Oh so much fun for Nintendo DS (Updated: 2006-04-03)

Everyday I find more reasons to love my Nintendo DS. :-D


* Cooking Mama

First, I was hooked in a Japanese game called Cooking Mama . The purpose of this game is to cook meal using your stylus and even the microphone. I was a bit confused about the game play until I found this FAQ which leaded me to the right direction. Thanks, Titney!


* NitroTracker - Step Music Sequencer

And then there is this homebrew sequencer application called NitroTracker, and it was so awesome. Granted it's far from those real portable sequencers like Yamaha QY-100 but it is great enough to have a sequencer always in my bag. I mean, I cannot even find a Pocket PC app that does something similar!

[Old message: 2006-04-01]
However, the current version still have some problem with my SuperCard CF. Particually, the Save and Load function doesn't work. Every time I click the Save/Load tab, the system just freezed. But other than that, the app does basically what a step sequencer should be. Great work, and look forward to try another version that has better support on SuperCard CF!

[Updated: 2006-04-03]
Holy cow. The author was so cool that he solved the SuperCard save/load problem and posted version 0.1.3 on the official web site. I tried and indeed I can load the demo song without problem. I'll play a bit more tonight after band practice. Man, this app made me so hyped up . If I am so much into learning 3D modeling, practice for dance performance on May, routine band pratice, lyrics writing and day time job, I may jump into this NDS development thing. :-I (Gotta cut back more hobbies...)




* SuperCard update
The lastest Supercard update has been released. This version support ROM all the way to ROM No.380. That means those of you who have problem running Tertris DS can now convert the clean ROM using the new conversion software version 2.52, and start enjoying the Tetris fun. I haven't tried the 1.61 Firmware update though based on the "if it ain't break, don't fix" policy. But at least English training and Tetris DS is working now (No orginal card required).


* Moonshell 1.1
Another great news: the best mediaplayer for NDS, Moonshell, is getting better. 1.1 is released, and it solved the ultimate problem that I had with it: the L and R trigger won't stop the audio playback unless you press both trigger! This is totally awesome because previous I always had my mp3 playback paused because the NDS in backpack always accidentally got the L/R trigger pressed. Also, the JPEG zoom is better than before. Ultra cool.

The installation application is kind of funky, but basically you expand the moonshell11.zip file, ran the Setup.exe, and then point the install destination to your CF or SD card. By default it will install all versions (SC and ....???). I only need the SC version, but I take the default installation anyway (remove extra files later). And that's it.

The encode video, you need the Moonshell DPG Tool. The resulting video is actually pretty small, and while it's not like PSP quality, it's decent enough for you to enjoy on the road. However I experienced some audio out of sync problem, and it seems like the problem was not only caused by some of the video drop of my original MPEG file, but also by the conversion application. Until I totally resolved then problem, I still cannot recommand my friends to use NDS as their major portable video player. But then I have hope that some day these problems will be resolved.

The Moonshell DPG Tool cannot, though, handle quite some of the video formats that I have on my machine. And since NDS cannot play non-converted video, the ability of the video convertion application dictates the usability of the video player. And for now, the NDS fits your need if you only care about converting VCD to play on NDS.

Oh, and forget about using Moonshell 0.9 to play DPG Tool 1.0 converted video. It won't work and will hang your machine.

Also forget about using G6 Movie Converter-en.rar to convert video for NDS with Moonshell. It won't work.

In case you are still crazy about converting NDS video, here's some tidbits (but they are all written in Simplified Chinese).


* mp3play0.7
I was told that there's a MP3 player called mp3play for NDS. However, since Moonshell works for me, I am not too concern about getting another MP3 player.