Get started in the DS homebrew scene
Taking part in Nintendo DS homebrew isn't nearly as maddening as the PSP homebrew scene, which still requires Job-like patience and the ability to compile and translate a thousand fragments of Internet-scattered instructions from a vast armada of nigh-illiterate Russian teenagers into a hacked PSP. Unlike a PSP, which requires custom firmware, all a Nintendo DS requires is a flash card. But with a hundred different no-name Chinese manufacturers vying for your money when they're not changing their names or going out of business, it can be hard to get a strong recommendation on exactly which flash card to buy and what you're getting yourself into.
Over at DS Fanboy, they've tried to take some confusion out of the equation with a homebrew guide that gives a summary and run-down of the perks and cons of the various flash cards on the market. The days of running DS homebrew off of a GBA flash cart are long over, thankfully: all of the current flash cards fit into the DS' Slot 1 and most of them seem to allow you to upgrade the storage by plugging in microSD cards.
As for me, I have a DS-X. Two months ago, I wouldn't have recommended it, since a year had passed since the last firmware update, despite customer's constant complaints and the fact that modern commercial DS games could no longer be played on the card due to some Nintendo changing the standard ARM7 code. They finally fixed it, though, so I'll cautiously endorse it: it's a neat card in that you can simply plug a standard USB cable into the card and mount it as a portable hard drive on your computer (most other cards require you to have a flash card reader / writer). Installing a program to it is as simple as copying it to the file. It even continues to work after I dropped it first in a cup of tea and then my toilet (don't ask). But keep in mind before you drop your money that their support is terrible, bordering on nonexistent.
DS Fanboy's (semi) ultimate homebrew guide [DS Fanboy]
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I bought a DS-X about a year ago. I liked it, and recommended it to a friend who bought one. Mine died after about a month. The other one barely worked from the get-go - it had a bad connector. Tried to get refunds for both, but no luck. Customer service wasn't helpful, probably because they were totally swamped with complaints. Oh well. Hopefully they've worked out the technical problems that seemed to plague their older cards.
Went with an M3 which uses a microSD card, and it's worked out great. I love being able to watch movies on the DS... why it takes homebrew to do it is beyond me.. :-/
I work with these every day, and our favorite kit for development has been the G6.
The problem is that they are now exceptionally difficult to get a hold of. Once you do, I agree with Joe that customer service on these can be sketchy at best.
One thing to look out for out there - these carts use Megabit and Megabyte, depending on the manufacturer. Be sure to look at that detail before you purchase a cart.
i'm happy with my M3 simply, and have been recommending the M3 Real.
Best Homebrew game out there:
PuzzleManiak, this is also available for the iphone.
Personally I am very happy with the R4DS, especially after the latest firmware update. It allows me to use a microSD card which has been super convenient, especially since it comes with a sexy microSD USB dongle thingy. Yes, that's the technical term.
Nc. Prtnd y cr bt hmbrw, nd thn b sr nd rcmmnd th DS-X bcs nw y cn prt gms n t prprly gn.
Y cn jst sy " dn't lk pyng fr gms," rthr thn dng th clssc hmbrw bt nd swtch.
I personally use an M3 Perfect Lite with a NoPass in slot 1 - sure it's two cards, but it takes micro SD cards, plays GBA games (BulletGBA is God), and maintains great compatability. Not to mention the built-in RAM useful for some homebrew ...
If you're looking for good homebrew, I would recommend poking around on DSFanboy as well. I have spent an absolutely inordinate amount of time playing OpenTyrian on the thing (Seriously. Google it; there's versions ported to just about every platform under the sun), and there are plenty of other good choices for it as well.
And Mr. Brownlee, #5 does have a point ._.
I find it immensely helpful to have all of the roms for games I legally own (well, ok, 90% of what's on my R4DS I own) on one card for when I travel. Never seen a decent, high-capacity cart storage solution for the DS. Now I don't need one...
Oh, and the MP3 player actually has some nice features, in case you need that.
If you're running DS homebrew, you also must have Colors http://www.collectingsmiles.com/colors/
It's a great little painting program.
No layers, no undo, some might complain. I think this is brilliant in that it teaches, in its own way, what painting is about: it is additive. Mistake? Paint over it or into it.
What it does have it concentrating its various controls under one hand (and for righties or lefties), an infinite range of program based "pressure" as well as the actual pressure sensitivity of the DS itself, size and opacity, an eyedropper, and a color picker. Some really stunning work, including amazing sci-fi paintings, have been done with it.
http://colors.brombra.net/
No replacement for Photoshop (and why does anything have to be?), but a great field solution.
Forgot to mention one can download layback files of paintings created in Colors! for study.
The sci-fi art I referred to is the work of Sparth:
http://colors.brombra.net/author.php?page=1&id=342
Be amazed.
No mention of Homebrew would be complete without the piracy discussion, even though there seems to be a growing number of legitimate independent game developers out there.
It's a shame their work gets passed over because of these issues.
The R4DS is the best purchase I ever made for my NDS, the firmware updates are often, it uses a MicroSD card which is very easily removed and replaced, and the interface is drag-and-drop.
It is virtually idiotproof and there is even a R4DS wiki that tells you what homebrew apps are compatible and what isn't, or has minor issues.
I highly endorse the R4.
I've got to sling in a bit of advertising here for psp homebrew. It's complicated, but you can get pre-prepared ones off ebay for a couple of quid more, and fuck if it isn't more rewarding. Emulation of every console lower than or equal to the ps1, and Smash Bros is 39fps for the nintendo 64 emulator? Quake with the DS sounds great, but how can it compete with that amount?
Aw, man, I was just working on a post on this very topic for Making Light! I'm going a bit further into recommending particular games/programs, though.
For hardware, I got the CycloDS Evolution. It's one of the pricier devices out there (about US$55, plus whatever you pay for the microDS card), but very easy to use and well-reviewed. My only complaint is that there's a program that's supposed to let me back up my carts and saved games via FTP over WiFi, and I can't get it to work. I'm so close to being able to carry all my games around on one cart!
i got CycloDS Evolution too (with a 8GB micro SD card! Wohoo!) and its great, everything has worked perfectly..
..well except for Animanatee, a cool homebrew program for making animations. It would be perfect if not the little graphical artifacts that sometimes appear while drawing and flipping through the frames. Its not always a problem but sometimes they can screw the whole animation :(
hmm, oh and one great homebrew app people just have to get on their DS's is Comicbook DS (that is, if you can find it anymore) It has some limits on how big images it is able to show, but for webcomics there should be rarely any problems :D