Acekard in Action

slvrdrgn123 · Sep 25, 2006

QUOTE(kohkindachi @ Sep 24 2006 said:
QUOTE(slvrdrgn123 @ Sep 25 2006 said:

Posted this in the other Acekard thread, but I'll ask again.

Anyone know if it plays media such as music and movies?

I assume no, since it does not state so in its site. I'll most likely use it to play DS games.

Click to expand...

Oh, I hope they try to add it in there. If not, I might think on getting an M3 instead. But then again, I have an MP3 player already. So hard to choose right now with all this stuff.

pte · Sep 25, 2006

Why wouldn't it run MoonShell? If it aims to be a quality solution it definately will.

The G/UI does exactly what it needs to. Here is a little task for the fancy pansy GUI lovers:

Which doesn't represent a good UI?

1. ”I like using this product!”
2. ”An attractive and good looking user
interface!”
3. ”I had no installation problems!”
4. ”I can easily find the right selections!”
5. ”We have eliminated wrong deliveries
with our new logistics software!”

The answer is number... 2.

APPS · Sep 25, 2006

QUOTE(kohkindachi @ Sep 25 2006 said:
QUOTE(slvrdrgn123 @ Sep 25 2006 said:

Posted this in the other Acekard thread, but I'll ask again.

Anyone know if it plays media such as music and movies?

I assume no, since it does not state so in its site. I'll most likely use it to play DS games.

Click to expand...

Just use moonshell, theyd be crazy not to have support for that...

Bram Stoker · Sep 27, 2006

Quoting chism:

QUOTE said:
Hardware "patching" wouldn't be a patch at all. The device would have to intercept read commands and supply the data from either internal memory or an SD card (CF is too big to fit in the slot).

Reading from internal memory would be comparatively easy. Once the DS Card interface is implemented (that is, the card supports fully encrypted communication with the DS in all modes), it is not too hard to supply the data from memory (flash ROM). This is possibly already done in the NinjaPass (that is, if it doesn't need patching, not too sure on the details).

Reading from an SD card is harder. The DS expects a reply from the card within a certain time frame, and SD cards vary greatly in speed (I've had trouble with them in the past). Since the DS Card device cannot guarantee the data will arrive from the SD card within the expected time frame, it would effectively have to buffer the NDS ROM to it's own internal RAM, almost like the M3. However, since DS ROMs are already up to 128MB in size (and could get bigger), this isn't an economical option.

This is why patching is easier. The NDS ROM can be patched to read from the SD card directly, by issuing commands through the DS Card device. The device will probably translate between the software and the SD card, but the software still needs to be patched to wait for the data to be ready.

On-the-fly patching is easy enough to do. All commercial DS games use the Nintendo SDK to access the card, which means they all share the same card access functions. These have a certain signature that can be found and then overwritten with the functions to access the DS Card device instead. This is how ALL patchers operate. On-the-flypatching does this as the NDS ROM's binaries are loaded, rather than before the ROM is written to the media.

The issue with patching compatibility is due to the official SDK being updated. When this happens the function signatures change and the patchers need updating. This is easy enough, as PC exes and the device's firmware can both be overwritten. There is not too much to worry about, since mainstream flash cart/card manufacturers will continue updating as long as there are new customers to entice. [Insert anti-piracy statement here -- I'm sure you all know my stance by now.]

The problems with on-the-fly patching arise when the functions are not only in the startup binaries of the NDS ROM, but in code overlays too. There are various other technical issues (like startup speed vs searching for all possible signatures) that also need to be considered.

This is why aceKard will suck.. it uses patching for its SD.

Now.. can someone point me to a slot1 solution which does no patching whatsoever??

Kthnkx

waiwai · Sep 27, 2006

QUOTE(Bram Stoker @ Sep 27 2006 said:
This is why aceKard will suck.. it uses patching for its SD.
Now.. can someone point me to a slot1 solution which does no patching whatsoever??

Most slot1 solutions provided by Nintendo work flawlessly without any patching

jhoff80 · Sep 27, 2006

Heres what I don't get, maybe this is a dumb question but how come there is no cart that has 128 megs of ram built in, for the largest games, and an SD (microSD) slot. Other than the fact it would be a slot-1 cart, it would work basically like the M3 except all games would play in normal mode, not just the small ones. It seems to me like this would be something that would never need to patch games ever, and everything would play with perfect speed. Am I missing something with my logic here?

IxthusTiger · Sep 27, 2006

Because loading a rom from the SD card onto RAM would take an ASS LONG TIME.

jhoff80 · Sep 27, 2006

You think so? I have an M3, it only takes 15 seconds or so for Mario Kart. I made a mistake in my last post, I forgot there are some 128 meg games. Anyway, would a minute for all 128 meg games (especially considering theres so few of them) really be that bad, if you get no patching, perfect speed, and unlimited storage?

davr · Oct 2, 2006

QUOTE(nightwalker @ Sep 24 2006 said:
if it also supports GBA games then this will outsell m3 and supercard

Slot-1 devices will NEVER natively support GBA games. When the DS is running in GBA mode, it has NO access to Slot-1.
The only way you could possibly run GBA games from a Slot-1 only devices, is if there was a "GBAonDS" emulator. Which is very unlikely to ever be made (due to obvious reasons).

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