Homebrew coder Infantile Paralysiser has released a new update for MoonShell. This new update brings the Nintendo DS media app to version 2 beta 12, making the homebrew more stable with lots of changes and bug fixes.


Download: MoonShell version 2.00 beta.12

If you're an avid fan of visual novels, you'd love the DS Visual Novel Reader. From homebrew developer Jake, it's currently a simple application which can play selected visual novels on the Nintendo DS, but holds much promise due to constant updates. It does suffice when you want to read those interactive stories on your DS during lengthy trips, so check it out at the full article!

Download: DS Visual Novel Reader v1.0.3

PC owners with the MythTV home entertainment app hooked up may want to take a gander. GrizzlyAdams over at his boards has just announced the release of MythRemote v 0.1.1 for your DS, which turns your portable into a remote for MythTV frontends. As for the controls and features, according to GrizzlyAdams:

controls:

• DPAD - Navigation
• A - Select
• B - Back
• X - Vol +
• Y - Vol -

Features:

• Automatic LCD backlight off.
• Three pages of touchscreen buttons.
• Network update (upload a new .nds using netcat)
• Support for latest DSLite wifi hardware (using DSWiFi CVS)
• Return to menu (libCartReset)
• Three Frontend IP Configurations (configurable at runtime)

Future plans:

• LCD backlight fade
• Customizable touchscreen panels & button mapping
• Autoconnect (Connect to Frontend 1 at startup)
• Skinnable GUI
• MythTV Status Polling
• Automatic sleep & poweroff
• Automatic updates (off by default)

Grizzly also notes that v 01.1 should take care of the LCD bug in the main menu, as well as fix the IP Config input bug. We advise the guys to view the readme included in the bundle for the full details on this app. Or, if you need a blow-by-blow guide for the installation, click on the read link. Enjoy the app.

Download: [MythRemote v0.1.1]

Developer Sektor has his hands full these past few days developing and improving on several homebrew titles. First, he gave everyone a scare with the release of HexenDS.

This time around, going a little more retro, Sektor presents SpoutDS. A bit of history first, Spout is actually a caveflier shooting game first created for a handheld LCD console. It was ported then to Windows/SDL and after that to Unix/SDL. The first DS version was actually done by Birslip.

Much like the first version, the objective of the game is to get as high as possible without crashing or the time running out. To get out of the caves, players must use the ship's exhaust to erode the surrounding areas. The detailed controls of the game are as follows:

• A/B/X/Y - shoot, accelerate, spout, start
• left - turn left
• right - turn right
• start - pause
• select - LCD swap
• L - toggle top backlight
• R - toggle bottom backlight

A reminder to those players who own a GBA flashcart, please know that the game will be saved to the SRAM. CF/SD FAT users on the hand, will have SpoutDS saved to the root (spout.sco).

Download: [SpoutDS (.ds, .gba and .nds binary)]
Download: [SpoutDS (source code)]

Rick Wong, who prefers to go by the name of Lick, has released a demo of his homebrew app called DS Lite Brightness Test. The demo (with source) shows how you can set the brightness in DS Lite using libnds. Although this can be done using Moonshell and  ALite, Lick reveals the code to set the brightness level using arm7 code:

To set the brightness:
writePowerManagement((4), level); //level = {0-3}

To read the brightness:
readPowerManagement((4)) - 64; //returns {0-3}

The demo includes:

• Backlights on/off
• Lite brightness controlling
  
• Read battery status
• LED control
• PersonalData reading

Notes:

• Not tested on the Phatty, yet.
• PersonalData is UTF-16, which means the display of non-ASCII characters is incorrect.

Download: [DS Lite Brightness Test Demo]

This new version of FlashMe is now compatible with Mario Kart DS. Incase you are unaware of what FlashMe is - it is an alternative firmware for your Nintendo DS. Currently it is a hacked version of original firmware
Version: NDS-FW-V5.

• The button combination A+B+X+Y, gamecode "PASS" or title "DSBooter" on the GBA cartridge automatically starts program from GBA cartridge (starting from offset 0xC0).
  Most applications (like FlashMe) that were packaged with a newer ndstool already have a built-in nds loader, removing the need to prepend an auxillary nds loader to make it compatible with the FlashMe/PassMe boot method.
• Fail-safe feature: The first part of firmware is write-protected with the SL1 contact. In case malware erases the rest, you can still reinstall FlashMe from GBA cartridge by holding START+SELECT+A+B keys.
• Backlight fades in at startup.
• Effectively removes the health screen, making it less annoying to boot.
• Remove RSA signature check for Wireless MultiBooting (WMB) homebrew NDS files.

You can get it in our NDS Download section.

FMSXDS, the MSX emulator for the NDS has been updated to fmsxDSx v0.03 r01. The changes include correcting the function of the backlight, coordinate calculation of the the touch screen, and GBAMP use.

You can get it in our NDS Download section [here].