[DS] Universal DS Homebrew thread. Fucking cheapskates.

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

http://www.moddz.com/?n=modules/articles&a=7&d=27

Looks like CycloDS Evolution is the new king of slot-1 devices.

I don't want to register just to find out what CycloDS is.

Originally Posted by chaofan

-Size of a normal GBA cart
-GBA gaming
-Decent homebrew support
-Decent memory to fit a few GBA games, a few homebrews and perhaps some mp3's (built-in or SD card, doesn't matter)
-Decent enough emulation
-Doubling as rumble/RAM expansion is nice, but not necessary
-Relatively cheap compared to other Slot 2 cats.

I would also like to be able to use it for a GBMicro, a present given to me last year and one which I haven't been using much. The guilt. THE GUILT!

I think this is what a lot of people want, since my criteria is almost exactly the same, and JazzFlight posted a very similar list earlier. In fact, I'm posting this comparison almost as much for myself as for other people. As far as I can tell, these are your best options (in order of cheapness):

EZFlash V 3-in-1 Expansion Pack (phat version)
If you want rumble *and* GBA support, this is pretty much the only way to go. The memory expansion is a nice plus. And you can't beat the price at ~$25. The downsides are that according to these people GBA compatibility is apparently not as good due to lack of RTC support, and you need to patch the GBA ROMs. I don't know if they fixed this for the phat version or not. In addition, you can load only one game at a time, but if it's 128 Mbits or less, it doesn't take too long. Also, this is not a standard Slot-2 solution, as it loads the data from your Slot-1 card, meaning of course that you need a Slot-1 card as well. However, Slot-2 carts often cost $70 by themselves (the worthwhile ones at least) not counting the PassMe device, while getting a Slot-1 plus this expansion shouldn't run you over $75.

Pros:
- Rumble and memory expansion
- $25
Cons:
- GBA compatibility isn't as good.
- Only one game at a time

M3 Lite Professional
I actually don't recommend this one since it barely qualifies as having GBA support, but I thought I'd include it for completion. It's about $40 and you can only load games that are 32 MBits (that's 4 MB) or less. A few people claim you can get around this using GBATool, but I've never seen an example of somebody actually doing it.

Pros:
- $40
Cons:
- Can't play GBA games that are over 4 MB (i.e. most of them :P)

G6 Lite
Technically this is the most expensive of the Slot-2 carts, but it comes with its own media and reader/writer, so that's about $20-30 saved right there. Yeah, it's only 512MB, but unless you're storing music and movies or something, it should be enough. However, apparently some people have problems with it getting corrupted and needing a reformat, so that's something to keep in mind. Also, I've read you can't update the emulators that come on the cart.

Pros:
- Built-in storage; don't need to buy media/reader
Cons:
- "Only" 512MB of space
- Might get corrupted and need reformat
- Can't update the built-in emulators

M3 miniSD Perfect
This is the one I was eyeing for quite a while, since it's more or less the size of a GBA cart. As the name implies, it uses miniSD cards instead of microSD. If that's an issue, there miniSD adapters for microSD cards. I've seen various prices on this cart, ranging from $60-80. But in general it should be functionally equivalent to...

M3 Lite Perfect
Now before someone gets on my case about the M3 Lite not fitting in a regular GBA, you can buy a GBA shell for $2. The shell is actually included at some places like GameYeeeah and BambooGaming. So that solves that matter. And with that out of the way, the M3 Lite has pretty much the best reviews that I've seen...the end/be all of Slot-2's as it were. Unfortunately, at $70, along with getting a PassMe and microSD card, this baby will easily run you over $100 total after it's all said and done. Unless of course you don't need DS support, in which case you can skip the PassMe and use it as a standalone GBA cart.

Pros:
- End/be all of Slot-2's
Cons:
- (Might) need to buy GBA shell
- $70

Edit: In your specific case, chaofan, the R4 will function nicely as either the Slot-1 storage for an EZ Flash V 3-in-1, or as a PassMe for the other carts.

Has anyone tried out the EZ-Flash 5 Bundle?

http://www.kickgaming.com/ezflash-bu...ion-p-190.html

It looks like it's a pretty good price, takes a microSD card in slot 1 and has the memory expansion, rumble, and other random stuff for slot 2.

Edit: Or, since it seems everyone's got a R4, why should I get one of those over this one? Or, even then, why this new Cyclo chip that Acer talked about?

Also, where would you guys recommend buying something like this from? The last time I bought anything like this was my Pro Action Replay for my PSX which plugged into the I/O port so I could play burned games and back then the best place was e-bay.

I would recommend buying them from the sites which I've recommended buying them from in the original post.

In addition to the ones you listed in the topic post, I'll also toss out Winsunx as a vendor. I got my EZIV from there (and know some other folks who placed orders with them) and the response is generally pretty positive.

So I'm going to buy the CycloEvolution thing from Real Hot Stuff in a few days (moving out of my apartment in a week, so I don't want the shipping to get screwed up). Going to buy it instead of the R4 since it's only $13 and the stuff I've been reading seems to be pretty positive about it. Was anyone able to find a much better deal than $20 for a 1GB microSD card? That's all I'd pay to have one included with my order, so I figure I'll just do that too.

$20 for a 1GB microSD is far too expensive. You should be able to find 2GB ones for about the same price.

God damnit, pretty much everyone's sold out of R4s and the CycloEvolutions. Guess I'll just buy that cheapish microSD card I saw on buy.com earlier and wait for one of those guys to come in stock somewhere. =\

Alternatively, Supercard One and M3 Simply are practically the same thing.

In fact, M3 Simply and R4 are 99.0% identical. Aside from needing different firmware for the Supercard One, it operates the same.

do tell me how you like your cyclodsevolution. The dev team is super responsive to requests and bugs compared to the rest of the flashcard guys. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I've heard nothing but good things and most say it's the best card out there

For the rest of you I found a nice public thread on it.

http://www.emuboards.com/invision/lo...hp/t28740.html

And of course you can always go to the official website and take a look at things.

http://www.cyclopsds.com/cgi-bin/cyclods/engine.pl

As long as they have DLDI auto-patching and regular firmware updates, any flashcard is fine.

How does the CycloDS user interface look like, btw? For some reason, the official site doesn't seem to have pictures.

Check Acer's link on emuboards, they have screenshots of the user interface. Looks really clean and functional. I'm tempted

And the CycloDS is apparently the only card that supports the newer SD format which allows you to go above the 2GB limitation.

Well, I see it's in stock at Divineo, but it'll wind up costing me $15-20 more than if I wait for it to come back in at Real Hot Stuff (plus I can get it shipped via DHL which I trust more than random air mail). I'd also rather not buy from somewhere that has a broken English website, so I'm going to hold off until I can find a reseller in Canada. Anyone have any sort of idea how long it takes for these sites to restock their inventory usually?

80 years.

No seriously, it can take from one to two weeks to 2-3 months dude.

So...For someone just getting into this and interested in commercial ROMs and emulators...

I would need to buy the CycloDS + one of these things (MicroSD): http://www.memorybits.co.uk/index.ph...sort=2a&page=2

And I'm good to go from Slot 1? No issues booting GBA games or emulators?

Sorry, but this is one of those thing where there's TOO much information out there, so I'm just looking for a straight yes/no. The Cyclo review sounds good for a total newb at DS homebrew, but it's not clear you also need the SD card as well.

Thanks.

1) All flash carts require a micro SD card. That's the only way the DS has any information to read and the only way to transfer info from your PC to DS.

2) Playing GBA games requires a slot-2 flash cart, no exceptions. You can probably use any slot-2 flash cart in conjunction with the CycloDS, but you can't use just the slot-1.

Thanks!

Two more questions:

1. Both Commercial ROMs and emulation (any system) are fine for Slot 1? I keep seeing discrepencies about these (probably outdated information, since it seems Slot 1 devices are new) so I'm just trying to make sure it will have what I need.

2. Good price for an SD above 2 GB? I'm looking at around $35 for 2 GB from the major retailers right now...This market is totally foreign territory to me, but I just know I want as much storage as possible.

Last thing: Is there a good website for DS emulator reviews? I'm not finding much on any of them...

1. Slot-1 and slot-2 will both play commercial roms, but I admit I don't really know anything about emulation -- sorry!

2. Once again, I'm stuck. Sorry! Only thing I can really say is that certain brands are generally perceived as being better- namely, the Japanese Kingston ones. 'Course, you may have to pay a premium for those depending on where you make your purchase.

3. GBAtemp has a good amount of reviews and other information on their forums, but you'll need to register to be able to get the most out of it.

I found 2GB of microSD for $25 shipped on buy.com, so you might want to do that.

Also, check resellerratings.com for any of the websites you're planning on buying a chip from. A number of ones I've read about had really low marks (3 or 4 out of 10) while others will have over a 9/10 with a ton of reviews.