the nintendo ds is an awesome portipal gaming system. i have the ds lite, its thin, weights under a pound, has two super bright backlit screens, pretty sweet integrated speakers, the classic nintendo plus d-pad, four front buttons, and two sholder buttons. the bottom screen is touch sensitive, which makes for some awesome gameplay. the touch screen is sick, but a lot of people can be put off by it. so tons of games let your switch between the touch motion and d-pad motion. another thing i love about the ds lite is it's backwards compatable with gameboy advance. the new nintendo ds-i however is NOT backwards compatable, which i think is rediculious.

so the R4-DS is a revolution in homebrew/emulation/mod chip technology. the cart is what i like to call a "hack loader". basically during the normal boot sequence the data being read executes an exploit that allows the user to run any custom code they want. this affords many interesting possibilitys. for instance custom operating system and interface graphics, running homebrew applications, or running roms/archival copys of games. the official site is here. but i bought mine on amazon.

as yew can see, the r4-ds is the same size as a regular ds cartridge. the game shown is chrono trigger, which is a revamp of a classic super nintendo rpg, its one of my favorite games of all time. but the r4 has a tiny sd-micro slot on the back. the size of the sd card supported varies depending on which model of the r4 yew have. i have the r4-ds sd-hc version, which supports the maximum of 32 gigabytes. i suggest you get the sd-hc version, the R4-III only supports up to 2gb, which is a huge difference.

the main interface can be customized to look how ever you want. the developers of the r4 dont provide you with a tool to customize it with themeselves, but someone else has created a program called alice. its a freeware gui application that tells your all the necessarly file sizes and resolutions for each of the images, as well as help you create layover, transparency, and rollover effects for menus.

here's the theme i made for my r4-ds. i call it circuit board. download it here. the three buttons on the bottom left screen are the three main options of the r4. the first is ds emulations, this allows yew to play archival copies of games. the center icon is the media player moonshell. it can play mp3s and a custom ds video codec. the final option is to boot to slot-2 (gameboy advance slot). this however will not play regular gba games (you have to remove the r4 to do that) this option is for booting legacy gba hackloaders.

playback of emulated games is flawless! the speed, the sounds, the graphics, everything looks exactly the same. even games with multiplayer functionality work perfectly. whats great about the r4 is yew can grab an 0-day rom of a new game and check it out. if it sux, yew just delete the rom and forget about it. and if yew find out its awesome, then yew can buy the game and feel assured what its gonna be all about. i think if nintendo allowed yew to download demo roms directly to an sd card on the hardware to "try before yew buy" people would go crazy, and the ds scene would explode.

so now, yew might be asking...

 

"so xero, what can you play on this? and where can i get it???"

 

nectar by phlogiston – nectar is 2 EPs in one. part one, Croquel Adventure, continues in the chip-tune tradition of short, fun, pure NES songs. while part two, HEAT, transports you to an 80’s vision of the distant future. the album is a tour through a vast dystopian cityscape where high-tech low-life roam the streets. and the lines between man and machine have been washed out.

southbridge by nonfinite – southbridge combines triumphant melodies with though provoking harmony and infection head-rocking beats. like northbridge, each track has a unique feel to it. and will peak your interest to the last bleep! you can listen to the entire album online but it's not free. 25% of all proceeds will benefit "chip-in" a group of 8-bit people trying to help out.

future, and it doesn't work by starscream - in the not so distant future awaits the election of the first third party candidate to the white house- they will hail from the space party, a political coalition founded by astrophysicists, former democrats and ex-NASA employees. starscream tells a tale of victory, science, and potentially catastrophic foreign policy.

i just got clued in on a new project from one of the members of the cDc (cult of the dead cow), a notorious hacker group from way back in the l0pht days. the wave bubble is a self-tuning, wide-bandwidth portable RF jammer. an internal lithium-ion battery provides up to 2 hours of jamming (two bands, such as cell) or 4 hours (single band, such as cordless phone, GPS, WiFi, bluetooth, etc). the battery is rechargeable via a mini-USB connector or 4mm DC jack (a common size). alternately, 3 AAA batteries may also be used. self-tuning is provided via dual PLL, therefore, no spectrum analyzer is necessary to build this jammer and a single wave bubble can jam many different frequency bands - unlike any other design currently available! to reconfigure the RF bands, simply plug it into the USB port of your computer and type in the new frequencies when prompted. multiple frequency ranges can be programmed in, each time the device is power cycled it will advance to the next program in memory.

its capable of jamming a few different frequencies:

cellular bands:
GSM/PCS broadband 1900 downlink – (us standard)
GSM 850 downlink – (us rural areas)
GSM 900 downlink – (original and most common in Europe)
GSM 1800 downlink – (gaining popularity in Europe)

other Bands:
cordless phones – (900-930 mhz frequency)
blue tooth – (2400-2483 mhz frequency)
802.11b/g wifi - (2400-2483 mhz frequency)
zigbee – 868 (Europe) 915 (usa) & 2400-2483 mhz
GPS – 1575.42 (civilian) and 1227.6 (military)

WOW!
this thing can block just about anything you can come up with!
for more info, including circuit diagrams, schematics, building instructions, parts lists, and firmware available from the inventers website http://www.ladyada.net/make/wavebubble

my pal nonfinite has finally released his long-awaited album entitled northbridge. listening brings you right back to your childhood (or yer whole life in my case :P) sitting in front of the tv wasting the hours away playing video games an enjoying their repetitious bleep-bloop style beats. and nonfinite has his sounds on point! by using a homebrew gameboy cart called LSDJ he produces his new music on old hardware, giving him that pure old skool "chip tune" sound. grab your copy of the album here, FREE! nonfinite also does custom gameboy mods, check out his work here, or peruse his ebay auctions for gameboy mods and LDSJ carts!

i have updated the fontvir.us with some new content. now each of the font pages have a flex app that allows you to demo each of my fonts. in addition to that, i have created the knuckle tatz lab. have you ever wondered what a particular slogan or saying might look like as knuckle tattoos? no? oh, well. i have, so now you too can pretend to be that cool.

click here to check it out.

check out this new ad campaign for sony walkman in japan created by keita, and called RECYOU. this crazy web-promotion site combines flash interactivity with sound and motion visuals created with papervision3D.

clicking "S" allows you to upload a photo, from witch they use facial recognition software to define the key areas of your face. then they crop in a new sony walkman and make you sing.

they also send you a copy of the video they create of you in mp4 format, along with a release form that says you may appear on japanese tv.

i took about a day until i found myself on the site, im in the photo above
(with the beard and the ear goggles)

a new component for 3D studio max has arrived that allows you to export the geometry of you model directly into a format that actionscript 3 can understand. the plugin has options for exporting to papervision3d, away3d, and sandy. it was developed my dreammania.net and can be downloaded here. and exporting a model couldnt be easier.

step 1. create you model, and select it
(you can tell its selected because of the white bounding box)

step 2. open the utilities panel and select MaxScript

step 3. in the MaxScript window, select Run Script

step 4. select the as3GeomClassExporter.ms file,
then select it from the drop down

step 5. a new as3GeomClassExporter panel will appear. select you 3D engine, give your object a class name, and a package location (if necessary) then press the export class button to save it.


now using this object in papervision3D is a snap! just...

actionscript 3

import com.fontvirus.KnotAgain;
var theKnot:KnotAgain = new KnotAgain( skin );

so for anyone who dousnt know, the demoscene is a community of programmers, artists, and musicians, who come together and create amazing graphic visualizations for or coupled by music. (mr.doob explains) at this years assemby07 the evoflash team of bombsquad went crazy! their demo, entitled ADHDTV is amazing. They combine realtime fluid dynamics, with 3D computational physics, enviorment mapping, raycasting, phong shading, dynamic lighting, and shadowing... now that's some sexy math!

watch the demo online or download it from thescene

my font, graffonti, has been featured in a new flash and papervision3D skateboarding game called kickflip. the game was designed and programmed by ugur ister (aka tom samson) co-founder of stimunationgames for the wrigley's candystand site.

click here to play kickflip

well its official, nintendo announced this weekend at E3 that they are releasing the wii zapper. nintendo promises that this offspring of the wiimote and nunchuk is going to revolutionize the first person shooter experience... honestly, i hope this is true. since doom i have been a first person shooter fan, and have always had a soft spot for gun-con games like time crisis. in their E3 conference nintendo announced that they have 3 wii zapper games coming out this year. first is resident evil: the umbrella chronicles, next is sega's online ghost squad, and a secret nintendo release, which i'm hoping is a reenvisioning of duckhunt :D

watch nintendo's entire E3 speech here

woohoo! graffonti is #2 on dafont.com's top 100 font list! if yew don't know, dafont is the best free font site on the net. indexing 1000's of designers and font foundries. So to be font #2 is a pretty big honor! thanx everyone!

so i finally got a copy of adobe cs3 and flex builder2. flex is amazing, combining mxml and actionscript 3 together into a seamless package. now that im on the as3 tip, i decided to dive into papervision3D. pv3d is a set of actionscript classes that are used to create 3D objects within the flash environment. Currently in beta, the source code is only available to osflash emailing list members. so if yew want it... signup here. i have also posted my first flex as3 pv3d project, the metroid speedrun 3D cube. and here's the source. Thanx to carlos for creating pv3d and thanx to luis for the video texture tutorial.

i just found this zip on wiinintendo.net. some one made a flawless wiimote in 3D studio max. grab a copy and throw it into papervision3d!

as i have been checking out the new features of actionscript 3 and flex, i stumbled upon fwiidom.org. this site is run by joa ebert + thibault imbert, and their mission is full flash wiimote integration.

currently wiiflash supports multiple wiimotes and nunchuks, the classic controller, as well as pc sensor bars. all you need is a bluetooth enabled pc (or adaptor) and a wiimote.

the newest version is available from wiiflash or googlecode or you could get on the mailing list

the time is has finally come. my new font site is online. i have meticulously updated all my older fonts, and reinvented my type foundry. i currently have 21 fontz fer download. type|size=0 is dead. long live the fontvir.us!

         00XXXX                        XXXX00        
         00XXxx                        xxXX00        
         ee0000eeeeRR            RReeee0000ee        
               xxXX00            00XXxx              
               XXXX00            00XXXX              
         eexxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxee        
         00XXXXeeee00XXXXXXXXXXXX00eeeeXXXX00        
     xxXXXXXXXX    00XXXXXXXXXXXX00    XXXXXXXXxx    
     XXXXXXXXXX    00XXXXXXXXXXXX00    XXXXXXXXXX    
 eeeeXXXXXXXXXXeeeeRRXXXXXXXXXXXXRReeeeXXXXXXXXXXeeee
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 XXXX""""RRXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXRR""""XXXX
 XXXX    00XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX00    XXXX
 XXXX    00XXXX""""""""""""""""""""""""XXXX00    XXXX
 XXRR    00XXXX                        XXXX00    RRXX
 eeXX    00xxxxRR000000ee    ee000000RRxxxx00    XXee
               xxXXXXXXxx    xxXXXXXXxx              
               XXXXXXXXXX    XXXXXXXXXX              
          
  _____             __        .__
_/ ____\___   _____/  |____  _|__|______  __ __ ______
\   __Y  _ \ /    \   __\  \/ /  \_  __ \|  |  Y  ___/
 |  |(  <_> )   |  \  |  \   /|  ||  | \/|  |  |___ \
 |__| \____/|___|  /__|   \_/ |__||__|  /\____/____  >
                 \/                     \/         \/

this little freeware gem will keep yew occupied for hours. the game combines fluid dynamics with classic 80's nostalgia for and awesome game. and did i mention that it was free? grab a copy for pc or mac at plasmapong.com.

ok, to answer everyones emails: YES I HAVE ZELDA THE MINISH CAP! yes ill tell you where you can get it too. NESchile, romreactor, and zelda paradise. hope that helps all yew rom phanatix. actually this rom was kind of hard to find. it's a great game, though nothing can top the snes classic, a link to the past.