Hacking My CycloDS Evo just died. What should I buy to replace it?

lancetj · Jun 6, 2020

Title. From poking around in threads from last decade, apparently DSTWO+ is the way to go? But I'd like to try and make sure that whatever I buy is a solid replacement.

Also, regarding my CycloDS Evo, I'm assuming it died, at least. It was working perfectly earlier, then I turned it off to switch to another DS (we had a power outage) and it didn't recognize it (no DS cart inserted). Then the original wouldn't either. So I guess it somehow died. Figured I'd include this just in case someone might know what's up.

J-Machine · Jun 25, 2020

cyclos get picky after a while. you might have to do like me and repeatedly keep trying to reinsert it till it works. as far as what flash carts to get. I remember there was a site endorsed by gbatemp should still be up.

NightScript · Jun 25, 2020

"what should I buy to replace it"
Depends on the Cyclo you had

CycloDS iEvolution - nds-bootstrap with TWiLight Menu++ (aka get custom firmware)
Normal Cyclo - get the R4i Gold 3DS Plus: https://www.nds-card.com/ProShow.asp?ProID=575

lancetj · Jul 9, 2020

maorninja said:
"what should I buy to replace it"
Depends on the Cyclo you had

I had the original CycloDS Evolution. So the R4i Gold 3DS plus is the best option to replace as my original DS flashcart?

lancetj · Sep 7, 2020

Things got really busy for a few months there. Finally looking into the new flash cart, but having trouble finding much supply of anything.

So what is a good list of 3 or 4 cards to keep on the lookout for? I'm already scoping a new (well, used) CycloDS Evo to just continue where I left off basically, and seems I could get one for around $30-40.

From what I've read, seems like a good short list would be:
-DSTWO+
-R4i Gold 3DS Plus
-Acekard (not sure which one, just remember one was recommended a lot)

And if anyone knows a good place to get one of these from in the US besides eBay, it'd be a big help!

MushGuy · Sep 7, 2020

J-Machine said:
cyclos get picky after a while. you might have to do like me and repeatedly keep trying to reinsert it till it works. as far as what flash carts to get. I remember there was a site endorsed by gbatemp should still be up.

Yeah, I always try to reinsert because of the dirty contacts. I wish there was something to clean them very easily, like a dedicated NDS contact cleaner.

lancetj · Sep 7, 2020

Sadly I think mine is just plain dead. Absolutely no indication either of my DSes even recognizes it anymore, and it literally went from working fine one minute to simply never being 'seen' again the next time I turned it on, like a minute after last using it.

It was also never unreliable in the slightest, outside of being very slightly finicky with the SD card slot sometimes. But never has it not showed up in the DS menu.

fvig2001 · Sep 7, 2020

Depends on what's available to you. I ended up just getting a generic R4i and installing wood firmware so that it wouldn't get soft-bricked by the original firmware.

lancetj · Sep 7, 2020

fvig2001 said:
Depends on what's available to you. I ended up just getting a generic R4i and installing wood firmware so that it wouldn't get soft-bricked by the original firmware.

So that actually leads to a new question that I hadn't thought to ask. Do all of these flash carts suggested (in my list) have similar features, like what CycloDS does for DS games (like save state, slow motion, and cheat support)?

At this point I'm basically going to just keep an eye out and snag one for a decent price if I can find one, on eBay or somewhere else. I'd prefer something quality over something cheaper.

chrisrlink · Sep 7, 2020

yes most of those features are common now

lancetj · Sep 8, 2020

Is this link for the legit version of the R4i Gold 3DS + cart?

https://www.r43ds.org/products/R4i-Gold-3DS-Plus.html

enarky · Sep 8, 2020

I'd just get an Acekard 2i, throw AKAIO at it and call it a day. I'd rather not dabble with one of those countless R4 clones and their hacked together Wood kernels they come with. Bonus points for being able to use ntrboot to hack any 3DS without having to switch firmwares on the cartridge.

lancetj · Sep 8, 2020

enarky said:
I'd just get an Acekard 2i, throw AKAIO at it and call it a day. I'd rather not dabble with one of those countless R4 clones and their hacked together Wood kernels they come with. Bonus points for being able to use ntrboot to hack any 3DS without having to switch firmwares on the cartridge.

Where could I find an Acekard 2i though? I read some stuff about identifying fakes, and pretty much everywhere I've seen used ones show up, it's a fake. And nowhere has them new. Or is it just something I'll need to keep an eye on until I get lucky?

EDIT: http://old.r4wood.com/news/111/Fake-Acekard-2i-Vs-Genuine-Acekard-2i-Card-www.acekard.com.html
That's the article about fake Acekards I read, just in case it isn't actually accurate or something.

J-Machine · Sep 8, 2020

apparently the 3ds can just read ds games off an sd card now.

enarky · Sep 8, 2020

lancetj said:
Where could I find an Acekard 2i though? I read some stuff about identifying fakes, and pretty much everywhere I've seen used ones show up, it's a fake. And nowhere has them new. Or is it just something I'll need to keep an eye on until I get lucky?

EDIT: http://old.r4wood.com/news/111/Fake-Acekard-2i-Vs-Genuine-Acekard-2i-Card-www.acekard.com.html
That's the article about fake Acekards I read, just in case it isn't actually accurate or something.

I got my Acekard 2i from https://nds-card.com/, it's genuine and it works. It was a bit cheaper back then, though.

The Real Jdbye · Sep 8, 2020

lancetj said:
Where could I find an Acekard 2i though? I read some stuff about identifying fakes, and pretty much everywhere I've seen used ones show up, it's a fake. And nowhere has them new. Or is it just something I'll need to keep an eye on until I get lucky?

EDIT: http://old.r4wood.com/news/111/Fake-Acekard-2i-Vs-Genuine-Acekard-2i-Card-www.acekard.com.html
That's the article about fake Acekards I read, just in case it isn't actually accurate or something.

Skip the AK2i, the R4i Gold 3DS Plus is the modern version of that (same base firmware and general feature set but more up to date, Wood R4 was forked based off of an older version of AKAIO, AKAIO stopped getting support a while back)
The DSTWO is a better cart for DS, due to the onboard CPU letting it do more things like emulate SNES/GBA, but costs more. You can do all that better on a 3DS if you have one though.

enarky said:
I'd just get an Acekard 2i, throw AKAIO at it and call it a day. I'd rather not dabble with one of those countless R4 clones and their hacked together Wood kernels they come with. Bonus points for being able to use ntrboot to hack any 3DS without having to switch firmwares on the cartridge.

R4i Gold 3DS uses official Wood R4, unlike most of he others.

enarky · Sep 8, 2020

I'd argue since the last release of AKAIO there hasn't been a lot of development on the DS side of things, so 1.9.0 should be fine.

TBH, last time I checked there was no way finding out what "official Wood" is, anyways. I can't find out who is behind it, there is no place where updates get released (there used to be updates posted by Another World here on GBATemp, but that seems to have stopped a while ago?) and the dozens or so different R4i Gold/Silver/Platinum/2016/2017/SDHC/Whalewatchingforever versions don't make me trust the brand anymore. I have a bunch of R4 cards (since you get them basically for free nowadays, so, why not?), but I don't really use them.

Do you have any info on where to start looking for official Wood updates? That would be greatly appreciated.

tl;dr: anything will probably play DS games just fine. But personally I like to use what I know best.

lancetj · Sep 9, 2020

J-Machine said:
apparently the 3ds can just read ds games off an sd card now.

I'm mainly looking for a DS card that can do DS games (with things like save states and cheats) and other DS stuff. Not even emulation, although if a card can make emulation work better, that's definitely an advantage to me.

Seems like the DSTWO+ is the card I would want in that circumstance, but it seems so expensive.

enarky said:
I got my Acekard 2i from https://nds-card.com/, it's genuine and it works. It was a bit cheaper back then, though.

Hm, they're available there, but according to the genuine vs. fake link I posted earlier, the ones there seem like the fake ones? Or is the link wrong about it? Found it for sale even cheaper here:
https://www.r43ds.org/products/Acekard-2i-For-DSi.html

If that looks like the same thing, I'll probably get that and then look around for a replacement CycloDS Evo, just because it was that awesome for me.

enarky said:
I'd argue since the last release of AKAIO there hasn't been a lot of development on the DS side of things, so 1.9.0 should be fine.

TBH, last time I checked there was no way finding out what "official Wood" is, anyways. I can't find out who is behind it, there is no place where updates get released (there used to be updates posted by Another World here on GBATemp, but that seems to have stopped a while ago?) and the dozens or so different R4i Gold/Silver/Platinum/2016/2017/SDHC/Whalewatchingforever versions don't make me trust the brand anymore. I have a bunch of R4 cards (since you get them basically for free nowadays, so, why not?), but I don't really use them.

Do you have any info on where to start looking for official Wood updates? That would be greatly appreciated.

tl;dr: anything will probably play DS games just fine. But personally I like to use what I know best.

Yeah, I definitely feel the "use what I know best" thing. I don't really use my flash cart for much beyond DS games, and even then only to really just use save state and other features like that. I also use it to and my GBA flash cart to dump my GBA and DS games myself, rather than download roms (and I rarely play games I don't actually own or intend to buy soon).

Only problem with CycloDS Evo was that I couldn't get Pokemon B/W2 to work, and Golden Sun Dark Dawn wouldn't open the flash cart menu in-game (so no save states or other functions).

Thank you for everyone who's contributed, btw! For now, I think I will go with Acekard 2i and keep on the lookout for a nice spare CycloDS Evo just because. I'll check out the R4 Gold 3DS Plus if Acekard doesn't pan out well, and also look for a cheap(er) DSTWO+ because the allure of better emulation on DS is kind of nice even if it's unnecessary.

If anyone has anything further to add, please do so though!

J-Machine · Sep 10, 2020

I'll just say the 3ds option isn't emulation as it uses ds hardware but it's also modding so that could be a sour note for someone

Hacking My CycloDS Evo just died. What should I buy to replace it?

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