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New Review - DS-Xtreme 4Gbit
- Thread starter shaunj66
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- Replies 202
I see no reason to get this if you already have, say, an M3 or a G6 w/passcard, seeing as they both support everything this does, and can play GBA games. Not to mention the prices are cheaper atm. We also have no clue how attentive they will be with firmware upgrades. There's absolutely no way there will always be perfect compatability (there already isn't). Even if you currently have no flashcart at all, why exactly would someone buy this slot 1 solution when the double-slot solutions are cheaper and have far more features? Is keeping your GBA slot free really that important? The single-cart multiplayer I'll give you, but even for a DSL there are plenty of step-by-step guides on flashme by now.
No offense, of course, but the review just seems a bit too excited for what this product actually is and does, especially for the prices they're asking. I could see this as a solution if it was half the price of double-slot solutions, but that's definitely not the case.
No offense, of course, but the review just seems a bit too excited for what this product actually is and does, especially for the prices they're asking. I could see this as a solution if it was half the price of double-slot solutions, but that's definitely not the case.
It's just too bad they didn't include a larger amount of EEPROM in order to accommodate games with larger save files. Whatever method they come up with to fix this might create slowdowns/be incompatible with some games without the firmware being patched which brings us back to waiting for patches to play games again. You never know, Nintendo might try to exploit this limitation in order to try and make games incompatible with this card.
I can't imagine that a few more MBits of EEPROM would have cost that much to include, I wonder why they didn't do it? It really seems like the only oversight in the whole design... But you never know, they might increase it in future revisions.
I can't imagine that a few more MBits of EEPROM would have cost that much to include, I wonder why they didn't do it? It really seems like the only oversight in the whole design... But you never know, they might increase it in future revisions.
That's the thing, we don't know for sure yet. There may be games coming out in the future (since we are really only at the beginning of the life of this product if the lifespan of the GBA is any indication) that will require RAM expansions, rumble packs, who knows what plugged into Slot-2 in order for the game to run/be fully functional. In that instance a Slot-2 design flash cart wouldn't be very useful.
So in the very rare occasion where a game would require (not optional) a piece of hardware to run, why not just buy that game? Opera Browser comes to mind. I'm not talking about optional things like rumble packs, I'm talking about things like RAM carts. If a game needs a RAM expansion pack, you have no choice but to buy it, no matter what, since buying it would be undoubtedly the only way to get said RAM cart (like with the Opera Browser). If you're willing to pay out the ass for this slot 1 solution so you can get your rumble pack to work, then by all means. But there are other slot 1 flashcarts that are compatable with the rumble pack, at a much cheaper price. And again, we've not a clue in terms of how often the DS-X team will actually update the firmware, so I wouldn't be jumping the gun on this one just yet. I'm not going to complain about people buying it, I'd just advise against buying it because of this over-excited review, as it appears many are doing so.
I don't think they need to - they're implementing reprogrammable hardware. They can update the EEPROM size with a firmware update.
Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGA for a more technical explanation.
I like it that you can use things like the rumble pak.
But why DS-X? It has a wonderful compatibility, no special PC OS or hardware required, fast file transfer, no patching required, you can use the rumble pak, DS Download play works, so you can play with people who don't want/have flashme (and please stop talking about how easy it is, that's no argument for people who don't have much experience in DS homebrew & roms), ...
But why DS-X? It has a wonderful compatibility, no special PC OS or hardware required, fast file transfer, no patching required, you can use the rumble pak, DS Download play works, so you can play with people who don't want/have flashme (and please stop talking about how easy it is, that's no argument for people who don't have much experience in DS homebrew & roms), ...
I'm definitely going to buy this or the acekard when I get a new ds lite. I dont want to flash it, so it's good that this will work as a passme.
I don't think I'd jump right on this one, especially for the US price. $124 is a bit steep for what you are getting, especially for the 512 mb - non expandable space. You can but a new DS Lite for a few bucks more. I'd wait until the next round of updates & changes or see what the competitors come up with now that this cart has changed the DS cart scene.
Still a GREAT review!
Still a GREAT review!
Uhm... you tested 31 out of 600 games with one not working and trying to say this is 99,9% compatibility? ...O...K...
Beside that a great review, nice to read. Now i can't wait for my own cart to arrive.
Beside that a great review, nice to read. Now i can't wait for my own cart to arrive.
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No GBA support - it's a slot 1 card. Unless someone makes a GBA emulator (useless), or a reverse PassMe (lol) it won't happen!
Our reviews are definetely not biased... If you had read a certain portal post some time ago you wouldn't have said that.
USB port isn't concealed? You hold the cart in your hand and tell me that they could have conealed it without flimsy plastic that would probably break (ala. MK4-Mini).
The clips really aren't a problem. There's enough of them (8) to stop the casing falling apart.
As for the loading screen, that is used to also backup saves to the cart at the same time. Just like most other flash kits when you reboot.
Double clicking a game? That's going to take the average person what? 1/3 of a second? It seems to just be in place so you don't keep getting the confirmation screen when highlighting another game - and remember, if you don't like this - you can edit the OS skin yourself and change it as much as you like to your satisfaction.
I've only tested the un-compressed ZIP'd game method with ScummVM. If you want to to test any other method, let me know how to do it, and I'll try it and let you know.Great review, it really looks like a nice device
I have two questions:
- You say ScummVM works, is that for the talkie-versions (copying the games straight to the flashcart, not the ZIP-method)?
- Did you have to generate the save files or are they generated automatically? Where are they located on the flashcart?
You can't compress the ROMs but you can trim them (removing 00 and FF dummy data at the end of the ROM with a hex editor). Trimmed ROMs seem to work fine on the DS-Xtreme.can you compress the roms to save space, as it only has 512mb
cheers
the specs of the cart do sound good, but once all the other slot 1 makers start releasing there carts the prices will fall
I covered deleting the ROM folder in the review - it's not needed as the default skin is embedded in the firmware. The 'skin' folder over-rides the default skin, and is already on the cart so people can look at and edit it straight away.Great review!Â
Couple of questions:
Can you delete skin files since they are also in ROM ie saving space/cleaner file directory? How much room do the default skins take?
The memory used does it av limited numbers of writes before it "crumbles"? Ie will it wear out (eventually everything does but in 1 year or like 50)? Kinda hard to replace the memory in DS-X I guess.
What about zipped &/or sizestripped .nds files (filler stuff at end removed)? Is there a Windowsprogram to strip & zip all .nds files in a directory (if such files are supported by DS-X)?
Easiest/cheapest/most compatible (ie run all .gba files) way to get .gba files running on NDS (unflashed) with DS-X?
You'd have to ask the guys at DS-X that yourself. As the save games on the DS-Xtreme are compressed, it may only read compressed game saves. I'm not sure of the compression method used.
Wouldn't it be sweet if those LEDs were infrared?
Then you could have a cool homebrew remote, wifi connected to the internet browsing the tv guide, without disturbing whats on tv.
ooo... i think i just wet myself.
Then you could have a cool homebrew remote, wifi connected to the internet browsing the tv guide, without disturbing whats on tv.
ooo... i think i just wet myself.
Uhm... you tested 31 out of 600 games with one not working and trying to say this is 99,9% compatibility? ...O...K...Â
Beside that a great review, nice to read. Now i can't wait for my own cart to arrive.
Um yeah. Really sorry about that.. let me get to work on testing those other 574 games for you.
Yes do it, PLEASE
You just discovered ~5% compatibility and the rest 95% are simply incompatible/unknown. 99,9% is false statistic.
@kalimero: The company that makes the cart boasts the 99.9% compatability. That is where shaunj66 got it from....
Well, 512 MB is 4 Gb. Big B usually indicates byte, and a small b bit. A small m is the SI-prefix for milli, and a small g doesn't exist. If you want to know more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix
(Usually when we say MB we mean MiB though, the binary prefix. Again, if you want to know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix) Whatever...
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like a 250 dollar kit back when DDR4 was Intel only
