Early DS homebrew moments.

When I started considering doing homebrew on the Nintendo DS, the hardware used by hackers was pretty unconvenient to bring in a sofa. For years, I've kept those pictures around found on website such as http://natrium42.xyz/ or https://www.darkfader.net/ds/, two websites where people pushing the limits of homebrewing were exchanging information and achievements.

But I must admit, I was merely considering doing GBA homebrew on NDS, by then. I wanted to keep things simple. And to some extent, I still want, which is one of the reason why, in 2020, I still haven't started doing homebrew on any other system, unlike most former NDS homebrewers.

There's a much better coverage of the era in Modern Vintage Gamer's video (2019) (reached from Retro Reversing)

The hack on the first picture shows how to extend GBA device with mass storage through a IDE cable and a (portable, enclosed) hard disk. The first devices allowing to run DS homebrew software (not only GBA homebrew) was only half less chunky. To be able to do so, the PassMe device had to relay requests for signed headers to a genuine NDS cart plugged at the rear of the console while it was itself inserted in the slot 1 of the console. That sort of thing works fine on a 16-bit home console, like a game genie / Sonick & Knuckles like monster, but for a handheld, I'd have been constantly fearing to lose a part or break it.

The remaining alternative wasn't very appealing either, as it required you to flash the firmware of the console with one that would have a menu for browsing homebrews on GBA flash cart (iirc) and bypass copyprotection checks.

That involved bridging two testpoints (solder pads) together with a metallic device and keeping them in contact while you're flashing the ROM with new contents (don't remember how). Would you slip during the process, and you might end up with a bricked device that has incomplete firmware. 

Well, it turned out that I eventually started doing NDS homebrews running in emulators before I started doing GBA homebrews and that by the time I decided to purchase something doing GBA homebrew, 'passcard' were small enough to fit a slot 1.

Oh, and by the way, I just discovered someone made a top 5 best homebrew apps last month. When you see that they are youtube 4 DS, Yahoo messenger for DS, an MP3 player and a text editor disguised as WintenDoS, it shouldn't be a surprise why homebrew consumers turned to smartphones as soon as smartphones became cheap enough.

Happy new year, too.