Oh wow, I foud out that you can't use your own sprites on the touch screen, only the preloaded "panel" sprites or backgrounds (preloaded or custom).
That kind of makes things harder.

Can someone make a sequel to Zelda II with this thing if he tried ?

It's possible, yes.
But I don't really see anyone even trying to program a game that big,

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Note, to turn off the display of the keyboard on the bottom screen, do this: PNLTYPE "OFF

Anyway, I saw this video which shows more complex sprites than just the basic set in the bottom screen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_StqCyv-hGQ&feature=relmfu
Followed the link to the source code. Looks like the sprites may be getting created with the Hex strings. I saw something in the help file regarding doing this. Might be an good workaround to getting user created sprites on the lower screen.
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/ptmacumba/20120229/1330532965

I am still researching. At this point, it looks like you can draw many things in the lower screen, but you must do most of the work manually. It's a shame, as the lower screen has the touchscreen input.

This thread makes me want to download this, but there's just so little space on my 3DS internal memory. I want to program a portable version of the old M.U.L.E. game from the 8-bit computer days.

It's 117 blocks if you're wondering, which is a lot when we barely get more than 1000 blocks for DSiWare, but seriously, I moved Trajectile and Pictobits to my SD to make room for this and it's going to be a while before I miss them. I'm storing over 80 programs in that 117 blocks, and I'm sure I could still store a lot.

@DrKarl: Well, right now my workaround to this problem is using background character tiles for everything I need on the touch screen:

Haha my code is already a 600 lines long mess and I'm sure I'm far from finishing my Petit Farm.

Extra Image

Oh, and I noticed we still have the "TALK" comands, anyone knows if they work in our version?

No, TALK does nothing, not even with the Japanese characters. They just stripped the speech synthesizer right out, which I'm guessing is the main reason our version is 8 blocks smaller than the Japanese one.

Well, it seems they forgot to take out the related comands from the suggestion box, how embarrassing.

Ha! @Morphtroid, maybe some of you guys should've programmed this program for programming programs. lol

On a serious note, this application seems to have become the only DSiWare title that really matters at all anymore. Which is slightly impressive.

The bigger goof was leaving TALK in the manual, and still claiming it actually does something. I guess they just translated the Japanese manual and forgot to edit it out or make any disclaimer.

Really? I haven't see it in the manual (it isn't on the "all commands" list either) what part is it in?
I have actually seen some instances of engrish on the manual and the included programs too it's so retro.

@Nintenbro: Hopefully a lot people in america will download it and make useful/fun stuff.

And, iphys, where do you get your programs for? I haven't found that many interesting games or apps in english.

@Nintenbro: Don't foget the Rytmik games/apps.

11. BASIC Standard Features -> Audio Functions -> Voice Synthesis

"Text entered is read using voice synthesis. The emotion, pitch, and speaker type can all be modified."

I got excited thinking maybe they had included it after all, but the manual lies. I guess maybe it does still make sense to still include TALK in case we wanted to code it for games for the Japanese, but they shouldn't have told us we had features that we don't.

Edit:
I got most of my programs here
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=...
and here
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=...
and if there's no QR code you can make one here
http://www2.u-netsurf.ne.jp/~ozawa/petitcom/petiteditor.html
(but add a couple blank lines at the end just in case.)

Can you make areas larger than 512 by 512 pixels? Or many smaller areas with a total area larger than 512x512?

You can use as many backgrounds as you want, the "world" will always be the same 512*512 area... But the player doesn't need to know that.

Ok, thanks, I suppose I should get this now.

hey, anyone (like me) who's interested in creating a text-based adventure game or something, check this out: Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer, by Tim Hartnell. It's a really great book in terms of walking you through the planning and stuff that goes into this kind of thing — i'm not all the way through it yet but it seems like a truly solid reference for this sort of project.

I'm horrible at making good stories or text based anythings, but if any of you makes one I'll be glad to scan and play it.

i have questions:

-how are games saved? on the sd-card or internal memory?
-how big are they?
-there are already games you can scan via QR-code. come of them have more than one QR-code. do i have to connect these with the program or are they connected automatically? because i dont know if i am able to connect them. i have no idea how programming works and i thought about buying the program just to play the games others have created.