Anyone else here have a DS? I'm trying to modify my DS so it can play videos, homebrew games, songs and all that kinda shit but I'm having trouble. Heres what Ive done so far.

I got one of those DS homebrew cards that let you put MicroSD flash cards into the DS and so far I've installed Moonshell on it and I'm able to play MP3's and look at pictures on the DS now but I can't get videos to work. The DS can only play videos with .DGP file extensions so you have to convert your videos to that but I can't find a decent converter. The converter that came with the MoonshellDS package is in Japanese so I can't use it at all. I downloaded a program called BatchDGP but when I load MPGs or WMVs or whatever into it it gives me an error message saying it conversion failed. Has anyone here figured out how to convert videos to DGP's?

As for homebrew games I managed to get one good game (Lemmings) to work but I tried playing DoomDS and QuakeDS but they wont work. On Doom I get to a text menu that asks me if I wanna play single player or a network game but when I click on single player the screen goes black and thats as far as I get. QuakeDS doesnt work at all it gives me an error message saying it cant find some .PAK file. A lot of games have trouble finding config files or other files even though they're there. Are you supposed to put these games in the root directory on the MicroSD card?

I just put LinuxDS on the card and it seems to work on the DS it displays a load of lines then I have a command line interface. I'm not the best with the command line though so theres not much I can do with linux on the DS yet. What kinda things would you use linux for on your DS? Just file management and that kinda stuff?

Lastly I was wondering about internet access. Do I need to get some sorta wireless adapter for the DS or is there one built in?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Wi-Fi_USB_Connector

What flashcart do you have? Some are crappier than others.

I believe for quake and doom ds you need the original PC game texture packs to play, check torrent for the full games and find the files in the install disks. Some of these do need to be on the root or in a specified directory, check install instructions.

As for internet on the ds, due to the 4MB memory limit, you need a slot-2 expansion like an EZ 3-in-1. Youll also need the opera browser rom (commercial software). The DS has b-speed (but maxes at 2mbits) wifi built in with only wep 64/128 support, so check your AP config to make sure it will work. Be warned, its slow browsing. You may have a better experience navigating the clone pages of major websites designed for phone browsers.

I believe that batch DPG calls system-installed codecs to do its decoding of the original file, so check out a codec pack.

DS linux is intresting, but i dont know how reliable it is. I think i only got it to connect to wifi when i was above channel 4. And for file management its not half as easy as using DSOrganize (use the birthday edition, the newest one had a bug last i heard), unless of course you want to use dslinux to do a wireless file transfer. The included GUI in dslinux is buggy as hell, and if im not mistaken, development of the whole project has ceased. Its mainly for show and tell, proof of concept. Its not that its non-functional either, its just that with the limitations of the DS a laptop is a much better solution to real mobile computing needs.

My DS is also the proud owner of a blue power led, salvaged from a motorola 2610. Looks way sicker than stock, ill get a pic later. EDIT: Pic (http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn0257ux1.jpg)

EDIT: oh yeah, almost forgot, one of the coolest things ive been using my ds for lately is internet radio through DS Organize. Its a little crappy but its awesome if yer not moving around too much and signal is good. Just save the address of a shoutcast stream into a .pls (or .m3u, i forget), and launch it with DSO.

I cant think of the name of the card (EDIT: Its an iTouch DS card) but I was about to buy a M3 Real card and the site said its been replaced by this other card so I got the other card. I assume its at least better than M3 Real cards but beyond that I dont know if its any good.

Ah right so thats what the missing .PAK file is then.

Fuck internet browsing then. Not worth the hassle by the sounds of it.

Yea I have DSOrganize its not bad. You can't expect the DS to everything I suppose. I'm impressed that it can play videos and music and homebrew games.

Thanks for the info.

Fuck internet browsing then. Not worth the hassle by the sounds of it.

Indeed, ive only used it a few times on the road without a laptop, and its enough to read some news not much more. IRC is good on the DS with clirc, its got an ingenous interface.

If you ever decide you want to play GBA roms (metroid fusion anyone?) with your flashcart/ds, the 3-in-1 is the popular solution for that as well. Its the final touch to a "mod" ds. Rumble pack, 16MB ram cache (browser, fast load gba), and 32MB flash (saves a game to the cart so it acts like a legit one to boot from). Quake 1/2 ds also has support for the ram cache, improving speed a little.

Didn't read the thread, but get the R4.

I got one, then I loved it so much I bought 3 more and gave them out as presents.

I have a PSP for homebrew. I didn't realize the DS had such a following of hackers and homebrewers. I know there's so much homebrew out for the PSP you can pretty much get it to do anything (even if it's ridiculously impractical, like emulate Windows 95 (http://www.gearlive.com/index.php/news/article/hack_windows_95_onto_your_psp_08141035/))

Anyway, I'm sure there's truckloads of things you can do with a DS, and the dual screen capability has some good potential. I would look mainly into emulators. I mainly use PSP homebrew for emulation. I have NES, SNES, GBC, GBA, emulators on my PSP, among built in PS1 emulation and a buggy N64 emulator I haven't really bothered with much. Get DS emulators for everything you can think of!