3DS Homebrew

3DS Homebrew Games

A lot of you may not know about homebrew gaming.  Or even what homebrew actually means.  The good folks over at Wikipedia explain what homebrew is.  The term homebrew is often applied to software (be they video games, applications, etc...) that is produced by consumers themselves.  

Developers frequently create and release these homebrew games / apps to target proprietary hardware platforms that are not typically user-friendly (read: user-programable) and use proprietary storage solutions, such as cartridges, etc...  These games and applications are developed specifically for use with add ons or third party storage solutions to enable homebrew software to be loaded and played on the system it was created for.

You can think of it like PC Freeware.  If you've been using computers for some time, you are probably using some manner of homebrew software - or freeware software.  The difference between say PC Freeware and Nintendo 3DS homebrew is that you can create and load the freeware on the PC.  Whereas with the Nintendo 3DS or Nintendo 2DS, you need to have some additional hardware in order to load your games or apps.

The similarity between the two is that both 3DS Homebrew and PC Freeware are... well... that they are both free.  You can download, use, play, and share them with friends - all legally and without any cost for the software itself.  And much like a good bunch of free to play or freeware PC games, 3DS homebrew games are also quite good and a lot of games are as good as commercial games you'd spend money to buy at the game store or the eShop.

On the Nintendo DS, DSi and Nintendo 3DS / 3DS XL you need to have something called the R4 3DS or similar flashcart to enable you to load and play the homebrew games and applications you can download for free online.  I'll create a page for the R4 to explain exactly how it works and how you can use it to play homebrew games in the next few days and go in to details.  In essence, the R4 3DS is a memory card adapter.  It looks like a regular DS or 3DS game cartridge, except that it allows you to use micro SD cards as the memory.  And whatever homebrew game or app you put on the micro SD card can then be loaded up on your DSi or 3DS just as you would load up any regular game itself.  

This is where the word homebrew comes from.  Freeware on the PC in comparison can be loaded on ANY PC, but for homebrew on the 3DS to work, you need to have a flashcart that allows you to load things on the console.  Again, I'll delve in to this in detail in the coming post, but for now, I wanted to show off some of the amazing homebrew games / applications and 3ds emulators you can load and use on your 3DS and 3DS XL.

Commander Keen was one of my favorite platform games on the PC.  It was the PC equivalent of Mario World.  I think I remember reading somewhere that they actually made the game, or the game engine, as a way to show it to Nintendo so that the developers could port Mario to the PC.  But as we all know - Mario was NOT coming to the PC at all.  Instead, we got Commander Keen - and it was awesome!  the 3DS Homebrew game is an exact conversion of the original Commander Keen series - and it plays just like it should.... I dare say even better then on the PC, because of the controls on the Nintendo 3DS being so very good.