This is PRECISELY why we need More Homebrew

Not because we need MAME ported. Not so I can run my old Amiga games. This is why we need homebrew and why Nintendo ought to be opening up their platforms a bit more.

The thing of course to keep in mind here is that these guys are technically doing something illegal. It is illegal because of the DMCA. They have circumvented encrypted means of copy protection. It is an unfortunate state of affairs, but I certainly hope that what they've managed to do can be an argument for more development on consoles like the Nintendo DS.

I guess my only hope at this point is that they'll open source whatever tools and SDK's they've managed to create on the DS homebrew side. Not likely though. Game developers seem to not like sharing very much.

The other thing I find fascinating is that of course response to this kind of thing has been "phenomenal." Of course it is. We're finally seeing some game content that breaks out of the mold of the last 10 years. Of course gamers and even developers are excited about this.

Kotaku - Feature: In Plundr Size Matters

The team showed off a little of that magic recently at the Where 2.0 conference where they announced that they would be bringing pirate-themed game Plundr to the DS, hopefully within the next year. In the game you sail from island to island a ship, buying, selling and fighting for goods. But to sail around the uncharted seas you'll need to get up, get outside and travel. The game will use a special form of positioning software that will rely on the Wi-Fi built into the DS.

"We built a prototype for the DS, it's homebrew at the moment, we are beginning talks with publishers about how to bring the game to the market and develop other location based games for the DS. We are also interested in the PSP," said Area Code co-founder Frank Lantz. "The response we've received about this online has been absolutely phenomenal."
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The idea is that people will come to establish their own trade groups, so they're not, as it were, just ships passing in the night. The routes between the locations in the real world often traveled to, like the office and the home, will become trade routes.
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"The emerging network, that is the real world, that is the platform we are developing for," Slavin added. "There's a scenario in Plundr's development where some people are playing on their phone, on their DS, on their PSP but the world they play in will be persistent."