DS could teach devs - Carmack

By Tom Bramwell Published 9 November, 2007

If homebrew were sanctioned.

John Carmack reckons the DS would make a great proving ground for upstart programmers if only platform holders didn't stifle homebrew development.

"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," Carmack told IGN in an interview about Orcs & Elves, "to be contrasted with the high level web and application work that so many entry level people start with."

Carmack of course took a similar route to building up Orcs & Elves, id Software's upcoming Nintendo DS game - created as a collaboration between Carmack and Fountainhead Software. As he explained at QuakeCon 2007, he got the 3D code that underpins the game up and running in four days during one of his "working retreats" - where he locks himself in a hotel room for two weeks with no internet connection "for completely focused work".

Unofficial homebrew solutions do exist for DS, using flash cards for storage, but they're distinctly not supported by Nintendo what with all the inherent piracy potential. The platform holder does like to get people involved with its platforms these days though - having set up a "Wii Software" initiative for downloadable, low-budget Wii games, while the DS itself is a much less demanding system than other more graphically intensive platforms for aspiring developers with a bit of cash to get started.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (7) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • killest #1 4 years ago



    where he locks himself in a hotel room for two weeks with no internet connection "for completely focused work".



    but then how does he copy code from internet forums??? :o

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #2 4 years ago

    shhh... some of these people aren't professional Software Engineers, don't give away all the secrets, man!

  • Hugundo #3 4 years ago

    "a bit of cash"

    Heh

  • Tweakmonkey #4 4 years ago

    Is it just me or is Orcs & Elves a rubbish port? The DS is way more powerful than mobile phones so I was expecting more. Get back to your darkened room Carmack!

  • kangarootoo #5 4 years ago

    "he got the 3D code that underpins the game up and running in four days during one of his "working retreats" - where he locks himself in a hotel room for two weeks with no internet connection "for completely focused work""

    I read that as "so he could use homebrew enabling gubbins as a private individual, rather than as an employee of iD, which could theoretically big a huge problem".

  • JP #6 4 years ago

    Dubious legality aside, I was able to get a homebrew cart for about $40US and everything else I'd need to develop a game for it (an IDE, compiler etc) can be had for free. Pretty low barriers to entry all told.

    What an official Nintendo cart would do is give homebrewers a much wider audience potentially. The scene now is vibrant but still pretty tiny because the audience is mostly other developers.

  • Ryze #7 4 years ago

    Sounds very interesting.

    I might even take a look.