DSi and homebrew

[Updated]

The DSi is coming to North America in a few days, and it’s hardly surprising to see that Nintendo is promoting it. Sure, we know that the DS has about half the market penetration in North America than it does in Japan, but that alone doesn’t explain the hard sell.

Maybe it’s that Nintendo wants this more powerful DS [2x CPU speed and 4x the RAM] to take hold so that game developers can kick it up a notch.Note, though, that the DSi has two modes, ‘native’ which is for DSi-specific processing and ‘compatible’ for DS games. So, your DS games probably won’t see any benefit from the improved RAM and CPU.

No, the most obvious answer for the hard DSi push is two-fold:

• The DSi Shop offers a way to sell [and resell] apps and games in a steady stream of offerings.
• The DSi effectively blocks the use of 11 popular flash carts, although Acekard has one working cart.

There’s also that fear that some DSi-specific features and games will be coming soon, which, of course, we don’t want to miss out on.

Because we have two DS’s [one for the kids and one for me], I’ll probably do the trade-in offer at Gamestop and get the DSi, just so that I can see what it’s like. [Plus, as my eyes worsen, the larger screens are an appeal.] Even though I still have the means to play homebrew games, I don’t doubt that this change will have some impact. For many, though, I don’t think giving up homebrew is much of a sacrifice, either because they don’t play the games or don’t play them much. And that is a shame because, as I’m in the midst of repackaging updates for my recommended homebrew games, it’s chock full of gaming days.

The DSi offers several obstacles for homebrew:

• Nintendo has taken a page from Apple by creating a whitelist and requiring apps to have registered signatures to play.
• DSi firmware that prevents booting up on a flash cart.
• The DSi firmware can now be updated, which means that Nintendo can counter hacks. The PSP has had this, yet the PSP homebrew scene has thrived.

Homebrew on the DSi seems dependent on the flash carts. Acekard has already found a way, although a firmware update could nullify that. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see someone hack a solution through the second SD slot so that, although the DSi boots up normally, you can switch over to play homebrew, a la the homebrew channel on the Wii.

But a software is hack is feasible, as someone has already gotten homebrew games to work on the DSi, supposedly using a saved game hack, a la Twilight Princess hack. The folks at hackmii already their hacking wheels turning.

So, there’s reason to think that homebrew will eventually run on the DSi, and DSi won’t have to miss out on all the homebrew loveliness.

FWIW, I will probably stay with black for the DSi, although I’m somewhat tempted by the light blue.

Update: I went at lunch to Gamestop and did the trade-in. However, the clerk confirmed that reserving a DSi doesn’t guarantee you one on April 5. I know the clerk decently well, and he said he couldn’t confirm how many they were getting, but they had already had a lot of people reserve one, with the trade-in or not. He said he hoped it wouldn’t be like the Wii, but he didn’t know.