DS Modchips

So anyway me and the rest of the world have been waiting anxiously for a new Zelda for a couple of years now. I don't know what your opinion is on the latest additions to the series but Phantom Hourglass was not exactly what I'd call a stellar handheld; boat steering with the touchscreen is a pretty fucking lame gimmick to me at least. Thankfully Nintendo has always been the model of integrity who never stoops to releasing a game that isn't chock full of polish and creativity which is why their newly announced Zelda for the DS Spirit Tracks is THE EXACT SAME SHIT. Except with a train instead of a boat. Do they think we get amnesia every time we finish a game and so are joyously surprised when they announce a "new game" that is the exact same shit repackaged with a different (badly rendered because the DS really can't handle 3D) image? Anyway it makes me sick to my stomach thinking that people are going to actually go out and buy this garbage so I'm going to teach you how to "unlock" your DS so that you may not have to....

In the Early Days

Back in the early days of DS modchips you needed two cards to unlock your shitty handheld's full potential: one for the DS slot (known as Slot 1) called a Passcard that flashed the DS and stopped the onboard OS from loading and a modified GBA cartridge that fit in the GBA slot (Slot 2) that itself had a slot for a micro SD card. The idea is that on this tiny little chunk of flash memory contained a new and improved OS and all the games you could fit on there. This also necessitated an SD card reader so that you could actually transfer the files from you PC onto the SD card but most laptops come with readers built into them nowadays and you can buy ones for PC extremely cheap (most modchips come with one). The files themselves are pretty easy to find (Google is the key to everything).

The infamous R4 and M3

Eventually the Passcard and Adaptor were combined into a single unit for Slot 1 that became widely popular for its price and ease of use. The M3 and R4 brands have achieved particular notoriety, so much so that Japan attempted to ban the sale of them. However modchips are perfectly legal as long as you aren't playing copies of games you don't own with them (and who would want to do that....). An even more streamlined modchip is the DS X-Treme. It has its own built in flash memory (512 MB - 2GB) and a mini USB port that allows you to connect it directly to your PC. Because you can't change or upgrade the memory in the X-Treme it's not my personal choice ( I have an M3).

The DSi

The DSi has a newer OS and Slot 2 is an actual SD card slot as opposed to the GBA slot. Since I don't really give a crap about the DSi and don't plan on ever owning one I don't really have much to say about it. It has been cracked and modchips have been made for it.

Buying a Modchip

I personally suggest www.modchipstore.com however there are many websites that sell modchips. On most of the websites for each modchip there is a list of suggested places to buy, the M3's is here: http://www.m3adapter.com/global_sell_net.htm#America.
Make sure that wherever you buy from has vaild contact info and a return address or you may get screwed over.

Setting up the Modchip

Coming soon.

Tl;dr

Buy modchip and SD card reader at www.modchipstore.com
Download ROMs from internet and put them on SD card.
Insert modchip into DS and enjoy.
Don't buy Spirit Tracks.

New Feature Unlocked; Wii SD Card Support

At his GDC 2009 keynote, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that a Wii Shop Channel update will be available to all.

"Welcome to the SD Card Menu! Here, you can launch channels saved on SD Cards by temporarily utilizing the Wii System Memory." CONFIRMED. That's right, launch from SD.

For those of you actually getting excited about this; stop. Emulators are EXTREMELY easy to install on the Wii (and they launch directly from an SD card). I will detail how to do this exactly in an upcoming post. Be forewarned; updating your Wii can make some hacks extremely difficult or impossible to do. I strongly recommend not getting this or any other Wii system updates.

It Begins

This console generation seems to be getting a little dry. The quality of games in general has been going steadily downhill and the relationships we have with consoles are becoming progressively more abusive. With games and consoles being more expensive than they've ever been, you'd think there would be some way of getting more use out of the damn things. This site is dedicated to modding, hacking, or otherwise using a console for any purpose that was not intended.