This is my third DSL. I love these things. It’s the most I’ve spent on a busted one so far, at $30. The last one I bought was 12, and the one before that was 5. All this one needed though was a new shell and a digitizer. Both screens are in excellent condition. The shell was very yellowed and busted.
Anyway, I had just learned recently that eXtremerate made DSL shells, and I decided I needed to try one out. I am a huge fan of the Switch Lite shell I have from them, it feels nearly OEM.
The DSL shell, not so much. The plastic is pretty soft. That’s kind of nice, since I have had issues with previous aftermarket DS shells cracking. The bottom screen bezel is molded in, which I also like. It’s hard to get the adhesive ones off without ruining the digitizer. The upper shell does not have the dual square DS logo molded into the top, which is also appreciated. The fit is also very good. No unexpected warping, everything fit together fine.
But the plastic is so soft… I’m afraid it is going to scratch very easily. Plus, it’s painted. I thought it would be gray plastic with some UV printed logos, but it is white plastic painted gray with UV logos. Sort of disappointing. If I ever re-shell it again, I’ll get one of their transparent ones. But yeah, probably the best aftermarket DS shell I’ve seen so far, overall.
Did you know there’s a decent DOS emulator for the DS? You aren’t going to be playing Doom, but you can play Oregon Trail! Or Jetpack! And lots of other earlier stuff. Bind the buttons to keys, use the stylus for mouse input.
Oh man, it’s going to be a bit of a list. Ok, here we go.
Tetris DS - Not Tetris Party. Party hardly has any single player value.
Rayman DS - It is a pretty good port of Rayman 2, you use the stylus as the analog input. It’s kind of tricky at first, but you get used to it pretty quick.
Advance Wars - No introduction needed. Turn-based strategy, sequel to the GBA games. As good as always.
Super Princess Peach - Fun platformer, Peach has several abilities.
Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja - The story is cheesy, but it’s a fun randomly generated rogue-like
Picross and Picross 3D - Fun and challenging ‘nonogram’ puzzles
Geometry Wars - Space shooter with button or analog controls, earned power-ups
Dungeon Explorer - objectively, not the best action RPG. But I have been playing Dungeon Explorer for the TG16 since like, 1991. So, I can’t help but like it.
Solitaire Overload - So many types of solitaire. My favorite is Spidercell
Jewel Master :Cradle of Egypt - it’s a jewel game. Of the ones I’ve tried on the DS, that’s my favorite.
Mario Kart - Self explanatory.
SimCity DS - It reminds me of the original SimCity, graphics are more similar to SimCity 2000. It just eats my battery, though.
Yoshi Touch & Go - not my favorite, but my wife likes that one
Dementium - I can’t believe the fit an FPS that good on here.
Now, if we want to get into homebrew, I haven’t used a whole lot. Haven’t figured out DLDP yet. But, here’s some that don’t require any extra work that I like:
Worldofsand-0.1 - A falling sand sandbox game
NDS_Shisensho - it’s all in Japanese, I have no idea what any of it says. But it’s a matching game using mahjong tiles
Lameboy - Gameboy emulator
NitroGrafx - Turbografx emulator, but it runs better on the DSi and above
WabbitDS - a TI-83 emulator! It’s a challenge to set it up the legit way, which is to dump the ROM from your actual TI-83. Which I did. But I’m sure there are less legit means to get it going.
DSx86 - DOS emulator! You need this specific open source DOS kernel to get it going, and the folder structure is kind of specific. But it is DOS! On your DS!
I dont have the hardware, but the games i have right now are
New Super Mario,
Dark Spire
Ill have to try dungeon explorer and Dementium.
Handhelds are fun to have on a steam deck
Hah, Dark Spire is neat. But I suck at it.
I haven’t played it yet. It seems cool from a quick start up. I need to sit down and figure it out.