It's true the 3D effect is just a gimmick, but it's a very neat one. Games like Metroid Samus Returns are much better in 3D IMO. The game feels like an actual mini diorama is in front of you.
- CPU got double the ARM11 cores (now 4, was 2) at triple the clock speed (exactly)
- RAM doubled from 128 MB to 256 MB.
- VRAM upped by 2/3 to 10 MB, was 6 MB (which sounds like not a lot, which is true, but the top screen is 800x240 with an effective resolution of 400x240 and the viewport rendered twice from slightly different perspectives when 3D is enabled. Lower screen is 320x240, so it's not a lot of VRAM but it doesn't really need that much)
- Added an H.264 hardware decoder (yes, the original lacked one)
- NFC added, not big but an external reader/writer puck was required for the old 3DS models and amiibo is huge among a subset of fans
- ...Wi-Fi still maxes out at 802.11g (come on now)
The hardware gap is great enough that the New 3DS got a Switch port (Fire Emblem Warriors) and a Wii port with the 3D enabled (Xenoblade 3D). It can also be used for Twitch/YouTube streaming, as it has enough horsepower (and apparently extra hardware, but I'm not sure which is required; maybe someone else can enlighten us in this respect) to just dump the display buffer over Wi-Fi to a PC. Even with the 802.11g deficiency.
It's a great console with a huge library of games, especially with DS backwards compatibility, and with mods (all are vulnerable) it's also a capable and very portable emulation machine. Cheaper as well (although not necessarily significantly) than even the Switch Lite, and more moddable (unless you want to shell out for a Switch modchip).
Nintendo could have sold many more but botched the name and the marketing, like the Wii U. But it's worth a look.
Because it was only ever used by a handful of games!
When the New 3DS launched, I expected it to be something of a stealth new console generation. The trajectory would been like the Gameboy Color; at launch, games could still be played in Black & White on the original gameboy, but it didn’t take long for games to drop that support so they could truly make use of the GBC’s superior internals.
But of course, this did not happen.
Some of the best would be yeah Metroid and Luigi's Mansion 2. The 3D gives a real "diorama" feel.
I think later games realized people weren’t actually going to do that, and effectively optimized their visuals for the highest setting.
Over the last year or so I've been squeezing individual fps's of performance out of the PSX emulator and it's been some of the most fun hobby programming I've done in a long time.
Plus you can write for a platform with a 3D screen! How cool is that?
That sounds really cool. Do you have any pointers for getting started?
For the basic stuff you can use the usual C libraries. I picked up a lot by reading and tweaking the examples, which are installed along with the toolchain: https://github.com/devkitPro/3ds-examples
libctru, installed with devkitpro (https://libctru.devkitpro.org/) is where a lot of the platform-specific APIs live. There are also some higher-level libraries built on top of it
A good understanding of ARM will take you a long way. A lot of what documentation there is (especially on 3dbrew.org) assumes you understand the terms and general architecture of an older ARM platform. This book https://www.brucesmith.info/arm-a32-assembly-language/ was great for building enough understanding that I could understand most of the official reference manuals. From those, I found the ARMv7 reference manual and the ARM11 MPCore Technical Reference Manual to be the most useful, and I refer back to the ARM instruction set reference card a lot.
Besides that, it's reading and modifying the source of other projects, and trying things out. If you look at homebrew apps like ctrQuake (https://github.com/masterfeizz/ctrQuake), you'll notice there's usually not a lot of platform-specific code -- most is just standard C / C++.
Hope that helps. Just like anything, it's knowing enough to get started (a toolchain, some C, and some examples) and using your questions and ideas to draw you into the next thing to learn.
Of course all of this can also be achieved on a PC with a simple 10$ amazon controller and free emulators, if you're comfortable pirating games.
1. Super Mario Bros 3
2. The Legend of Zelda (1986)
3. Super Metroid (1994)
4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
5. Super Castlevania
6. Pokemon: Silver/Gold
7. Advance Wars: Dual Strike
8. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (tecccchnically an n64 game though) (Majora's Mask would make this list if the DS version wasn't a butchered shadow of the original)
9. Metroid: Fusion
10. Like... ANY of the billion Final Fantasies available between NES and N3DS
edit: 11. Mario 64 baybbeeeeeeeee
And why specifically Super Castlevania, which is regarded as kind of a garbage castlevania (the player sprite is bigger so you get less of a heads up on whats ahead, and it's not part of the "metrovania" pantheon).
Why Fusion and Super Metroid?
Does the original LoZ hold up as well as say Link's Awakening?
Why are there only 3 companies represented on this list? Did Capcom run over your pet dog?
If you're only going to play one LoZ, play A Link to the Past. (I think "play the 3rd game" is pretty good advice for a lot of Nintendo series.) ALttP is when they figured out the formula; I played it after I played most of the others, and after playing it every other LoZ (at least the 2D ones) all kinda felt like a copy of ALttP, like they're each just remaking a different aspect of it (and adding in their own little gimmick).
The original LoZ holds up, but is a very different game than the later games. The world is empty for you, there are no towns, just wilderness; it's being a kid exploring the woods behind your house, pretending you're alone in the world. The loss of sword beams when you take damage made me feel that taking damage is getting hurt, rather than just some meter in the corner of the screen that I need to keep up; more so than any other game.
I would never hate on a game for this.
> super linear
point taken, but speedrunners would say otherwise.
> much of the exploration is of the "guess and check" variety.
I finished the game as a 10 year old so I think it wasn't too easy or too hard.
To each his own !
I think "achieved perfection" was the bar you set =) And Super Metroid set the bar quite high.
And to be totally fair, it's true SC is clunky and dated in several regards (it was a very early SNES title and it shows...) So maybe Jeremy dings it on those aspects more than others do. But I would argue it makes up for a lot of that in atmosphere, style and uniqueness.
Fusion is lit but you super metroid is like... The OG metroidvania.
They tweaked that fight where you chase the big monster around an endless forest hallway to be ABSURDLY easy.
On that note, same for the originally TERRIFYING jungle warrior fight.
Oh and the changed swimming mechanic was fucked, although I just read that they fixed it maybe?
Here's a video I think captured it well https://youtu.be/653wuaP0wzs
Could you make some recommendations? I'd be very interested in your list.
1. LoZ: Ocarina of Time 2. Super Mario 64 (ds version) 3. Donkey Kong Country Returns 4. LoZ: A Link To The Past 5. Shin Megami Tensei: IV (maybe not "must", but you should give it a shot) 6. Earthbound 7. Super Mario World
Pretty please, play the Wii version of this! You can use Dolphin if you want.
The 3DS port halved the framerate from 60 fps to 30 fps, and it makes a big difference! At 30 fps, the game is much too difficult—unless you play on the "adjusted" difficulty they added, and I'm pretty sure I know why they adjusted it.
Also, while I'm here I'm going to add on Kid Icarus: Uprising. I know the controls were divisive, but if you can adapt, it's a really unique and well-done action adventure. From the creator of Smash Brothers!
1/2. Metroid Fusion & Zero Mission
3/4. Advanced Wars 1 & 2
5/6. Golden Sun 1 & 2
7. Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced
8. Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
9. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
10. Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
There were also 3 great Castlevania's, 3 great Sonic Advanced, 2 or 3 Fire Emblems, I enjoyed the 3 Dragon Ball Z RPGs, I enjoyed the newer Pokemon Emerald and throwback FireRed (QoL improvements). Final Fantasy 6 is available.
Really, a flash cart was very much a worthwhile investment (and a larger capacity battery) for my gameboy micro. Would recommend EZ-Flash IV.
The main change seems to be them removing the 3DS page from the Nintendo website? My impression was that they stopped making them long ago and were only making new versions of the 2DS (which kind of defeats the entire purpose of the device).
They also don't make enough Switch consoles to meet demand, and they don't update basic things with their software (friend codes really?)
I'm not sure what the culture is like at Nintendo, but there's a lot of low hanging fruit that would make things a lot better (and make them a lot more money at the same time).
By “defeat the purpose” I just meant that a version of the 3DS without the 3D part isn’t really the same thing.
I generally find Nintendo the company frustrating to interact with when trying to buy things from them.
You can make good online services that are still safe for children (and they wouldn't have friend codes).
I got one basically as a bonus in an ebay auction a few months back along with a 3DS I was getting for a friend and I've found myself playing original DS games on it more than I ever did on my own New 3DS XL so I was almost certainly picking up on the iffiness of the upscaling to fill the screen.
But it’s the ideal size IMO, and it has swappable faceplates and Super Famicom coloured buttons, if you’re into that kind of thing.
[0] https://devkitpro.org/wiki/Getting_Started [1] https://www.3dbrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_Applications#Game_Engin...
The 3DS library is good despite somewhat lacking in diversity. But the 3DS also has native compatibility with the entire excellent DS library, and after hacking it can also run the entire great GBA library without emulation (like Matroshka dolls, the 3DS hardware includes the complete DSi hardware which in turn includes GBA hardware, and it has firmware support to access them both).
The old models emulate a lot of 8 and 16 bit consoles well, whereas the New models have nearly complete compatibility for 8 and 16 bit consoles and additionally can emulate some Playstation 1. Moreover, hacking the 3DS has become even more accessible due to recent newly found exploits. Still getting a lot of fun out of mine.