Now Maybe We Can Talk

Well... it's out. The press releases were finally sent out, the media embargo was lifted, and my big no-sleep-'till-prod project has finally been announced to the public. It was almost four months ago I last prepped the exit music, and hopefully I'm back for a little while now.

Project Apricot is in full swing, the NDS widely available homebrew cart, I'm still filing bugs for openSUSE 10.3, accelerated MPEG2 playback isn't working on my Mythbox, I finally got a copy of The Orange Box along with a copy of Orcs and Elves for the NDS. There's plenty to do.

In my five-minutes-here-five-minutes there I've been enjoying Carmack's mobile-turned-DS title, although it took me a while to adjust my frame of reference. Don't expect more than a turn-based DooM mod... it's a sprite-based engine that is first person but completely turn based. But after you adjust your expectations you realize it's a return to form of sorts. Carmack was a pencil-and-paper AD&D player, and such roots definitely go deep in this title. You can see where his experience as a DM sparked a lot of good ingenuity and design into a rather primitive (but imminently playable) title.

Games 'n' Music Finally Viable?

It appears that the widely available Games N Music homebrew cartridge has finally been hacked - the filesystem can now be written to after all. It now looks to be a possible development platform...

Dammit. Wish I had time to mess with it.

What the NDS and iPhone Have In Common

This past weekend I saw a copy of Opera for the Nintendo DS just idly sitting on the store shelf. I picked up a copy and thought to myself "damn, I'm out of the loop. I didn't even realize this was out yet!" Evidentially I picked up an early copy - the release wasn't reported until the following Monday.

I'm surprised how much I'm using the browser. I didn't think I'd be the type to roam through my house checking random sites on the NDS. But in an age of ubiquitous WebMail and continuously streaming blogs, a device that allows you to quickly scroll through snippets of online text is actually pretty useful. There turns out to be plenty of opportunities where I "just want to check something," such as see if a webcomic has been posted for today or check if I've received new e-mail at work. Instances not exactly worth booting up a laptop, but perfect for just cracking open the NDS and hopping on wireless briefly.

The DS doesn't have an open third-party SDK, and no accessible means for running homebrew currently exists. Instead, Nintendo is hoping that Web applications will grant enough functionality to fill the gap. Sound familiar?

Steve Jobs' recent keynote hammered home the insistence that while 3rd party API exposure won't be available for the iPhone, Web applications will be more than enough to offer custom functionality. He suggests that a Web browser can be used in lieu of an ability to launch third-party applications.

The assertion that modern Web applications, what with their asynchronous JavaScript and XML, can replace standard applications is pretty ridiculous. Can JavaScript monitor what roaming tower your SIM card is using? Er... no. Can XML be used to play Doom? No. While you may be able to monitor a RSS mashup, no applications can leverage the hardware in your hand. Saying that any Web application is going to replace a device's native API is hella stupid.

But will the lack of third-party applications hurt the iPhone's success? Not likely. Lack of homebrew availability on the NDS hasn't exactly hurt sales all that much. If you do something and do it well, you're going to sell.

Muted Games N Music

In the time that has passed since I first lamented the DS' limited ability to execute independent applications Nintendo DS development has become increasingly mainstream, and along with that a slew of affordable and easy-to-use NDS flash cards have become available that allows independently developed applications to be executed on the DS. There's even a retail flash card now - the "Games 'n' Music" cartridge. I'm not linking to it... it lacks the file system drivers that make it a useful device. But it's the first flash cartridge (that I know of) that's widely available in retail channels such as your local neighborhood BestBuy.
I picked one up, just to see what it was like. It lacks DLDI support, which means it can't interact with the filesystem. If it can't interact with the filesystem, that means no save games, no loading libraries, no loading maps, no user profiles. Blech.

But it's in retail, which makes it interesting. And it boots DS Linux, which is at least mildly intriguing. At it's cheap... only $35 for the flash card, 128 microSD card and a microSD USB reader. I might waste an equal amount on a craptastic NDS title... so I don't feel too entirely guilty about buying a flash cart that's missing a DLDI.

I think I understand why Datel didn't offer DLDI support. By disabling DLDI people can't execute pirated ROM's from commercial cartridges - instead people are stuck with pure homebrew that doesn't require local storage. This could possibly limit ROM execution of course... but this also wrecks a lot of homebrew.

Thus far I've booted Linux, tried a video and failed to play one homebrew title. Maybe this will eventually gain usefulness once the cart's filesystem is cracked, but until then it may just stay in the bag.

Converge to a Crash

Since the days of calculator watches, convergence of personal electronics was the goal of every gadget-loving geek. Our coffee makers should make eggs and toast. Our watches should be able to convert metric to imperial and give pi to fifteen digits. Our game consoles should be the media hub of our living room. PDA's should be integrated into every electronics device imaginable, but inter-operate with none.

I had a dream called the Samsung i500. Part PalmOS PDA, part phone, sync'd to Linux, allowed third-party applications & Palm gaming. It should have consolidated my iPAQ, cell phone and mobile gaming console into one lil' compact unit.

Hilarity.

The phone was serviceable at first, but it was neither a good PDA or a good phone. Third party apps worked, but space was limited. Sync'ing contacts was a pain because the Linux USB Visor drivers locked up my machine. Things like voice dialing just didn't work. And for some inexplicable reason you could use the phone to receive text messages, just not send text messages. Right.

The i500 had finally taken all the abuse it could and started corrupting my contacts and calendar databases. They eventually got so bad they caused memory exceptions and locked up the phone. Ugly.

During this time I aquired my NDS and an iPod. Calendaring & contacts were actually being served up much better by the iPod than any PDA I had used in the past (thanks to its native vCard and .ics file format support). The NDS was my stop for mobile gaming. And my i500 became nothing more than a half-assed brick.

But this doesn't just deal with the idiocy of smartphones. Look who else is doing this - namely console manufacturers. Sony wanted the PS3 to be your high-def media center, file server, gaming center, music server, bread toaster all-in-one. In the end, however, sales were awful. CNN deemed "the PS3 may be the chrome-trimmed headstone on the grave of convergence." Not to say that you can't have successfuly convergent devices... you definitely can. But you have to do all parts well, not just some. My i500 was a weak PDA and a poor cell phone, but I mistakenly thought that those two weak facets added together would equal a stronger convergent device. Instead I got a broken PDA and a crappy phone.

Same thing with gaming. Cell phone games are popular, but I'd wager dollars to doughnuts the industry has hit its peak. I know that Intel, IBM and Nvidia are ramping up their own system-on-a-chip products for mobile devices, hoping to bring vertex shading to 2" screens. But if you're a gamer, purchasing 4-5 titles a year, what system are you going to rely on? A J2ME-based cell phone that's so tiny the ligaments in your thumb pop, or a pocket-sized DS Lite? Would you rather have a phone that third-party publishers and developers still can't deploy product onto, or would you rather have a handheld console where you can just buy a $30 title off the shelf?

So forget convergence, I'm back to just buying what I need. Now I just need Dockers to bring back their Mobile Pant.