Would you buy... (DS related)

Lt. Dan · Post by **Lt. Dan** » 2007-07-13 03:02am

Well, I was looking through the IGN website, and I came across something that really got my attention. Warhammer 40,000:Squad Command. For anyone who owns a DS on this forum, this is a must. We'll get together and see who comes out on top.Warhammer DS and PSP

But this was just a side note. What got my really got my eye was the interface. The more RTS style angle and the side buttons. And that got me thinking about diablo and how that looked. Handhelds have come to the point where there is enough power to render a pretty good 3d environment. What would it take to make a MMORPG on a DS? I'm sure it would take less server space, would it be possible to make one that was free of charge? It has gotten to the point where it's not hard to pick up a hotspot running around town and Wi-Fi is more common place.

Being a WoW fan, the idea of having something like that on the go tickled my fancy. Would you buy a MMORPG for the DS? Would something like be inexpensive to up keep in relation to PC big brother? Can something like this be free? If you would have to pay, would you mind something around $5 a month to subscribe? What realm of fantasy would you like to see on this scale?

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2007-07-13 03:55am

MMORPG on DS is certainly doable. Actually probably pretty easy. The only problem is that due to lack of storage options there can be no patches, bug fixes, future content, and episodic content is limited to using existing in game assets.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-07-13 05:26am

Actually, an expansion can be done by putting the information on a GBA cartridge and then having the cartridge in at the same time as the DS game.

There's a DS music game out in Japan that adds more songs that way.

I don't know exactly how communication between the two carts works, but if it was a two-way transfer, then hypothetically you would be able to save character data to the GBA cart and port the data to another DS cart- say the expansion for the original DS game.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » 2007-07-13 07:44am

yeah: in Super Robot Wars W; you can grab pieces and cash from your SRT A/D/R/J games

Lt. Dan · Post by **Lt. Dan** » 2007-07-13 02:04pm

Heheh, I knew it. Would the upkeep cost be low enough to keep the monthly subscription away or at a very low price?

Personally, I'd like to see something along the classic RPG lines with different melee weapons with magic spells. Or maybe a gun wielding, post apocalyptic world, where you have to battle to survive.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2007-07-13 11:19pm

Remember, there's also the Demo Download feature. Could that be twinked for patches and upgrades?

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-07-13 11:22pm

LadyTevar wrote:Remember, there's also the Demo Download feature. Could that be twinked for patches and upgrades?

That's only temporary though, but it can be used to unlock pre-existing content in a game.

I don't know if it would be possible to have information downloaded from a station to be saved onto a cart permanently- you'd need space free for it on the cart, in any case.

But the transferring information between Slots 1 and 2 that I speculated about earlier is possible, which means that a developer could use the method to make a multiple DS cart game to play and you transfer the data via Slot 2 (GBA slot).

Mad · Post by **Mad** » 2007-07-14 02:19pm

The character info could also be stored on the server and downloaded after connecting. Of course, if there's an offline component a GBA cart might be better.

The game could probably also save balance changes to memory after downloading them.

Actually, how much of a DS card can be writable?

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2007-07-14 02:50pm

LadyTevar wrote:Remember, there's also the Demo Download feature. Could that be twinked for patches and upgrades?

No; the cartridges are read-only, except for the saveram. No way to change the original code with a patch.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-07-14 11:52pm

Mad wrote: Actually, how much of a DS card can be writable?

Both the Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance share the same architecture with regards to SRAM, the area of memory that can be written to. Both have 64k of SRAM, and both areas are located at 0x0A000000. Both can store data in any format - binary, text, etc.