Want to play one of the greatest action RPGs ever but can’t read Japanese and don’t want to break the law? Then read on for instructions on how to play Soma Bringer for the Nintendo DS–legitimately.
Step 1: Buy a flashcart. If you have an original DS or a DS Lite, I recommend the R4 DS Revolution. If you have a DSi or DSi XL, I recommend the Acekard 2i.
Step 2: Buy a copy of Soma Bringer. You can purchase a new copy from Play-Asia.com (recommended) or a used copy on eBay.
Step 3: Back up your Soma Bringer cartridge. This step is a tad complicated, but there’s an excellent step-by-step guide over at Monroeworld.
Step 4: Download the Soma Bringer Open Translation patch. You can read more about the patch at its official thread on the GBATemp Forums.
Step 5: Apply the patch to your Soma Bringer backup file. Instructions are included with the patch download linked above.
Step 6: Copy the patched Soma Bringer backup file to your flashcart.
Step 7: Insert the flashcart into your DS and play!
I hope to post similar tutorials for American gamers after Xenoblade and The Last Story are released in Europe and after the Pandora’s Tower fan translation patch makes further progress.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
I wanted to thank everyone for their wonderful gifts this year. I heard at least one family member express a desire to know how my wife and I spent our gift money, which reminded me to post how I spent the gift money I received last Christmas (2009) and on my birthday earlier this year.
Click past the break for a list of items I purchased with gift money this last year.
Huzzah!
While Gamestop may not be my favorite company, I have to give credit where credit is due: Today’s Dragon Quest IX event was much more fun than anticipated. More people attended than I expected, most of the attendees were adults, and the children that attended were all very well-behaved. I didn’t attend all 4 hours of the events, but the time I did spend there was very enjoyable.
I had wondered how Dragon Quest IX’s Tag Mode would see any use in America. Now I know. While most Americans are highly unlikely to come across any other DS owners with DQIX in Tag Mode during their travels, “magnet” events such as this can be surprisingly successful, even in smaller metropolitan areas.
If you missed today’s event, don’t worry: There will be another DQIX event at Best Buy locations next Saturday (August 7) from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. And if you don’t already own a copy, you can purchase Dragon Quest IX from Amazon.com for $34.99 with free Super Saver shipping.
While hosting public Borderlands games, a few people have told me they’ve had trouble hosting games that other players could join.
I opened the following ports on my router and was able to host public games:
Consult your router’s documentation for instructions on opening ports as methods will differ according to router manufacturer and interface.
Bummed that Nintendo has no plans to localize Fatal Frame 4 (Japanese title: Zero: Gesshoku no Kamen) for a US or Europe release? Be bummed no longer.
A team of translators and developers have released a fan translation patch that allows English-speaking Wii owners to play Tecmo‘s and Grasshopper Manufacture‘s critically acclaimed horror game in their own language.
What’s particularly impressive about this fan translation is that it can patch a retail copy of the game on the fly, meaning that Wii owners will not need to “softmod” their systems or venture into legal “gray areas” to play the game with English language text.
To play Fatal Frame 4 in English, you’ll need to purchase Zero: Gesshoku no Kamen from Play-Asia or another retailer, download the fan translation patch, and install the patch according to instructions available on the translation developers’ site.
Aside from being great news for English-speaking fans of the Fatal Frame series, this patch opens a host of new possibilities for fan translations. With a 100% legal method of translating in-game Japanese text to English, other popular Japan-only Wii releases could receive their own fan translations.
I just got the Logitech V450 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks (Black) and the Western Digital WDML5000TN My Passport Elite Portable 500 GB USB 2.0 Hard Disk Drive (Titanium) I ordered during Black Friday sales today.
I bought the Logitech V450 Nano to use when I travel with my notebook. I still prefer my corded Logitech MX518 for playing games (especially first-person shooters), but the V450 Nano will be much more convenient for browsing, e-mail, and other “every day” use when not at home.
While reading about Capcom’s upcoming Amaterasu phone strap, it struck me that most DS Lite and DSi owners in the US and Europe are probably unaware that the two small holes in the back of the DS near the cartridge slot can be used to attach cell phone charms or phone straps.
Click the thumbnail below for a full-sized photo of the back of an Onyx DS Lite with the two holes used for attaching cell phone charms and phone straps circled in red.
Click below for a full-sized photo of my an Onyx DS Lite with maneki neko (fortune cat) cell phone charm attached:
Very few brick and mortar stores in America sell cell phone charms or phone straps. I recommend the following stores for purchasing cell phone accessories online:
Strapya World specializes in cell phone accessories and has an extensive selection of cell phone charms and phone straps, including items based on popular anime and video game franchises like Hello Kitty, Final Fantasy, Death Note, My Neighbor Totoro, Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Sgt. Keroro.
Here are five example cell phone straps from Play-Asia:
For instructions on attaching a cell phone charm or strap to your DS Lite or DSi, click past the break.
Valve recently updated Left 4 Dead third-party support, providing players with more user-friendly methods of playing custom campaigns. Most people will be satisfied with hosting or joining local servers (i.e. games hosted on players’ home computers), but some players will be interested in playing custom campaigns on dedicated servers.
This brief guide will only cover campaigns packaged in the .VPK format. For technical information on .VPK files, read the VPK article on the Valve Developer Community wiki.
This tutorial is designed for server admins with remote access to their servers. Server admins with local access will need to make slight adjustments to the instructions.
Server-side Installation
My wife and I purchased a notebook computer from Best Buy in Feb. 2009. (No, the title of this post wasn’t a typo or an incorrect paste; this is relevant.) One year, 3 months, and 10 (yes, ten) phone calls to Reward Zone support later, I finally received the long overdue Reward Zone certificates last month (May). Since I am currently unemployed and since most items of interest at Best Buy cost significantly more than the total value of the certificates, I had decided to watch sale bills until something inexpensive struck my fancy.
I had also been eyeing Wii Fit for a few months, but the $90 price point delayed the purchase. (You can probably guess where this is going.) After confirming that Wii Fit was not on sale at any reseller, either online or B&M (brick and mortar), my wife and I decided to purchase the exergaming megahit.
We brought the Wii Fit bundle, complete with Balance Board, home last Friday. I read the manual and set up the Balance Board later the same night; my wife and I started our Wii Fit journey the next day.
If you are receiving the “Unable to initialize network” error when launching the Homebrew Browser application from the Homebrew Channel, press the Home key to return to the Homebrew Channel, wait for the globe icon in the lower-right corner of the screen to stop blinking and remain solid, and launch the Homebrew Browser again.
The globe icon in the Homebrew Channel indicates the network connection status. If the icon is blinking, the Wii is still trying to establish a network connection. If the icon is lit and solid, the Wii has established a network connection.
If the globe icon continues blinking after 30 seconds or if it is grayed out, check your Wii’s network connection settings.