Modding a Nintendo DS and business thoughts

random short thoughts

Hallå pals!

Jonas here with another issue of Indie Notebook to get some ideas out of my noggin, and to inspire you to do the same.

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This week I don’t really have A TOPIC to talk or think about. I’m over in Sweden for a month visiting family so I’m kind of in vacation mode and going easy on myself, even though I’m still making time for some freelance work (tbh I’m too afraid to pass on any jobs right now, the disadvantage when you’re a freelancer).

I’ve got some shorter scattershot thoughts and things going on though.

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Mini Notes

🪛 Modding - Gameboy Macro

I got into a rabbit hole on instagram a few years back and discovered handheld console modding. One that really caught my eye was these mods where they turn a Nintendo DS into a Gameboy Advance by removing the top screen.

For now the speaker is just stuffed into the top DS cartridge slot. Looks like crap right now.

I bought two broken Nintendo DS’s online for cheap two years ago to give this a shot myself. One of them was in a perfect condition (cost like 10 euro), so I use it to play DS games on it. The other one was battered up pretty good but the internals worked well. I left it partially disassembled until the other day. My next plan is to bring it back to France and completely reshell it and replace the broken screen. It’s nice to do something so different from what I usually do. It’s a bit addicting to tinker and look for parts. I’m thinking of picking a transparent shell and picking some fun colorful buttons.

👔 Thoughts - Business idea and bootstrapping

I’ve thought quite a bit about what I would do if I were to go to a comic convention to sell Space Deer stuff some day. It would be so much fun to skip the whole idea of having a table. Instead I’d like to wander the floor with a huge backpack, with signs attached and I’d wear a funny sci-fi looking outfit. Kinda like Beedle from Zelda.

An adjacent thought: I thought of what a webcomic creator really is. They are bootstrap businesses. Bootstrapping is when you finance your company or business idea without large outside-investments. Which is what most indie game devs do and artists/creatives in general. But most of us don’t even know what it means. While in the tech/entrepreneur world that is common knowledge. I find it interesting how much we have in common with that world, especially the problems and difficulties we face. Yet we view them so differently.

I’ve been reading quite a lot books about marketing and business the last years. I’m trying to put it into practice but struggle to talk about it, especially until I’ve proven that I can put it into practice. I’m currently reading Dotcom Secrets (the website is so macho-business-American lol) and just finished The Webcomic’s Handbook.

💭 Thoughts - Really productive or just busy

Being busy and being productive are not the same things. It’s “easy” to work on stuff for eight hours per day, to find little tasks to stay in motion. But actually being productive and moving the needle in a meaningful, productive way is much harder. I will try to slow down a bit and be more intentional with what I do instead of rushing to always be in motion.

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Panel of the week

(from Space Deer)

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Take care and have a creative week.