lost child

List of recommended DS Games, Software, and Hardware Animal Crossing: Wild World I'm sure by now my town is weedy and my house is full of mice Arkanoid DS While not my favorite port, I wanted it to use the Taito paddle Big Bang Mini Colorful and fun in short bursts Big Brain Academy I haven't played in a while. I think my brain is shrinking. Brain Age Another fun game that makes you think. Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars As I'm writing this list, I am waiting for my DS to charge so I can play this some more. DK: Jungle Climber I enjoyed King of Swing on the Gameboy Advance, so I had to get the sequel. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen I don't play through a lot of RPGs. I have a fondness for the DQ series. This is my favorite yet. Elite Beat Agents Silly and fun rhythm game. Giana Sisters DS Call me blasphemer, but I'm not much of a fan of the C64 game. However, the DS game has given me several hours of joyful bliss. It's FUN! Guitar Hero: On Tour It's fun, but (sadly) my hand cramps up AND I'm afraid of shredding my touchscreen. Jumble Madness The game is good fun, if you enjoy these sorts of puzzles. Korg-DS10 With Korg DS-10, I have written several bonky tunes for inclusion in my own games. Mario Kart DS Mario Kart is my favorite racing game on any platform. Music Monstars A bit short and the music was like midi, but it was entertaining while it lasted. Neves Fun... if you like tangram puzzles. I wish Capcom would make a sequel to their PC game, Tang Chi, except for the DS. New Super Mario Bros Just good fun. Opera DS Browser Sure, it's slow and painful at times, but I can check email and read forums in bed! Picross DS This is the game that pushed me to buy a DS. Picross 3D I thought this would be overly complicated... not so. It's good fun! Planet Puzzle League Fun with a friend, but I don't have any so... it doesn't get played much. :/ Professor Layton and the Curious Village The Professor Layton games are fantastic, if you like puzzles. Retro Game Challenge I really like the Haggleman games which are reminiscent of Ninja Jajamaru-Kun Rhythm Heaven A quirky and fun game, that I need to spend more time with. Scribblenauts Tons of replay value... I like to find the most creative ways to complete the puzzles. Soul Bubbles This was exclusively sold at ToysRUs, so I'm not sure that a lot of people know about the game. I find it very relaxing. Space Invaders Extreme Abnoxious, loud, and colorful. I like it quite a lot. Space Bust-A-Move It's Puzzle Bobble, which is good in my opinion. I have the DS paddle which makes it better. Tetris DS Gotta love Tetris! This is one of the better ports, IMO. Umihare Kuwase Shun I love the games in this series. The DS version is more of the same. Warioware D.I.Y. This is great, if you have a list of friends to share your creations with! Homebrew & Emulation Animatee A fun little animation tool. imgview Great for looking at pictures (or comic book scans) on the DS Knytt Stories DS I love Knytt Stories on the PC. This isn' as good, but it's as close as it's gonna get for the DS. Lemmings DS A very nice port of a game that I don't play as much as I should. jEnesisDS Sega Genesis Emulator - some small problems, but pretty nice overall Lameboy The Gameboy has a huge selection of games that are still fun today. This is a good way to play them. MrDo DS Mr. Do is one of my favorite arcade games. This emulator emulates most (all?) of the Mr. Do arcade games (excluding the Neo*Geo game) as well as a couple of other Universal games. msxDS Play MSX games on the DS! (had to rename the ROM file extensions to .ROM, if I remember correctly) NeoDS A very nice Neo*Geo emulator. (It's surprising how well this runs!) Nes DS NES emulator with some small issues. NitroGrafX A very nice Turbo GrafX 16 Emulator! s8DS An excellent emulator that plays Sega Master System, Gamegear, SG-1000, and ColecoVision ROMs. SNemulDS A decent Super Nintendo Emu with layering issues. Solomon's Key DS An arcade Emulator for another of my favorites. Other Hardware: CycloDS Evolution You'll need a flash cartridge to run homebrew and emulators. CycloDS is not one the least expensive flash cartridge, but (in my opinion) it is one of the best. EZFlash V 3-in-1 RAM, Rumble, and Flash cart - all in one. (slot-2 / GBA port) This acts as a rumble pak, memory expansion (for the Opera Browser), and a flash cartridge for loading Gameboy Advance Games from a slot-1 device (like the CycloDS). Taito Paddle It sticks out of a Lite funny and it'll drain your battery power, but the Taito paddle is totally cool and adds a lot to the feel and gameplay of those games that are compatible. Games I mean to play: Advanced Wars (I love the GBA version) Castlevania Games Kirby Games ... I'm writing this list while I do laundry and wait for my DS to charge (so I can play Broken Sword some more). Also, I can already see that I've forgotten a few games and things. I'll probably update the list later. It can be tedious and discouraging to try and find a good game amidst the heaps of shovelware and complete suckage! If you have any suggestions, please send 'em my way. Adios!

It must be a continuation of his April Fools' joke. ... am I right, Homer?

From someone who was not hurt directly by these practices, that would be awfully easy to say. I suspect not so much for anyone who got bent over without so much as the courtesy of a reach-around. If Curt was a victim of Bushnell's business practices, then it's probably a little more difficult for him to "Get the fuck over it". I applaud Curt and Marty for making an effort to document the truth. If Mr. Bushnell finds these things to be libelous, let him come forward to defend himself. (This is one of the most interesting threads I've read in a long time.)

Just to clarify my post above... I'm totally in, if I can pay with Paypal (I noticed that Keilbaca's name got added to the list, but mine didn't; I wasn't sure if this is an indicator that Paypal not an option - even for the pool).

I am interested. I've been on the lookout for a good Sega Flash Cart for a while. I'm not sure how this one slipped under my radar. How will you pool the funds? I read on the webpage that Paypal is not accepted - unfortunately, this is the only convenient payment method for me. (I'd have a Cuttle Cart 3 by now if this were not the case) ... axe: Not to steer this off topic, but I'm curious about the TG16 flashcarts you mentioned above. Which flash cart were you looking at? (I don't have a TG16 at the moment, but it's on my list).

Somehow I missed the update too! This is very nice... I may have to dig the Krokocart out (for the first time in forever) to give this a go on the real hardware. Now I may have to go looking through the hacks forum to see what else I've missed in the last several months.

I'm really bummed by the lack of worthwhile DS releases lately. For a while it was my favorite system... now it's falling in rank fairly quickly.

Holy crap, jaybird3rd! That really sucks! I don't think I would have even asked for a 50% return. That guy was out to rip someone off and should have to return 100% AND eat the shipping and eBay fees - what a jerk!

Yes! That looks exactly like what I need! Thanks for the link!

4NM (Beta) Download: http://games4noah.sitesled.com/4NM.zip Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxW2M25Db5Y You'll need to define D-Pad controls, in your emulator, to the cursor keys. (Controlled with Mouse X,Y Axis) Set Button A and B to the "C" and "X" keys on your keyboard. (Controlled with Mouse Button 1 and 2) Unzip the file and run 4NM.exe. A small white box with crosshairs will appear. Drag this box somewhere over the top of your emulator window. Pressing the "Spacebar" on your keyboard will toggle the tool on/off. Pressing "TAB" will close the tool. 4NM is very sensitive to mouse input. This is especially evident while inputting your name in Marble Madness. Here, use slow and steady movements for the best results. The sensitivity doesn't seem to be problematic during gameplay. Known Bugs: In the archive is a file called nomousy.exe. This is used to hide the mouse cursor while the tool is in use. Although 4NM has been written to show the mouse again when it is shut down, I've found that this sometimes doesn't work with zSNES (and possibly other emulators). Should the cursor not reappear on shut down, simply run nomousy.exe and it will reappear. Optionally, the player can eliminate the chance of this altogether by renaming or deleting the nomousy.exe. When doing so, the cursor arrow will remain visible (and look ugly) during gameplay. When the tool is on, a black pixel will still be present in the top left corner. This isn't horribly distracting, but I have ideas/plans to rework the tool so it will no longer be present. Button A and Button B are controlled using the left and right mouse buttons. Some emulators have functions mapped to these controls (Nestopia toggles on/off the title bar when the right-mouse button is clicked). I would suggest using FCEUltra while testing with 4NM. ... 4NM is still in early beta. Eventually it will be released (along with my other 4Noah game accessibility tools) for use with headtrackers. I have plans to add options to redefine simulated keystrokes and tweak sensitivity. Feedback is welcome. For the curious, 4Noah is a set of accessibility tools that reduce the number of controls needed to play games. A game like Super Mario Bros can be played using one button!

I recently wrote a small tool that will translate mouse input into simulated keystrokes on the computer keyboard. I wrote it specifically to play Marble Madness in FCEUltra. However, the tool allows for many games, previously controlled by a gamepad or computer keyboard, to be played with the mouse. (I use a Logitech Marble Mouse and Marble Madness seems a bit closer to the arcade experience.) I don't know if the HSC has a rule against this sort of tool. If anyone is interested in trying it out, I can give more information and post a link to the download.

Yech! I moved to Amazon after having several of these kinds of experiences on eBay. I haven't had any problems since I've been on Amazon; perhaps it's only a matter of time? I've been hosed by Paypal in the past, but it's still more convenient for me than other payment options. It seems like everyone will bend you over for a quick buck these days.

Mmmkay... here's another one. A decent lot that comes with an Atari 2600 Jr, a set of paddles, and four joysticks (including a Slikstick) for 25 bucks. However, I'm still not sure if I really want it. I have most of those things. I'm unsure about a few of the games here. Is the second one down on the left a Mario Bros? I can't make out the M-Network game or the Parker Bros game underneath it. I'd be all over it if it was a Star Wars Arcade! I think I can make out the rest. Any ideas?

Wow! Okay... my head is swimming just a bit. I'm sorry for all of the questions... I just want to be sure things are possible before I spend a bunch of time trying to get it to work. Haha! After some digging, I discovered that an older version of the development software I use had support for parallel port communication. Luckily, I still have my original cds, so I could easily reinstall the software and get to work. Okay, I'm going to ask this question (and I know I have asked it before, but this time it's slightly different... I think). If I am communicating with the parallel port, will I still need something in between to intercept and translate signals? If it's not obvious, I'm most interested in any method where no special hardware needs to be built. Golly, I'm dumb. Thanks for your patience! This is for a good (nonprofit) cause... if that makes me any less annoying. ... If you have a better idea of how to implement something like this or know of someone who might be able to design an inexpensive interpreter/adapter (yah, I'm dreaming), please let me know what you think.

Something like this? (Actually, I think I have one floating around here somewhere) Would I still need something in between to intercept and translate the signals? .NET is supported with the development software I use, but I have not yet tinkered with it. I guess I need to do a little bit of research to see if/how I can communicate through a USB port.

Actually, I'm glad you mentioned it. Maybe I can push for parallel port support.

Thank you, GroovyBee. I kind of expected that might be the case. So, now (if I decide to proceed with the project) I will need to find a hardware guy to conjure up a cool adapter for me. ... Just for kicks, I thought I'd attach a video of one of my tools used to play some Atari games with only one button: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyRqpyUL1a0

My apologies up front - I'm not sure if this is the right forum and I'm not hardware savvy, so my question may be extremely stupid. I am the author of a set of accessibility software tools that help a player to control several actions in a game with minimal input. So far these tools have been limited to pc games and emulation. I'd like to expand to be able to control game consoles, but I'm not a hardware guy and don't have the slightest idea of where I would even start if I wanted to build my own setup. I had another idea though: The development software I use has support to communicate to the serial ports. Would it be possible to control an Atari VCS using a female/female serial cord connecting my PC to my VCS? If this would be possible, how should the "messages" be sent? I was looking at some pinouts for the joystick and thought a message of "1" for UP "2" for DOWN, etc.... but nothing is ever that simple. http://pinouts.ru/Inputs/JoystickAtari2600_pinout.shtml Anyway, forgive my ignorance. If this (or something similar) isn't possible, maybe I'll need to commission someone to build something.

Nice... this gets better all the time. It took me a second to figure out the title screen. Clever.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but... I saw this lot listed on Craigslist for 25 bucks, but I can't make out many of the titles. I already have a decent starter collection, so I'm not interested if it's all commons. Thanks for any help.

This is sweet! Nice job!

I wasn't depressed until they pointed out that I'm a middle-aged fatty.

... the fuji sorta looks like an anthill.

I'm going way off topic now, but how come we didn't get the re-released "classic series" version of the game for the NES? I was thrilled when I first discovered the ROM - it probably gets played more than just about anything else on my Powerpak. ... Back on topic.. I haven't bought any games for a while, but this one and Opcode's DK have me drooling all over myself! Cheers!

Not sure if it counts, but my older brother and I went in together on a copy of Ice Climber for the NES. If not, then later on the timeline, I bought Elevator Action with my own money.