Korean Job Discussion Forums

chaz47 · Joined: 11 Sep 2003

I'm think about picking up a couple of DSes for some kids I know. I was wondering how cheaply I can get them and which is the better choice, the DS or the DS Lite?

Also, is it easy to get hacked games for them? Laughing

One last thing, can you load dictionaries on them? It kind of seems like they are a dual screen PDA. If you couldn't do a dictionary with one, will they at least work with text files so one could read books on them?

Thanks,
Chaz

TeeBee · Joined: 18 Oct 2007

Hi Chaz

First: the DS is the older version of the machine, and the DS Lite is the newer version. I seriously doubt you'd even find the older DS anywhere. Don't waste your money on it if you do. Get a DS Lite.

I bought myself a DS Lite a few weeks ago at the Nanjin Arcade near Yongsan station. It cost 135,000 won for the machine itself, and another 45,000 won for an R4 card and 2gb memory card. I also got a crystal case and earphones thrown in for free! Total: 180,000 won.

Here's a map of the area around Yongsan (thanks to ttompatz!). You can see where the Nanjin Arcade is:
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm77/ttompatz/yongsan2.jpg

The R4 card and its Micro SD memory card is what is used to load things like homebrew games and dictionaries - and downloaded games if you want. There are newer cards available, like the TT card, which can handle larger memory card sizes. The newer cards are slightly more expensive.

The person selling the DS Lite to you should preload the R4 (or TT) with some software, and usually some games if you want.

I have loaded some dictionaries onto my DS Lite, and it works pretty well. It's not particularly slick, but it does the job. You can read more on how to add dictionaries to your DS Lite here:

http://www.alutz.com/streetstatic/?p=16

You can also read books on a DS Lite, though I've only seen software to read txt files. Check out some more about this here:

http://www.techusers.org/2007/09/10/reading-e-books-on-your-nintendo-ds-lite/

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/DS/feature.asp?c=3832

The bigger the memory card you use, the more you can store on it. So if you can, get a TT card with at least a 4gb memory card. This will probably bump up the total price of your DS Lite to around 200,000 won.

If it's your thing, hacked games are easy to find on torrent websites.

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

There is no DS in Korea. Only DS Lite. If you are in the States, you can get a DS real cheap. I dont' know why you would want to though. The original ones were ugly as sin and bulky.

OneWayTraffic · Joined: 14 Mar 2005

Asthetics aside, the Lite has the advantages of brighter screens that protect each other when closed and a better battery.
There's a new model out too, about the same size as the DSLite, but with a built in camera and 3" screens. I saw it on the subway last night, and it seems a better design than the DSLite, but hardly the quantum leap of industrial design that it's predecessor was.

Tommy · Joined: 24 Aug 2005

Tommy · Joined: 24 Aug 2005

Ha.. just did some quick reading up on wiki and found this funny to be specifically mentioned:

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

Tommy · Joined: 24 Aug 2005

Underwaterbob, thanks for that.

asparker · Joined: 13 Apr 2005

internjim · Joined: 29 Jun 2008

I bought a used ds lite, and mod TT card, and 4gb card with games all for about 180,000 with alot of extras thrown in. Since then I have downloaded about 400 games, and bought an 8gb microsd card for it too. With different homebrew programs you can use your DS as a palm pilot with the DS Organize program, as a movie and music player with the moonshell program, or you can download pretty much every gb and gameboy color game ever made and it takes up very little space, and with Lameboy you can play them all on your DS. To look up games or ROMS as they are called online, just type in free nintendo DS roms on any search engine (i use yahoo) and follow the links and download as many games as you can fit on your hard drive. It is extremely easy to transfer games over. Get one for those kids, and treat yourself to one, it is AWESOME!

Tommy · Joined: 24 Aug 2005

Well, I got one last week from my gf as an early christmas present. I went with her to Yongsan, but I found the Nanjin Arcade to be a little more pricey.. maybe I didn't talk to enough people. Ended up going to 3 booths in the GwangGwang Terminal right before the bridge to Nanjin Arcade and got a good deal with all the regulars thrown in. Also, there are now R4's with SDHC support.

Really impressed with the ease of transferring games and using the homebrew (moonshell) for listening to music and watching movies. I haven't tried playing roms from other systems or Lucas Art SCUMM games or the like, but I heard it's possible!

By the way, I used this site to get roms, http://www.romulation.net/NDS/

What's a good DS forum for learning about homebrew, hardware, etc? - all I've found is http://www.ds-scene.net/

positive · Joined: 05 Nov 2008

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

We have had one sitting in my wife's desk for a year, and it has been used all but 10 minutes. She refuses to sell it, because it was a gift from her brother.

I'd like to put it to use. Are there any programs for learning Korean? What else might I use it for? I'm not really into games so much.

positive · Joined: 05 Nov 2008

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

DS has lots of stuff for the non-gamer. I'm working my way through three years of New York Times crossword puzzles. I've got about an A average on Mondays, Tuesdays about a B and I haven't worked my way up to Wednesdays yet. Saturdays and Sundays I can get one or two clues at the most and then it's a crapshoot. The handwriting recognition is awesome and it's a great way to get started doing crosswords.

http://www.mininova.org/tor/722430

The Nintendo CrossworDS is good for people who've never done a crossword puzzle, but pretty simplistic for anyone who has any experience at all. I blew through the hardest puzzle unlocked at the beginning in about five minutes and you have to do about 200 of them to unlock anything harder. They're really good for the intermediate-advanced English student though.

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1390480

There's a lot of language learning software, but none for learning Korean in particular. I suppose the Korean, English learning programs could work the other way around...