development kits. The Supercard SD uses low cost Secure Digital memory cards, for unlimited storage capacity, whie the M3 DS Simply uses microSD cards. You can easily find SD and microSD cards at any electronics store such as Radio Shack, BestBuy and even on eBay if you want a bargain and can wait a few days to get the item in the mail. I make reference to an advantage because almost all other flash kits have built in memory. While this can be a good thing, it does hold you back when you’re looking for extra storage for movies, games, or applications.

Steven Fields asked:


The M3 DS Simply is what’s called a slot 1 homebrew solution for the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo DS Lite hand held video game system. The slot 1 part of the name refers to the Nintendo DS game slot on the hand held itself. For those of you reading this and not in the know, the Nintendo DS has 2 cartridge slots. The first one being slot 1 for Nintendo DS games, and the second one being slot 2 for the gameboy advance game cartridges.

A slot 1 card is highly covetted because prior to slot 1 solutions, one had to put an oversized gameboy advance cartridge as well as a Passme card into their Nintendo DS. While this method of homebrew Nintendo ds rom playing worked just as well, it was very unsightly, not to mention that it was about twice the price.

The M3 DS Simply allows Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite owners to fully unlock their hand held system. You can load any type of Nintendo DS Roms and homebrew games and applications with just this one cartridge, that looks and acts just like a regular Nintendo DS game cartridge. While this article is not meant to serve as an M3 DS Simply Review, I will be listing the ways by which you use the M3 DS Simply.

The M3 DS Simply is essentially ready to use out of the box, with the exception of a microSD card, which you’ll have to purchase either online or your local radio shack or best buy type store. Included with the M3 DS Simply is a microsd card reader that plugs into your usb port to allow you to quickly and easily copy game files and homebrew applications directly to the microsd card.

Just how do you use the M3 DS Simply? It’s rather simple. The M3 DS Simply uses MicroSD memory cards. These work just the same as Secure Digital / SD Cards with the only difference being their size. MicroSD Cards are extremely small in size, yet pack the same amount of storage as their bigger brothers. With the included microSD card reader / writer, you are able to plug your microSD card into any USB port on your computer. You then simply drag and drop the files from your PC to your microSD Card (which will have shown up as a removeable disk). Once you’ve selected all the files you want to put on the card (and play on your Nintendo DS) you remove the reader / writer and take out the microSD Card.

The top of the M3 DS Simply, as small as it is, actually has a slot on the top of it where you can insert a microSD card. Amazing when you consider that the M3 DS Simply is no bigger than a regular Nintendo DS Cartridge. Once the microSD card is inserted and the m3 ds simply cartridge is placed into the Nintendo DS, just power up your console, and you’ll be greeted by the M3 DS Simply main menu.

The main menu of the M3 DS Simply consists of 3 icons. The first icon being the GAME icon, where you can go into the game loader menu, and select from the games you have stored on your microSD Card. You’ll be greeted with a list on the top screen of the Nintendo DS Lite showing the names of the games you have stored. By using your directional pad, you can scroll up or down in the game list and select the game you wish to load by pressing your A button. You’ll be asked to press the A button again if you have not yet created a SAVE FILE for the game. The SAVE FILE is a little file created on the fly on your M3 DS Simply which will store all of your game saves. Once this is done, you’ll see the game loading progress bar in the bottom screen of the Nintendo DS. Games load in just a second or two. This is the place to load you homebrew games or applications.

The second menu option is the MEDIA MANAGER. The Media manager allows you to load your favorite MP3 songs, video files (yes, entire DVD movies can be compressed and put onto your microSD Card) as well as JPG images and ebooks. You’ll have to drag and drop the ebooks, mp3 music or video files from your PC to the microSD card you’ll be using in your M3 DS simply, but that’s essentially it. The application that runs the media manager is called MOONSHELL, and it turns your Nintendo DS Lite into a full blown hand held multi media entertainment system. If you’re like me, and read eBooks on the go, then this is a MUST. And you can toss away your iPod too, because your Nintendo DS has just become a portable ebook and music player. Not to mention that fact that you’ll be able to watch your movies on the go, with the built in movie player functionality.

The final option offered by the M3 DS Simply is the BOOT SLOT 2 Option. This option will load whatever game cartridge or flash cartridge you have in Slot 2 of your Nintendo DS Lite. Slot 2 is the Gameboy Advance port on your NDS console. You can even purchase a seperate Homebrew cartridge and really unlock the full potential of your Nintendo DS with thousands of Gameboy Advance homebrew games and applications.

In closing, the M3 DS Simply is a must have accessory that truly unlocks the full potential of your Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite hand held game system. Offering up not only thousands of free homebrew games and applications but adds an entire suite of multi media features and functions to your Nintendo DS.