Hacking its 2021. isn't it about time for DSTwo fanboyism to end already
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I didn't say it has a cartridge slot. I said it has a built in cartridge. There's a difference. Maybe I should've said a built in flashcart?
You can install 40 GBA games.
Isn't Tetris: The Grand Master a legit title?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris:_The_Grand_Master
I understood Lockjaw was the ultimate homebrew DS Tetris game (assuming you can still find it, and you probably can).
Because the Omega is crazy expensive? Then again, I suppose a DSTwo is also crazy expensive these days.
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I feel like if you didn't own a DSTWO, or if you didn't really take advantage of its extra features, you might feel this way. I've experienced a DSTWO and it's just all around better to use than the DSTTi cards I used before it. I'll always complain about one thing when it comes to the DSTWO, and that's the build quality. The shell of mine literally fell apart from normal use. I can still piece it together and slip it into a DS, but it's not ideal. As far as features and compatability are concerned, it's unmatched in its generation of cards.
Mine got stuck in a 3DS, and I had to saw off part of the cartridge in order to access the screw to open the 3DS to loosen the cartridge slot. The front piece isn't a solid piece of plastic, it's a square border with a sticker covering the hole in the middle.
I used to own a DSTwo back in the day. Before 3DS soft modding was acceptable, it ruled as a way to play those games easily. The DSTwo still has merit on a basic DS model, but once softmodding became more of a prevalent, easy option on the 3DS, a lot of its core features (eg. SNES/GBA emulation) became kind of obsolete compared to better SNES emulators and AGB_FIRM. In hindsight, I loved my DSTwo, it was great for its time... but now I don't think I'd pick one up over a more basic R4 card.
I stand by the R4i Gold 3DS (RTS) with WOODR4 kernel. There's literally no better DS flash cart (besides maybe the Plus model that supports a hardware Switch for 3DS hacking), and I'd LOVE to be proven wrong. I don't care for the DSTWO, eventhough it's a cool FPGA project. It draws far too much power to be practical. And if it's so cool, why hasn't it been cloned to hell and back like the other DS carts?
Chackmate, DSTWO fanboys.
Chackmate, DSTWO fanboys.
Someone needs to take his meds. These R4 clones are all limping along on the last open source Wood version - are they cheap? Yes! Are they any good? That depends. I'd certainly take a Supercard, no matter if it's original or one of the new clones, over that flood of R4/Ace 3ds+ clones. And I have bought a bunch of them out of curiosity, they cost next to nothing.
twilight menu is open source but is iffy on compatiability (like download play)
flashcarts have better compatiability
As an owner of both the Supercard DSTwo and an R4i Gold 3DS RTS, I can say that indeed, the DSTwo has a lot more features, but for the vast majority of users, doubly so for softmodded 3DS users, an R4i Gold 3DS RTS/Plus is not only fine but actually ideal.
See, a lot of the additional features offered by the DSTwo have been outdone by alternatives available elsewhere. If you're on a modded 3DS, you can use Open AGB Firm or custom VC Injects for cycle-accurate GBA games, and the port of snes9x by bubble2k is more than adequate for SNES games. Certainly a lot better than TempGBA and CATSFC.
This leaves the only real extra features are... being able to read text file guides and view bmps while in-game, and the freecheat features. I can't argue, if you need those in that exact fashion, the DSTwo is the only way to go, but if you ask me, it's a lot easier to develop cheat codes for NDS via an emulator like DeSmuME on a desktop PC with full functionality of the Action Replay code format, rather then just lazily making codes on the fly in-game. As for guides, like, it's 2021 dude, I'll just pop out my phone or use the nearest computer to look things up.
The claims about game compatibility are nonsense btw, I tested nearly 300 of the most popular Nintendo DS games on both, and as far as I can tell, compatibility is more or less identical between the two- actually, I found a couple of obscure kids games that oddly wouldn't work on the DSTwo that would on the R4i Gold 3DS RTS just fine. So this is a moot point, anything you want to play pretty much is going to work regardless of which you have.
On that note, the downside to the DSTwo often mentioned is the battery drain problem.
This is a real problem and I know it is because ran some tests on it. I don't have the datasheet anymore since this was quite some years ago at this point, but from what I recall, the conclusion I found is that It is much more noticeable on any of the 3DS models, due to it drawing the extra power even when it's not in active use, and the likelihood of it being inactive is much greater on 3DS units since unlike any of the DS or DSi units, you also play 3DS games on a 3DS, often digital titles on a softmodded unit.
The issue comes from the fact that the 3DS already draws a lot of power, and the DSTwo, being that it runs a custom processor inside which is powered on no matter what while it is plugged in, it shortens battery life quite significantly. I ran some tests and I found that, in 3DS games running in 3D, I lost 30 to 45 minutes of playtime by just having the DSTwo inserted over leaving the slot empty or populated with a 3DS game. With the same test but with an R4i Gold 3DS inserted, I didn't notice a change that wasn't within the margin for error. (less than 5 minutes difference or so over a random 3ds game inserted).
That's quite a significant dip, and it's the main reason I switched to using an R4i Gold 3DS RTS in my old daily driver 3DS console.
The R4i Gold 3DS Plus also has much wider availability, since I'm not even sure if DSTwos are being manufactured anymore. The conclusion I've drawn is that it's best to use an R4i Gold 3DS RTS/Plus on any softmodded 3DS. The DSTwo is still fine for 3DSs too, but minimize any time you spend with it inserted but not being used if you don't want to suffer needless (and significant) battery drain. All of It's extra features are rendered useless by other modern coveniences and superior alternatives.
See, a lot of the additional features offered by the DSTwo have been outdone by alternatives available elsewhere. If you're on a modded 3DS, you can use Open AGB Firm or custom VC Injects for cycle-accurate GBA games, and the port of snes9x by bubble2k is more than adequate for SNES games. Certainly a lot better than TempGBA and CATSFC.
This leaves the only real extra features are... being able to read text file guides and view bmps while in-game, and the freecheat features. I can't argue, if you need those in that exact fashion, the DSTwo is the only way to go, but if you ask me, it's a lot easier to develop cheat codes for NDS via an emulator like DeSmuME on a desktop PC with full functionality of the Action Replay code format, rather then just lazily making codes on the fly in-game. As for guides, like, it's 2021 dude, I'll just pop out my phone or use the nearest computer to look things up.
The claims about game compatibility are nonsense btw, I tested nearly 300 of the most popular Nintendo DS games on both, and as far as I can tell, compatibility is more or less identical between the two- actually, I found a couple of obscure kids games that oddly wouldn't work on the DSTwo that would on the R4i Gold 3DS RTS just fine. So this is a moot point, anything you want to play pretty much is going to work regardless of which you have.
On that note, the downside to the DSTwo often mentioned is the battery drain problem.
This is a real problem and I know it is because ran some tests on it. I don't have the datasheet anymore since this was quite some years ago at this point, but from what I recall, the conclusion I found is that It is much more noticeable on any of the 3DS models, due to it drawing the extra power even when it's not in active use, and the likelihood of it being inactive is much greater on 3DS units since unlike any of the DS or DSi units, you also play 3DS games on a 3DS, often digital titles on a softmodded unit.
The issue comes from the fact that the 3DS already draws a lot of power, and the DSTwo, being that it runs a custom processor inside which is powered on no matter what while it is plugged in, it shortens battery life quite significantly. I ran some tests and I found that, in 3DS games running in 3D, I lost 30 to 45 minutes of playtime by just having the DSTwo inserted over leaving the slot empty or populated with a 3DS game. With the same test but with an R4i Gold 3DS inserted, I didn't notice a change that wasn't within the margin for error. (less than 5 minutes difference or so over a random 3ds game inserted).
That's quite a significant dip, and it's the main reason I switched to using an R4i Gold 3DS RTS in my old daily driver 3DS console.
The R4i Gold 3DS Plus also has much wider availability, since I'm not even sure if DSTwos are being manufactured anymore. The conclusion I've drawn is that it's best to use an R4i Gold 3DS RTS/Plus on any softmodded 3DS. The DSTwo is still fine for 3DSs too, but minimize any time you spend with it inserted but not being used if you don't want to suffer needless (and significant) battery drain. All of It's extra features are rendered useless by other modern coveniences and superior alternatives.
Last edited by CheatFreak47,
You also posted this nonsense vitriolic screed on reddit... There is so much wrong with this post that there is no way I am going to bother addressing all of it but I will comment on a few points.
- Who the heck are these rabid defenders of the DSTWO? I really don't know where this overwhelming fanboyism is, most people say don't waste your money on it. There are $5 flashcarts that are constantly recommended. The stikied guide on the flashcarts subreddit doesn't even mention the DSTWO. I regularly call it overrated, but it is still one of the better DS flashcarts ever made.
- No the R4i Gold Pro is not a good flashcart. It is a POS DSTT clone with shitty barely functioning RTS bolted on which requires using TTMenu which is awful. The alternative YSMenu also isn't great (and incidentally works on DSONEs since DSTT carts are derrived from the DSONE, same DLDI and io ops).
- No the Moonshell kernel for the DSONE is not a better option than EOS. You are completely wrong about compatibility. It has issues with all the Gen 5 Pokemon games that render them unplayable and any other games released after early 2009 with anti-piracy (and many without). Testing games just by checking that they get to the boot screen isn't going to catch every game that doesn't work. Also I easily found games that didn't boot, Warioware DIY being a really obvious one.
- No the only difference between the DSONEi and DSTWO is the plugin menu and emulators. It also works on any 3DS and has much better cheat functionality. It's not a dealbreaker on the DSONE family but the DSTWO definitely has significant advantages.
Eh, I play DS games on my 3DS. Not very often mind you, but there's no way I can be arsed to use a DS just for that rare occasion and I traded in my DS Lite at GameStop anyways so I only have the old phat.
Anyways, the whole premise of this thread is wrong. Nobody is fanboying the DSTWO anymore. In fact most people suggest the R4i Gold 3DS/Plus.
The DSTWO is still an excellent flashcart on DS and DSi consoles because it runs GBA and SNES games very well. GBA is less relevant with gbarunner being a thing though. In my testing GBA was not slow like you are claiming, but you do generally need to set the frameskip to 1 and then it runs perfectly. GBA/SNES emulation was (and still is if you are on a DS/DSi) the biggest selling point of the DSTWO.
On a 3DS this is largely irrelevant as 3DS-mode emulators can do all that better, and there is a battery drain issue having it inserted while in 3DS-mode so it's generally not recommended (although it still works just fine, eject it when not in use and your battery life won't suffer)
"Clean Mode" allowing you to run newly released games without needing to wait for AP patches was a nice feature at the time, but is not particularly relevant now that the DS is dead, and I haven't seen anyone trying to argue that it's still relevant, so I'm not sure why you're focusing on that so much in your post.
The other feature of the DSTWO that would be a selling point to some is the superior ingame menu with the "free cheat" feature. For most people that's not likely too important unless you are someone who actually creates your own cheats for games but it's something no other flashcart offers.
The DSTWO is just the single flashcart with the largest feature set and for those willing to pay the higher price it was and still is an excellent option on a DS/DSi. Not everyone will care about the extra features, it was always more targeted at enthusiasts (which many of us in the homebrew/hacking community are anyway and that is why it was such a big seller), and if it's not your cup of tea and you're fine with a cheap R4i there's nothing wrong with that. But it is objectively superior when you look at the feature set - the only downside is cost. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't suggest that anyone go out and buy a DSTWO unless they want these extra features, not these days when they are (as far as I know) out of production, harder to get and therefore higher in price. But back in the day, that was an easy recommendation for $35. which was not that much more than the $20 an AK2i or R4i Gold cost considering all the extra features - and all the cheaper alternatives were pretty much trash.
Anyways, the whole premise of this thread is wrong. Nobody is fanboying the DSTWO anymore. In fact most people suggest the R4i Gold 3DS/Plus.
The DSTWO is still an excellent flashcart on DS and DSi consoles because it runs GBA and SNES games very well. GBA is less relevant with gbarunner being a thing though. In my testing GBA was not slow like you are claiming, but you do generally need to set the frameskip to 1 and then it runs perfectly. GBA/SNES emulation was (and still is if you are on a DS/DSi) the biggest selling point of the DSTWO.
On a 3DS this is largely irrelevant as 3DS-mode emulators can do all that better, and there is a battery drain issue having it inserted while in 3DS-mode so it's generally not recommended (although it still works just fine, eject it when not in use and your battery life won't suffer)
"Clean Mode" allowing you to run newly released games without needing to wait for AP patches was a nice feature at the time, but is not particularly relevant now that the DS is dead, and I haven't seen anyone trying to argue that it's still relevant, so I'm not sure why you're focusing on that so much in your post.
The other feature of the DSTWO that would be a selling point to some is the superior ingame menu with the "free cheat" feature. For most people that's not likely too important unless you are someone who actually creates your own cheats for games but it's something no other flashcart offers.
The DSTWO is just the single flashcart with the largest feature set and for those willing to pay the higher price it was and still is an excellent option on a DS/DSi. Not everyone will care about the extra features, it was always more targeted at enthusiasts (which many of us in the homebrew/hacking community are anyway and that is why it was such a big seller), and if it's not your cup of tea and you're fine with a cheap R4i there's nothing wrong with that. But it is objectively superior when you look at the feature set - the only downside is cost. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't suggest that anyone go out and buy a DSTWO unless they want these extra features, not these days when they are (as far as I know) out of production, harder to get and therefore higher in price. But back in the day, that was an easy recommendation for $35. which was not that much more than the $20 an AK2i or R4i Gold cost considering all the extra features - and all the cheaper alternatives were pretty much trash.
Last edited by The Real Jdbye,
its 2021. isn't it about time this stupid pointless thread was closed 
Last edited by Bladexdsl,
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