November 19th, 2009 — Nintendo DS / DS Lite, Nintendo DSi
GamerDeals.net has posted what it claims are Wal-Mart’s Black Friday deals and, if accurate, there are some serious savings to be had. Probably the most prominent deal would be the doorbuster on Rock Band 2 Special Edition for PS3 or 360, which will net you the full band kit and the game for a paltry $50. Another impressive deal, shoppers can pick up a PS3, Infamous, “Batman” (Arkham Asylum, we’re assuming) and a copy of The Dark Knight for $299. In comparison, the Xbox 360 gets the lukest of lukewarm bundles ever, an Xbox 360 Arcade unit complete with the Madagascar 2 game and both Madagascar movies on DVD.
Other deals include select console titles for between $7 and $25, select PC games for $25 and a $98 doorbuster on DS Lites (time to clear that stock, amirite?). Head over to GamerDeals for the full rundown. We were unable to confirm the deals with Wal-Mart, though we were told that the official Black Friday announcement will arrive on Monday, November 23.
Rumor: Wal-Mart’s Black Friday deals originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
November 19th, 2009 — Nintendo DS / DS Lite, Nintendo DSi
GamerDeals.net has posted what it claims are Wal-Mart’s Black Friday deals and, if accurate, there are some serious savings to be had. Probably the most prominent deal would be the doorbuster on Rock Band 2 Special Edition for PS3 or 360, which will net you the full band kit and the game for a paltry $50. Another impressive deal, shoppers can pick up a PS3, Infamous, “Batman” (Arkham Asylum, we’re assuming) and a copy of The Dark Knight for $299. In comparison, the Xbox 360 gets the lukest of lukewarm bundles ever, an Xbox 360 Arcade unit complete with the Madagascar 2 game and both Madagascar movies on DVD.
Other deals include select console titles for between $7 and $25, select PC games for $25 and a $98 doorbuster on DS Lites (time to clear that stock, amirite?). Head over to GamerDeals for the full rundown. We were unable to confirm the deals with Wal-Mart, though we were told that the official Black Friday announcement will arrive on Monday, November 23.
Rumor: Wal-Mart’s Black Friday deals originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
November 19th, 2009 — Hacks & Mods
November 19th, 2009 — Hacks & Mods
This neat accelerometer controlled marble maze adds a level of fun to retrieving a gum ball. You have to first navigate the maze using a controller that has a dual axis accelerometer in it to control the angle of the platform. Though that does look like a wii accessory, there is no wiimote in there. Only after you have completed it will the gum ball machine dispense the candy. [Dan] constructed everything himself, which might explain the lack of “pits” for the marble to fall into in the maze.
More details on the build and source code are available on his page.
[via hacked gadgets]
November 19th, 2009 — Nintendo DS / DS Lite, Nintendo DSi
Proving that there really are (really) games being made for
DSiWare without “Sudoku” in their title, Teyon has announced
101 MiniGolf World for Nintendo’s DSi download service. The game, which gets it name from the fact that it features six 18-hole courses, has yet to be dated — but at least we can get a look at it.
We became excited briefly when the announcement mentioned support for eight players … until we parsed the next few words and realized Teyon means by passing your DS around. Still, the developer is promising “mind-blowing obstacles, loops, pipes, ramps” and so forth. It would be nice to have a new DSiWare title blow our minds rather than our DSi Points.
101 MiniGolf World fills a hole in DSiWare lineup originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
November 19th, 2009 — Uncategorized
We get a lot of questions about the DS Xtreme Mod from a whole lot of customers. Asking us as to whether or not they should consider buying the DS Xtreme mod over other DS Flash card products. So in light of all of the questions, the easiest thing for us to do is simply to give all of the answers on our Blog – to better help out current and future customers make the right decisions about their DS Flash Card purchase.
So Just Why Is The DS Xtreme Mod So Popular?
Well, to be honest, quite simply put – we have to go back to the time BEFORE the DS Xtreme Mod was released. Before the release of the DS Xtreme Mod Nintendo DS homebrew gamers WERE able to load hombrew, games and applications via several GBA Flash Cards which had already been on the market. They were there, these flashcards received updates to enable them, with the help of a PassKey or SuperKey to load NDS files as well as GBA files. One of the more popular ones at the time was the NDS Super Card which was originally developed for use with the Gameboy Advance / Game Advance SP system. With the use of a superkey however, that same flash card that was made for the GBA, now worked in the Nintendo DS. But it was still what we now call a SLOT 2 Flash card, and of course, the Superkey would take up your NDS game slot, because it had to be inserted in order for the unit to be recognized in your NDS.
Now, while we’re only talking about ONE GBA Flash card that ended up turning into an NDS Flash card, there were numerous variations of these units out there. IN fact a pretty good number of the GBA card, with the use of a superkey and updated firmware from the card manufacturers themselves, ended up working for the NDS gamer too.
And as such, Nintendo DS homebrew was born. And thriving. But as the tech junkies that we all are, everyone wanted something perfect. We didn’t want to use our GBA flash cards, that require patching of game files, and having to run them through the SuperCard software to make them work as an NDS file. We wanted something we could all plug in, and just start using out of the box, without any patching or hassles. This is in fact why even today, many of the slot 1 cards like the NDS TTDS and others, still list “Drag and Drop” and “No Patching Required” Amongst their list of features.
All of this was good and fine, but people really wanted to have an NDS Flash Card that looked, worked, and felt like a regular Nintendo DS card…. In comes the DS Xtreme Mod. The DS Xtreme was the very first SLOT 1 (NDS GAME SLOT) flash card for the Nintendo DS. It did away with having to buy a passme or superkey as well. Not only that, it came with built in memory to boot. So you have nothing more to buy except the actual DS Xtreme – and you would be up and running in now time.
(Editors Note: The DS Xtreme Mod has been discontinued by the manufacturer – so when buying, please take that into consideration)
The DS Xtreme had a unique menu system, came with a whooping (at the time) 512MByte built in memory (which translated to 4GigaBits for your files) and could not only play games, but could also play movies, music, etc… It also didn’t require you to patch your games. You could simply drag and drop them onto the DS Xtreme once you connected it via USB to your computer and away you went. Playing your favorite home brew app, or listening to your favorite music.
All Good Things Must Come To An End:
But then something else happened. While the DS Xtreme Mod was keeping people busy, and playing a-la NDS Cartridge style, the M3 Team released not one, but two Nintendo DS Flash Cards.
The M3 DS Simply and the R4 DS Card. You see, up to that point, only the DS Xtreme (and the later G6 DS Real) cards were the only cards that actually worked in your NDS as slot 1 flash cards. You didn’t need extra hardware, didn’t need to install software on your PC, just drag and drop your files and play you would. But…. they were pricey. Not because the people behind the products wanted to over charge, but because of the built in memory costs, which tend to fluctuate up and down as the markey supply and demand changes. Unfortunately, the DS Xtreme was built at a time when flash memory was at a premium. With the release of microSD Cards, and the M3 DS and R4 DS cards, which could utilize them, customers soon realized that there was a much cheaper way, and that they were no longer limited to just 512Mbytes of memory – they could actually use much more. Up to 2Gigabytes – which meant the difference between being able to load up your card with say, 4-5 files, or 18-30 files. What is even more important to point out however, is that microSD Cards came in really cheap. Where a DS-X would cost you $149.00 for the 512Mbyte model, you could get an R4 DS with a 1 gig microSD card for under $70.00 (Thatr’s now changed of course… You can buy an official R4 DS for only $19.95!)
With the release of the R4 DS and similar slot 1 cards, customers had more choice. Sure, the Supercard worked, but it worked in a way that required extra steps in order to fill up that memory card. Extra steps that required every single game to be compressed / converted before they could be used on your Nintendo DS. The R4 DS and the M3 DS Simply did away with that. They just worked (We can’t help but wonder if that’s why they called it the M3 DS SIMPLY – because it Simply works!)
As time has passed, most of these all in one units, by which we mean Slot 1 DS Flash cards that have the unit, and the memory as an all in one, went to the wayside. With super low cost microSD cards – there really wasn’t a big market left for units that had built in memory, which was quite often double or triple the price of similar microSD card compatible units. As mentioned above, the DS Xtreme has been discontinued, but the most famous of all of the flash cards, the R4 DS Card is still available and still a customer favorite both for it’s compatibility with all types of files, and low cost microSD Card compatibility.
Find out more about the R4 DS Card for Nintendo DS….
Click Here.
November 19th, 2009 — Nintendo DS / DS Lite, Nintendo DSi
Gamers certainly aren’t strangers to memorabilia, doubly so for figurines, but this Professor Layton statue from NCSX has one thing going for it those others don’t: you can actually afford it. We’re used to seeing those high-dollar Samus statues and Capcom’s ridiculously-priced (and ridiculously nice!) Street Fighter series, so when we caught wind of this $30 Professor Layton companion, we knew we had to post it up. So … yeah, that’s what this is.
What? You were expecting more? OK, here’s a riddle: What’s 120 words, loves you and thinks you’re the sexiest person on the planet? Head past the break for the answer!
[Via Go Nintendo]
Continue reading Professor Layton and the Figurine of Want
Professor Layton and the Figurine of Want originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
November 19th, 2009 — Hacks & Mods
November 19th, 2009 — Hacks & Mods
[Jack] wrote in to let us know about a project that creates a virtual microprocessor core based on the ATmega103 by using a Field-Programmable Gate Array. Great, we thought. Here’s another rather esoteric project like the NES on a FPGA, but what’s the motivation behind it? We asked [Jack] and he provided several scenarios where this is quite useful.
Implementing the AVR core allows code already written for the chips to be easily ported to an FPGA without a code rewrite. This way, if your needs outpaced the capabilities of the microcontroller long after the project has started, you can keep the code and move forward from that point with the added capabilities of the gate array. Having the core already implemented, you then only need to work with HDL for the parts of the project the AVR was unable to handle. He also makes the point that having an open source AVR core implementation provides a great tool for people already familiar with AVR to study when learning VHDL.
With products like the Butterfly that this project is based around, or the Maple we’ve seen in the past, programmable logic for the recreational hacker is starting to get a little easier.
November 19th, 2009 — Hacks & Mods
November 19th, 2009 — Hacks & Mods
November 19th, 2009 — Hacks & Mods
November 19th, 2009 — Nintendo DS / DS Lite, Nintendo DSi
[Nebeziel, deviantART user]
A Google image search of Lara Croft is a lot tamer than it used to be these days, though it’s still something we wouldn’t suggest doing. Thankfully, we have a link to quench your thirst for inspired, non-naked, sexually-deprived-fanboy-fantasy-quasi-porn, courtesy of The Design Inspiration.
There are 40 fanworks in total, all originating from deviantART (obviously). There are a lot of great renditions, including the image where Lara is fighting dinosaurs and the one where she’s hiding from dinosaurs. We also have a soft spot for this odd image of her fighting Wonder Woman, but the best has to be this image where she defends herself so she can stop and eat the baked potato she brought down into the tomb with her. Tomb raiding takes a lot of carbohydrates, people!
[Via Kotaku]
The many artistic portrayals of Lara Croft originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
