No Money For A Nintendo DS Lite? No Prob..Just Add Water

Now, if you cannot afford to purchase a Nintendo DS Lite, here's a much cheaper alternative that you can afford.

Caveat emptor, the amount of fun you get out of this is much (or lesser than) as the meager amount of money you pay for this thing. Say hi to the Water Game DS Lite Candy Toy. Only USD 4.90 :P


For purchase details, click here.

Of Pranks and Cooking Oil

For those who don't know, a friend of mine almost used cooking oil to remove smudges from his Nintendo DS Lite after listening to my suggestion (link here). It was a prank, and while it was pretty funny, the following one is funnier, although this is not of my doing:

Cthon98: hey, if you type in your pw, it will show as stars

Cthon98: ********* see!

AzureDiamond: hunter2

AzureDiamond: doesnt look like stars to me

Cthon98: AzureDiamond: *******

Cthon98: thats what I see

AzureDiamond: oh, really?

Cthon98: Absolutely

AzureDiamond: you can go hunter2 my hunter2-ing hunter2

AzureDiamond: haha, does that look funny to you?

Cthon98: lol, yes. See, when YOU type hunter2, it shows to us as *******

AzureDiamond: thats neat, I didnt know IRC did that

Cthon98: yep, no matter how many times you type hunter2, it will show to us as *******

AzureDiamond: awesome!

AzureDiamond: wait, how do you know my pw?

Cthon98: er, I just copy pasted YOUR ******'s and it appears to YOU as hunter2 cause its your pw

AzureDiamond: oh

Making Patching Easy - R4 Guide

For R4 users (or any other Flash Cart users) who don't know how to use the command prompt to patch your Nintendo DS ROMS with the DLDI tool, don't fret as there are a number of GUI based solutions for your predicament.

Some of following links are from Chishm's website and the systems belong to their respective authors:

• Windows GUI
• Windows GUI integrated to Right Click
• Mac OS X
• Mac OS X DLDI Drop

This should make life easier for the less technical savvy or Macintosh users among us. For my original post on patching a ROM file, please refer here.

Cooking Oil Redux

A good friend of mine, who is directly related to the Cooking Oil + Nintendo DS Lite story, has decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon (like any other friend of mine, I count two of them on my blog roll...them bandwagon jumpers (lol)) with his new blog: woaychee.blogspot.com. Show him some love people.

How to remove smudges from the Nintendo DS Lite using cooking oil! *

A friend of mine asked for me for tips on how to remove smudges from his brand new Nintendo DS Lite. The following was the conversation, which happened in IM. Just in case you are dumb, I'm J and I did my best translating the conversation from Manglish to jolly good England, I mean English:

W: Hey!
W: How come there are so many smudges on my NDSL
W: How do I clean it?
J: Just pour water over it
J: The smudges will come off
W: F*ck you
J: Well, a better way would be to take a piece of cloth, dip it in cooking oil and wipe the NDSL
J: That will clear up all the smudges
J: And it will make the NDSL shinier
W: !!
J: Yup
J: It's a recommended practice
J: Try Googling it: "Cooking oil" + "Nintendo DS Lite"
W: Cooking oil...the one used in cooking?
J: Yup
W: You have to teach me this later**
J: Just dip the piece of cloth in cooking oil and wipe your NDSL with it
W: This won't damage my NDSL?
J: Nope
J: It's not water
J: Water + NDSL = Fried
J: Cooking oil + NDSL = Damn Shiny
W: But wouldn't it feel oily?
J: Nah... it's okay. Because after that you wipe it with a clean cloth.
W: Please teach me how..
J: Bring some cooking oil later
J: And please make sure it's not used.
W: Where do I get cooking oil?
W: Do I get it at Carrefour?
.
.
.
*_*''''
.
** I had an appointment with this guy and his girlfriend later that day for dinner
* This was a prank on that guy! DO NOT USE COOKING OIL ON YOUR NINTENDO DS LITE!

Running Homebrew on a Nintendo DS and a R4

You just bought a R4 Revolution for the Nintendo DS and you look forward to running homebrew applications such as DSOrganize and homebrew games such as DSDoom and Tower Defense. However you find that you are unable to run the homebrew applications after copying them into the MicroSD card of the R4.

A common solution for this is to patch the particular application's .nds file (otherwise known as the ROM file) with a DLDI patch. Don't ask me what it does but I guess it fixes something to do with the file system.

Anyways, here are the steps to patching the file:

1. Download the DLDI patch for the R4 here
2. Download the DLDI patching software here
3. Assuming that you have the ROM file in hand, unzip the DLDI patching software to somewhere that is conveniently accessible from the Command prompt.
   
4. Place the DLDI patch and the ROM file in the same location as well.
   
5. Using the command prompt, head over to the folder containing the files mentioned above.
6. Key in the following at the command prompt: dlditool r4tf.dldi filename.nds, with filename being the name of the ROM file
7. Press the enter key to begin the patching process
8. Copy the ROM file over to the MicroSD card and you should be able to run the application/game.
   

Merry Christmas and Gift Recommendations!

Christmas time is probably an exciting time for gamers, not only they might get games underneath the Christmas tree, but other stuff as well such as consoles and LCD TVs and stuff. On the other hand, Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ (least you forget), and what matters is the giving, not the receiving. So don't forget to spread the cheer all around you!

Should you feel yourself in a pinch, and you have not bought a gift for someone, here are some suggestions (abeit casual gaming style)...some of the items below were previously reviewed on this blog, for games, take a look at the links on the left:

1. Nintendo DS Lite
   Probably the best handheld video game console you can get for your money and have change for several great games! Available in several colours at Play-Asia.com (here)
   
   
2. New Super Mario Bros
   For the old-school gamer who likes his games in new digs, New Super Mario Bros combines the excellent gameplay of its predecessors with totally new graphics for some real fun! Available at Play-Asia.com (here)
   
   
3. Winning Eleven DS
   Your friend a football (or soccer, so they say in America) nut? This will keep him/her happy for days and with WFC/local WiFi play, that person will be a happy camper. Available at a super low price of USD 19.90 at Play-Asia.com (here)
   
   
4. Mario Kart DS
   Like Winning Eleven, this is a personal favourite of mine. Featuring tight gameplay, a host of characters and game modes (Grand Prix, Battle, Time Trial, etc) as well as WFC/local WiFi play, this games delivers in more ways than one. With excellent replayability, it's available at Play-Asia.com (here)
   
   
5. Tetris DS
   Tetris is probably one of the more well known casual experiences on handheld consoles and this is an update for the timeless classic. Recommended by a friend, it's available on Play-Asia.com albeit the Japanese version, but who need to take note of the language in a game about moving blocks? (here)

There are alot more games and stuff that you can look for your gamer pals, the Play-Asia bargain bin (here) is a good start but one does not really need to venture online for a good bargain. Go to your local game shop, stuff like controllers, memory cards or even CD/DVD racks (you might not find these in a game-shop but IKEA does help) make thoughtful gifts for your gamer friend.