# iSmart Premium Hands-on Impressions



## Another World (Aug 28, 2010)

*iSmart Premium Hands-on Impressions*
NEW NDS Flash Kit



The iSmart Premium by iSmartDS has arrived and is currently being tested for a full GBATemp review. Until the review is complete take a moment to read through the "hands-on" impressions. Be sure to post any comments after the "hands-on" post, posted below.






 Hands-on Impressions Post





 Discuss


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## Another World (Aug 28, 2010)

The iSmart Premium from iSmartDS is a new entry into the DSi Flash Kit $12-$15 category. The card supports the DS, DS Lite, DSi, and DSi XL (LL). The iSmartDS Team has included an in-game menu which offers save-states, in-game guides, and NDS soft-reseting. The card boasts an Anti-Piracy routine which should allow all current and expected anti-piracy measures to be circumvented, similar to the SCDS2 but without the on-board CPU. In addition, the development team has stated that the card supports faster read speeds, a "smart" save file size detection routine, action replay cheats, multi-lingual support, and more.









The iSmart Premium supports a variety of skin-able options which include not only the theme itself but button placement as well.  The iSmart Premium skins are backwards compatible with the EZ Vi Flash Kit. While they are stored as a .DAT formatted file no official iSmartDS skinning tool has been released.



The software [kernel] boots into an introductory screen much like the SCDS2. This initial menu allows the user to choose from various system settings. The system settings include system language, rumble strength, 3in1 mode (rumble, GBA link), and theme selections. Users can also boot NDS files from this initial menu or GBA files via a supported external EZ 3in1 expansion kit. EZ 3in1 options include Nor-flashing, PSRAM flashing, and cancel. Moonshell can also be launched from this initial menu screen as well, if the software is present on the microSD card.



Booting into the "Nintendo DS Games" option loads the theme and provides the user with more options and the ability to launch ROMs and Homebrew. These additional options include softreset, real-time save, in-game guide, cheats, and download play (on/off). Once these options have been set they will be saved on a per-ROM basis, meaning there are no global variables for adjusting these options, something I hope to see changed in a future software update.

The in-game menu key combination is L+R+Select. The key combination works most of the time but tends to fail at random. Failures were experienced on the same ROMs run in different circumstances with different options enabled. The in-game menu appears to behave a bit buggy during initial testing, something I hope the iSmartDS Team can iron out by the next software release. The most commonly used feature, soft-reset, is trapped in the in-game menu resulting in some frustration as my DS Lite and DS XL had to be power-cycled more often than not. The menu appears to also suffer from navigation sensitivity, pressing DOWN for example will sometimes result in options being skipped over as the highlight bar jumps directly to the bottom of the options listing. The softreset option reboots the software back to the top-most menu, something for which I faulted the SCDS2 Team in my review. As softreset only supports NDS ROMs and not Homebrew it makes no sense that the software does not simply reboot back to the NDS ROM directory. However, without a way to go back to the top most menu (hitting B to go back would be a welcome edition) the soft-reset is actually a software soft-reset that happens to be launched from the in-game menu which can only be accessed while playing an NDS ROM.

NDS ROM compatibly was very high during initial testing, while some popular NDS Homebrew files failed to load at all. However, while some problems have been experienced a full round of testing has yet to be completed. The software shows great ROM support at this point, especially with the included anti-piracy patching routines. As some of you may know, I am a Homebrew enthusiast, and I will make sure to put this card through its paces for the full review.

The team will be releasing source code/SDK, but no further information has been made public. The question as to the reason behind a source code release will be tackled in the full review. 

For more information on this new company and their Flash Kit check the homepage link below. Be sure to post any questions in the thread below. I'll do my best to answer any questions or save answers for the full review (pending a query of the official team).



			
				Official Feature List said:
			
		

> • 100% compatibility, supports clean ROMS, works on NDS, NDSL, NDSi and NDS XL.
> • Supports NDS download play.
> • Enhanced Real Time Save and Real Time Game Guide. Making it easier for you to play the games.
> • Super fast memory card reading speed. Supports any MicroSD/MicroSDHC including the slowest ones.
> ...








 Homepage


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## popoffka (Aug 28, 2010)

Well, this looks just like an EZVi with a little bit changed booting sequence.
Same menu, same features, same compatibility problems...


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## 1Player (Aug 28, 2010)

This reminds me of the iedge
iedge   =   cycloDS
ismart  =   EZ Flash

it's a clone but it's not a clone


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## Krestent (Aug 28, 2010)

Is the cart's firmware updatable, in case of DSi update?


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## Dionysus (Aug 28, 2010)

Krestent said:
			
		

> Is the cart's firmware updatable, in case of DSi update?



Your not actually going to consider buying it are you?


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## Fudge (Aug 28, 2010)

blazergamer93 said:
			
		

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Thats so mean!


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## Mbmax (Aug 28, 2010)

popoffka said:
			
		

> Well, this looks just like an EZVi with a little bit changed booting sequence.
> Same menu, same features, *same compatibility problems*...


I remember you on the USA forum. Yeah you are right the DLDI driver really need to be improved on EZ5i.
Homebrews compatibility could be better, i agree. 
About the ismart premium, i have really no idea. I'm still waiting for a sample to test that. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




For now we can't say, don't you think ?


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## Fluto (Aug 28, 2010)

fascinating this works on dsi


YAY 500 POSTS WOOOOO


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## lolzed (Aug 28, 2010)

mezut360 said:
			
		

> fascinating this supports dsi


it means it works on DSi,not use the features of it though


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## gifi4 (Aug 28, 2010)

another flash cart, wonder if it will have good firmware releases.


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## Dter ic (Aug 28, 2010)

but there kernal is open source so a unoffical one could be made.


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## gifi4 (Aug 28, 2010)

Dter ic said:
			
		

> but there kernal is open source so a unoffical one could be made.


Yeah but for example, The original R4's firmware died at 1.18 then YSmenu got released, that died shortly after (but people are updating it now days.) And now the Wood Firmware from YWG. It took a while to get this far so if the support for this flashcart dies, it might be pretty useless for  a while.


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## Neo_Ch!p (Aug 28, 2010)

gifi4 said:
			
		

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That depends if its worth getting, the iSmart team claims they have  experience in the flashcard industry in their homepage however it seems as though they want a "free ride" at gaining profits by imitating the acekard franchise, its really quite obvious if you ponder on their motives. They release their SDK [Acekard move], maintain in the $12-15 range [Currently at the AceKard price], provide minimal features [that have bugs] and its a gd clone.

Clearly they want in on AceKard's "money train"... 

Btw I'd like to throw this out, of all the names you can brand your product why "iSmart"? Names like "G6", "M3" and AceKard sound cool and simple instead of the worned out "i" placed in almost every word [ex: DSi, iplayer, ihome, iCook etc.]


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## Mbmax (Aug 28, 2010)

Neo_Ch!p said:
			
		

> They release their SDK [Acekard move], maintain in *the $12-15 range* [Currently at the AceKard price], provide minimal features [that have bugs] and its a gd clone.
> 
> Clearly they want in on AceKard's "money train"...


I doubt the ak RPG was at this price when acekard team released it.


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## N4RU70 FR34K (Aug 28, 2010)

Know I can finally replace my acekard LOL.


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## shakirmoledina (Aug 28, 2010)

it is pretty cheap but the only thing tht remains is firmware which is probably the most important thing


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## ThatDudeWithTheFood (Aug 28, 2010)

Good clone its a clone but its better than those crappy ones who only give one firmware update ever or repackage the same one....


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## AceKard2i_n00b (Aug 28, 2010)

N4RU70 FR34K said:
			
		

> Know I can finally replace my acekard LOL.


Why would you replace an AceKard with this? This thing is pretty much an EZVi. Could hae got one of those a YEAR AGO!
Unless you have the Original AceKard, like the on that came before the RPG...

On the topic, the only way I'm getting this is if has some really good firmware and is under $10. Yeah, I know that sonds cheapy, but with my AceKard 2i and AceKard 2i Clone, I'm fine.


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## N4RU70 FR34K (Aug 28, 2010)

AceKard2i_n00b said:
			
		

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I hate my acekard I wish I could use my M3 Real but none of the updates work


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## trumpet-205 (Aug 28, 2010)

So far, not impressed. Same features besides AP bypass can be done by EZ-Flash V.

But iSmart did say that they are producing another cart with GBA Emulation, comparable to SCDS2. So I'll wait and see.


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## naved.islam14 (Aug 28, 2010)

Still waiting for release.


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## amptor (Aug 28, 2010)

"The card boasts an Anti-Piracy routine which should allow all current and expected anti-piracy measures to be circumvented, similar to the SCDS2 but without the on-board CPU. In addition, the development team has stated that the card supports faster read speeds, a "smart" save file size detection routine, action replay cheats, multi-lingual support, and more."


Ah a refreshing line to see from a product these days.  I still remember all the issues with copy protections on the SNES for backup units and the newer copiers being able to circumvent them.  But it seems like they didn't really improve after 1995.

Other features that were good in those devices were the goldfinger and then the game genie code support as well as real time save.  RTS didn't work in every SNES game though.  I wonder if there are games for the DS that have issues with it as well.  I haven't come across any but ever since I got an M3i Zero or R4i RTS, I hadn't really used this feature very much as I am not a hardcore DS gamer.

It's good to see a continuing effort on these.  Once the 3DS comes out, we won't be seeing very many games coming out on DS any more and I am assuming that most games will not have anti piracy built in.  But sometimes there's the very few that trickle out toward the end that do.

Slightly on topic too, I haven't ever tried the "wood" firmware on the old R4.  I'm assuming that it will work on the old M3 as well so I might one day throw it on there and pop it in and see.  Biggest problem with the R4 though is it will not work on a DSi so it doesn't serve me very much purpose.  With the price falling now on brand new DS Lite systems, might be time to pick one up.  I still have the original version DS system and the DSi is ever so improved over the DS Lite so I never ended up picking one up.


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## FlashX007 (Aug 28, 2010)

That looks like a EZ Flash Vi rip off with a DSTWO GUI rip off as well. It looks like its cloning both of them but making it their own thing. I don't know but 15 bucks for this flashcart will not be making me buy it. I would rather get the real thing.


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## haddad (Aug 28, 2010)

Can this load gba games like the supercard ds2?


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## Clookster (Aug 28, 2010)

haddad said:
			
		

> Can this load gba games like the supercard ds2?



Why do you think it could?


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## Pliskron (Aug 28, 2010)

I like having RTS. This may end up beating Acekard on price and function. We'll have to see what happens after the sdk is released. A port of AKAIO or Wood with rts and rtg would be nice.


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## RandomRedMage (Aug 28, 2010)

Looks like a fancy ploy to rake in money. But I can't see any reason to buy it unless the only flash kit you have is an old Max Media Dock. [and to be honest I think a max media dock might actually be BETTER than this thing. rofl]

I dont have an NDSL or Originl anymore so my MMD s just sitting around, but it still works just fine. And I have an AceKard2i that works like a dream. o_o and RealTimeSave is not really a good feature. As it will likely be buggy. And if you REALLY need a feature to let you show a guide while your playing the DS game you might as well just watch a video of someone else playing it and save yourself the trouble.


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## Pliskron (Aug 28, 2010)

Wow some people sound so stupid. I guess you should be doing the review since you've already used the card.


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## pebble (Aug 29, 2010)

hmmm... strange.

certainly does look like a clone to me


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## regnad (Aug 29, 2010)

Mbmax said:
			
		

> Homebrews compatibility could be better, i agree.



No kidding.

I _love_ my EZ-Flash Vi. It's a fabulous card. That's the one thing that keeps it from being perfect.


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## al5911 (Aug 29, 2010)

Is it be possible?A GBA emulation without extra hardware?? I hope Normmat can update AKIAO (my favourite cart), with RTG,RTS as well.Long live Acekard  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 ...I'm not going to buy this iSmart unless for 5 buck...


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## Flame (Aug 29, 2010)

al5911 said:
			
		

> Is it be possible?A GBA emulation without extra hardware?? I hope Normmat can update AKIAO (my favourite cart), with RTG,RTS as well.Long live Acekard
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dude where did you read GBA emulation?


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## awssk8er (Aug 29, 2010)

I didn't read all of the impression, but I don't see why you would want this.

It doesn't do anything different than any other DSi flashcart. I would just stick to the Acekard2i or DSTWO if you want the CPU.


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## al5911 (Aug 29, 2010)

Flame™ said:
			
		

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LOL... forget it... I read 'the post' wrong.My bad...it's that the company is planning to produce another cart that can run GBA emu....


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## Styles420 (Aug 29, 2010)

Neo_Ch!p said:
			
		

> Btw I'd like to throw this out, of all the names you can brand your product why "iSmart"? Names like "G6", "M3" and AceKard sound cool and simple instead of the worned out "i" placed in almost every word [ex: DSi, iplayer, ihome, iCook etc.]



Also, if you say it out loud, it kinda sounds like a contradiction...


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## regnad (Aug 29, 2010)

al5911 said:
			
		

> Is it be possible?A GBA emulation without extra hardware?? I hope Normmat can update AKIAO (my favourite cart), with RTG,RTS as well.Long live Acekard
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Doesn't SCDS2 have slot-1 GBA emulation, or am I mistaken?


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## twiztidsinz (Aug 29, 2010)

regnad said:
			
		

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And internal CPUs which I believe are as fast/faster than the DS.


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## Justin121994 (Aug 29, 2010)

Well more flashcards = more competition i guess.


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## al5911 (Aug 29, 2010)

Justin121994 said:
			
		

> Well more flashcards = more competition i guess.



Yeahhh... and soon all cart will be cheap as chips


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## Lily (Aug 29, 2010)

PharaohsVizier said:
			
		

> The EZ Flash Vi is one of those hidden gems.  It is a great cart to use, and very competitive with the AceKard 2i.  Being similar in price, having a menu that is similar in speed, and has a few features on top, there's a good reason to buy the iSmart and the EZ Flash Vi over the AceKard 2i.  Depending on your preference you can go either way and do no wrong.



I would like to respectfully disagree with you. The iSmart:

- Has an in-game menu providing real time save/guide that freezes continuously. Offering the feature is one thing, having it work is another. There is no particular game or set of circumstances causing it to happen, but it happens so often and on so many games that the features may as well be useless.

- The homebrew compatibility is awful. If you just want to pirate vanilla DS games, the cart is fine. If you want to do anything else that a flashcart is expected to offer, you're mostly out of luck.

- The Acekard menu is still more customizable to user preference, especially in ways like how the games can be displayed.

..and that's just off the top of my head after putting it through the paces the past few days. If the EZVi is similar, it is most certainly not a hidden gem, nor even comparable to the Acekard 2i. The iSmart is being branded as an AK2i killer -- it's so far from that, that the claim is just funny.


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## KidIce (Aug 29, 2010)

iSmart kernel runs on my EZV (both old non + or i version and EZ5i w/ latest firmware)... Put ez5sys.bin or ez5isys.bin if you're using an EZVi w/ latest firmware on the root of your SD and rename the system directory for the iSmart to ez5shell and blam, I now own an iSmart too!

Edit: Wish I had an iSmart to test if it can run the EZV kernels.


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## Mbmax (Aug 29, 2010)

KidIce said:
			
		

> iSmart kernel runs on my EZV (both old non + or i version and EZ5i w/ latest firmware)... Put ez5sys.bin or ez5isys.bin if you're using an EZVi w/ latest firmware on the root of your SD and rename the system directory for the iSmart to ez5shell and blam, I now own an iSmart too!
> 
> Edit: Wish I had an iSmart to test if it can run the EZV kernels.


Well, this is quite normal. The kernel IS the file ez5isys.bin or ez5sys.bin.
It's the main file. When you start an ez5 or ez5i it's the first file loaded.
What you do is use the ez5 or ez5i main file to run the iSmart kernel. 

Are you able to see the iSmart menu with your trick ? 







I doubt you can.


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## .Chris (Aug 29, 2010)

look promising, but the GUI reminds me of EZ Flash i


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## .Chris (Aug 29, 2010)

and the cart looks like an r4


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## KidIce (Aug 29, 2010)

Mbmax said:
			
		

> Well, this is quite normal. The kernel IS the file ez5isys.bin or ez5sys.bin.
> It's the main file. When you start an ez5 or ez5i it's the first file loaded.
> What you do is use the ez5 or ez5i main file to run the iSmart kernel.
> 
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Obviously, it's not in the EZV's firmware (something I'm glad about mind). Another quirk of the different firmware is that the soft reset menu has an EZV backdrop while using the iSmart kernel on an EZV.


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## KidIce (Aug 29, 2010)

RoboticBuddy said:
			
		

> look promising, but the GUI reminds me of EZ Flash i



That's because it is.


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## .Chris (Aug 29, 2010)

KidIce said:
			
		

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fixed.


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## Mbmax (Aug 29, 2010)

KidIce said:
			
		

> The whole point of testing the iSmart kernel on an EZ5 and my post was to prove that the claims that the cart is an EZV clone are true.


Because you doubted about  PharaohsVizer's post ?
He seems to have much more information than me on this subject. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Now all i can see in this thread is people speculated on this flashcart.
Let Another World and PharaohViziers finish their full review before jump on the gun.


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## KidIce (Aug 29, 2010)

Mbmax said:
			
		

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Not at all, that's what lead me to downloading and running the iSmart kernel. The point was to prove it to myself as much as anyone else and just the sheer curiosity of how close of a clone this thing was.


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## akfgpuppet (Aug 30, 2010)

Yes! People who also think the same as me, (as the idea of this being an EZVi clone 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




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## redact (Aug 30, 2010)

i'm just wondering if the ismart would have the same annoying problem over time that i had with my ezvi (which i won from you, PharaohsVizier 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




) where after a few days/weeks of use it would frequently stop being recognized by the dsi


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## redact (Aug 30, 2010)

PharaohsVizier said:
			
		

> I think that would be a cart problem XD


yeah, that's what i was getting at, i wonder if the build quality of the shell of the iSmart is a bit better


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## XXLANCEXX (Aug 30, 2010)

They Need To Make A Dummy Flashcart with IR in the Cart for Pokemon Black and White, HG/SS, and other games that use IR technology


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## redact (Aug 30, 2010)

XXLANCEXX said:
			
		

> They Need To Make A Dummy Flashcart with IR in the Cart for Pokemon Black and White, HG/SS, and other games that use IR technology


there's a homebrew cart with bluetooth if that sort of thing floats your boat ;p

but really, adding small, useless hardware to flashcards for a mere one or two games seems wasteful...


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## Normmatt (Aug 30, 2010)

mercluke said:
			
		

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The build quality is better in my opinion but it still suffers the shoddy contact issues of the ezvi. I have to put paper in behind my ismartds for it to show in my dsi/dsixl and my dsphat.


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## KidIce (Aug 30, 2010)

mercluke said:
			
		

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 And yet people bitch that the [insert GBA flash cart here] doesn't have an RTC. 

Oh wait, the sacred word "Pokemon" has been uttered. Never mind then. Carry on.


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## ismartds (Aug 31, 2010)

Normmatt said:
			
		

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We are taking care of the issue now. We should be able to fix the contact issue with the production units that we are sending out.


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## Another World (Aug 31, 2010)

i'll confirm that the production unit (the one the end-user will purchase) has better contact than the pre-production unit. i haven't had a problem with it.

-another world


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## dan_was_here9901 (Sep 3, 2010)

can anyone confirm is this cart gammin?


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## Mbmax (Sep 19, 2010)

A firmware v1.01 should be available soon, to fix an issue on it.

And the sdk is coming.


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