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Carmack likes Homebrew, disappointed that Nintendo does not photo

John Carmack, the man behind Doom, is a fan of homebrew, and wishes that the DS's platform holders would embrace it rather than hinder it. Carmack believes that homebrew on the DS is perfect for budding programmers, helping them get to grips with game design:

"It is a shame that homebrew development can't be officially sanctioned and supported, because it would be a wonderful platform for a modern generation of programmers to be able to get a real feel for low level design work, to be contrasted with the high level web and application work that so many entry level people start with."

Carmack might be right, and homebrew may have all sorts of wonderful, legal, harmless applications, but he's being somewhat naive. We all know what the main reasons for opening up one's DS is, and that's not something Nintendo likes to encourage, strangely.


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18 comments | showing # 1 to 18

topgeargorilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 09:56
topgeargorilla
I open up my DS for OSU! Tatakae! Ouendan!

Does Nintendo not want that because I imported it??
Ndizi's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 10:01
Ndizi
If Nintendo were to support it they would be able to control the community and actually get better control over the piracy. Kind of like the way World of warcraft supports addons but not hacks. That's what I believe anyway.
flabzilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 10:03
flabzilla
I wouldn't want any console maker to make a system were anybody can make a game and put it out for sale, because for the good games you would get there will be 100 lame pieces of shit. It would just end up like back in the early 80's.

Home brewers always find away around the system anyway and if you have enough know how to make a game in the first place well you probably won't find getting to know hacked documentation and what not from the web too hard to get to grips with.
Variable Gear's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 10:04
Variable Gear
Nintendo is probably worried about homebrew leading to pirated versions of their games being played on the DS. You can't argue that Nintendo's position doesn't makes business sense, strange as it may seem to Mr. Megatexture.
Jim Sterling's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 10:06
Jim Sterling
The way I cut that picture, it looks like the pirate has a massive penis.
RoyRP216's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 10:16
RoyRP216
@flabzilla:

Allowing anyone to develop a game does not mean that they would be allowed to sell it.
KilgoreTrout XL's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 10:17
KilgoreTrout XL
I always thought that the reason they will never sanction it was because every homebrew application can represent a lost revenue stream through licensing fees. For instance, why explicitly allow DS owners to use a homebrewed web browser when they can make money selling you their licensed Opera version off the shelf?

/That pirate is definitely just thinking about baseball.
verkon's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 10:24
verkon
I got my R4 for "backups", but I enjoy homebrews aswell.
NightDehumidifier's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 10:26
NightDehumidifier
To me, piracy on the DS would be 2% chance of originality from people willing to create brand new games for the DS, 98% chance of people just wanting to crack it to get Chrono Trigger on it.
brad drac's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 10:50
brad drac
As a coder, I agree with carmack in so far as I'd really like to make a game for the DS, but flabzilla's right on the money. Most companies won't open up their platforms on account of losing licensing, but homebrewers will always find away around it anyway, so it's no major tragedy.
boatorious's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 11:04
boatorious
Ever hear of the XNA Creator's Club?

It's a nice little toss-out to homebrew developers. Basically, you pay something like a hundred bucks a year, and in return you can play indie games written by you (or others, possibly ms-approved) for the xbox 360.

I'm not sure that it's easy or even possible to abuse this to allow pirated games. I think this is the kind of thing that Mr. Carmack is referring to -- he'd like to see a similar facility for the DS.
biz's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 11:05
biz
Hell...SONY DID THIS ALREADY: Check it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Yaroze

I'm in the development game and I fully support Carmack, with a caveat....

Why not just manufacture a USB-Enabled Cartridge (we all know it's been done), create a simple SDK based off a solid, easy language like python or a juiced up basic and turn the fucker loose for $99 USD (So its cheaper for us Canucks :P)

Lock the cart with an encryption key so it can only play games compiled by the SDK and boom...you have a generation of DS developers in the wings...

As for piracy, umm, duh it's here. *Cough* Natrium42 *cough*.

Take the Adobe approach...they know everyone pirates Photoshop. But does anyone use ANYTHING else? They have every pixel pushing geek on lock.

If the big N had a tight little SDK and a 256MB Flash chip they'd have a legion of programmers skilled enough to take on real, licensed games right out of school. Instead we get flash games and shit for XBLA.
Crunshii's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 11:13
Crunshii
Captain Morgan!!! <3 ur liquor!
king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 11:32
king3vbo
Dang, I need to go buy some Capitan Morgans now
flabzilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 11:52
flabzilla
GBA has a pretty big homebrew community going and apparently theres some ace games to be found there.

I guess if they did make an official kit it would help speed things along in that it would stream line the development tools, rather than waiting 2 or 3 years for hacked or reversed engineered oness to become available.

But then like Microsoft, Nintendo are gonna put these things through tests and filter out the stuff they don't want and won't allow for us to decide if a certain game/application is crap or not.
Cowboy TTop's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2007 15:49
Cowboy TTop
I agree with what carmack is saying too, but the wind is changing at NoJ. The very fact that Wii Ware is being attempted for Wii is a big start in that direction, as Nintendo know they can't ignore some of the cool stuff MS are doing with XNA. Nintendo have to focus it more at indie though.

I think its only a matter of time before Nintendo grapple with the fact that those creative gamers outside of japan, not in schools supported by them and their software/hardware muscle, need and deserve some kind of help in this area, on DS or Wii. They'd be wise to act, as it will eventually bring new blood to the industry. To ignore the homebrewer and mistakenly mix them with pirates trickily would be silly.
Burnt Meatloaf's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2007 05:06
Burnt Meatloaf
@KilgoreTrout XL: Why do we pay for software, again? Remember, professional developers aren't just supposed to have more talent, they're supposed to have focus, full-time schedules, large budgets, and pay attention to the "boring" details that homebrew hackers don't find interesting enough to satisfy.

If a couple of people who spend a few hours a day hacking in their basement can beat out professional developers, then the "pros" deserve to lose some sales.

As for homebrew in general, I don't see the point other than novelty value. If you want to make games for fun and education, not financial profit, then the PC is the best place to start. The hard part is not getting into the habit of being lazy, since PC development is just so easy.
Doomtrain's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/10/2007 12:33
Doomtrain
Ohmigawd his penis is hueg like xbawks
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