Wii Internet Channel and Nintendo DS/DSi Browser Homebrew

HullBreach Online, the first MMO RPG for the Wii’s Internet Channel, has been scaled down to run on the Nintendo DSi Browser to play while on-the-go. Even though the graphics have been shrunk, don’t think that means the gameplay has. HB Online Lite boasts all the sectors, planets, missions, tradeable goods, ships, upgrades, asteroids, NPCs, chat functions, and player stats, that its older brother has. In fact, both the game universe and player accounts are shared, so players can seemlessly jump between versions of the game at any time.

HB Online Lite has a completely new interface that favors lower resolution, lower bandwidth, and an all touchscreen interface. Communication with the server has been accelerated, and the backend generates content using the newest technologies, something that dates the older HB Online.

HB Online Lite also contains a few features not present in HB Online. The first is real-time Twiiter feeds. Now players can see posts to the Wii/DS rapid blogging website appear instantly in the communication pane during gameplay. Also shops and shipyards now have NPC dialogs that ensue when selecting purchases or making sales.

Is the mobile version not your style? Don’t worry: Both versions will continue to gain massive amounts of content over the next few weeks. Players may visit the game one day to find Sector Theta Eta empty, and a visit the next day could reveal planets with several missions and goods to trade. New content will be dropped into both versions, becoming available in real-time.

To try HB Online Lite or HB Online now, visit http://hullbreachonline.com . Remember that accounts are shared between games, but Twiiter (http://twiiter.wiioperasdk.com) and DS Opera SDK (http://dsoperasdk.com) accounts are the same as well. Join the other 4800 players today!

--end--

Screenshots are available at http://hullbreachonline.com

With the release of the Nintendo DSi and its Opera Web browser, I felt it best to take one of my first projects for the Wii's Internet Channel, HullBreach Online, and scale it to the dual screens to let gamers play on-the-go. This project would become HullBreach Online Lite.

While running tests on the Nintendo DSi Browser, I found that although there is support for the canvas object, it seems to be fairly crippled when concerning image data. Apparently this was meant to save RAM on the handheld by not caching off-screen data. Thus, I began working with ways to re-create HullBreach Online's mobile cousin by using nothing but image placement, background scrolling, and other standard DHTML features. From that comes a game that should for all intents and purposes be compatible with the older Nintendo DS Browsers as well.

To save on memory, images have been scaled and colors reduced. Players cannot see one another's ships, yet they can still chat with each other - even between both versions of HullBreach Online. Due to the lack of useful button input, the entire game is touchscreen-controlled. Moving between locations and travelling through hyperspace are both achieved by on-screen button clicks, which are accompanied by appropriate animations of the ship and motion of the map cursor.

With the exception of space combat (which would be difficult with button clicks), everything that was present in HullBreach Online is also present in HullBreach Online Lite: Missions, mining, scanning, trading, ship upgrades, etc.

HullBreach Online Lite is nearing completion, so get ready to join the close to 5000 members now! In the meantime, you can create an account to play the full HullBreach Online, message members through Twiiter on your Wii or Nintendo DS/DSi, or visit the chatroom at http:/dsoperasdk.com.

I've added a new feature to Twiiter.
Members can now "wiimail" each other
without having to register any Wii
System Codes! Here's how it works:

Start your message with
Dear MemberName,

Follow with whatever body text you want.
Twiiter will do everything else for you,
including adding the footer to the
wiimail. If there is a problem sending
the wiimail, Twiiter will let you know.

To set up for wiimails, be sure to
checkmark the Receive Wiimails
box under My Area.

I've added some new features to Twiiter in the past day:

• Users can modify account data
• Numerous standard smilies automatically insert into messages
• A few IRC-style commands are creeping their way into the mix
• bold, italics, underline, and hyperlink HTML is allowed
• new, shorter email address twiit@wiioperasdk.com works as well as the older post@twiiter.wiioperasdk.com

I've been discussing Twiiter with some of the folks on My Opera in the Wii forum and in private messages and thought I'd give an update here:

Posting messages from a Wii now works, properly displaying the time of post and the name of the member who corresponds to the Wii's email address. I've started to add more features to the website, but it has some work left to do. Currently, messages can be viewed on a per-member basis, and members can log into accounts. Registration and account settings will be coming soon so that members won't need to visit http://hullbreachonline.com every time an account needs to be updated. (Any changes to Twiiter will also change account info for HullBreach Online and any other related websites.) Avatar uploads and selections as well as unwanted message deletions will come soon, also. I will post more news on the progress in this blog, at http://wiioperasdk.com/blog and in the Wii forum here at My Opera. Once the project matures more, I will contact the guys at GoNintendo, WiiNintendo, and 4ColorRebellion, since they have all been great followers of the homebrew scene for the Internet Channel.

If anyone has ideas or suggestions for additions to Twiiter, let me know. I've mainly been developing it as a stream-of-conscious project, like many of my Wii projects, so I sometimes get "writers' block" and need help being pushed in the right direction to bring ideas to fruition for the benefit of the users.