When I first attempted trying to learn everything about Nintendo DS Homebrew, I was fascinated by the concept that there were hundreds of games and applications available for my Nintendo DS - Absolutely FREE! I have to admit that I had no idea as to what Homebrew software was. I read about it in online Nintendo DS forums, and kept hearing about interesting and sometimes amazing homebrew applications and homebrew games that I could simply download for free and play them on my Nintendo DS or DS Lite.
The reality of cost free video games and applications would be exciting to any gamer, and I am definitely no exception to the rule. So, just what is homebrew? A NDS Lite homebrew game is software written by clever game designers for the Nintendo DS handheld. A very large number of the games being of the highest quality. Homebrew greatly increases the functionality of the DS. And boy did I dig up video games. A number of the homebrew Nintendo DS Games are lower quality, but a vast majority of them would make even the best commercial games jealous.
After spending my time searching for more information and I spent most of a full week doing nothing but research, and lots of homebrew game downloading, I realized that what I needed to buy was a device that allowed me to store and then play all of the homebrew software that I now had sitting on my PC hard drive. From my research I discovered that there are some 15 or 20 homebrew / development and flash kits available for the Nintendo DS and the Gameboy Advance. One of the most popular units was the Supercard SD and a very new one, called the M3 DS Simply. These little devices are touted by homebrew gamers as the easiest to use, and most affordable Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS Media managers / development systems.
If you have a Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS Lite hand held systems, I would recommend the Supercard SD because the Supercard SD can also be used on your Gameboy Advance. And there are literally thousands of homebrew games and applications available for the Gameboy Advance system. Nintendo DS Homebrew will catch up to those numbers too, and perhaps will have even more free games and applications. Where do you find all of these free applications and games? Just fire up your internet browser and go to your favorite search engine and type in either NINTENDO DS HOMEBREW or GAMEBOY ADVANCE HOMEBREW and you'll get a list pages and pages long of websites that talk about, cater to, or just plain carry all of the latest FREE homebrew software. It's almost an adventure really. And I would not be surprised if some of these hombrew programmers end up being commercial game programmers in the very near future. The quality of the games is just that good!
Both the Supercard SD and the M3 DS Simply / R4 DS do much more than just play homebrew Nintendo DS Roms. They play movies, mp3 music, allow you to check out your latest digital photos in the JPEG picture format that most digital cameras use. Both of these units also allow you to read ebooks right on your Nintendo DS screen in the form of TXT documents. Now, when I say movies, I really mean movies. With the included software you can convert your DVD movies to play on the Supercard SD or the M3 DS Simply, and watch your movies on the go.
The Supercard SD (SD stands for Secure Digital) and the M3 DS Simply both have an advantage over many development kits. The Supercard SD uses low cost Secure Digital memory cards, for unlimited storage capacity, whie the M3 DS Simply uses microSD cards. You can easily find SD and microSD cards at any electronics store such as Radio Shack, BestBuy and even on eBay if you want a bargain and can wait a few days to get the item in the mail. I make reference to an advantage because almost all other flash kits have built in memory. While this can be a good thing, it does hold you back when you're looking for extra storage for movies, games, or applications.
