Hacking [Help] Best Slot1+GBA support combination?

[crowlness]

Hello! I just recently bought my DS lite and am deciding on what card(s?) to get.

Reading all the reviews here, my first choices would be R4DS and Cyclo DS Evo.
100% rom support, DLDI, ongoing manufacturer updates, all good so far, right?

But somewhere along reading dozens of forum topics I got the uncanny impression
that no Slot 1 card actually runs GBA roms, which is an important factor for me.
If I'm correct in this, I'd probably need a second (Slot 2 I guess) card for this.

The Question is - what to get? Or better - what would *you* get, ideally?

Since if I had a good Slot 1 card and all I'd use the Slot 2 card for would be GBA games,
would it make sense to get a low-priced one? Or are there differences? All the Slot 2 card
reviews are pretty old, have scary things in them like the need for a separate passme,
and I have no idea how the cards look now (after presumably many firmware upgrades etc).
Basically, I don't want to get a buggy, complicated outdated second card that will cause me headaches,
but I don't want to pay needlessly for a top notch Slot 2 card that would be slightly worse than
my Slot 1 card if I didn't have to, in that order. If there's doubt, I'd rather go for a decent Slot 2
card that works 100%. I have no idea which one either would be though

All thoughts are greatly appreciated!

 

[BadAnimal]

I am anxious to see the replies to your inquiry.

I currently own a M3 DS Simply and have been wondering what is the best Slot 2 solution available that will work with my M3 DS Simply.

 

[FrozenOne23]

Just get a R4 DS with a EZ 3-in-1 or the Ewin GBA expansion pack.

 

[Extreme Coder]

For SLOT-1:

You might want to get a newer cart than the R4DS though.

- If you're looking for a simple cart, IMO, you'd better get the DS Top Toy. It's cheap, it's still new in the scene, but the team has been supporting it very well so far, and it has a few more features than the R4DS.

- If you need lots of extra features, then maybe you should get something like the Supercard DS One. It has a few features other carts have not yet implemented, like Real Time Guide (allows you opens a FAQ text file while ingame to help you out), Cheat Support, and Real Time Save. Also it's menu looks very nice

- If you're interested in Rumble, RAM, or GBA support, then you should take a look at the EZFLash V. The EZFlash 3-in-1 was designed specifically for this one, so they jive along very well

And plus, the card uses Moonshell as a skin, so lots of skins are available, and you can launch movies and music directly from its menu.

- A card worth mentioning is the AceKard RPG. It has 1 GB of built-in memory, yet it has a MicroSD slot, so it combines the best of both worlds

I'd recommend you getting an EZFLash 3-in-1 over the eWin expansion paks if only for the fact that the 3 major functions are in one card

Hope this helped!

 

[Doggy124]

Another vote for R4+EZ3in1

but CycloDS is also good (even better than R4) but it kinda hard to get one.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

I'd go for the M3 Real + GBA Expansion. No patching, no homebrew needed, just start clean DS-/GBA-roms from Slot-1 and it will work.

 

[TrolleyDave]

I thought you still had to SRAM patch the GBA games for the M3 Reals GBA expansion pack?

 

[kwandar]

I'm interested to hear opinions too.

At the moment, I'm planning to go with the CylcoDS Evolution, as it seems to have the most compatibility, supports sdhc and support 100% of the download games.

Now, I'm trying to find a Slot 2 card for added homebrew memory. I was thinking EZflash 3-1 but it only provides 16MB (you'd think they'd make it a 32 or even 64MB card)? Anyway, that is my dilemma at the moment.

 

[DanTheManMS]

The 3in1 isn't meant to permanently store tons of games. It's an expansion pack, not a full-fledged slot-2 device.

The largest size any GBA binary can be (except for some undumped GBA Video carts) is 32 MB. The 3in1 contains 32 MB of NOR flash to hold one game at a time. It also contains 16 MB of RAM which is used for the Opera DS browser, though you can trick it into running smaller GBA games from that space to save loading time.

You hold your GBA collection on your slot-1 microSD card and just transfer one game to the 3in1 as needed.

 

[crowlness]

Thanks for all the input, everyone! You've made my mind-bogging stylus-in-a-haystack search a lot easier

 

[DarkAura]

EZ Flash 3-in-1 with the R4 is the way to go. Nice, cheap, and just good.

 

[Grimalkin]

I'd have to say M3 Real Perfect Bundle if you're talking about "best" support. But all the other combinations are just as good.

 

[crowlness]

I decided to go for the classic R4+EZ3in1. Thought about the others too, but this seemed the best choice.

While I'm not a fan of cheats, that in-game FAQ viewer on the supercard did sound like a really nice feature to have.
Sadly, not many comments about the card itself I read here were that favorable.

I considered DSTT a serious choice until the end, but the not-working Contra IV kept nagging me in the back of my mind.
While they'll probably fix this soon (or may have already), it did make me wonder what other games might not work
in the future, or what else could've been overlooked. Hope it turns out a great card in the years to come for
all of you courageous pioneer spirits who have it though!

Gave up on Cyclo because of price and availability, and was finally looking at the R4, EZ-V, RPG and M3 Real.
Each had something I liked (the RPGs dual memory, EZ-Vs ease of use with the EZ-3in1, M3s own simple
GBA solution, R4s all-roundness). What prevailed in the end was that the R4 is the most widespread, which
should make it easiest to find answers and ideas regarding it, and also the overwhelming vote of confidence
it received in this very thread ^^


Thanks to everyone for the help!