Hacking CycloDS vs AceKard 2

cutterjohn · Mar 22, 2008

imperfectimage said:
Is it normal for an average gamer to own 2 different flashcarts at one time?

I couldn't decide to I bought both (and too lazy to go through cancelling an order). I guess I'll just give/sell the one I don't want to a friend or something.

IMO it' NEVER a bad idea to have multiple flash carts from multiple companies. If one cart dies, you already have your backup. If one cart company goes tits up and doesn't open source their OS, then you already have a fallback. I had always planned to buy at least two, although initially receiving a DOA Evo sped up my picking up a backup cart.

Acekard kind of worries me from the commentary about the AK2, and why it was released. Make me feel like if the AK2 doesn't sell well enough that they're done for, and I still don't see any of the better RPG features being allowed to appear on the AK2 until/unless AK discontinues the RPG, which I strongly suspect is the plan.

Review: I was surprised at the Gold rating of the AK2 after negative comments regarding it's build quality, and the lag problems with Castlevania which in this review glossed over in a manner which I found to be suspect. After all video playback is VERY demanding for a DS, and any problems with playback which works fine on real retail carts, and other flash carts with the same uSD tends to indicate a flaw in the cart with problems, or at least to me it does.

I'm still planning on picking up one of these as my 3rd cart eventually, but how soon will depend upon whether or not they opensource the AK2 firmware or one of my others carts dies(unlikely).

DespizingU · Mar 22, 2008

Portrait of Ruin freezes for me with my 2gb Kingston Japan(formatted to FAT and 64k clusters) and Cyclods. Only sometimes though, and only when I enter the Start menu. I don't know about the intro since I don't care about that. The real benchmark test for me is during the actual gameplay, not some intro video.

So it's not just the AK2.

ojsinnerz said:
HOLD IT!

According to Phariohvisor ( I hope I spelled his name right), he said that the Castlevania didn't run properly on his Japanese Kingston.

"I was using a brand new, just opened, Made in Japan 2GB Kingston MicroSD card that was freshly formatted to FAT32 for a quick lag test, and was shocked to see that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow’s intro did not run smooth. It is acceptable, but at this point in time, pretty much all flash carts can play this video without lag, it is odd that the AceKard 2 cannot accomplish this, instead it shows minor stutters."

He said. This means that it could have problems with other problamatic games. But in Urza's review, he only stated a few games, without the problamatic games, meaning it was unlikely for him to find a problem with such a small list.

I'll agree that Acekard is still worth it, especially for its cheap price in DX, and it's attractive looking GUI, but It's clearly obvious that CycloDS is still superier.

Bob Evil · Mar 22, 2008

I expect an AceKard 2 will land my way, sooner or later ... I am interested to test it ... hmmm, speaking of testing, I still haven't even opened that TTDS yet ...

cutterjohn · Mar 23, 2008

DespizingU said:
Portrait of Ruin freezes for me with my 2gb Kingston Japan(formatted to FAT and 64k clusters) and Cyclods. Only sometimes though, and only when I enter the Start menu. I don't know about the intro since I don't care about that. The real benchmark test for me is during the actual gameplay, not some intro video.

So it's not just the AK2.

ojsinnerz said:

HOLD IT!

According to Phariohvisor ( I hope I spelled his name right), he said that the Castlevania didn't run properly on his Japanese Kingston.

"I was using a brand new, just opened, Made in Japan 2GB Kingston MicroSD card that was freshly formatted to FAT32 for a quick lag test, and was shocked to see that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow’s intro did not run smooth. It is acceptable, but at this point in time, pretty much all flash carts can play this video without lag, it is odd that the AceKard 2 cannot accomplish this, instead it shows minor stutters."

He said. This means that it could have problems with other problamatic games. But in Urza's review, he only stated a few games, without the problamatic games, meaning it was unlikely for him to find a problem with such a small list.

I'll agree that Acekard is still worth it, especially for its cheap price in DX, and it's attractive looking GUI, but It's clearly obvious that CycloDS is still superier.

Click to expand...

I've got the same uSD make, as well as a Toshiba. Both play the PoR intro w/o stutter/freezing. No in-game freezing either.

The ONLY time that I had a problem with PoR stutter/freeze on one of those 2 uSDs is when I forgot to have it auto-detect the speed of my newest Toshiba on a SCDS1 SDHC. After I set the speed, it ran just w/o sutter/freezing.

ctn · Mar 23, 2008

Which cart reads microsdhc cards faster and also the random access time?

cutterjohn · Mar 24, 2008

ctn said:
Which cart reads microsdhc cards faster and also the random access time?

That's a good question. I haven't seen anyone do comparisons of the DS benchmark app with the same uSD on different slot-1 carts yet. Unfortunately I don't have any SDHC uSDs yet, and don't have an AK2 either for that matter, but it's something that I'd be interested in seeing done.

gratefulbuddy · Mar 24, 2008

cutterjohn said:
ctn said:

Which cart reads microsdhc cards faster and also the random access time?

Click to expand...

That's a good question. I haven't seen anyone do comparisons of the DS benchmark app with the same uSD on different slot-1 carts yet. Unfortunately I don't have any SDHC uSDs yet, and don't have an AK2 either for that matter, but it's something that I'd be interested in seeing done.

I added my results here. I used cf_bench to test A-Data 4GB class6 and Kingston (MiJ) 2GB, 1GB, and 512MB cards on the RPG and Cyclo. In general the RPG had the better results. I also tested the NAND of the RPG. As one would guess its the fastest of the bunch I tested but the AData 4GB card was really close.
I should have my AK2 this week and will test and update then.

Minox · Mar 24, 2008

gratefulbuddy said:
cutterjohn said:

ctn said:

Which cart reads microsdhc cards faster and also the random access time?

Click to expand...

That's a good question. I haven't seen anyone do comparisons of the DS benchmark app with the same uSD on different slot-1 carts yet. Unfortunately I don't have any SDHC uSDs yet, and don't have an AK2 either for that matter, but it's something that I'd be interested in seeing done.

Click to expand...

I added my results here. I used cf_bench to test A-Data 4GB class6 and Kingston (MiJ) 2GB, 1GB, and 512MB cards on the RPG and Cyclo. In general the RPG had the better results. I also tested the NAND of the RPG. As one would guess its the fastest of the bunch I tested but the AData 4GB card was really close.
I should have my AK2 this week and will test and update then.

It would be great if you had more flashcarts tested, would it be possible to send results from different flashcarts to you so that you could add it to the list?

gratefulbuddy · Mar 25, 2008

Originally Posted by sandymac at the TC Forums:

QUOTE said:
A lot of people what to know about the speed of a particular microSD card and a number of people have posted various results from their PC. The problem with this is different PC hardware, drivers, OS versions, card readers, et cætera can all influence the benchmark result making comparisons unreliable if not done by the same person at the same time.

Speed tester for libfat will run on your DS (or GBA) and should give consistent real life DS performance results. (To install download cf_bench.zip. Put cf_ds.nds anywhere on your micoSD card and the test_sectors.bin in the root directory of your flash card. Then launch cf_ds on your DS and run the all tests option.)

I've set up a Google Docs Spreadsheet where you can view any posted results or you can post your own results.

imperfectimage · Apr 4, 2008

Just wanted to do an update. I have been playing with the Evo for about 2 weeks now and it is great. It is so user friendly and well...awesome. I just got the acekard 2 today and i played around with it for a bit. I don't like that fact that it shows all the system folder/files (as opposed to being able to hide it on the Evo), and I am a bit confused about updating the cheat database. The Evo has spoiled with their software and I am just wondering if anyone knows how to update for the Acekard 2: do I have to manually update the dat/xml files or is their a way to just get everything at a click of a mouse like the Evo? But the Evo is great

shane1972 · Apr 5, 2008

Alot of ppl are saying the acekard 2 is great because they must buy them cheap and make heaps.
I personally think the r4 will show everyone that it can still be a contender for the number 1 place just wait and see.
I also have an evo and think its great.

Cheers

sk3tch · Apr 5, 2008

gratefulbuddy said:
I added my results here. I used cf_bench to test A-Data 4GB class6 and Kingston (MiJ) 2GB, 1GB, and 512MB cards on the RPG and Cyclo. In general the RPG had the better results. I also tested the NAND of the RPG. As one would guess its the fastest of the bunch I tested but the AData 4GB card was really close.
I should have my AK2 this week and will test and update then.

Wow! I'm amazed the NAND has that similar of performance to an A-Data Class 6 4GB microSDHC! That was a main reason I was picking up an Acekard R.P.G. (it has yet to arrive). Now I regret the purchase. I was hoping NAND would be ridiculously fast.

Hit · Apr 5, 2008

CycloDS Design/Menu Customizations/Menu Options = 4/10
Acekard Design/Menu Customizations/Menu Options = 9/10

CycloDS Extra Features(Like RTS/Slow Motion/Deleting Files and stuff) = 7.5/10
Acekard Extra Features(Like RTS/Slow Motion/Deleting Files and stuff) = 5/10

That's what I Think

cutterjohn · Apr 5, 2008

The Evolution now sports soft-reset from homebrew via fw v1.4-beta1.

I refuse to buy a flash cart with integrated FLASH memory as it will eventually fail, but at least the RPG also has a uSD slot, but I'd still be wary of writing to the builtin FLASH memory too often. Should last 100k write cycles/block though. (Erase counts as a write.)

sk3tch · Apr 5, 2008

cutterjohn said:
I refuse to buy a flash cart with integrated FLASH memory as it will eventually fail, but at least the RPG also has a uSD slot, but I'd still be wary of writing to the builtin FLASH memory too often. Should last 100k write cycles/block though. (Erase counts as a write.)

Failure rate is the last thing I'd worry about with NAND flash. There are other components within these flash carts that are likely to fail or go bad within that life cycle. NAND flash technology has been around now for quite some time, and there are plenty of methods used to get past the 100,000 "limit" (such as wear levelling).

techforumz · Apr 6, 2008

Are there ways to recover data from a dead Flash drive (a USB stick for example)?

gratefulbuddy · Apr 6, 2008

I just updated the spreadsheet with the numbers from my AK2. LINK

jons2ann · Apr 10, 2008

real time save, slow-mo ... u bunch of cheating noobs!

i bought a cyclo for me missus and an acekard2 for my sister. the only things i worry about are:
a) whether a card is going to support games that i want to play
b) does the game play at its normal speed?
c) is the support any good?

...and it's a given that nobody should have a card that breaks easily - that means cheap electronics and plastic.
microSD cards 'slightly' sticking out are the least of my concerns. anybody who complains about it should be stabbed in the groin with a hot soldering iron!

issy12 · Apr 5, 2009

acekard2 vs cyclo ds was always in my mind too, but ill go for the acekard because its so much cheaper [$11.08 at dealextreme!!

] also it has most of the features as cyclo except for the in game menu [thats for cheaters anyways

] and so i've concluded the acekard to be better.

PS: wow the last post was a year ago

SNESGamer · Apr 6, 2009

So the acekard2 is better than the Cyclo because it has less features???? Makes alot of sense.
The Cyclo is better for people who are willing to pay the extra for the extra features. While the Acekard is more people who want a good, cheap card with slighly less features.

P.S Why revive it then?

Hacking CycloDS vs AceKard 2

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