DSi mode editing!
Hoo boi, I've had this post idea in my mind for MONTHS, and finally got around to writing about it! So exciting! I'm actually going to be nerding off one of my favorite consoles xD
So, to start off this post, if you guys know me (or even if you don't, you'll get to know now lol), I'm a huge fan of the Nintendo DS family, specifically the Nintendo DSi! And it still amuses me how a simple device could be such a time capsule of the 2000s.
While it was plausible for people to laugh at the fact it had very crusty graphics or audio, or how it felt like a bloated DS Lite, I think many slept on it because they focused on the visuals or quality, or were just there for the game titles. Even if the DS was one of the all-time best selling consoles alongside the PS2, it deflates me a bit when I see the potential that was overlooked on it, despite all its limitations :/
We're talking about a console that embodied Frutiger Aero and the design of the time, had an iconic BIOS font and emotes, built-in camera and music player when portable consoles were still becoming their own thing... seriously, what's not to fondly remember?
And that's precisely why I'm writing this post! I just wish to show some love for a console I grew up with x] For it, I'll be focusing on the graphic aspect of it, such as the DSi Camera program, and others used for editing and drawing!
So... before I modded my DS, part of me was already into the joys of just snapping pictures and drawing over them in the DSi Camera, or making silly Flipnotes to watch over and over. Things were simple, but already very fun to mess with! I was also familiar with Colors DS and Learn to Draw, since I had a flashcart since 2016. I'll put more of these drawings in a proper corner of my shrine, but here's a taste! :D
Now, what about the DSi Camera? My absolute favorite part with it, apart from messing with the graffiti, was using the Colorpad. Just the fact I could change the colors of the pictures I had was enough to make me smile, and play mad scientist with the hues! The transitions between colors weren't smooth either, and that's part of what made this feature so interesting - it felt like tie-dyeing your picture with splotches of color here and there, and then saving it to edit it more, then rinse and repeat. It was genuinely fun, and infinitely adding more layers of editing to the images never got old.
Now, about the part where I modded it... I can say I've rediscovered a world of wonder. Nowadays, those tools may be considered really niche and hard to compare in terms of quality, but I can say I wholeheartedly enjoyed exploring my DSi's artsy side with Sparkle Snapshots and Art Academy. When I combined these two, I realized I could edit my own drawings, pictures, studies or art assignments without even moving them to my PC, and by saving them again in the album, I could display them in my DSi menu!
Some of those pictures above used Sparkle Snapshots, and the two bottom ones were Art Academy studies.
And lastly, since I spoke of modding, I can't go without touching on the homebrew scene. This is topic for a whole another post (probably one at my Nintendo DS shrine), but you can just tell these people are passionate. Just the fact people figured out how to make a working CFW, together with emulation compatibility and custom games will never cease to floor me. Two homebrew titles, DS Craft and Aperture Science DS, are a wonderful case of this.
I hope I could scratch a bit of what I enjoy so much about creating and using my DSi for! There's still a lot I wish to gush over, and I hope to make a proper shrine in the future, so this is already a great start :] I see you folks around, and stay tuned for more rambles and posts on whatever I feel like covering! <3