Hacking CycloDS Evolution and Acekard 2i for old DSL?

[Cay]

I picked up two flashcarts at a swap meet for $5 a few weeks ago. Just got a DS Lite today. From what I've read, DSTwo is the best flashcart by far, but I just can't afford the $40 for that. So I have a few questions about the two I bought...

I got these two - CycloDS Evolution and Acekard 2i. I know both teams have abandoned support/updates, but I'm just gonna be running these on a DS Lite. Not DSi or 3DS so firmware issues don't matter.

My Acekard is authentic (though its stupid springloaded slot is semi-busted), how do I tell if the CycloDS is too? It's black, and the micro-sd card sticks out a little past the cart at the top. The firmware update ran fine. It's sticker is really cheap/papery.

Is the realtime save function reliable on the CycloDS? And are regular saves pretty reliable? I used to have an R4-SDHC card and it deleted my save files twice - ended up in the garbage after 10 hours of play vanished.

I tried Dragon Quest IX and Dragonball Origins on both carts - both had some slight slowdown/choppiness. I'm using an authentic Sandisk 8gb class 10 micro-sd card (and I formatted it with the SD formatter) so I don't think it's a card issue. Is this normal for the CycloDS and Acekard? Or did I get duds that are actually supposed to be running 3d games fast and smooth?

Are there many games now that either of these carts won't play? It seems CycloDS stopped updating in 2011 and Acekard stopped in 2012. Am I good for just being able to load almost any unpatched game and have it play perfect?

Which is more reliable with homebrew emulators? Or is that just dependent on the emulator itself?

I apologize if these questions have been asked before. I tried searching and didn't see these specifically. And finding unbiased opinions on CycloDS is a bit difficult since it seems to get a lot of hate due to the team abandoning updates soon after releasing the iEvolution.

Thanks for any help. I'm just trying to decide which to keep and which to give away.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

Cyclo was a really expensive cart. $80 or so from memory.

I don;t think there were fake Cyclos.

 

[stomp_442]

The iEvo got blocked with a DSi update, it couldn't be revived. I suppose that's why the team quit supporting it. And that also meant no updates for the Evo also.

The cycloDS got a lot of hate because it was the best cart at the time and all the people that spent $5 on R4 clones were jealous of it.

 

[Cay]

Wow, $80? I'm glad I got it so cheap then.

I peeled up the sticker on the CycloDS and it's an Actel chip. So I guess it is authentic. I'm surprised nobody made fakes/clones of it given the high price and popularity they could've fed off of.

I tried out Lameboy on the Acekard and my Zelda save files disappeared twice when glitches occurred. Bah. -_-

Does CycloDS still hold up against the current DS/DSi flashcarts? It seems to predate most of them by a long time - is it's performance/reliability as good as ones still used like the R4i Gold, Acekard 2i, etc? How much worse is it than a DStwo for DS Lite gaming?

Also, I read that Acekard stopped using the Actel chips. Why was that? Was it because they were inferior or because the team went for a cheaper chip?

Sorry to barrage with so many questions...

 

[Technicmaster0]

The iEvo got blocked with a DSi update, it couldn't be revived. I suppose that's why the team quit supporting it. And that also meant no updates for the Evo also.

I think that the iEvo lost it's support before it got blocked (DS Mode: 1.4.2; DSi Mode: 1.4.3).

Does CycloDS still hold up against the current DS/DSi flashcarts? It seems to predate most of them by a long time - is it's performance/reliability as good as ones still used like the R4i Gold, Acekard 2i, etc? How much worse is it than a DStwo for DS Lite gaming?

Also, I read that Acekard stopped using the Actel chips. Why was that? Was it because they were inferior or because the team went for a cheaper chip?

I think that my iEvo is one of the best cards at the market regarding reliability and performance. Maybe it even has the best OS. The Evo has almost the same OS like the iEvo. But the compatibility with ROMs is not up to date.

Who knows? It's not like flashcard teams talk about everything.

 

[Cay]

The CycloDS does feel like it's pretty good quality. Is there a way to update the entire cheat database for the Cyclo? Most of the games I've tried don't have any cheats available even with the 2.3 firmware.