Developer Risike has released his tool to test the performances of Micro Lua DS, the Ball Mark. He explains that this brew app will draw a lot of bounding and rotating balls of various color, size and speed, and to random directions.


Download: Ball Mark

Nintendo and its software partners have finally put their feet down on Japanese distributors selling the Chinese-made R4 device. A lawsuit has been filed in a Tokyo District Court on the grounds of the Unfair Competition Law. Details after the jump.

If you always make it a point to update your R4 firmware regularly, now's the time to do so. The R4 team has released another kernel update for the Nintendo DS R4 flash cart, only days after they released the previous update. More details in the full article!

Download: R4DS firmware v1.14 kernel (English)
Download: R4DS firmware v1.14 kernel (Korean)
Download: R4DS firmware v1.14 kernel (French)

David Hecq, a certified gamer who writes reviews and does other things video game journalists have on their to-do lists, is running for mayor of a small town in France. He's the president of AFRS (Française de Revendeurs Spécialisés, an association of video game retailers), runs a gaming website, yet still has time to play politics.

Check out the full article for more details!

Having a bit of trouble with your R4? It's probably time to get its firmware updated, and coincidentally, this news article is about the latest version of the popular Nintendo DS flashcart's software. Check out the complete details of what's fixed this time around in the full article.





Download: R4DS firmware v1.13 kernel (English)
Download: R4DS firmware v1.13 kernel (French)
Download: R4DS firmware v1.12 kernel (Korean)

Nintendo DS R4 users annoyed with how flimsy the R4's spring mechanism in its Micro SD slot can now heave a sigh of relief: new R4 units with redesigned shells are now out, with the spring mechanism now eliminated.

Those who aren't acquainted as to what R4 is, it's one of the more popular alternatives for a SuperCard, and is also compatible with DLDI system.

According to the R4 website, there were many complaints received from R4 users about how the spring gets easily damaged over use. And since the Micro SD slot's spring mechanism is used every time gamers load and swap homebrew and media files, the spring's most likely bound to be busted at some point after frequent usage.

But now that it's eliminated, DS R4 owners can now take out and re-insert their Micro SDs from their R4 cartridges as often as they want without worries.

It's no secret that Japan still loves Sony, and recent hardware sales prove testament to that. Even so, Nintendo's consoles are yet to slow down as the Wii and DS dominate the market. Microsoft's Xbox 360 continues to struggle with limited interest for its games outside the RPGs.

Recent figures from Media Create show that PlayStation 3 sales went up 20%, having sold 11,914 last week. The PlayStation 2 before it is still alive with units sold at 16,316 after experiencing a 26% increase.

Ninty's Wii doesn't fall behind, selling 8000 more than the week before last and keeping its steady lead at 73,919. Microsoft had 3154 Xbox 360 units sold for them, which is pretty much how the box performs over the land of the rising sun all the time.

On the handhelds side, DS recently sold 157,435 from 164,000 a couple of weeks back. Nintendo's other babies, Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Micro are still kicking, selling 179 and 377 respectively. The PSP trails as 38,305 units made their way off the shelves.

Everyone knew it was a matter of time: The Nintendo DS Lite has broken the 10 million mark in Japan. This data was gathered by Famitsu and if the reports are to be believed, it has broken yet another record.

The PlayStation 2 took 131 weeks to break the said mark, while it took the DS lite only 61 weeks. However, this insane demand for DS created massive shortages of the said handheld, so hopefully Nintendo will do something about this problem.

The DS Lite sold a whopping 702,844 units in April, securing the top spot with the Wii coming in at second (287,722) and the PSP (158,291) at third. The rest of the hardware sales follow:

• DS Lite: 702,844
• DS: 2, 211
• PSP: 158,291
• GBA SP: 3,749
• GB Micro: 3,626
• PS2: 67,673
• Wii: 287,722
• PS3: 71,247
• Xbox 360: 17,094
• GameCube:  258

So it looks like Nintendo is continuing its winning ways by snagging the two top spots on the charts once again. The question now is, how long can Nintendo maintain its popularity?

Electronic Arts, the same micro-transaction advocates who love going multiplatform, also sponsored the recent Women in Games Conference that is being held this April. Electronic Arts' VP of Europe Online, Sharon Knight, said in that same conference that ignoring the female gaming audience is "a great waste." And before you get any bright ideas, she's addressing that to all the game publishers out there, and not you, bub.

Considering Electronic Arts had realized the potential growth of the female gaming bracket last year, this new comment by an EA exec is a big step up from saying that the games industry was "failing women." But consistent with their views, Knight's stand on game development was similar to COO David Gardner's: make games that cater to both men and women.

Now we've said it's all about catering games to gamers, and just not males in general. So it's fair to say that catering games to women only is also a definite no-no. Creating "pink" games still leaves the concept of female gamers open to stereotyping and that's not healthy. Knight reiterated Electronic Arts' stand on the matter:

If you look at how other media forms have tapped into women, for example, you don't see movies and music being exclusive to men. Women enjoy all forms of entertainment. We [at EA] want to avoid making 'pink games.' Women enjoy many of the same features in gameplay as men do. The way EA sees it is there's a lot of untapped potential out there.

Take for example, The Sims: Sims creator Will Wright never developed The Sims with women in mind. In fact, it was supposed to cater to the "core" of gamers at the time: males. But when it came out, look who ate up all your afternoon gaming pleasure. Women are slowly crawling in to gaming, and not just on the casual side.

EA seems to be advocating that developers should contribute to the growing trend, introducing new ways of getting girl gamers hooked to the concept of gaming. Soon enough, they'll make great deathmatch opponents, RTS allies, MMO guild mates and a fresh breath of air in gaming-related conversations.

Start making small ripples, and soon enough, all those tiny ripples will make bigger waves. Make enough waves, you brew up a storm. So it's not a surprise that Nintendo's broader market crusader, the Wii, gets another special mention. Knight commented:

The Wii levels the playing field. You don't embarrass yourself--you can grab it and right away start having fun. ... [Wii games] don't require the same investment to learn and to master how to pick up and play [as other consoles' games].

In today's edition of the Japanese hardware sales report, every console has received a drop in sales with one exception: the Nintendo DS Phat. The DS Lite's still dominating the charts, with a commanding lead over the Wii, which is the only other console that registered numbers above the 50,000-unit mark. Third spot goes to the PSP, the PS3's in fourth, and the PS2 is in fifth place. Microsoft's Xbox 360 rounds out the top six.

Here are the charts for the period spanning January 29 until February 4, straight from Media Create:

1. DS Lite - 146,073
   
2. Wii - 65,740
3. PSP - 31,216
4. PS3 - 18,727
5. PS2 - 17,540
6. Xbox 360 - 6,130
7. Game Boy Micro - 1,050
8. GBA SP - 724
9. Gamecube - 306
10. DS - 119
11. GBA - 28