| Welcome to Moon Books |
   reading books with moon shell The Moon Books Project is dedicated to bringing classic literature, films and other content freely to users of the Nintendo DS game console. The Moon Books Project is brought to you by Brandon, the founder and webmaster of The Moon Books Project, and by GuaranteedVPS. All hosting is provided freely by Guaranteed VPS, providing the Nintendo DS community with this great service. If you have a need of professional hosting at a great price be sure to check them out, and tell them The Moon Books Project sent you. While we promote using the Nintendo DS for other more mentally stimulating things, we also love to play all of Nintendo's popular titles like Mario Kart, Brain Age, Metroid, and the others, so you will see video game related news and reviews here as well.   or visit The Moon Books Project Online Store and pick up a flash cart and a memory card.  reading books with dslibris |
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First off, please enjoy the website. Downloading books and films is available to everyone, but to get the full benefit of The Moon Books Project, which includes access to forums, high scores in the arcade, pm's and other benefits, you will need to make an account. To sign up for an account please click here [link] For those who are not familiar with The Moon Books Project, the goal is to release classic literature onto the Nintendo DS. With the popularity of brain enhancing software such as Big Brain Academy and Brain Age, it's about time someone released something to not only enhance the mind, but to expand the users knowledge base. That is where we come in. At the moment there is no official contact with any official developers, so we are using commonly available 'homebrew' software for the Nintendo DS to make it possible to have your very own personal library in the palm of your hand. Available books are among some of the greatest, most enlightening, and most entertaining in the world. Everything from Shakespeare to The War of the Worlds. From such diverse topics from science fiction to religion, and we're just beginning to reach the tip of the iceberg. We have also delved into the film industry, to release classic films on the Nintendo DS. That's right, a collection of films from a diverse number of genres are now available for your enjoyment. Such films range from classic horror titles like Night of the Living Dead to film noir drama like DOA. We've even thrown in some Rashomon, just for the fun of it. As always, everything here is completely legal, as all content from The Moon Books Project is in the public domain. Webmasters, be sure to check out how to get your website linked from The Moon Books Project, right on our front page! Click here for more info: [link] Hercules Film Festival Christmas Present from Moon Books Douglas Fairbanks Collection Hitchcock Feature Akira Kurosawa Feature Night of the Living Dead Feature Last Man On Earth / I Am Legend Feature The Dark Vault of Public Domain Feature Our Halloween Extravaganza Feature |
Wednesday 06 August 2008
| Brandon's Early August 2008 news update | |
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Hey everyone. I've been out of touch lately. As some of you know I have recently started a new job. I am a 'Sanitation Engineer' at a local 'Mental Institution'.  It is the ultimate 'B movie job'. Needless to say I've been quite busy with it. Also, at the moment I do not have internet access at home, therefore am not able to really update Moon Books with any regularity. Not to worry though, I'll have net access back mid August, and will get things rolling again soon.What this means for the July/August contest, is that it is now the July/August/September contest. That's right, the deadline is being changed to September 30th, EST at 11:59pm, so there is plenty of time to submit your entries. Also, as some of you know I am a Christian. I am overjoyed to see that there is a new version of the DSbible software out there. There aren't many homebrew releases entered into the contest yet, but this one looks to be one mean competitor. I am looking forward to checking it out later on. Another project I've been working on on the side is a podcast for the church I go to. Everyone feel free to check out the church's website here --> Bethesda Worship Center, in Richmond Indiana (note: I did not create this website) and check out my excellent podcast site for the church here --> Bethesda Worship Center Podcast (note: I did create this site) So, no worries, Moon Books will keep on truckin'! Brandon |
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| Posted by Brandon on Wednesday 06 August Anno Domini 2008 - 14:31:12 - |
  
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Tuesday 15 July 2008
| I Am Legend starring Will Smith this is not! But see where it all came from! | |
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When I say I am Legend what do you think of? Probably the most widely known reference is a song by White Zombie comes to mind. Rob Zombie sure has good taste in music by the way, his old band is named after one of the classic horror films, and he has a song based on the book I am Legend... but anyways... I Am Legend is a book from the 50s by Richard Matheson. It is one of the most pivotal works of horror/scifi of all time. Heard of zombies? Well I am Legend is where the current vision of zombies came from. "The book takes place in the then-future of 1976–1979, and opens with the monotony and horror of the daily life of the protagonist, Robert Neville. Neville is apparently the only survivor of an apocalypse caused by a pandemic of a bacterium the symptoms of which are very similar to vampirism. He lives in a house fortified against nocturnal attacks by the roaming infected, and sallies forth by daylight to kill the sleeping vampires. Every day he also makes repairs to his house, boarding up windows, stringing and hanging garlic, and disposing of vampires' corpses on his lawn." says Wikipedia The book I am Legend has influenced quite a bit of movies. Fortunately for us, we have a large portion of the best of those movies right here. I'll run them down real quick, for your enjoyment. The Last Man On Earth Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is the only survivor of a devastating world-wide plague due to a mysterious immunity he acquired to the bacterium while working in Central America years ago. He is all alone now...or so it seems. As night falls, plague victims begin to leave their graves, part of a hellish undead army that''s thirsting for blood...his! The Omega Man (unfortunately we cannot offer this movie for download because it is copyrighted) You can find more information on this film here [link] The Last Woman On Earth Ev; her husband, Harold; and their lawyer friend, Martin, are skindiving while on vacation in Puerto Rico. When they resurface, they gradually conclude that an unexplained, temporary interruption of oxygen has killed everyone on the island - maybe in the world! Night of the Living Dead This movie needs no description. If you are unfamiliar with this film and like horror, then you owe it to yourself to watch this movie! This is one of the best horror films of all time. Now that you have an idea of what we offer, check out the new I Am Legend trailer. Also, you can purchase the afore mentioned movies and book via Amazon.Com on DVD, and um... paper. |
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| Posted by Brandon on Tuesday 15 July Anno Domini 2008 - 20:07:57 - |
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Tuesday 08 July 2008
| Upload: Land of Oz Book 36 - Lucky Bucky in Oz.zip | |
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Bucky is aboard a tugboat in New York Harbor when the boiler blows up. He is soon blown into the Nonestic Ocean where he meets Davy Jones, a wooden whale. The pair take an undersea route to the Emerald City, and have many adventures along the way. Submitted by Rasputin  Land of Oz Book 36 - Lucky Bucky in Oz.zip |
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| Posted by Brandon on Tuesday 08 July Anno Domini 2008 - 11:34:28 - |
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| Warning From Space | |
 Warning from Space or Mysterious Satellite is a 1956 science fiction tokusatsu film produced by Daiei, and the first Japanese science-fiction film produced in color. The plot of the American English-dubbed version is somewhat similar to Toho's later Gorath (1962), depicting a planet — "Planet 'R'" — on a collision course with Earth. Warning from Space has one-eyed, starfish-shaped aliens from the planet Paira who take on human forms to warn the earth about the impending disaster. In contrast to the usual anti-nuclear message of the Japanese science-fiction film genre, Warning from Space seemingly takes the position that nuclear weapons can be put to good use, as a means to prevent the collision with Planet 'R.' The Pairan aliens were designed by prominent avant-garde artist, Taro Okamoto. Walt Lee reports that Gentaro Nakajima's novel, on which this film was based, was in turn based on the Japanese folktale Kaguya-hime. However, it is difficult to see much connection between the film and the folktale. Produced during the science-fiction boom following in the wake of the success of Toho's Godzilla (1954), Daiei had hoped to find a foreign market for Warning from Space. The film played at the King Cinema in Rangoon in January 1958, earning 11,846 kyat during its first week. Download Warning From Space |
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| Posted by Brandon on Tuesday 08 July Anno Domini 2008 - 11:27:39 - |
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| Teenagers From Outer Space | |
 Teenagers from Outer Space is a 1959 science-fiction B-movie about an extraterrestrial ship landing on Earth to use it as a farm for its food supply. The crew of the ship includes several teenagers (who ironically look quite old for teenagers), two of whom oppose each other in their activities. The independent film was originally distributed by Warner Brothers. Teenagers from Outer Space was filmed on location in and around Hollywood, California, with a number of tell-tale landmarks like Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park and Hollywood High School giving away the film's hazy locale. One notable aspect of the film is that it was largely the work of a single person, Tom Graeff (1929-1970), who, in addition to playing the role of reporter Joe Rogers, wrote, directed, edited, and produced the film, on which he also provided cinematography, special effects, and music coordination. Producers Bryan and Ursula Pearson ("Thor" and "Hilda") and Gene Sterling ("The Leader") provided the film's $14,000 budget, which was less than shoe-string by the standards of the time. According to Bryan Pearson, the crew employed many guerrilla tactics in order to cut costs. Director Tom Graeff secured the location for Betty Morgan's house for free by posing as a UCLA student (while Graeff had attended the school, he had graduated 5 years earlier). The older woman who owned the house even let the crew use her electricity to power equipment. Graeff shot in many nearby locations — mostly in the vicinity of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue — to double as more important city landmarks. Graeff's steady hand and framing kept most of the real locations under-wraps, creating a great low-budget illusion of a small town. Other cost-cutting ideas didn't pay off as well: the space costumes were simple flight suits clearly decorated with masking tape, dress shoes covered in socks, and surplus Air Force helmets. The use of stock footage in lieu of special effects and Spielbergian "looking" shots replacing actual visuals of the invading enemy spaceships seriously undercut the urgency of the ending. Props included a single bolted-joint skeleton re-used for every dead body, and the infamous dime-store Hubley's "Atomic Disintegrator" as the aliens' focusing disintegrator ray. In an unusual practice of the era, Graeff also pre-recorded some of the film's dialogue for several scenes, and had the actors learn to synchronize their actions with the sound. The score of the film came from stock, composed by William Loose and Fred Steiner. Incidentally the same stock score has been recycled in countless B-movies, such as Red Zone Cuba, The Killer Shrews, and most notably Night of the Living Dead. In June 1958, Bryan Pearson, who invested $5,000 in the production with his wife Ursula, took Graeff to court in order to gain back the original investment and a percentage of any profits. The Pearsons had learned that Graeff had allegedly sold the film (which was not true until early 1959), but heard nothing of their investment or the percentage of profits they were entitled to. The legal dispute dragged on for a year, and once it was settled (Pearson got his $5000 investment back but the judge ruled there was no profit for him to share in), Tom and the Pearsons, who had been good friends during the production of Teenagers, never spoke to each other again. The film opened on June 3, 1959 to negative but not crippling reviews. The Los Angeles Times review of the movie stated "what a curious little film this is [...] there are flashes of astonishing sensitivity half buried in the mass of tritisms." And of the director, Tom Graeff, "when he stops spreading himself so incredibly thin, I think his work will bear watching." The film failed to perform at the box office, placing further stress on an already-burdened Graeff, and in the fall of 1959, he suffered a breakdown, proclaimed himself the second coming of Christ. After a number of public appearances followed by a subsequent arrest for disrupting a church service, Graeff disappeared from Hollywood until 1965. Trivia * According to the Internet Movie Database, over half the cast of Teenagers from Outer Space never appeared in any other film. Harvey B. Dunn, an actor seen in several productions from cult-film director Ed Wood, plays Betty's grandfather. * For a long time, Tom Graeff and David Love were thought to have been the same person. This is mentioned in Bill Warren's B-movie tome Keep Watching the Skies!. When Richard Valley, editor of Scarlet Street magazine, interviewed Bryan and Ursula Pearson in 1993, he discovered that not only were Tom Graeff and David Love (aka Chuck Roberts) different people, but they were also lovers. * Tom and Chuck lived in an apartment behind the house used as Betty Morgan's home. * In 2005, the complete Teenagers from Outer Space was released as an unlockable bonus video on PS2 and Xbox game Destroy All Humans! * Derek is modeled after Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, who also attempts to blend in with typical 1950s American small town culture in order to warn humanity about an oncoming alien terror. * The film had many different titles originally, including The Boy from Out of This World and Killers from Outer Space. Warner Brothers decided that Teenagers From Outer Space would draw the best audience, though it was renamed The Gargon Terror for its release in the United Kingdom. * The film was lampooned in June 1992 in episode 404 of the movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. * A scene from the film was used on the American version of the show Whose Line Is It Anyway? in the game "Film Dub". * Psychobilly band, The Meteors, named one of their songs Teenagers From Outer Space. Download Teenagers From Outer Space |
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| Posted by Brandon on Tuesday 08 July Anno Domini 2008 - 08:58:40 - |
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Saturday 05 July 2008
| Chrono Trigger DS Confirmed! | |
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Chrono Trigger. Simply mentioning the name is often enough to send an avid gamer into a frenzy...and now, a new incarnation of the legendary game is slated to take this new generation of gamers by storm. The GBA was an RPG powerhouse, likened to a portable SNES. Even in it's last days, it lived and breathed remakes of fan favourites such as the Final Fantasy series. When the DS was released, the gaming community expected an RPG onslaught...unfortunately, the DS's RPG lineup has been comparatively lacking. The remake of Final Fantasy III, which had never before been released outside of Japan, came close to redeeming the DS's poor reputation for RPGs, but modern gamers could not appreciate its classic simplicity. Nonetheless, nostalgic gamers were thrilled with the possibility that the DS could become a medium for such drastic remakes of their favourite games, and eagerly awaited the next big remake. This came in the form of Final Fantasy IV, which had already seen numerous incarnations on multiple platforms. The gaming community, though excited, was less than impressed at the choice of games to remake. Theories and debates arose over what would come next. Many gamers wanted Final Fantasy VI, or Final Fantasy VII (both extremely popular games), and many also held a strong desire for a Chrono Trigger remake. Unfortunately, the majority of the gaming community believed that a CT remake was highly unlikely - there were allegedly legal difficulties, involving copyright issues, that obstructed this possibility. Regardless, Square Enix heard the siren call of the fans, and with dollar signs in their eyes, rushed to clear up any copyright issues that may have existed. As a result, the following scan of Japan's popular Shonen Jump magazine abruptly appeared in a Kotaku article.  Real or fake? Gamers frothed at the mouth at these rumours; many gamers were skeptical, others confident, yet others hopeful, still others reserved their beliefs until there was confirmation either way...yet the scan left little room for doubt if, indeed, it was real. Finally, news spread about the appearance of this page on Square Enix's Japanese website. There could be no doubt; Chrono Trigger was coming to the DS. Will it have overhauled graphics, like its remade Final Fantasy counterparts? Will there be extras, addons, bonuses, any significant difference in the gameplay? Will it be any good? Only time will tell. Note: The above news item is a contest entry by tehuber1337 |
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| Posted by Brandon on Friday 04 July Anno Domini 2008 - 23:15:15 - |
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Thursday 03 July 2008
| DSBible - a new bible application for the DS | |
  There's some new bible software on the DS. Bookmarks, Search, and Verse Lookup do not work. Other than that It is an excellent piece of software, nice interface, and easy to use and read. Download DSBible |
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| Posted by Brandon on Thursday 03 July Anno Domini 2008 - 22:32:47 - |
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Tuesday 01 July 2008
| The July / August Contest has begun! | |
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Enter the July/August Contest! The July / August contest has begun. We have a plethora of prizes and a ton of categories to enter in. Want a suggestion? There are prizes for graphics design, and we desperately need a banner to advertise this contest! |
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| Posted by Brandon on Tuesday 01 July Anno Domini 2008 - 22:12:44 - |
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Saturday 28 June 2008
| If you’ve got a DS Lite, you’ve got an e-reader | |
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If you’ve got a DS Lite, you’ve got an e-reader By April Hamilton DSLiteReadMore The slick little Nintendo DS Lite has snared plenty of adult fans with games like Brain Age and New York Times Crosswords. But this device has much more to offer than just game play. You may already be aware of the Nintendo DS Browser, which brings textual web-surfing to the DS anywhere a WiFi connection is detected. But you can also listen to music, watch videos and read e-books on your DS Lite. Enjoy thousands of literary classics and Creative Commons titles from sites such as Project Gutenberg and Manybooks.net. From Charles Dickens to Cory Doctorow to science fiction writers, the works of famous authors are online for you—and your children. Kids can read on the same machines they play games with. Via a Kindle or your favorite PDA, you might even read some books at the same time as your children do, then discuss them. One way to encourage literacy! ReadMore and other free killer apps for the DS Although the DS Lite’s music and video playback quality isn’t yet good enough to rival other multifunction devices, as an e-reader the DS Lite actually has a few advantages over dedicated e-readers. It can definitely give the iPhone a run for its money, thanks to free, "homebrew" DS applications. image With ReadMore, you can turn the DS Lite on its side and hold it in your hands like a book. It’s as if the DS is a next-generation OLPC machine, shown in the photo, to read with. Turning the page via ReadMore is as easy as pressing the right- or left-hand arm of the plus-sign controller pad or tapping the right- or left-hand side of the touchscreen. ReadMore allows the user to resize the displayed font to enlarge text if desired. It also lets you set up to three color-coded bookmarks in addition to the bookmark that’s automatically set to save your place when you shut the program down. Currently, ReadMore only supports .txt files, but there’s no shortage of free utilities available online to convert various, non-DRM’d ebook formats to .txt. I used PDB2TXT (now upgraded to a conversion utility suite called IE2PDB) to convert my large library of pdb e-books to txt without any difficulty. ReadMore developer Bjorn Geisler promises more ebook formats will be supported in a future release. Full-Color Comics and ‘Game Books’ No need to feel jealous the next time someone nearby turns on his Kindle or Sony Reader when you can casually crack open your DS Lite and read full-color comics on it with ComicBook DS. The photo at right (credit: Eric Caoil) shows a side-by-side comparison of a comic in p form and displayed on the DS Lite. Comics are displayed in a pan-and-scan type presentation, and the user can scroll up and down or zoom in and out of each panel as desired. Eric Caoili offers a detailed review of the ComicBook DS experience. New releases of the program since the article’s publication have addressed his few concerns about its performance. LoneWolfDS: Choose your adventure Your biblio-technophile friends are still unimpressed? Load LoneWolfDS. Remember those "you choose the adventure" books that were so popular in the 1980’s, in which the reader was periodically given a choice of what the protagonist would do next, then directed to the next appropriate passage in the book to continue the story based on the reader’s choice? Lone Wolf books took that concept to a higher level by incorporating role-playing gameplay elements. In LoneWolfDS, the reader not only chooses what the protagonist does next, he also equips the character, collects items and decides when and how the protagonist will do battle with foes encountered in the course of the adventure. Hyperlinks make navigating to the next appropriate passage based on the reader’s selection even easier than it used to be in the p versions of the books. Visit the LoneWolfDS site for more information, screen shots and free downloads of LoneWolfDS game books. Pimp your DS Lite! Ready to pimp your DS Lite? All you need is a special flash cart for the DS, a microflash SD memory card, and some freeware downloads. Get yourself a DS flash cart, such as the R4DS or M3DS, plus a microflash SD memory card (with adapter for your computer’s standard SD card slot—note that flashcart manufacturers sometimes include a microflash adapter with the flash cart) to store the apps and other content you’ll be running from the flash cart. Use the CD that came with the flash cart and follow the manufacturer’s directions to load firmware to the microflash card. Now head on over to The Moonbooks Project site and hit the Downloads menu, Homebrew and Utilities section, Unsorted Homebrew link. Download the latest versions of Moonshell, ReadMore and ComicBook DS. If you’ve got some tech skills and intend to convert your own video content to a format readable by Moonshell, download the ‘Moonshell + DPG Tools’ version of Moonshell. Otherwise, just go for the basic program. Go back to the Downloads menu and follow the links for Comics and Books to download as many free, public-domain titles as you like. Finally, go to the LoneWolfDS homepage and click the downloads link to get LoneWolfDS game books. If you can, leave a donation, too. Follow the readme provided with Moonshell to set up the proper file folders on your microflash card and copy Moonshell and its related utilities to the card. Moonshell provides necessary system files for applications and content available on the Moonbooks site. Follow the directions provided in the ReadMore and ComicBook DS readme files to get those apps copied to the correct location(s) on the memory card as well. Set up an e-books folder at the root of the card, and copy txt e-books to it as desired. Follow the directions provided with ComicBook DS to place your downloaded comics in the correct location on the memory card. Note that no separate program is required for LoneWolf game books, each one runs as a standalone application and can be stored in, and launched from, the Games folder. When the memory card is all loaded up, insert it in the flash cart and insert the flash cart into the game cartridge slot of the DS Lite. Ready to read? Now turn on the DS Lite; the usual Nintendo health and safety warning screen will show briefly, followed by the touchscreen menu provided by your flash cart manufacturer. The one shown at left is for the R4DS. The three icons, in order from left to right, are for accessing games from the flash cart, multimedia from the flash cart, and the boot slot of the DS. The boot slot feature is for use with a second boot flash cart that runs a different type of media than the main cart. If you’re not using a second boot flash cart, this menu item loads the Moonshell interface and provides access to utilities. ReadMore, ComicBook DS and LoneWolfDS will all be located under the Games menu. Tap the Games icon and select the desired program with the stylus. Recall that LoneWolfDS titles will run as standalone applications. Follow the directions provided with ReadMore and ComicBook DS to open desired content from within each of those programs. Experiment with navigating around the menu and sub-folders; if you get ‘lost’, just turn the DS Lite off and on again to re-load the main, 3-icon menu. Your DS Lite is now an e-book reader, a comic book reader, and a "game book" reader! April Hamilton is a writer based in Los Angeles. Her latest book is The IndieAuthor Guide, a how-to reference book on self-publishing. Article originally posted at TeleRead, view the original article, with flashy pictures and everything at TeleRead |
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| Posted by Brandon on Saturday 28 June Anno Domini 2008 - 21:24:04 - |
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Thursday 26 June 2008
| Flash Carts for Sale! | |
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I have the following cards available for sale. Acekard 2 iTouchDS Supercard Lite Supercard DS One M3 Simply If anyone is interested, send me an offer at btmullins©live.com All proceeds go towards The Moon Books Project. Brandon |
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| Posted by Brandon on Thursday 26 June Anno Domini 2008 - 21:47:13 - |
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Tuesday 24 June 2008
| LoneWolf Gamebooks on the DS | |
 For those who are familiar with "Choose your own adventure" books, this is very exciting news. The below quote is from the official LoneWolf DS website: This project has begun as a way to learn how to program on the Nintendo DS. After seeing how the DS was used vertically as a book by some famous games, I thought it would be really cool to have some old gamebooks converted on this system. Unfortunately, due to copyright issues, it was not really easy to find good contents to use as a working base. Then I found the Project Aon site, which offered many books from the award-winning Lone Wolf series, fully converted to HTML by some loving fans. For those who didn't know about Gamebooks, they were novels which had a nice success during the 80's, and which were allowing the readers to choose their own path by jumping from one numbered section to another, in a fun and interactive way. They were introducing the concepts of inventory, enemies fights, random dice results, and other nice ideas which were the precursors of what we find today in role playing video games. The philosophy behind the port of the Lone Wolf books to the DS is to let the console handle all the rules related to combats, stats and so on, so the player can be really immersed in the story and doesn't need to bother with the gameplay elements.  The story focuses on the fictional world of Magnamund, where the forces of good and evil fight for control of this planet in a final showdown. The protagonist is Lone Wolf, last of his caste of warrior monks known as Kai lords. The book series is written in the second person and recounts Lone Wolf's adventures as if the reader is the main character. As Lone Wolf, you make choices at regular intervals throughout the story which then change the course, and the final outcome, of the book. Flight From The Dark  You are the sole survivor of a devastating attack on the monastery where you were learning the skills of the Kai Lords. You swear vengeance on the Darklords for the massacre of the Kai warriors, and with a sudden flash of insight you know what you must do. You must set off on a perilous journey to the capital city to warn the King of the terrible threat that faces his people: For you are now the last of the Kai you are now Lone Wolf. Download Flight From The Dark Fire One The Water  You are Lone Wolf—Last of the Kai Lords. Bitter war rages through your homeland as the evil Darklords of the west lay siege to the capital. The King has sent you on a desperate journey to retrieve the only power in Magnamund that can save your people: the Sommerswerd, the sword of the sun. Ahead of you lie terrible dangers—ferocious sea-storms, the tunnel of Tarnalin, and the ghostly death-hulks of Vonotar the Traitor. But only you can save your land from the devastation of the Darklords. Download Fire On The Water For more information on LoneWolf DS, visit: The LoneWolf DS Webpage For more information on the LoneWolf books, visit: Project Aon |
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| Posted by Brandon on Tuesday 24 June Anno Domini 2008 - 14:13:06 - |
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| Supercard DS One by Eldude (May Hardware Review Contest Entry) | |
SuperCards DS One (HC) This is the latest product from Supercard. Package Contents: * DS slot one cartridge * USB to MicoSD adapter * USB driver CD for W98 * Brief Instructions Setup Setup of this cart is very simple. All that is required is to download the latest OS from the SuperCard website. Plug your microSD card into your computer via the USB adapter or the card reader adapter that usually comes with your microSD card. Transfer the OS to the card with a simple drag and drop. I created folders on the micoSD to keep things separate, Movies, Apps etc and then copied the files into the folders. Turn on your DS, navagate the menu and run what you want. OS 3.0 The latest OS on the web site is version 3.0 SP2 for the HC version of the card. If you get the non HC version make sure you download the correct OS as the versions differ. The OS is simply a highly modified version of Moonshell. To me having Moonshell as the OS is a fantastic idea. There is no need to load different applications to run music, moves, ROM's etc as they all run right from Moonshell. Editing the global.ini file gives you alot of customization. The interface is skinable but make sure you get a SC and not just a Moonshell skin. Features *ROMS* Plays all clean ROMS with no patching. Just copy them across and run them. I have not found a ROM that this cart will not run properly. If for some reason the ROM needs DLDI injection, the OS will do this when run. This has only failed once for me where I had to DLDI patch the ROM manually. *Real Time Save* By far the coolest feature of this cart. This feature takes a snapshot of your game and allows you to resume from that point, not from the last checkpoint but from this point. This is great for those games which have tough long levels and make you restart the level when you die. This way you just save before the tough bit and then resume from that point if you die. This is also great for games that just give you a password to jump to levels and games that do not have saves at all. *Multi Save* I have not used this feature but I am sure it would be good for some people and some games. Most games give you 3 slots to save your game. What this feature does is give you unlimited number of 3 slots to save. So before you run the game you just select the save file that you want to use and you get those 3 slots to resume your game. I think there is also a way to swap save files during your game as well. *Real Time Cheat Codes* This feature is enabled in the menu like most of the features of the cart. If enabled when ROM is run you will be presented with a list of available cheats. The OS already comes packed with cheats but if your game does not have a cheat but they are available on the internets then you can add it to the cart. The SC website has software to convert to the correct format if the cheat is for another cart/device. Your ROM does not need to be named anything in particular but is somehow recognized and the correct cheats loaded. If you want to change your cheat during a game you can press a sequence of buttons to bring up the cheat menu. Real Time Game Guide This feature is meant to allow you view downloaded walkthroughs/guides during game play. Unfortunately this feature has not been perfected and does not work due to the amount of characters on 1 line and the amount of characters spread over 8 lines. If someone invented a program to alter existing guides to the formatting that the reading software required then this would work. Even a macro in word would be good. At present this feature is broke. Interface As advised earlier the interface is a modified moonshell interface. This in its self offers multiple customizations. What has been added is sub menus and buttons to allow you to enable/disable features and then save them for each individual ROM. Performance This cart loads games quicker than my previous slot 1 cart N-card. It is also far more compatible with most ROMS. I have had very few freezes while using this cart and no other problems with it. It will execute .nds, .mp3 .dpg and alot more without any extra software. I have had no problem running homebrew like Quake, DSOrganize, SNES emulator and lots of other apps like drum kits and so on that you find on the net. Tech Specs SuperCard DS one HC will take up to 8gig microSD card with the latest OS installed. I have tested this with a 2gig Sandisk micoSD but have been informed that a Kingston micoSD will perform even better. The OS can adjust the read write speed to the microSD, by default it runs at 2X but mine has been auto set to 17X by the OS. The USB to MicroSD adapter that comes with the package is very handy if you do not have a SD card reader on your machine. Conclusion I know every one goes on about their R4 and M3 but I cannot see anything that they can do that this cart can't, in fact this cart does more. When first opening the package I thought the instructions were a little thin but then realized that they did not need to be detailed as the cart was extreamly easy to setup. The SC website has lots of tools and apps already geared for this card and the forums are active, not that I needed to use them. The only reason I have given this card a 9/10 is that nearly nothing is perfect. The couple times that this thing has hung on me in the 2 months I have had it makes it not perfect but this is minor. I am looking for a cart for my son and am finding it hard to go past another one of these. Handy Links SuperCard Website Here Supercard Compatible Skins Here Review by Eldude |
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| Posted by Brandon on Tuesday 24 June Anno Domini 2008 - 13:20:21 - |
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Sunday 22 June 2008
| DSvision. Downloadable content for the DS at a price. | |
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The Moon Books Project has some great movies, books etc but would you pay for the privilege to download this content? DSvision is a web site produced by Dai Nippon Printing in partnership with AM3 in Japan. It will provide novels, comics, animation, movies and other content for the DS at a price. To help the novice flash cartridge user the site has their own starter-kit cartridge and microSD set that is currently on pre-order at Play-Asia.  DSvision have their own software to transfer the downloaded content to the micoSD making it easy for the non tech person to use the service. I could not find a start up date for the site but the cartridge will be available from the 3rd of July 08 so I guess the site will be trading around then. It appears that the cartridge has its own OS and menu system so it is unknown if you are able to use your own. At this stage the site is in Japanese which will restrict the user base. Lets see if this takes off and spreads around the world. *OS and menu system*  [Submitted by Eldude] |
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| Posted by Brandon on Sunday 22 June Anno Domini 2008 - 01:49:02 - |
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Saturday 21 June 2008
| Scrogger DS V2.0 | |
 Overview Scrogger is a homebrew game programmed by Scrognito http://scognito.drunkencoders.com and was first released JAN 08. Version 0.2 of Scrogger was released in March 08 and this is the version I am reviewing. It is a simple puzzle game that will occupy your mind for a considerable amount of time. GamePlay – 7/10 The concept is very simple. You have to jump a frog from one log to the next. Each time you jump the log you just left will disappear. Jump around until all logs have disappeared apart from the last one you land [u]on. Sounds easy right.. Wrong. There are a couple of restrictions to make the puzzle interesting. The frog can jump forward, left and right but is not allowed to jump backward or diagonal. There are over 10 levels to get through with 100 random layouts. The levels have from 10 to over 20 jumps to complete. The levels get harder as you go along and one level could keep you occupied for hours. The frog can be controlled with either the stylus or the D-pad. I preferred the D-pad as the control was much quicker. If you get stuck and have not cleared the level you just need to press select to restart the level. Levels can be skipped by using the konami trick.   Graphics - 7/10 Graphics for Scrogger were created by Kenney http://kenney.nl/ . They are simple but effective. The background on the touchscreen has static shrubs and the water wobbles like jelly. The only changing objects are the logs you jump on and of coarse the frog which jumps around. The top screen has the games logo which is used across all platforms of the game. It also displays the current level and a reminder to press the select button to retry the level. Sound – 4/10 I might be wrong but I could only distinguish 2 looping, carnival sounding soundtracks throughout the whole game and both got annoying real quick. It was great that Scrognito programmed the option to hit the left shoulder button to turn the music off. The sound effects remain and they are a series of squeaks for every jump made and a croak when you re-start the level. Conclusion Scrogger is a great brain bender to play while waiting for the bus. If and once you pass level 10 you just start it again due to the random levels you will get further game play out of it. With more levels and varying game play this game could easily go commercial. Scrogger also exists for Wii, Gamecube and PSP. Download from here: http://scognito.drunkencoders.com/projects/download.php?get=scoggerds-0.2.rar [Submitted by Eldude] |
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| Posted by Brandon on Saturday 21 June Anno Domini 2008 - 08:02:57 - |
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Friday 20 June 2008
| May Review Contest Results - DS Games | |
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The results are in for the ds game reviews. ZAFDeltaForce's entry in the ds game review contest is a review of one of the absolute best titles on the DS, Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Tehuber1337's winning review is, ironically enough a review of one of the best series on the DS, The Phoenix Wright Trilogy. Eldude, not to be shown up has written a review, which is a port of a Commodore 64 game (that used to drive me crazy, with it's difficulty) and is most likely a title that isn't very well known, Impossible Mission. There were a lot of er.. what's a good name for people on here? Moonbookies? Nyaa that makes me think of gambling.. Anyways there were a lot of people who submitted excellent reviews in the DS Game portion of the contest. Listed below are the finalists of the DS Game section: MegamanZen for Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney kungfuscout for The World Ends With You. Eldude for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Eldude for Speed Racer. Eldude for Rafa Nada Tennis. Silent Sniper for Lunar Knights. Silent Sniper for Tetris DS. tehuber1337 for Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Raiyu for The World Ends With You. ZAFDeltaForce for Naruto: Saikyo Ninja Daikesshu 3. |
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| Posted by Brandon on Friday 20 June Anno Domini 2008 - 20:01:20 - |
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