"I would separate out the true independent developer vs. the hobbyist," says Fils-Aime. "We are absolutely reaching out to the independent developer. Where we've drawn the line is we are not looking to do business today with the garage developer. In our view, that’s not a business we want to pursue." Sustainable, maybe, but sad at the same time.

"...now we know the [Nintendo 3DS'] 3D will have little to do with tracking technology, but Looksley's Line Up (as Attakoreda has now been released as in the U.S.) still might've made a nice showcase title for the new tech." Attakoreda - that funny 3D hidden word game of a few months back - is getting a western DSI release. Excellent.

"What’s happening here is a very neat trick. While Link can move a single pixel at a time, in any direction, the longer he continously moves in any direction the more he gravitates toward aligning himself with the underlying grid of the screen." Lovely little analysis of the different ways the original Legend of Zelda, and the subsequent Link to the Past, subtly correct the player's input to ensure they never feel cheated by pixel-perfect hit detection.

"a JavaScript GameBoy Emulator" Blimey.

"Egmont Press and Penguin Publishing will launch a range of children's books onto the Nintendo DS in a licensing deal with entertainment software company Electronic Arts (EA). It is the first time that children's books have been developed specifically for the Nintendo DS platform in the UK." Ooh, that's kind of awesome.

"Bayer’s DIDGET™ is the only blood glucose meter that plugs into a Nintendo DS™ or Nintendo DS™ Lite system. This unique meter helps encourage consistent testing with reward points that children can use to buy items within the game and unlock new game levels." Blood glucose monitor for diabetics that plugs into your Nintendo DS. Utterly awesome, and exactly what a new world of products should look like.

"Critical thinking is the key to success!" Professor Layton is on Twitter. Officially. This is good.

"Sony acts like a character in a Charlotte Brontë novel--they seem to think they have an entire lifetime to seize the moment."

"...the 1996 target date for Project Atlantis and the GBA's 2001 release is quite a gap. Why the delay? My guess is: Pokémon. Game Freak's socially-driven cockfighting RPG was an unexpected end-of-life hit for the Game Boy, and its out-of-left-field success added years to the fading system's life. The popularity of Pokémon might actually have been the first time Nintendo realized that technology and profitability don't go hand-in-hand." That's an interesting way of looking at it. (Also: an interesting piece on the Nintendo super-portable that never was).

"...the Wii’s software stack is designed with little to no future proofing. There are basically zero provisions for any future updates; even obvious things like new storage devices or game patches. What’s worse is that this will affect the compatibility mode of any future Wii successor." Interesting analysis of what's going on inside a Wii, even if the architecture is a little limited.

I can't really quote from it, but you need to read this; it's the most deliciously bonkers concept, and if they pull it off - which seems like it might just be possible, given the level of detail they talk about the game at - it could be properly magical. Lovely preview, too.

"The Wii has captured the imagination of millions of people who didn't consider themselves gamers at all. Why are we so surprised? All this has happened before." And, no doubt, all of it will happen again. Some good insight and quotation from Mitch Krpata on a history of Nintendo's console marketing and sales strategies.

Lots of good stuff in here I didn't know about, all for your DS, and all not illegal. Hurrah for homebrew.

"Suddenly, instead of Pong, Nolan Bushnell unleashes a stark, monochrome rescue challenge on the world. AVOID MISSING PRINCESS FOR HIGH SCORE burns itself into the brains of a generation. A couple of sequels expand the world of this strange new hero and, keen to bring its popularity to bear on the 2600, Atari execs strong-arm Warren Robinett into populating Adventure with mushroom monsters and making the green dragon friendly." Delightful alterna-history from Margaret in her Offworld column.

"...while almost all of the game’s residents are free to go as they please, heading off to new towns and lives on a whim, once you step off the bus and choose a house in which to settle, you’re here for good.... you are the local constant, the hick who’s never left its borders and there is some comfort in the knowledge that the places the other animals leave for can never be known by you." Simon's original version of his Wii Animal Crossing review; some lovely analysis of the series to date.

Commander Keen on the DS. Heck yes. One of the first games I spent a *lot* of time playing.

Portal-inspired homebrew game for the DS. Looks rather sweet, although not keen on collect-em-up mechanics.

Wonderful.

"It's just an Nintendo in a toaster, but I like it."

"...never, in all those years, did I imagine the day would come where he would sing from the prospective of a frightened and lonely Toad, quivering breathlessly in his underworld holding cell, hoping for rescue." Delightful.

"...Nintendo understands that while play does involve competition, territoriality and rehearsal for war, it also involves silliness, laughter and fun." Oh, god, can I just marry Stephen Fry now? Oh, there's a queue. Never mind.

"Nintendo makes money with the hardware alone, which may be a superior business model." What, making profit on units rather than selling them at colossal loss is a *superior* business model? Who would have thought it!

In which an entertaining man plays a hacked, super-hard Super Mario map, swears at his TV a lot, and still manages to be pretty good at it. It's a nice illustration of the problem-solving process, and it's rather funny. "This is worse than Panic At The Disco. This is worse than Ann Coulter."

"VideoGamesHero brings you homebrew action at it's best - offering lasting fun and challenging action with over 65 Songs, 5 Game modes, Motion Card and Guitar Grip support, there is something for everyone!" Homebrew Harmonix-style rhythm action game for the ds. Awesome.

"A simple pocket knife can be more appealing and usable than a bristling Victorinox, and a dedicated little games machine like the DS can engage us far more than the sleek power of the PSP. You can feel admiration and even awe for the big power boxes, but for the DS you feel affection - and that, in marketing terms, is worth a whole heap more." I love Stephen Fry.

"MadWorld will "spoil the family fun image" of the console, according to Mediawatch-UK, a British organisation hat campaigns for decency in television, games and films... "It seems a shame that the game's manufacturer have decided to exclusively release this game on the Wii," said Beyer. "I believe it will spoil the family fun image of the Wii."" And this has *what*, precisely, to do with banning the game? The fact it differs from other titles on the machine? Once again, pressure-groups jump the shark.

Looks nice.

"Nintendo's staked its empire on the joys of mere motion a few times already, and won. Now, it's funny to remember how we doubted that this was a winning proposition." Pliskin on games-out-of-worlds versus worlds-out-of-play.

Pliskin on WarioWare as a pinnacle of "pure gaming" - stripping away gameplay and interaction to the rawer level of "what are the rules"?

Lovely article on the localisation work for Etrian Odyssey on the DS. Tight memory restrictions leads to translators having to be smart; Atlus' team appear to be that.

Users' artwork from Colors! for the DS. Really quite impressive, some of this.

"Colors! is a simplistic digital painting application for Nintendo DS based on modern
painting-techniques developed for drawing tablets in programs like Photoshop."

"Not necessarily the completest 'best' collection, but some of the more notable games, applications and emulators that have grabbed my attention long enough to stay on my DS."

"Nintendo hasn’t truly gone backwards technologically. It has simply innovated in a different way." Good Forbes piece pulling together the usual threads on what Sony's really up against.

"The classic controller was something [...] gamers had become comfortable with. It had many important elements. But it also had come to dictate a lot of what went into games... Creativity was being stifled, and the range of games was narrowing."

Ning-powered app for finding other Mario Kart friendcodes. Fun!

Full transcript of Reggie Fils-Aime's speech at TGS 2005. Great statistics.

"Nintendo's theme for 2006 will be 'Create new fun'". Yes!