A few months ago, DS homebrew coder Simon Hall surprised us with his first pre-release of a Quake port for the Nintendo DS. And even if this release was admittedly rough, we imagine other developers and DS owners out there loved the idea, and had the best hopes for this project.

With that in mind, we bring an update to Simon's ongoing work with Quake DS, which includes a second pre-release package, and this extensive changelog:

faster rendering
vertex lighting and light animations (proper lightmapping may be in the next build)
Alias model texturing
proper timebase, so no variable speed
a crosshair and a HUD
the Quake font (or whatever font is available in the mod you're playing)
a nearly-proper sky
sky, water, lava, sludge animations
full control configuration
game save saving/loading
every level works - I have played from beginning to end with no crashes or thrashing
wifi network play, via an access point (build coming in a few days after more testing)
adequate support for mods/TCs in this build - full compatibility in the EXRAM build (coming in a few weeks)
much improved sound system on the ARM7 (no music yet...)
transparent water support via r_novis or VIS'ed maps
hardware fogging for a light depth cue, or thick fog for underwater
LOADS more little things (eg the end-of-episode finale messages)

Normally, we'd advise users to just pore over the README files for extra details. Given the level of complication this game has, however, we also strongly advise users to check out Simon's site over at drunkencoders for full game details, and to see what sort of lessons they can learn from the programmer. Also make sure to check out the developer's source codes for extra pointers. Enjoy the download!