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Modojo Special Report: The State of DS Homebrew
Written by Cody Musser on Friday, August 11, 2006
We take an in-depth look at what's hot in Nintendo DS emulators, indie games, and custom applications...
...Continued From Page 2 We were lucky enough to get the chance to speak with Neil Millstone, the developer behind ScummVM DS about his project, and on his feelings about homebrew for the DS.
Modojo: Why bring the SCUMM titles to the DS?
Neil Millstone : I had the idea soon after getting my hands on the DS hardware that it would be perfect for point-and-click adventure games. Porting ScummVM just seemed like the perfect project, something feasible to do during the limited time I have in the evenings and weekends, and also something lots of people would play - Lucasarts Adventures still have a huge fanbase, perhaps even bigger now than when the games were released. I'm very glad I did. The homebrew community is very supportive, and it feels like I'm part of something great when I contribute to it.
MO: Do you feel these titles offer the kind of gameplay that the DS embraces?
NM: Absolutely. The DS has been great at introducing the world to new types of games, but also reintroducing people to genres that have almost completely faded away. Phoenix Wright has been likened to a text adventure, for example, and the 2D platformer has been resurrected thanks to New Super Mario Bros. As a retro gamer at heart, I think this can only be a good thing.
MO: ScummVMDS isn't actually an emulator, but requires that gamers own the original titles. Why create a program such as this?
NM: Well, while ScummVM isn't technically an emulator, all emulators require the player owns the original titles in order to use them legally. ScummVM is no different to that. Piracy happens, of course, but ScummVM can't do much to prevent it.
MO: How do you feel about the homebrew developers who bring emulators to the DS, without regard to their legality?
NM: I don't know of any emulators on the DS that are illegal. As far as I know they are all created without any Nintendo tools, so the emulators themselves are fine. If the players decide to pirate games to play on the emulators, the player is the person breaking the law, not the author of the emulator. Of course, everyone knows that a large amount of piracy goes on in the emulation scene, and it could be said that the emulator authors help this along by making it possible to play these pirated games. The rights and wrongs of piracy is a very complex issue, but really, it's up to the individual to decide their feelings about it.
MO: What developments within the DS homebrew scene do you find the most promising?
NM: The recent release of the Wi-Fi library was a very interesting development, and has inspired people to create some very nice applications that make use of the DS' internet abilities. There are a couple of homebrew games already which allow Internet play, I recommend trying out Blubb and A Touch of War. There are also several instant messenger clients, email, IRC, and probably loads more I haven't tried yet. I'm sure eventually there will be a whole range of internet applications you can use on the move. That's sure to persuade people to try homebrew on their DS.
MO: Is there a future within DS homebrew? The scene is often over-shadowed by the PSP, but is their just cause, or is the DS unjustly overlooked?
NM: I suppose it depends on what circles you travel in, but I haven't really been watching the PSP homebrew scene, so I have heard little about it. There will probably be more people willing to have a go on the PSP though, since no extra hardware is required to get it working. DS homebrew requires a little bit more effort initially, and I'm sure that puts some people off. Of course, as the DS has sold more units, there are more potential people who might try out DS homebrew.
DS homebrew at the moment is extremely active, judging by the amount of support emails I get from people trying to get ScummVM running on their DS. The development message board at gbadev.org gets loads of posts each day, and there are many active projects that are breaking new ground. I would say that homebrew will be around for as long as the DS remains popular, and possibly longer! The fascination of writing code for a console will always be there, and the DS touch screen offers interesting gameplay ideas that are simply not possible on other consoles.
MO: Do you have plans to continue support for ScummVMDS, or will you move on once the project is finished?
NM: The DS port is now officially part of the ScummVM project, so I'll be keeping it updated and releasing each time the ScummVM team release a new version. Hopefully, ScummVM will take less of my time in the future once the port supports all the games it can. I'm already at a point where I reckon most of the features I wanted to do are done.
MO: Within your website you mentioned that some of the SCUMM titles couldn't be made to work on the DS. Is this still the case, or are they simply limited by the hardware?
NM: They are limited by the hardware. At the moment, all the LucasArts games that will ever work are playable on the DS, which I am quite pleased about. ScummVM doesn't just run SCUMM games though; it also runs many other point-and-click adventure games. Most of the games by other developers that ScummVM plays also run on ScummVM DS, but not all. I'm hoping to add a few more in the next release so that eventually all the games that physically fit within the constraints of the DS hardware will be playable.
MO: Could we possibly see some other point-and-click adventures on the DS? (cough..cough.. King's Quest...)
NM: Actually, you're in luck! Kings Quest is coming to ScummVM thanks to some code from another open source project, called Sarien, which will allow you to play some of the older Sierra adventures. Hopefully that will make it to the DS version too.
MO: Which of the SCUMM titles should I play first?
NM: My personal favorite is Sam & Max: Hit the Road, for its unique take on cheesy Americana. It's one of the funniest games I've ever played and the voice acting in the talkie version is just perfect. The graphics also look really detailed when they're shrunk down on the DS' screen. Also, Beneath a Steel Sky has been released for free by its creators, Revolution, (and) is also a masterpiece of a game with a fantastic atmosphere and a very believable world.
Thanks Neil for the opportunity and for the wonderful games you've made available on the DS. You can check out Neil's work on ScummVMDS at his website here.
posted August 12, 2006