Valve's critically-acclaimed FPS-slash-puzzle title, Portal, has finally come to the DS. No, it's not an official port, but t4ils' homebrew title StillAliveDS does give DS owners a chance to experience Portal's innovative game mechanics on their handhelds. More after the jump.

Download: StillAliveDS v1.0
Download: StillAliveDS editor for Java 5
Download: StillAliveDS editor for Java 6

 

Lemmings DS by Team LemProject is an open source port of the original Lemmings on the Amiga console. The game features all 220 levels from both the original Amiga Lemmings and Oh-No! More Lemmings.

This DS homebrew features quite a few things that make life easier for those who want to run it, such as DLDI support. In addition to that, fans of the series will also appreciate the automatic progress saving and the map editor.

The only major change in this version is a bug fix for Tactics. No other details were given so we just have to assume that said problem's been fixed. Be sure to read the included text file after decompressing the file to get more details on how to get the program up and running on your DS. Keep checking back here for more homebrew games for the Nintendo DS.

Download: [Lemmings DS v7.01 Full]

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Blood Elf Engineer: Hmm... Tower Defense? No, that's a silly idea, it'd never work.

Noda has released v0.2 of his Warcraft: Tower Defense beta. A number of bug fixes, as well as a few adjustments in the gameplay so your towers are erected with a minimum of fuss (Still not multiplayer, though). Two big additions to cheer about are:

• New maps, nearly all of them user-created (and Noda thanks everyone who submitted their maps!)
• Now the PAFS version of the game can be used with the DeSmuME emulator.

The game is well-documented, with manuals for the game, manuals for the map editor, and important Readmes for the PAFS and Fatlib versions of the game in this package. It would be such a waste if these documents are left unread. So, whenever you're ready to prove that defense is the best offense, download v0.2 below, RTFM, and get cracking. And now, a word from our sponsors, the United Blood Elf Engineers' Union, masters (and skeptics) of tower defense.

'I'll have it up in no time.' is an official term of the United Blood Elf Engineers' Union and should not be taken as a reasonable actual estimation of the actual time it will take to complete a task in any way, shape, or form.

Download: [Warcraft: Tower Defense v0.2 beta]

Noda has issued the first release of Warcraft:Tower Defense v0.1 beta - a DS adaptation of the Warcraft III mod. This homebrew game now works only with flashcards that allow PAFS working such as Supercard, M3 (using the .ds.gba), and maybe a few others.

Noda reminds one and all that this is only the beta version. If you want to know what the final version would be like, it will include the following:

• Fatlib (DLDI version) map loading
• Options menu to choose to use either PAFS or Fatlib loader & change some preferences
• New sound engine
• Stereo sound placement for the in-game SFX
• More palettes for monsters
• A manual and a complete documentation for the map editor
• Multiplayer function

But for now Warcraft:Tower Defense v0.1 beta has only one map. With the included Map Editor, Noda expects a lot of new wonderful maps from fellow Warcraft fans (that means you)!

How to use: Put the maps (*.tdm) in the /Maps subfolder, then double click on "ADD MAPS.bat"

For more info, please refer to the readme file.

Download: [Warcraft:Tower Defense v0.1 beta]

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!

Here's another update for a PC program that enables you to edit your Animal Crossing: Wild World save file. Aibohack's map editor 1.5 has many new features that will allow you to enjoy the game more (as if being able to edit your Animal Crossing map isn't enough!).

These brand new features are the following:

• Catalog-fill is working better; now fills bugs and fish (per player option).
• "Not used" items (like single use objects) have been added.
• Support for dangerous items (glitched or seeds) in your inventory has been added.
• The editor now has three danger levels:
• Danger Level 0 - safe items like in past releases, no known problems
• Danger Level 1 - 'glitched' flowers, 'glitched' trees, 'glitched' patterns, 'glitched' weeds. Fun to play with. Can be used to vandalize towns, but not break them.
• Danger Level 2 - 'glitched' special trees (like money tree and furniture tree). Should be safe like Level 1 items, but don't place too many of them in a town. Also some non-permanent but irritating-to-get-rid-of items.
• Does not include Danger Level 3 (rocks, permanent), or Danger Level 4 ("mansion seeds" and other building seeds). May be added in future releases if people play nice.

Download: [Animal Crossing Map Editor 1.5]