"Cool Herders" Nintendo DS Beta ROM

[Tursi]

Not sure if this is appropriate for here, but hopefully that's okay. After sitting on it for over ten years, I finally decided to do something with the work-in-progress beta of Cool Herders for the Nintendo DS that we had been working on. In order to get a little something for the dev team I've listed it on E-Junkie for download for $10. I've thrown in a few extras like a post-mortem to explain what happened to it and a patched version that works around a common emulator bug so it'll play clean. The main ROM should work fine on most flash cards (I used a few of them for extra development machines.)

 

The game is not 100%... I'm calling it about 90%. The single player game is complete and fully playable. Network games (local network) work but are slow and may drop or desynchronize. The tools quit working 11 months ago and there's really not much likelihood of it seeing any more development, but it garnered some interest when it was first announced and I figured people might still want to play.

 

There are LOTS of improvements over the Dreamcast version - many gameplay tweaks, special attacks for each character, new graphics, new sounds and voices, and a much cooler story mode. There are videos on YouTube of the full game -- I'll just ask you to search (cool herders ds) because there are no videos not loaded with spoilers, but they'll come up quick on my account.

 

I'm asking people not share the ROM for at least six months - anything we bring in will be split amongst the dev team.

 

Anyway, thanks for reading, if you're interested, have a peek:

 

http://www.e-junkie.com/harmlesslion/product/513495.php#Cool+Herders+DS+--BETA--

 

Also, I've got /one/ spare beta Nintendo DS card with the image flashed on it. This is the official Nintendo flash cart and will run on a DS or DS Lite (but nothing later, the DSi revoked the keys). I don't know if Cool Herders wasn't too obscure for it to be worth anything. I haven't decided on this one yet.

 

[Smatchmo]

Very interesting; i'll have to check it out.

Thanks for sharing

[Tursi]

$10 too steep for ya? Good news! Through the end of July I've thrown a coupon code for $5 off, just for AA members (and my Twitter followers, most of whom aren't gamers ).

 

Enter the code AACOOLSPECIAL at checkout for $5 off.

 

You can still be the first one on your block.

 

https://www.e-junkie.com/marketplace/product/513495#

 

I've posted a complete play-through of the game on YouTube here:

 

Also, in an effort to get some exposure, if anyone has a Let's Play channel and would be willing to feature/review the game in video sometime during July, I'll trade you a free copy for the video (you have to already have a YouTube channel with plays on it ). (Message me in that case).

Edited June 28, 2017 by Tursi

[Tanooki]

Ever consider getting someone to put that to a real piece of media still? If its far along as you said it is, PIko Interactive takes near finished/finished but non-released projects that were intended for commercial release (and homebrew too) and gets it there. Not sure he can do DS, but you might want to drop him a line on the board.

[Tursi]

Ever consider getting someone to put that to a real piece of media still? If its far along as you said it is, PIko Interactive takes near finished/finished but non-released projects that were intended for commercial release (and homebrew too) and gets it there. Not sure he can do DS, but you might want to drop him a line on the board.

 

Interesting if someone can, but I haven't seen anyone do DS yet. Not familiar with Piko Interactive though...? They're on here, you say?

[Tanooki]

Yup goes by Piko Interactive, also a website and facebook under that name too. They've done/are doing stuff like NES, SNES, Genesis, Jaguar, I think TG16, iOS and Android releases with the option for more It comes down to whatever chip/part suppliers can be dug up and what they'll supply or not. With the DS off the market I'd think someone might be up to the task now.

[Tursi]

I reached out through their webpage and got a ping back, we'll see. I'll be surprised, though, the DS requires an encrypted boot to do it right, and I don't think it's been hacked yet (aside from copying the headers off other games, that is ). But it's been a couple of years since I've checked in, we'll see what they say.