DS Flash Carts---A new thread [Archive] - Page 2

norkusa

03-13-2007, 07:44 PM

Datel/CodeJunkies (http://us.codejunkies.com/news_reviews.asp?c=US&cr=USD&cs=$&r=0&l=1&p=17&i=9070&s=8) has a fairly commercial product. How does this stack up against some of the ones mentioned here?

This thing doesn't actually play DS games, does it?!? I saw this in a few stores but didn't give it a second look. Thought it was just another one of those cheap video + music thingys that you always see for handhelds.

Cryomancer

03-14-2007, 02:09 AM

I don't think it even plays homebrew, let alone commercial games. I don't think it can even play much past mp3s and bmps or something.

Sweater Fish Deluxe

03-14-2007, 03:03 PM

The Games'n'Music card can play homebrews, but no it won't play commerical games. At least not out of the box. I'm sort of surprised that Datel hasn't released a loader for it that will load commercial ROMs yet, that's the type of thing they usually do. They'll release it on the Internet in a way that can't be traced back to themselves.

However, more damning for the Games'n'Music card is that the GUI is supposedly horrendously clunky and slow.

Besides, the thing's not any cheaper than an R4 on sale at DealExtreme, is it? The R4's defninitely better than the Games'n'Music card.

...word is bondage...

shoes23

03-15-2007, 07:26 PM

Well, the G6 Lite arrived today, and from it was a breeze to set up. I've had no experience with flash carts in the past, but everything went smoothly after about 1/2 hour of tinkering with it. It's played the few games I thrown at it so far, and comes with a wide range of other apps as well (musicplayer, emulators, pda functions, ect). One nice function is that is that it uses the touchscreen for everything

Contents included the flash cart itself, which is designed to be flush with the DS Lite, and comes with 5 cases altogether (4 for the different color DS Lites and one for a DS Fatty). It also contained the a USB adatper and a CD (which is pretty much useless since newer updates are available via web). It was a little high on the price scale (~$100 w/ passcard, if you're on a cheaper budget you should look into the M3 Simply's some were talking about in this thread. I would recommend this one for flast cart novices like myself, unless that is someone has a better one.

+1 G6Lite

norkusa

03-19-2007, 07:34 PM

Just got my R4 in the mail today and it's pretty awesome. Was pretty easy to get DS games running...just dragged a single file onto the root of the microSD card and it was ready. And the few games that I tried playing so far seem to work great. No lag or glitches or anything like that. I didn't install Moonshell yet but since I only plan on playing DS games with the R4, I don't think I need it anyway.

Got a question though. When I unzip my roms, I usually have 4 or 5 different files in there. For instance, Elite Beat Agents has a .diz, .jpg (box art), .nds, .nfo, and .png). Do I just leave all this in the folder or can I throw some of it out? I figure the .nfo & .jpg can go, but I have no idea what a .diz file is and if it's necessary for the game to play.

Oh, BTW, if anyone is worried about getting a bootleg R4, I guess the fake ones have blue stickers on the box and card label that say "2Gb" in addition to some Chinese. So look for that if you're shopping around for an R4. The ones Dealextreme sell are legit though.

Cryomancer

03-19-2007, 07:57 PM

diz is just another file similar to an nfo, not needed.

Got my R4 today too, and it is great for games. it's unfortunetly not as great at homebrew, but i assume it's popularity will make for "ports" to the R4 soon enough.

norkusa

03-20-2007, 11:03 AM

Thanks, Cyro. One more question about the R4...where are the save files kept? Is it in the same folder where the .nds rom is or is it kept on the R4? I'm just worried about loosing my saves when I shuffle my roms between my Mac and DS.

schnuth

03-21-2007, 12:38 PM

My R4 came in the mail from Deal Extreme today, but the MicroSD card I ordered has yet to arrive. :( I can't wait to play with this thing.

In the meantime I found this compatibility list. It shows which games, homebrews, and SD cards work with the R4:

http://wiki.scorpei.com/index.php/R4_compatibility_list

Schenley

03-22-2007, 01:56 AM

I got my R4 today, and have a question...

I got it mainly to play the DS games that I already own - just from one cart instead of carrying around all the carts. I was mistaken in thinking that this 'do it all' DS flash solution would allow me to do that.

How can I get the .NDSes from my commercial carts, and more importantly the game saves over to the R4?

I'm assuming I need something in the slot 2 and I don't care if it sticks out 2 feet or is a bare PCB because I'm only going to use it to get the ROMs from my carts. I'd like to spend as little as possible on this part...

BTW, I have one of these:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=21032
if that will help with the process.

I'm also not looking to play any GBA games on my DS as I still use the GBA SP for that...

Thanks in advance.

Cryomancer

03-22-2007, 09:25 AM

@ norkusa: The .sav files are in the same folder as the roms. I would just turn on viewing extensions if you're in Xp, and then sort by type and leave the .savs on the card, or back them up on your PC when not using them (this is also nice for sharing games with only one save slot with your wife/girlfriend, etc).

Oh, and it's based on filename, so if you use the rom trimmer make sure your trimmed rom and your .sav has the same filename other than the extension.

@ schnuth :THANK YOU for that homebrew compat list, that explains why I couldn't get comicbookDS working.

@ Schenley: I'm not entirely sure how you'd go about that...isn't there some sort of datel device for backing up your saves? It SHOULD be possible but I've got no idea myself.

NE146

03-22-2007, 03:46 PM

Schenley: I'm not entirely sure how you'd go about that...isn't there some sort of datel device for backing up your saves? It SHOULD be possible but I've got no idea myself.

It's definitely possible to backup saves from DS carts. I think someone at the monroeworld.com forums already helped him though...

Sweater Fish Deluxe

03-22-2007, 05:53 PM

It's definitely possible to backup saves from DS carts.
Yes, it's possible, but it requires a slot-2 flash cart. I don't know any other way. So maybe Schenley should have just bought a slot-2 device instead of the R4.

As for dumping commercial DS cards, I don't think there's any simple way of doing it. You'd basically have to have knowledge of EE and build your own dumper. You're much better off just downloading the ROMs. If it's the legality of doing that that you're worried about, backing up copy protected games that you own isn't any more legal under the DMCA than downloading the ROMs. In fact, it isn't any more legal than downloading ROMs of games you *DON'T* own.

...word is bondage...

Schenley

03-22-2007, 06:45 PM

Yes, it's possible, but it requires a slot-2 flash cart. I don't know any other way. So maybe Schenley should have just bought a slot-2 device instead of the R4.
No, I don't regret getting the R4 - especially at the price that it is. I really like how the R4 works. It's just the process of getting all my saves off the carts - once that's done, I'll probably never use the slot 2 device again! Maybe someone can loan me one for a couple of weeks?? ;-)

Jorpho

03-22-2007, 11:30 PM

With these rousing endorsements perhaps I should pick one up too while the price is reasonable. DealXtreme ships to Canada, right?

Also, what exactly is the difference between http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1202~r.16466409 and http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1459 ?

Schenley

03-23-2007, 08:44 AM

schnuth

03-26-2007, 01:13 PM

I finally got my MircoSD card over the weekend and have been playing around with my R4 for the past couple days. It's a very neat little device, and I've been having fun trying out lots of homebrew stuff. For the price I paid from DealExreme this is definetely worth the purchase.

norkusa

03-26-2007, 02:40 PM

Now that I've got my Slot-1 needs taken care of with the R4, I'm thinking about getting a Slot-2 card for GBA stuff. Is the G6 Lite the best one around? Also, are there any Slot-2 carts around that are drag-and-drop like the R4 and *don't* require you to flash your DS?

Jorpho

03-26-2007, 03:10 PM

Wouldn't the R4 let you boot from a Slot-2 device?

norkusa

03-26-2007, 03:27 PM

Wouldn't the R4 let you boot from a Slot-2 device?

Yeah, so all I need is Slot-2 device. Isn't that what the G6 Lite is?

Sweater Fish Deluxe

03-26-2007, 06:30 PM

The G6 Lite is a nice cart. I have one and like it a lot. However, it does have fixed memory (512MByte), though that's not much of a problem if you'll only be using it for GBA stuff, you'll be able to fit dozens and dozens of even the largest GBA ROMs into 512MB. Of course, you might still want to consider a cart that takes microSD just because then you'd be able to share cards between your R4 and your slot-2 flash cart. Perhaps the bigger problem with the G6 based on what you want it for is that I don't think the G6's GBA menu is all that hot. The G6 has a great DS menu, but its GBA menu is sort of slow and clunky, it's nice that you can have a screenshot of each ROM, but that slows things down a lot; there's a menu mode that just uses plain text instead of the screenshots but even in that mode you're forced to navigate around using a mouse pointer controlled by the dpad rather than just directly highlighting the ROMs. I don't like it much.

The G6 does however, work just fine using drag & drop to load GBA stuff. It's only for loading DS ROMs that you have to use their Windows app.

I guess the other card I would recommend looking at is the M3 Lite, which takes microSD, has a simpler and easier to use menu and also supports drag & drop for most GBA ROMs just like the G6.

If DS support means nothing to you since you have an R4 and you don't mind the cart sticking out of your DS Lite, you might also check out the EFA-Linker.

...word is bondage...

skaar

03-26-2007, 06:50 PM

Same here, it was too good of a deal to pass up. Should be fun to play around with.

My R4 showed up today at lunchtime. Will be playing with it tonight.

Yay!

Also got a bunch of cheap laser pointers for the cat since they were 4/$3 with free shipping ;)

Jorpho

03-27-2007, 12:32 AM

I still really like this idea of using a DS as a wireless FTP server. But there's no homebrew app that makes that possible, is there?

boatofcar

04-07-2007, 05:37 PM

If all I want to do is NES emulation, should I get an R4, an M3, or something else?

zektor

04-07-2007, 08:43 PM

If all I want to do is NES emulation, should I get an R4, an M3, or something else?

I was playing NES titles on a CF Supercard way back. For the emulators, you can use just about any of the flash carts, as long as they have internal memory. In other words, stay away from the Supercard "rumble" or M3 "Pro". These carts have no internal memory, and cannot run GBA titles. To use the likes of PocketNES (or other GBA emulators) you will need that memory. There is a NES emulator for DS, but it does not support many file systems. If you can get your hands on a very cheap Supercard CF unit (I have seen them sell for $10 in the scdev forums) you'll be good to go.

Jorpho

04-29-2007, 09:16 PM

Blast! DealExtreme sent me the Chinese version of the R4 instead of the English version! Grumble grumble grumble.

And even with the Chinese firmware, Moonshell won't start up; it gives an error message about being unable to write to the media.

Cryomancer

04-30-2007, 05:00 PM

You SHOULD be able to just install the english firmware, I don't think the hardware is different at all.

Also, in case you other R4 users haven't noticed, the new update includes a cheating function.

norkusa

04-30-2007, 05:22 PM

Also, in case you other R4 users haven't noticed, the new update includes a cheating function.

Yeah, I noticed that but I have no idea how it works. Don't you have to download the actual cheat codes from somewhere or are they already pre-loaded?

Jorpho

04-30-2007, 08:41 PM

You SHOULD be able to just install the english firmware, I don't think the hardware is different at all.

Nyet, according to several reports I have read. That was only the case for earlier versions of the R4. Trying to use the English firmware on this unit just produces a Chinese error message.

(There's no reason Moonshell shouldn't work with this made-in-Japan 1 GB Kingston MicroSD card I've got, right? I presume the problem has something to do with non-English filenames and the FAT16 file system.)

norkusa

04-30-2007, 09:53 PM

(There's no reason Moonshell shouldn't work with this made-in-Japan 1 GB Kingston MicroSD card I've got, right? I presume the problem has something to do with non-English filenames and the FAT16 file system.)

I've got the same microSD and Moonshell works fine on my English R4. Maybe you just have something configured wrong.

NE146

04-30-2007, 10:43 PM

Yeah, I noticed that but I have no idea how it works. Don't you have to download the actual cheat codes from somewhere or are they already pre-loaded?

They're pre-loaded.. but you can update it in some mysterious way that's unknown to me. As is though, it's pretty up to date with the codemasters DS database. You might have to do a search though... for example I was looking for a cheat for Big Brain Academy (just to mess around.. I already scored an A+ in the game and wanted to check out if it went beyond that :p).. anyway, it said there was none. HOWEVER I found out a few days later there was a cheat for the EUR version of the game, so I loaded the euro version, and bam, the cheats showed up.

norkusa

04-30-2007, 11:40 PM

Pre-loaded, eh? Well that definitely makes it easier. Looks like my online record in Mario Kart should be going up now. :-P

Is there a FAQ anywhere on how to use these cheat coeds (running the built-in ones, loading new ones, activating & turning off, etc.). I tried the official R4 forums but they weren't much help.

DefaultGen

05-01-2007, 12:22 AM

.....

agbulls

05-03-2007, 03:51 PM

Would you guys agree that ultimate combination for now seems to be:

Supercard Lite Micro SD (for your GBA, NES, GG and TG needs) AND
R4 Micro SD (for DS and homebrew)

I'm thinking about getting one and then the other so I can have a TON to play anywhere I go. What do you guys think?

Cryomancer

05-04-2007, 06:03 AM

I too am going to want a slot 2 device eventually...but i am still a launch model DS fat user. Do any of these newer cards still come in "full" GBA cart size?

There's also some addon/booster cart for some device or another that apparently can act as a rumble pack, RAM expansion for the browser...and something else I can't recall. Sorry if it's already been mentioned in this thread.

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-04-2007, 09:56 PM

I too am going to want a slot 2 device eventually...but i am still a launch model DS fat user. Do any of these newer cards still come in "full" GBA cart size?
I don't know if any actually are currently being manufactured in the original GBA size, but there's lots of older ones that are and you'll be able to get them from stores for a while to come. A few of the ones that are DS Lite sized have GBA cases that you can swap the guts into, also.

There's also some addon/booster cart for some device or another that apparently can act as a rumble pack, RAM expansion for the browser...and something else I can't recall. Sorry if it's already been mentioned in this thread.
Yeah, those are pretty killer. The other thing they do is boot GBA games loaded from you slot-1 card, which is boss. They're called the EZFlash 3-in-1 and while they were originally only made to work with the EZFlash V flash kit, there's a hombrew program that you can use to boot GBA with them from any slot-1 card. I think I heard that the G6 Team is also planning to release a similar accessory to go with the G6DS Real.

...word is bondage...

boatofcar

05-04-2007, 11:58 PM

Well, I just ordered a Supercard Lite Micro SD for $56 shipped. Now I just need a MicroSD card.

studvicious

05-06-2007, 12:37 AM

I don't think it even plays homebrew, let alone commercial games. I don't think it can even play much past mp3s and bmps or something.

I just picked this up at Best Buy today for $18. It does run homebrew apps/games and it actually comes loaded with 25 games and the trailer for Shrek 3. It doesn't play commercial roms and I don't think it will run emu's. If so I would love to know how. I did manage to get a SNES emu to run halfway but that's about it.

Also it has a nice and simple interface, pretty easy to use.

** edit

It DOES run some emu's but no SNES ones I guess... :(

Jorpho

05-06-2007, 01:39 AM

Is there some reason you would expect it to run other homebrew apps but not emulators?

studvicious

05-06-2007, 07:06 AM

Not really, but after trying for a few hours I couldn't get it to work. It did seem that most emu's had very limiting (if at all) support for Micro SD.

boatofcar

05-06-2007, 07:14 AM

Not really, but after trying for a few hours I couldn't get it to work. It did seem that most emu's had very limiting (if at all) support for Micro SD.

Serious question--what does the format of the memory card have to do with emu compatibility?

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-06-2007, 03:51 PM

It's not how you format it, it's the card itself. With all the SD-based flash kits (SD, mini-SD and micro-SD), compatibility can sometimes be a problem. I have three SD cards and only one of them works flawlessly in my Supercard. One of the others, works in some cases and not others. The last doesn't work at all.

As for emulators not working when homebrew does. I think he means because of FAT access. The Games'n'Music card still doesn't have a DLDI driver, so no homebrew that requires FAT access will work properly. For games, that isn't a big problem since only three or four homebrew games use the FAT, but for emlulators and media apps, it's a bigger problem. Actually, though, most emulators can work without FAT access if you append the ROMs to the emulator as a single NDS file. SnezziDS will work this way, for sure. As will Picodrive and DSMS and a number of other emulators. nesDS even lets you append multiple ROMs, with the others you have to make a separate file for each ROM.

...word is bondage...

studvicious

05-06-2007, 07:39 PM

if you append the ROMs to the emulator as a single NDS file. SnezziDS will work this way, for sure. As will Picodrive and DSMS and a number of other emulators. nesDS even lets you append multiple ROMs, with the others you have to make a separate file for each ROM.

Would you please elaborate a little bit more on this process? I think I did something like that and it didn't work but there is a good chance I messed something up.

boatofcar

05-06-2007, 09:32 PM

studvicious

05-06-2007, 10:25 PM

No, what I have is pretty much a DS card with a Micro SD slot on top.

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-07-2007, 06:04 PM

Would you please elaborate a little bit more on this process? I think I did something like that and it didn't work but there is a good chance I messed something up.
On a Windows PC, you append the ROM to the emulator file with the DOS copy command. So in a command line, enter "COPY /B <name of emulator.nds> + <name of rom.rom> <name of output.nds>". If you're going to be doing a bunch of ROMs this way, you can make a batch file with the <name of rom.rom> placeholder above replaced with %1 and the <name of output.nds> with %1.nds, this will allow you to simply drag and drop a ROM onto the batch file to automatically append it to the emulator. There's a similar command that works in Linux or MacOSX, but I don't know exactly what it is. This method works with both SnezziDS and Picodrive as wrell as SCUMMVM DS. It does not work with SNEmulDS, though, nor with DSMasterPlus, I don't think. DSMS and nesDS both have separate Windows executables that you use to append the ROMs instead of this command line procedure.

Good luck with the Games'n'Music card. It's obviously not the best DS flash kit out there, but it's cheap and widely available which is nice. Hopefully it will bring more people to the DS homebrew scene. There's so many great homebrew games on the DS now. I consider all the homebrew games on the DS justification enough for the money I spent on my flash kits. And that's not even counting emulation or homebrew applications or piracy.

...word is bondage...

studvicious

05-07-2007, 06:38 PM

Thanks for that. ^ Overall I'm pretty happy with it. When I bought it, I really only wanted it for music and movies and didn't even think about emulation. So I guess for $18 bucks I got my money's worth even if I can't emulate EarthBound. :)

boatofcar

05-08-2007, 05:07 PM

YES! I got my Supercard Lite MicroSD card today and a 2GB MicroSD card for the total price of around $75. It works perfectly for NES emulation, just copy the files to the MicroSD card, pop it in the cart (which fits perfectly flush with my DS Lite), and away you go! So freakin sweet! :D :D :D

norkusa

05-09-2007, 07:56 PM

I'm going to get a Slot-2 card soon but I'm still kinda confused about how they work. Are there any that don't require you to flash your DS, or will I have to do that with every one i buy?

The G6 looks good but I'd like something that takes a MicroSD, so I'll probably go with the M3 Lite (as long as I don't have to flash anything).

DefaultGen

05-09-2007, 08:34 PM

.....

norkusa

05-09-2007, 08:50 PM

norkusa, you have to flash your DS unless you use a Pass-cart of some kind (I'm pretty sure slot 1 flash carts will work, otherwise there are dedicated ones). Having a flashed DS is safer since you can recover from a brick though.

I keep my R4 in DS 24/7, so I don't think that'd be a problem (I can use a R4 as a pass card, right?). Just wanted to be sure I didn't have to do anything complicated to my DS to get the slot-2 to work. Sounds like it's pretty easy to use though.

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-09-2007, 08:55 PM

I'm going to get a Slot-2 card soon but I'm still kinda confused about how they work. Are there any that don't require you to flash your DS, or will I have to do that with every one i buy?
If you're going to use the slot-2 cart for GBA stuff, then any one will work out of the box with nothing else necessary. If you want it for more NDS stuff, then you'll need to boot the GBA cart into NDS mode using your R4. Either way, flashing your DS is not required.

Having a flashed DS is safer since you can recover from a brick though.
Recover from a brick caused by flashing your DS, you mean? That's really the only way people brick their DSes. There's that BrickMe trojan (which was written by one of the coders who worke don FlashMe mostly to get people to use FlashMe), but I've never heard of anyone actually getting it.

The main advantage of flashing your DS is that it will allow you to use single-card multiplayer (Download Play) in games booted from a flash card. Otherwise, I don't really see any good reason for it.

...word is bondage...

DefaultGen

05-09-2007, 09:06 PM

.....

norkusa

05-09-2007, 10:27 PM

Thanks for the info, SFD. Yeah, I'm just going to be using it for GBA stuff (my R4 will do everything else), so I shouldn't have any problems setting it up.

One thing I can't figure out though is the difference between the M3 Lite Perfect and Pro versions. I went to modchipstore.com to look at them and the descriptions for both were exactly the same.

Also, what's a good store to purchase from?

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-10-2007, 11:19 AM

One thing I can't figure out though is the difference between the M3 Lite Perfect and Pro versions. I went to modchipstore.com to look at them and the descriptions for both were exactly the same.
The Pro has no GBA support, so you don't want that one. I'm surprised that any site selling it wouldn't mention it in their product description.

Also, what's a good store to purchase from?
There seem to be a lot of good ones, but I haven't ordered from very many myself. modchipstore, gamersection, kicktrading, etc. all have fairly good reputations, though. I would not recommend ordering from divineo.

...word is bondage...

norkusa

05-14-2007, 10:41 PM

Thanks again for all the minfo SFD. I ended up going for the M3 Lite Perfect since I had an extra 1gb MicroSD card laying around that I could use with it. Best price I found was Modchip store for $75 + 7 for ship and it should be here in only a few days.

Do you know if these M3 Lites are ready to use out of the box, or do they have to have firmware installed on it before using like the the R4 does?

Was also kind of surprised to see that these M3 Lites can play all kinds of video formats like AVI's and MPEG's. To play video on the R4 though, you first gotta convert it to some obscure format that only the DS can read.

boatofcar

05-14-2007, 10:44 PM

Also, what's a good store to purchase from?

I got my Supercard from www.realhotstuff.com and got it super quick.

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-14-2007, 10:54 PM

Do you know if these M3 Lites are ready to use out of the box, or do they have to have firmware installed on it before using like the the R4 does?
Updating the firmware to the most recent version is always recommended, but the cart should work out of th box.

Was also kind of surprised to see that these M3 Lites can play all kinds of video formats like AVI's and MPEG's. To play video on the R4 though, you first gotta convert it to some obscure format that only the DS can read.
That's false advertising. What they mean is that the M3 can play formats like AVI and MPEG if you first convert the videos into an obscure format that only the DS can read. The M3 has two built in options for video playback actually, but neither is as good as the most recent version of Moonshell which comes on the R4 (and can be installed onto an M3, too, of course).

...word is bondage...

norkusa

05-16-2007, 01:06 PM

I got my M3 Lite today but I'm having a hard time getting everything set-up. It looks like I'm following the instructions correctly, but I'm still not getting anywhere.

Since it's supposed to play GBA roms right out of the box, I put a couple (unzipped) on a microSD card and fired up the M3 Lite. When I selected the rom, the "Loading" bar would reach to the end but the system would freeze up after that. I reset the DS and when I got back to the M3 menu, it said something like "no NDSSAVE directory found". So I put a folder called NDSSAVE on the root of the stick and tried it again. This time it says "Warning! NDS GAME SAVE in card but CANNOT find AUTOSAVE backup file. Press A to continue."

So this is where I'm stuck at. Trying to dig around for info online like a FAQ for this or something but haven't found anything yet. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? I installed the loader (whatever thats for) on the M3 Lite like the instructions says and it looks like it installed properly. Am I supposed to tweak the roms with this M3 Game Manager software before I put them on the MicroSD? I thought it was just drag-and-drop with the M3 Lite but maybe I'm wrong?

EDIT: Okay, got the games working (had to boot into GBA mode first...instructions didn't mention this) but now I can't save for some reason. I'm still getting that "CANNOT find AUTOSAVE backup file" message. What gives?

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-17-2007, 02:12 PM

Unlike the R4 and other slot-1 cards, the M3 doesn't create the save file on the cartridge the first time you play a game. There has to already be an empty save file there in order for the save to be written. If you used the card manager program, it would write the save files automatically, but if you know the proper directory and naming structure you could also do it yourself. For instance, on the G6, save files are placed in the same directory as the ROM and have the same filename as the ROM, but with an .0, .1 or .2 (since you can have up to three save files for each ROM) extension instead of .GBA or .NDS. I don't know how the M3 organizes saves, but you just need to figure it out, then you can create the save files yourself by writing an empty 128KB file to the right location or just copying one of the existing saves with a new name.

Some GBA ROMs will need to be patched in order to save properly, though, so you may just prefer to use the M3 Manager program. There's also a program called GBA Tool Advanced which can do the patching and other things and this is what I use since the G6 Manager utility doesn't agree with Windows 98.

If you use the M3 for NDS ROMs, they will need to be run through the Manager since unpatched DS ROMs will not work on any slot-2 device.

...word is bondage...

norkusa

05-17-2007, 03:49 PM

Thanks explaining that SFD. I was going nuts all day yesterday trying to figure out what was going on. I tried using the M3 game manager program, but I honestly had no idea what I was doing, even after reading the shitty engrish instructions.

I dunno about this M3 Lite cart. I was hoping that it'd be like the R4 where you could just drag-and-drop GBA roms in and be done with it. Looks like all GBA flash carts require you to do some kind of tweaking with the roms though. It's ind of a pain in the ass for me since I'm on a Mac and I gotta boot into Windows just to use that Game Manager program. I don't even play that much GBA stuff anyways and my PSP emulates GBA pretty well, so maybe I'll just sell it off. :-/

On the bright side though, Modchipstore.com gave me a USB reader, Passcard, and some extra DS shells all for free. Don't know if they included it by accident or if they were just dumping some old stock. Either way, I'll probably makes some extra cash on everything if I do decide to sell it all off.

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-17-2007, 04:02 PM

Yeah, the M3 was probably not the best choice for a slot-2 cart if you only wanted it for GBA stuff and especially if you're a Mac user. The EFA-Linker is the card I'd recommend for non-Windows users wanting a GBA flash cart.

However, drag & drop will work just fine on the M3, you just need to know where the save files go and how they should be named. If you can't use the M3 Manager to find out, maybe someone here has an M3 will speak up or you could go ask at the GBAtemp forums or something.

...word is bondage...

Cryomancer

07-25-2007, 11:16 AM

What do you guys suggest for gameboy/color emulation on the DS? Or is it not worth it yet? I've got an R4, so slot 1 software suggestions please.

Lord_Magus

07-25-2007, 05:56 PM

There seem to be a lot of good ones, but I haven't ordered from very many myself. modchipstore, gamersection, kicktrading, etc. all have fairly good reputations, though. I would not recommend ordering from divineo.

hmm... I ordered my M3 Simply from divineo when it first came out, and had no problems at all: the package arrived fast and safe. However, I just recently bought another M3 Simply from them for a friend which ended up being faulty, and at the moment I'm waiting for them to reply to the email I sent them a couple of days ago... :/

Until I read your comment, I had heard nothing but good things about divineo (which is why I chose them in the first place). Is there any reason I should worry about things going sour now?

Sweater Fish Deluxe

07-26-2007, 12:15 PM

hmm... I ordered my M3 Simply from divineo when it first came out, and had no problems at all: the package arrived fast and safe. However, I just recently bought another M3 Simply from them for a friend which ended up being faulty, and at the moment I'm waiting for them to reply to the email I sent them a couple of days ago... :/

Until I read your comment, I had heard nothing but good things about divineo (which is why I chose them in the first place). Is there any reason I should worry about things going sour now?
Well, I wouldn't expect them to just totally ignore you forever unless they've gotten even worse than the last time I heard about them. Their customer service and general responsiveness is certifiably shitty, though, so don't expect the return to go totally smoothly. I had a bad experience with them myself and I've seen more negative reports about them than you would expect based on just the law of averages. For some reason that I still haven't seen explained, with CycloDS Evolution card Divineo was actually just sending out the bare cards without the tin box that it's supposed to fcome in and sometimes even without the USB card reader, and with absolutely no warning about that on their site or a reduced shipping charge or anything. To me that seems amazingly unprofessional.

For Gameboy emulators on the DS, check out Lameboy. A new version just came out last week or so that I haven't gotten around to putting on my card, but it was already pretty excellent emulation in the previous version. I still prefer Goomba, which is the Gameboy emulator for the GBA. The main advatage is has is support for custom palettes. However, it obviously won't work in a slot-1 DS flash card, so you'll have to use Lameboy, whihc is nearly as good anyway. ALso, Lameboy is still being worked on, unlike Goomba, so hopefully soon it will have support for custom palettes (which would be easier to make using the DS touchscreen anyway) and maybe even the "official" colorized palettes and Super Gameboy palettes which are actually not available in Goomba.

...word is bondage...