There's never been a better time to be an independent software developer. College students are designing original concepts that are then developed by established publishers into big games like Portal and de Blob. Small teams working in bedrooms or coffee shops are developing downloadable console games like Braid and World of Goo. And then, of course, there are the homebrew developers, releasing their software often for free or a small donation. Widely seen in less-than-100%-legal light, homebrew software is often a means of "hacking" the platform of choice to add functionality that had not originally been intended. While there's never any guarantee of quality when it comes to these things, there are some fantastic pieces of homemade software out there, and we hope to spotlight a few of them here on "Handjobs for Homebrew" (this is Hooksexup, I can say "handjobs," can't I?)
Originally demoed just about a month ago, BassAceGold's homebrew of the Mario Paint Composer for the Nintendo DS was released to the internet masses last week. There have already been a number of homebrew applications to add the painting and animation components of the Super Nintendo classic Mario Paint to the touch-screen handheld, but MPC emulates the feature that always seemed to me (and, apparently, the YouTube community) to be the most engaging element, its cartoonish music composition score.
For those who've never played Mario Paint, allow me to explain... A series of wacky icons each represent a different voice in the song, so many instruments could share a single staff in the musical score. Still don't get it? Check out this YouTube video of Yoshi's Theme played in Mario Paint:
Well BassAceGold's Mario Paint Composer translates that delightfully unique musical interface to the DS. Saving and loading various songs is a breeze if you're working with SD memory cards (which most Nintendo DS flashcards do in order to utilize such software), the touch screen is perfect for adjusting notes, and this homebrew has even gone ahead and added four new voices, the distorted horn blast piranha plant, the warm piano coin, the soft strings shy guy and the fuzzed harp boo. Check out this demo by the programmer on a beta of the program playing Boston's mega-hit "More Than A Feeling":
Of course, the software is not perfect. I'd love to see some tighter timeline controls and something aside from a title graphic on the top screen (maybe a zoomed-out view of your whole arrangement) but Mario Paint Composer is still an excellent addition to the DS's growing library of musical production tools, ranging from retail software like Jam Sessions, Korg DS-10 and Electroplankton to other excellent homebrew like Nitrotracker, Groovestep and the ever-popular LSDJ (run it on a Gameboy emulator, it plays like a sweet dream on the DS). If you have the appropriate equiptment to run homebrew DS software, feel free to download Mario Paint Composer here and start kicking out the jams!
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