Tutorial  Updated

The REAL guide to buying DS, DSi, and 3DS flashcarts (flowchart)

I saw someone made a different guide. His/hers was bad. Here's my attempt!

DS Flowchart.png

Red is endpoints
DS Flowchart.png
 
Last edited by Mikemk,

regnad

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I don't understand the "do you prefer battery life or cheap price" part. The DSTwo is both expensive AND drains the battery.

It's a great card, but not if you have an A9LH 3DS. It's better for an unhacked 3DS or a DS/DSi.
 

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I just have to say, the R4i Gold 3DS (RTS) is the only flashcard a 3DS user needs for NDS games. It does everything you could want, minus the extra hardware for shitty GBA emulation the DSTWO offers. But the 3DS can play nearly any GBA game injected to VC, so that's not even an issue. Even the most hardware a demanding GBA games like Doom II and Asterix play fine on O3DS. I have two of these R4i flash carts, and they still work just fine after all these years without any paper tricks, etc. Just putting this out there.
 

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I don't understand the "do you prefer battery life or cheap price" part. The DSTwo is both expensive AND drains the battery.
It only drains the battery if you're using the internal CPU (eg for GBA emulation). If the CPU's off (When you run a *.nds, the CPU turns off), it draws less power than official cartridges.
 

Mikemk

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I just have to say, the R4i Gold 3DS (RTS) is the only flashcard a 3DS user needs for NDS games.
Well, sure if you want an aweful battery life.
But the 3DS can play nearly any GBA game injected to VC, so that's not even an issue.
Not if you're using a Sky3DS and can't install A9LH.
Even the most hardware a demanding GBA games like Doom II and Asterix play fine on O3DS.
That may be because the 3DS is a GBA. GBA games run exactly as well as they would on an actual GBA, because they are running on an actual GBA.
Here's a backwards compatibility graph, 1 px = 50 kHz, Black Line means the clock speed can be reduced to that, vertical black line to divide cores:
backcomp.png
 

regnad

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What? This is all news to me.

DSTwo doesn't drain the battery simply by being in the cart slot while it's on, only when it's emulating GBA? That's the opposite of what pretty much everyone says.

R4i Gold drains the battery like crazy, worse than the DSTwo, and unlike the DSTwo it drains it excessively while running NDS games? Also the opposite of what everyone says.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/which-is-better-r4i-gold-3ds-or-supercard-dstwo.334728/

https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s/amp....ib/thinking_of_getting_a_dstwo/?client=safari

Am I misunderstanding you? Or is everyone wrong?
 
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I
What? This is all news to me.

DSTwo doesn't drain the battery simply by being in the cart slot while it's on, only when it's emulating GBA? That's the opposite of what pretty much everyone says.

R4i Gold drains the battery like crazy, worse than the DSTwo, and unlike the DSTwo it drains it excessively while running NDS games? Also the opposite of what everyone says.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/which-is-better-r4i-gold-3ds-or-supercard-dstwo.334728/

https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s/amp....ib/thinking_of_getting_a_dstwo/?client=safari

Am I misunderstanding you? Or is everyone wrong?
always eject my R4i Gold, but keep it in the slot. Just not pushed into playing position.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Well, sure if you want an aweful battery life.
I've never had battery issues with it actually.
 

regnad

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always eject my R4i Gold, but keep it in the slot. Just not pushed into playing position.

Well, since we're on this subject, and since there doesn't seem to be consensus, does anyone know the answers to these questions?

1) Does an R4i Gold drain the battery simply by being in the slot while the system is on but not being used?

2) How about when the system is in sleep mode?

3) How does a DSTwo compare in these two situations?

4) what about a normal DS or 3DS game cart? Do they drain the battery just by being in the slot?
 
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Jayro

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Well, since we're on this subject, and since there doesn't seem to be consensus, does anyone know the answers to these questions?

1) Does an R4i Gold drain the battery simply by being in the slot while the system is on but not being used?

2) How about when the system is in sleep mode?

3) How does a DSTwo compare in these two situations?

4) what about a normal DS or 3DS game cart? Do they drain the battery just by being in the slot?
I dont know if anyone can even measure this stuff without an opened console and a multimeter.
 

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1) Does an R4i Gold drain the battery simply by being in the slot while the system is on but not being used?
A little. Same with every other cartridge, even official ones.

2) How about when the system is in sleep mode?
Same as 1)

3) How does a DSTwo compare in these two situations?
Same

4) what about a normal DS or 3DS game cart? Do they drain the battery just by being in the slot?
Yes

I've done some testing on my own, and found:
Playing a 3DS game, the r4i lasts 4 hours, DS2 4 hours, and nothing about 4 ½ hours
Playing a NDS game, the r4i lasts 8 hours, DS2 about 14, and I haven't tested an official cart

In any case, my DS2 is, um, stuck in the cartridge slot and can't be pulled out. So I can't really do further testing.
 

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Can I have a link to the FAKE guide please?

I would like for it to give misleading information on flashcart specs, features, and compatibility. I also would like for the links for those flashcarts to either lead to broken 404 errors or some website that asks you to give your personal info to a Nigerian prince in exchange for a flashcart that may or may not arrive.
 
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Mikemk

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Can I have a link to the FAKE guide please?

I would like for it to give misleading information on flashcart specs, features, and compatibility. I also would like for the links for those flashcarts to either lead to broken 404 errors or some website that asks you to give your personal info to a Nigerian prince in exchange for a flashcart that may or may not arrive.
I didn't say it was a fake guide, I said it was a bad guide.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-guide-to-buying-flashcarts.452938/
You could've just looked yourself, it was the second top link
 
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