Hacking AKAIO -- want better 3-in-1 support?

[Another World]

norm mentioned to me that neither him or smiths have a 3-in-1. during the same conversation in #acekard someone offered to donate a bit of money, and kindly did so. i would like to purchase a 3-in-1 for both of them so that they can work to improve the 3-in-1 support in AKAIO. right now the saving support is limited with the way it works, and 3-in-1 support is way behind the fixes gelu has added for the rpg.

if you would like to help out i am asking for a minimum donation of $2 USD (due to the 1.9% - 2.9% paypal takes). however, please give what you can. if you are interested drop me a PM for the paypal information.

want to discuss this or anything related drop by #acekard on the gbatemp irc server.

edit #1
thank you so much to those that gave what they could. it was so very kind of all of you, especially with the current state of the world economy. norm and smiths will be very happy. as soon as they PM me their addresses i'll get the kits ordered up!

next project might be for sdhc as support is hit or miss -- neither of them has one to test with =P

edit #2
norm's kit was just ordered and so was smiths. i'm waiting now for DX to do the change of address request on both. they are 12hrs ahead of me making it 2am for them. i'll post back when i hear more.

edit #3
both shipping addresses have been updated and the status reports the items are in stock.

edit #4
both are being packaged...
norms kit shipped 11/6/2008 1:02:45 AM
smiths kit shipped 11/6/2008 4:36:55 AM

edit #5
11/11/08 09:18 pm • got my 3in1 today

thanks,
-another world


list of donators: $me, diablo1123. jaywilson, someusr, scubersteve, Vague Rant, kai445, mysticwaterfall, MrHicks
current balance (after paypal takes a cut): $39.86/$39.52

 

[Diablo1123]

You don't mention me? xD

 

[Another World]

didn't know you wanted to be mentioned by name!!

i'll keep a running tab at the top of how much we have and who has donated so far. i'm not trying to rip anyone off here. also if it cost more to ship to norms country i'll pay that. this is just to pay for the cost of the kits.

-another world

 

[carterman]

We should also get someone to donate an M3 GBA expansion so support for that could be added - ExpLoader works fine for when I'm using my Acekard (like the interface a lot better than the M3 DS Real's interface) but native OS support would be the bee's knees.

 

[Normmatt]

I have an M3SD, sadly I don't know how to access it

 

[Vague Rant]

Out of curiosity, what is lacking about AKAIO's 3-in-1 support? To be honest, I haven't used it yet, I have an EZ-Flash V which I've managed that stuff with.

 

[TotoGuy]

Maybe put the link to the paypal donation page here? Or are you not using that feature?

 

[Another World]

Maybe put the link to the paypal donation page here? Or are you not using that feature?

i am using paypal (only), i don't want to announce it in the public forum. if you would like to donate please PM me. thanks!

Out of curiosity, what is lacking about AKAIO's 3-in-1 support? To be honest, I haven't used it yet, I have an EZ-Flash V which I've managed that stuff with.

when you want to back up a save you are forced to load another rom. loading a save will load by name not by choice (as with gba exp loader). you can only back up/load 1 save at a time with no slots. also read the recent changelog for gelu's rpg firmware (see below). none of this is added to akaio because they don't have the kits to test on.

Spoiler: changelog

3in1 support:
- new item in start menu "3in1". this item opens dialog where you can open
ram, set rumble strength or make sram backup.
- auto open ram when launching "nintendo browser" europe/japan release.
- you can load gba games directly from shell in same manner as common nds game.
there is autopatcher for most savetypes:
NOSAVE
SRAM_V*
SRAM_F_V*
EEPROM_V111
EEPROM_V120
EEPROM_V121
EEPROM_V122
EEPROM_V124
EEPROM_V126
FLASH_V120
FLASH_V121
FLASH_V123
FLASH_V124
FLASH_V125
FLASH_V126
FLASH1M_V102
FLASH1M_V103
FLASH512_V130
FLASH512_V131
FLASH512_V133
- NOR flash support. if rom size greater then 16 mb it will be written into NOR
flash on 3in1 expansion. this take long time - be patient. in future this
game may be played as through akmenu as through ds original menu.
- gbaframe support.
frame must be placed at fat0:/__rpg/ui//gbaframe.bmp.
gbaframe.bmp must be 256x192x16bit image.
- in-game sleep support in some gba games. actual list of supported games you
can see here:
http://acekard-3in1.googlecode.com/svn/tru...4/gba_sleep.txt
- universal in-game sleep support through Dwedit routine:
http://www.dwedit.org/dwedit_board/viewtopic.php?id=306
now you can in any gba game without internal sleep support switch device to
sleep mode. to go sleep press l+r+start. to resume press select+start.
- autopatching classic nes games.
- forced nor-flashing for any game.
- automatic rumble support in lameboy.
- autopatching dragon ball z - the legacy of goku.
- pokemon linkage supported.

-another world

 

[jaywilson]

i just donated the last of my paypal, im not really phased on more 3in1 support but this can help say thanks to normatt and smiths for AKAIO!

 

[DaMummy]

how about someone trades me a black ds lite case for a while 3in1? than imma purchase a black 3in1 and all shall be happy, my white 3in1 is older version, not 100% flush but all works same i think

 

[Another World]

i just donated the last of my paypal, im not really phased on more 3in1 support but this can help say thanks to normatt and smiths for AKAIO!

thanks jay!

and thanks to someusr who popped into #acekard and gave a donation!

thanks scuber! =)

-another world

 

[Smiths]

i'm drunk.
this is nice.
remember: we're phat DS users, Norm and I.

That's how we roll.

 

[Another World]

i'm sober
we are just trying to help out and give back
i won't forget: https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15778

=)

-another world

 

[Vague Rant]

remember: we're phat DS users, Norm and I.

That's how we roll.

The original size 3-in-1 is a badass piece of machinery even if you do have a Lite; the Lite version is lacking in the "Holy shit it's dotstream/Mother 3/etc. on my Game Boy Player" department.

 

[Another World]

thanks!

its so close now, if a few more people step up... norm and smiths both sounded excited in #acekard tonight.

-another world

 

[cory1492]

I have an M3SD, sadly I don't know how to access it

It's not terribly difficult. IIRC lick made a memory expansion detection lib that can use M3 CF/SD memory, if I'm not too far off the mark I think there is support in dslinux as well, and it is definitely in memtestarm; SRAM bankswitching doesn't seem present in any of them, but that would probably be simple enough to figure out from their game patchers. Though... this also poses part of the same problem with EZ4 stuff: they made a bunch of versions ("lite") of their cards with different amounts of memory and version detection is hidden behind some form of scrambling in their kernel.

The m3real gba expansion works like "that other one" (the name eludes me atm), I'm pretty sure someone figured out it's workings a while back.

----
Any rate, to not go totally off topic: thanks to the TS for getting this going as it seems the code sans proprietary loader isn't in any near future.

 

[Diablo1123]

current balance (after paypal takes a cut): $30.80/$39.52

Nice around 9$s left. Amazing what the community can raise =D.

Now you're making me want the Phat one for my GBASP

 

[carterman]

I have an M3SD, sadly I don't know how to access it

It's not terribly difficult. IIRC lick made a memory expansion detection lib that can use M3 CF/SD memory, if I'm not too far off the mark I think there is support in dslinux as well, and it is definitely in memtestarm; SRAM bankswitching doesn't seem present in any of them, but that would probably be simple enough to figure out from their game patchers. Though... this also poses part of the same problem with EZ4 stuff: they made a bunch of versions ("lite") of their cards with different amounts of memory and version detection is hidden behind some form of scrambling in their kernel.

The m3real gba expansion works like "that other one" (the name eludes me atm), I'm pretty sure someone figured out it's workings a while back.

----
Any rate, to not go totally off topic: thanks to the TS for getting this going as it seems the code sans proprietary loader isn't in any near future.

That would be the eWin expansion you're talking about.

As for the M3 series, I know that ExpLoader can use my M3 Perfect CF as a GBA expansion (although there's not much of a reason to do so

), so I'd be willing to bet that the M3 Perfect series (i.e., any M3 with the RAM in it) might just use the same RAM as the M3 GBA expansion, so if Normmatts can get his M3 SD working, the M3 GBA expansion might be a possibility as well.

 

[Another World]

thank you kai445 for your donation, it is so greatly appreciated.
thank you also to mysticwaterfall for your donation!

a few more small donations and we are there!!

cheers,
-another world

 

[Diablo1123]

You might as well order one first, seeing as DX takes forever to ship