R4 3DS .org

There's one aspect of homebrew gaming that we haven't really covered here very much, and it's an important one.  While there are a slew of amazing homebrew games and applications you can run on your DS, DSi or Nintendo 3DS with the R4 3DS card, there are also hundreds - if not thousands - of homebrew games and applications available for classic game systems.

Why is this relevant you may be wondering?  Because the R4 3DS allows you to run emulators that will let you play these amazing homebrew classic games on your Nintendo 3DS system too.  You see, while people think of emulators as a way of playing their old favourites, we seem emulation as a way to not only enjoy your games of yesterday, but also to explore the new releases, the new indie games and apps that are being released for systems like the Super NES, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the C64, ZX Spectrum and many, many more!

And mark our words… there are plenty of amazing freeware games for almost every single old school console available.  You will of course need to use the relevant emulators available for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL to be able to play them - and thankfully there are plenty of those available.  Below we'll list some of the best 3DS emulators you can use with the R4 3DS cards.  

While there are more, these will let you play your C64, NES, Sega Genesis / Sega Mega Drive homebrew / indie games.  For example, you can play C64 games with the FrodoDS c64 emulator.  Games like Bomberland (newly released) or Soulless.

Games like Bomberland - an unofficial Bomberman clone / remake for the Commodore 64 computer.  With 32 single player levels, and even online play against other c64 fans.  The possibilities are endless when it comes to homebrew games and homebrew gaming in general.

For Sega Mega Drive gaming, you can use JenesisDS, which is probably the very best Sega Genesis / Sega Mega Drive emulator available for R4 cards and it works on the Nintendo DS, DSi and the Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL too.  There are some really amazing fan made games and homebrew indie games you can download free, and play on your Nintendo 3DS XL system using JenesisDS

Games Like Pier Solar which is an absolutely amazing game and better than most of the actual commercially released retail RPG (role playing games) out there in the heady days of the Sega Mega Drive / Sega Genesis days.

Amazing game graphics with a true Anime and Japanese game feel.  Doing things with the Mega Drive that even most of the developers back in the day couldn't achieve.

The game play is like nothing else - and you can download beta's of this game absolutely free.  JenesisDS runs this game just fine as well, thanks to the work of the developer that has made that emulator the best one for playing Sega games.

For the NES, we can't even begin to count the hundreds of different homebrew games available.  Everything from game translations of popular games and fresh new homebrew games that developers just keep pumping out.  It has a huge following too, due in no small part to the millions and millions of NES systems that were sold when it was the hottest video game system money could buy.

The NES Homebrew scene is actually huge.  It has so many great developers that keep trying to bring some amazing games, remakes and indie games out, that you could literally never buy a NES game and still have something amazing to play - all for free. Take the NeoToxin homebrew release below as an example.  It looks and plays just as well as any commercial game we've ever played.  With such a huge indie community that helps with turorials on how to program the NES and the abandunce of free graphics made available to developers by amazing artists, it's easy to see why the NES homebrew community is as big as it is.

Sites like http://www.retrocollect.com/ have all manner of homebrew game news, reviews and release information.  We're stunned at just how many classic game systems are getting brand spanking new games released.  Games that are are made by die-hard indie game developers who just love their old school consoles and computers.

Check out our own 3DS Homebrew section, and enjoy some of the greatest freeware games and apps ever released.