The Nintendo DS by itself is a really great gaming system. But add to your Nintendo DS the actual R4 DS Card and you’ll have access to hundreds, if not thousands, of homebrew games and applications - all of them free.

1) LemmingsDS - An amazing classic game and it’s back.  Strategy, comedy and awesome gameplay!

Lemmings was a huge hit on the Commodore Amiga computer.It was later remade for the Commodore C64 and IBM PC’s too.I honestly think that this game actually set the standard for many of our favorite strategy / puzzle games.All of the original 120+ levels that could be found on the Amiga version of the game, remade for the NDS.  So you essentially get every single level that was originally designed and made for the Amiga system, and the c64 too.A must have game for anyone that loves funny, classic style games.

2) Quake DS - The original FPS!

The original and must have version of Quake for the PC - one of the first games that set the bar for FPS games.There’s really no way I could really say any more.Quite possibly the best game and in my opinion that game that inspire the whole first person genre.  And now, it is available for the Nintendo DS - so long as you also have an R4 DS card to play it on.  Carefully and masterfully re-done for the Nintendo DS console.

3) Xrick - A Port of Rick Dangerous for the Nintendo DS

Another classic game that you always want to go back to and play over and over again.Just put xRick and your R4 DS and into your Nintendo DS to be transported back to a time when side scrollers and platform game were all the rage - and perfected.Rick Dangerous was the must have side scroller of the day.Anyone that did not have a Nintendo DS system had either one or both of these games in lieu of.Side scroller that is really taken to the extreme.  Challenging, great graphics, and loads of fun!

4) DS Linux - A Portable Computer in the palm of your hands

Ah yes, DS Linux.  Before cards like the R4 DS Card, it was unimaginable for us to be able to load linux onto a system that fit in the palm of our hands.  While there are many linux ports now, on various hand held consoles, none of them even come close to the Nintendo DS version on an R4 DS Card because no other console really utilizes touch the way that the Nintendo DS does.Because you can use the NS Stylus as a mouse, just as you would use it on your PC you truly do get the sam benefit of loading all of your favorite games and apps, etc… Rigth on your Nintendo DS lite system.With the R4 DS you can really take Linux to a whole new platform.  If you have a Nintendo DSi, then you’ll need the R4i SDHC version of the R4 DS Card.

5) ScummVM - Your point and click solution to the best point and Click Games!

If you absolutely love point and click games, like Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky or others, then you have to try ScummVM.ScummVM is the ScummVM project. The ScummVM project is an attempt to re-engineer many classic point and click adventure games of the 80s and 90s to run on modern computer hardware. Technology has changed a lot since these games were written, and so ScummVM attempts to replicate the gameplay of the original games in exacting details, without any of the original code that the game ran on. ScummVM, unlike many emulator project or rather, remakes of games, actually does need the original classic game so that it can use the graphics and sounds from the original. ScummVM was written and coded in a manner that quickly and easily allows it to be ported from one operation system / machine to the next.

And that is the list of homebrew games you must have for this week.  Next week I’ll cover some of the really cool emulators for classic game consoles, computers, and systems that you can get your retr