Play Famicom games on your DS with the Cyber Familator cart

Using a simple but bulky cart from Japan, it's possible to make your DS play Famicom games. It'll also play NES games if you can get your hands on an adapter for the different cart shape. Mark this down on your shopping list before you make your compulsory, once-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Akihabara.

[Via Technabob]

[autobot1984 @ Nov 24th 2007 9:37PM]

lol we dont need the bulk and the money to play those same games on our psp's :) homebrew is the best thing to come to the portable gaming world ever!!!!

[John @ Nov 24th 2007 9:42PM]

you also don't need to legally own the games... which is probably why Sony works so hard to keep down homebrew.

[BrettB @ Nov 24th 2007 10:15PM]

I'd like to see Sony embrace linux on the PSP and make it so I can run whatever programs I like on the PSP rather than having to hack the thing just to play some homebrew. They've done it on the PS2/PS3, I don't know why they're holding out on the PSP.

[dave @ Nov 25th 2007 12:09AM]

hey um if you just buy an r4 or supercard lite for the ds (they are like $30) you can play famicion/nes games on your DS, I dont really get the point of this, its huge, expensive and sucks battery life, why would you buy this?

Plus you can also do SNES and a bunch of other emulations with the r4...

[fischju @ Nov 24th 2007 10:00PM]

Yea, the DS can also emulate NES, SNES, SMS, as well as almost everything the PSP can.

I'm guessing this cart does all the work and displays it on the DS

[Alexander @ Nov 24th 2007 10:34PM]

Gee, you think? I dunno, the NES is hard to simulate in hardware...

*goes back to playing NES, SNES, Genesis, and MAME games on his PSP*

[Mel @ Nov 24th 2007 11:17PM]

Too bad those are the only games worth playing on PSP

[Fruition @ Nov 25th 2007 12:23AM]

Objection!

The PSP has good games, if one takes the time to look for them. Granted, I haven't picked up my PSP in a while but off the top of my head, Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and LocoRoco come to mind. The first Mercury was pretty good too, but it's all but impossible to find in stores now.

I own both a DS and PSP, neither of which I play too much. I do like my DS a lot, but the PSP is a good system too.

[Beef Stalmer @ Nov 25th 2007 6:23AM]

The "PSP has no games" argument is getting extremely tired.
There's a lot of great stuff to play for the PSP. I haven't had any urge whatsoever to buy a DS since the PSP's launchday.

If a portable console experience is not what you're after then fine: stick with your DS. But the PSP is great for playing console quality games (both in terms of depth and graphical execution) on the couch when the TV is not available (i.e. the GF is watching girly programs).

[Nin10dude @ Nov 24th 2007 11:01PM]

If it plugs in to the GBA port, does it also work with the GBA?

[Wilder.K.Wight @ Nov 24th 2007 11:24PM]

Man... Would you guys please using the "Homebrew" code-word. You know as well as I do that it means "pirated ROMs", so why the pretense? If you want to use your $200 device to play 20-year-old ROMs downloaded from the Internet illegally, just SAY SO.

I don't have a problem with your desire to do so. I just loathe the fact that the "homebrew" community thinks they can insult our intelligence that way, and be so damned intellectually dishonest.

It's the same with the losers who run around saying "legalize marijuana because you can make rope and clothes out of hemp." Shut up. If you want to smoke weed, and you want it to be legal, just say "I want to get high and I think it should be legal" and I'll respect you a lot more than if you try to slip it into some other package and deliver it all "stealthy-like."

You're downloading illegal ROMs and playing them on your PSP. More power to you. Just please say so rather than trying to be clever and using the "homebrew" label.

Unless, of course, you can find me a ton of homemade games and applications that are worth spending the time, money, and effort to have a hacked PSP.

Personally, I don't get the appeal unless it's the "I do it because I can" angle. Why would you WANT to play old-ass 8-bit games. I was around for the 2600 era and the dawn of the 8-bit era, and there's NOTHING from back then that I'm so nostalgic about that I'd want to play it for more than a couple minutes, max. I think a lot of this retro craze is from young'uns who think it's trendy to be into old-school games.

Nope. They were very frequently boring and crappy. I'll trade you every game on the NES for a couple good ones on the XBox 360. No contest.

Of course, since the PSP's actual *legal* library of games pretty much sucks ass, I can understand why people are looking to "homebrew" ROMs for their entertainment.

[DWells55 @ Nov 24th 2007 11:42PM]

No, the problem is people like you who automatically equate any sort of console hacking to piracy. There's a very large library of useful homebrew applications available for the PSP, including word processors with keyboard support, GPS programs, etc. I even used the hacked firmware to rip my purchased games onto my memory stick so I wouldn't have to carry around physical discs, not to mention the fact that I save battery life.

And don't even get me started on the homebrew available for the original Xbox. Xbox Media Center alone is enough reason to go out and buy an Xbox for the sole purpose of modding. There's tons of other apps available - web browsers, game trainers, game mods, full Linux distros, etc.

In short, homebrew != piracy.

[fischju @ Nov 25th 2007 1:02AM]

Yea, you're an idiot. The DS has an insane amount of very good homebrew, and I mean homebrew. No reason not to talk about it.

And the SNES was the last great console, and I would trade a handful of SNES games (which you can play on the DS) for any Xbox360 game.

[speedyrulz8 @ Nov 25th 2007 9:30AM]

Technically it is homebrew, since the emulators themselves are what is homebrew, not the games...

[m-p{3} @ Nov 25th 2007 1:56PM]

Homebrew doesn't automatically mean pirated ROMs. Look at some projects like Moonshell, Beup, Okiwi. They are not about anything illegal, but most about optimizing and improving your experience about an already great console.

Stop whining, I'm going back to my homebrews.

[kojo87 @ Nov 24th 2007 11:24PM]

i wanna know where they got a gray/silver DS Lite! (or are those already out and im oblivious?)

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Nov 25th 2007 12:22AM]

good point. They are not in america for sure. Probably jap only

[Blast Processing Megadrive @ Nov 25th 2007 2:54AM]

Yes, it's a JP only color. Just like Enamel Navy and Metallic Rose (until the Nintendogs bundle arrives, but that isn't a plain one, since it had the logo on it).

[KingDeb8r @ Nov 25th 2007 3:29AM]

The silver is also out in the UK! Came out a month ago!

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Nov 25th 2007 10:32AM]

lucky oyu. All we have here is black, white, pink and crimson/black. There are also 2 special editions. Gold and pink.

[Dan Smits @ Nov 24th 2007 11:25PM]

Google translated version. Geez Engadget is it really that hard?

http://www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cybergadget.co.jp%2Fnews%2Ftopics%2Ftx20071120-1.html&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

[Shawn @ Nov 24th 2007 11:54PM]

wow. who peed in your coffee?

[Tony Rayo @ Nov 24th 2007 11:26PM]

All of these input devices are interesting but I still wish there was a way to capture raw video from the DS without an official devkit. Home-reviews/tutorials are so much better when you have control over the content. PSPS comes with tv-out, GBA and earlier consoles can be emulated almost to perfection on the PC or have cable outs; just need to hack together a DS solution since it doesn't seem like anything official will be coming out.

- Tony R.

[Mr. Picklesworth @ Nov 25th 2007 12:36AM]

What a completely pointless waste of plastic...

Why not just use the software emulators already available with every other DS homebrew solution on the planet? (Either built in or via emulators people have created, such as nesDS)

[lostboy @ Nov 25th 2007 1:49AM]

I'm pretty sure you can download snes roma legaly because nintendo no longer support the console. I think that its public domain now

[josh @ Nov 25th 2007 5:22PM]

Just because they do not support the console does not mean the games are in the public domain.

[gzeusmants @ Nov 25th 2007 2:25AM]

Guh.
I've got this GBA cart(and trust me, this is just a GBA cart. look where it goes, look what screen everything is on...) and it sucks.
What it is is a famiclone with the composite out run into a digitiser run into the display of the GBA. I tried to play a baseball game and the ball was not visible.
BLURRED SHITE.

[Blast Processing Megadrive @ Nov 25th 2007 2:56AM]

Looks cool, albeit a bit bulky. I'd get it, if it weren't for the fact I can just emulate on my M3 Lite. Oh, well.

[Byzil Mystwing @ Nov 25th 2007 4:20AM]

Well that's not actually that useful..

[Darkflame @ Nov 25th 2007 8:56AM]

"I don't have a problem with your desire to do so. I just loathe the fact that the "homebrew" community thinks they can insult our intelligence that way, and be so damned intellectually dishonest."

The REAL Homebrew community gets pissed of when people equate them to piracy you know.

I use Moonshell (bloody good media played/booter), DSOrganise (notepad,web browser, IRC, file management and music streamer), ComicBookDS (and yes, theres plenty of legal free comics, eg Heroes), theres also plenty of good free homebrew games too.
PuzzleManik, DS, for instance.

Yes, I do play a few NES games on NesDS too, of course.
Its more convient then using a real Nes.
But that isnt the "homebrew community".

Id rather buy my games however, even old ones.
Second hand dosnt give Nintendo any money, so thats not really better then downloading.
I'll happly buy games I want on the Wii's VC system though, comfortable in the knowledge my money is going to more games I love.

[kev @ Nov 25th 2007 9:36AM]

Yeah...you would probably only be able to get this in Akihabara too. I highly doubt Shinjuku or Ginza would carry this item, lol.

[Holy_Gohan @ Nov 25th 2007 10:11AM]

...so any news of this coming over seas?

I think it would be a cool thing to have if they did.

[stingraze @ Nov 25th 2007 10:12AM]

Akihabara is the heaven of all Electronics Fan... :) Seriously. I'm so fortunate to be a Japanese who's living in Tokyo :D

[kev @ Nov 25th 2007 10:22AM]

大阪の方が良いわ　:P

秋葉原はちょっと…オタクポイや。でも、しかたないよね、パーツがほしかったら。

[stingraze @ Nov 25th 2007 4:01PM]

That's true... Especially all those manga otakus.... :(

[LogoPolis @ Nov 25th 2007 5:36PM]

I seem to have blogged about this two years ago:
http://panocamera.com/2005/Sat101520052133.html

It didn't work with the DS fat.

[Marcus @ Nov 25th 2007 6:02PM]

My Kids are literally begging me for one of these things!!!