Robert Durbin just loves making DS homebrew games based on TV game shows. Remember Deal or No Deal DS? Yep, that one's based on the Endemol-produced show. This time, the guy presents us with his third game and it's based on yet another TV game show.

Just like the show with the same title, Card Sharks will have you betting on whether the next card will be higher or lower. As this is a betting game, your goal, of course, is to get as much money as possible. Bets can come in a minimum amount of US$ 50 for all other rounds, but the final round's minimum bet must be at least equal to half of your money.

Durbin says, "A perfect score would be 32,000 if you bet it all on each choice. This includes the $400 bonus. If you bet all your money and lose after the 1st line, you lose."

An Internet highscore table may be in the horizon, only if you guys show enough interest in it. So let Robert Durbin know if you do want to see that (and other features) in the next release.

The download link's below. You know the drill. Enjoy!

Download: [Card Sharks]

Remember that DS emulator for PC, GoodNDS, that made updates on DeSmuME via icon changes and language translations? If yes (and if you happened to love what the previous release offered), then here's an update: v0.0.4. If this is the first time you're hearing about the emulator, here's the best time to get acquainted with goodnds' creation.

What to expect in v0.0.4? Read on:

• Option to change video size (but it's currently not working)
• Help button was added
• A Pause message now appears
• FastForward was changed a little

The developer of the DS emulator, which is very useful for 'brew developers, still promises to add better 2d and 3d graphics and to incorporate sounds in future releases. Meantime, enjoy v0.0.4. And as always, your constructive criticisms and suggestions are welcome.

Download: [GoodNDS v0.0.4]

LickLick has started developing a platform game for DS that will make some interesting use of the touch screen. Today, he presents us with a progress report along with a screenshot of the said project.

The developer shared some problems in working on this project, "I digged up an old 2d collision library I wrote when I was doing other stuff (for the PC), fixed a few bugs, reordered some things to make them work with the devkit compiler. Then suddenly I noticed that the library isn’t complete! It didn’t check solid objects, but it only checked lines (in my circle triangle intersection code)." Since the problem is easily solved by math, he says he was able to easily find a way to get rid of the problem and everything is now fixed.

LickLick also said he will be using the 3D engine of the Ninty handheld for his latest DS 'brew. He said the decision was made because he truly believed 3D will make the game faster and will allow alpha blending and scaling, resulting to a better game. If you think otherwise, LickLick is willing to listen and he encourages you to tell him quick - so do leave your comments below if you have any suggestions.

johanb123 doesn't like breaking his promises - that is why eventhough the latest version of his DS port of the popular German boardgame Puerto Rico is not yet completely polished, he decided to release it today...because he "did promise something this weekend". Based on Andreas Seyfarth's award-winning boardgame that is placed against colonial Puerto Rico during the Caribbean ascendancy, Puerto Rico DS has an interface copied from Ben Harrison's Windows and Linux version of the boardgame.

As this was a bit of a hurried release, johanb123 admits that "There are still plenty of glitches to be smoothed out" although the four player game - two humans and two AIs - is already included in this new version. On to the sad part: the glitches. The developer says that the game may crash occasionally while obtaining an IP address - so when you get a red screen before game starts, johanb123 advises that you just try again. Also another downside, "You must have your connection saved to the WFC settings (with Mario Kart DS or any other official wifi game - yeah, it's a pain - sorry)".

Yep, there may be some glitches to this release...but you can bet your boots that johanb123 will keep on working to make Puerto Rico DS better - his every release has proven that. So until a better version comes along, we can content ourselves with this "slightly better than the last one" release. If you have any suggestions and constructive criticisms, share them through the comments...who knows, they may see their way in future releases. Have fun!

Download: [Puerto Rico DS - 290706 Update]

When oeFun President Ian Dunlop first got his hands on a DS, he knew he just had to make a game for Nintendo's handheld. And he realizes that desire with Konductra, which will add to the number of puzzle games piling up for the DS. This Dunlop-directed/designed/programmed game, however, promises a different gaming experience with the omission of gravity prevalent in most tile games nowadays.

Sliced Gaming's Nick Schaedel sat with Dunlop and unearthed some info about the upcoming DS title. Asked why oeFun decided to make another puzzle game for Ninty's handheld, Dunlop shared that a puzzle game had really been playing around his head for quite some time now. When the DS came into the gaming scene offering different gameplay opportunities with the touch screen, Konductra came into play.

Development of Konductra began even before Dunlop was able to secure a publisher. When the developer finished work on Ion Storm, he decided to run his own company. And although he knew he needed funding to get the Konductra project moving, he still decided to push through with realizing the game using his own funds - he was under the impression that outside financial problem just might bring in unwanted influence on the game's output. He explains:

"I didn't really want anyone controlling my property. After all, if someone funds you then take a vested interest in how the game turns out and sometimes that relationship can cause unwanted friction. So... I skipped all that part and funded the game myself. I have a vision for where I want to take my company and it is a road that has risk marked on every sign post."

But that's not to say that Dunlop was thankful to have forged a relationship with O~3 Entertainment which is now funding Konductra. The oeFun President says that the publisher "has been great" for letting him get his way with how Konductra will play out.

Further into the interview, Dunlop described the process of making Konductra as "it's been an exciting journey to this point, but we're almost at the end." Schaedel was quick to catch on and asked the inevitable question "When is the game hitting our shelves?" Dunlop says he is not yet sure of the exact date but he did promise that he won't leave DS puzzle lovers hanging for too long.

A self-admitted Nintendo fan, Dunlop also revealed dreams of developing for Wii. He says he is 'absolutely' interested in making a game for Ninty's next-gen console 'if [he's] allowed'.

Check out Sliced Gaming's full interview with Ian Dunlop by clicking on the link below. If Dunlop's new insights got you interested about the game, you might want to check out the gameplay video available for download right here at QJ.

Download: [Konductra Gameplay Video]

JimmyL is not only good at making homebrew DS games (remember A Touch of War and the NDSHB-winning entry, Explosive Gas?), he also makes tools that proves to be useful to DS owners. One of those tools is ima2raw.

JimmyL's ima2raw removes the header and index blocks from a 4bit mono ima-adpcm wav file turning the file into the right format that can be put directly to the Ninty handheld's sound hardware. This tool, the code of which was heavily based on the DS ScummVM source code, will work adpcm's created with Windows SoundRecorder and with cdex but will not work with adcpm made with sox (JimmyL has not yet looked into this problem).

Seems like JimmyL has been immersing himself into improving his 'brews, just a while ago we posted on the newest version to the game Explosive Gas. Now, he also presents us with an updated ima2raw. The update fixed a bug where files converted came out 1k larger than the originals. JimmyL says it best when he wrote, "So if you're using this tool, go grab the update, your games will be slightly smaller."

As always, don't forget to share any constructive criticisms via the comments.

Download: [ima2raw 072306 Update]

Ever since Explosive Gas won the NDSHB WiFi contest, JimmyL has not made any updates on the game. Well since the game is pretty promising, I bet most of those who tried it out will want to see improvements on it. Don't despair, because JimmyL has not forgotten Explosive Gas yet.

Just today, he updated Explosive Gas to version 0.3. It will still have the same gameplay (of course) - be the last man standing in a "battle" to eliminate opponents with the use of bombs. This WiFi-enabled game is controlled via the d-pad (for moving around) and any other button (for dropping the bomb).

What's new in v0.3 are a few fixes regarding network issues and a client side crash bug. In hosting Explosive Gas, JimmyL leaves note, "you'll need to have your router forward port 9999 to your ds. You can find the ip address of your ds on the wifi menu screen in the game. If you don't have port 9999 being forwarded to your ds, you can still host a LAN game, just be sure that the other ds's that try to join use the 'Join LAN game' option rather than the 'Join Game' option in the menus."

Go ahead and download the game. If you have any suggestions and constructive criticisms on the game, don't forget to leave your comments below. Have fun!

Download: [Explosive Gas v0.3]

Ever since cncds_project announced his Command & Conquer port for the DS, the DS community has been urging him to continue with project. Good news: seems like cncds_project has no intention of abandoning the project. Just five days since the last update, he gives us another progress report just to prove that C&C for DS is still on the go.

Although having qualms with the coding environment Blitz 3D, which has no function pointers and real classes, cncds_project was still able to make a few improvements on his upcoming post of the popular PC FPS game. Work on the map editor has began - the developer shares, "I'm going to try and build all my tools into one, so they can easily share format import/export code and you can do everything in one place." The CNCDS map editor will also be supporting command line options, he said.

Tile conversion routines will be the first things to be added to the editor. This will require cncds_project to fill in the missing features of the GUI system which, as he posted on his blog today, has been done. Although things are a bit slow due to the Blitz 3D's limitations, cncds_project assures that "What works looks great".

Currently, one cannot edit the map yet but one can already fire up the map editor and see the tiles and the blank map - all thanks to the .TMP conveyor that cncds_projetc spent a lot of time to write.

The CNCDS developer on the loading times of the game: it's shocking. He explains, "...it loads all it's data from the .TMP - which means it has to recreate the images, and then due to the GUI being 3D it has to convert these to textures (a limitation of the language). The whole process is quite slow - it's about a 15-20 second load time on the editor."

When cncds_project successfully makes the maps editable, he just might release the map editor to be able to get some early feedback. So keep your fingers crossed DS owners!

What's the greatest way to double - or even triple - handheld console sales? Offer a new variety in color then bundle it with one of the most popular games. Nintendo has this down pat, as shown by this latest news about a DS Lite bundle.

Adding to the already enticing color choices of the DS Lite is Jet Black, which will be coming out bundled with the awaited Konami soccer franchise Winning Eleven. Aside from the new color, the Winning Eleven bundle's DS Lite will also have a special graphic printed on top (much like the Pikachu faces printed on Daisuki Club's limited edition Pokemon DS Lite) - although no word yet on what the graphic will be.

Release of the Winning Eleven DS bundle will coincide with the Japanese exit of the game, which is on September 21. Winning Eleven DS bundle is tentatively priced at ¥19,800 (excluding tax), that's roughly $170.

Another Mega Man title is coming to DS owners - Capcom's New Mega Man DS. This time out, players will be in control of a new hero Hoshikawa Subaru. To be able to explore and see the virtual world Radio Wave World, the new protagonist will be equipped with special glasses called Visualizer, and what's a hero without a sidekick? Hoshikawa Subaru will have War Rock as partner in this new DS game.

New Mega Man DS will also see other characters stepping into the limelight and aiding the development of the story. Ushijima Gonta, OX Fire, Shirogane Luna, Saishouin Kizamaro, and Amachi (a mysterious disappearing man who worked in Subaru's father's research company JAXA) will all be present in this DS title.

The first screens of this Capcom title, , published in Japanese magazine Coro Coro Comics, reveal that the game will be sporting cell-shaded 3D graphics.

New Mega Man DS will be out next winter in Japan with no word on a U.S. release. Meanwhile, enjoy these scans from the Coro Coro Comics.