Acekard 2.1 Review

[Anakir]

Cons:
-you can't eat it
-it still isn't as known as the r4
-it doesn't save you from a bullet
-you can lose it
-it should have been named anakir2.1
-there's no legitimate con; it does everything a budget card does and is the best at it

Nice review. I'm a proud owner of AceKard 2.1 and AceKard 2.1i.

The flashcarts I ever used in order: DSX (owned it for a week then I sold it - it was shit) >> R4 (it was the best of its time) >> Edge (nothing bad; it does what it does) >> AceKard 2.1(i) >> soon to be SuperCard DS 2

 

[YayMii]

Cons:
No RTS
No slow-down
No RTG

 

[Sonicslasher]

Gotta agree with the others. Reviews are all about comparisons. So if it's lacking a feature other cards have, it's a con. Hell, it'll have quite a few more cons once the DSTWO comes out.

 

[phoenixclaws]

Minor grammatical/spelling error in the review:

"Team Acekard was unable to understand how to hardware change had altered their firmware’s behavior." -> "Team Acekard was unable to understand how the hardware change had altered their firmware’s behavior."

 

[A4NoOb]

Wouldn't another con be AceKard's "non-perfect" compatibility? Majority of other carts have 100% ROM compatibility, and have working homebrew, and as you mentioned yourself, soft-reset glitches with some homebrew and ROMs.

 

[iFish]

Very nice review Another World!!!

even though i took my awhill to read, i enjoyed it.

cannot wait for you to review the R.P.G. you don't know how much i want one!!!!

oh well, nice review mate!!

 

[poipo32]

I didn't enjoy that review,
I owned an acekard 2.1 and sold it because of the cons it has.
No real-time save
No in game guide
If this is how you review flashcarts you should just give them all gold as they have no cons if you overlook them.
GBAtemp always has been where I would send people to compare flashcarts as I knew there was real reviews, but that's just a piece of fanboy enthusiasm.

 

[Jakob95]

I didn't enjoy that review,
I owned an acekard 2.1 and sold it because of the cons it has.
No real-time save
No in game guide
If this is how you review flashcarts you should just give them all gold as they have no cons if you overlook them.
GBAtemp always has been where I would send people to compare flashcarts as I knew there was real reviews, but that's just a piece of fanboy enthusiasm.

Ok how is not having RTS or RTG a con? Those features are extras you don't need them. YOU DO NOT NEED THEM. It would be easy to make RTS and RTG for any flashcart its just that making it work is a different thing. Look at the M3 Zero half off the games that actually need RTS the RTS doesn't work in them. The RTS feature in the M3 is just a figure head so people will buy the M3.

 

[Joe88]

no cons, wtf?

there is pleny mentioned in this thread, included lack of features many other carts have

 

[Another World]

Cons:
No RTS
No slow-down
No RTG

here is my thoughts about this. not every card has these features and i'm not aware of a card that has all three in the $12 price range. a con is something that negatively impacts the use of the card not the sales of the card. just as the pros positively impact the use of the cart. in turn both of these will impact the sales but that is because of the mind set of the consumer. i have found no one single moment when i required either of those 3 features. if they were common place and every firmware had them, and akaio did not, then that would be a con. they are also not a common feature like a RAW save format or a the ability to use AR cheats. does my logic make sense to you? i'm not basing this on opinion or my "fanboy bias" as someone pointed out. in my mind these features not being cons makes perfect sense based on the reasons i just typed.

as for the lack of official support, here are my thoughts. each flash kit has 1 firmware. for the most part it is an official firmware which is built to a certain point and then provided with only loader fixes for the life of the card. akaio is a revolutionary firmware in my opinion (regardless of the lack of those 3 features in a public release), and akaio is the firmware of choice for the acekard. so from my point of view it is the official firmware. team acekard supports the development team, in what way i will not say because it is not my place. i think from both points of view this is the official firmware. if at the time of the review akaio was not being developed then yes the lack of updated official support would have been a con.

Wouldn't another con be AceKard's "non-perfect" compatibility? Majority of other carts have 100% ROM compatibility, and have working homebrew, and as you mentioned yourself, soft-reset glitches with some homebrew and ROMs.

until i see actual factual benchmark testing that can be recreated which proves 100% of roms work on other kits, this comment remains speculation. its just a number everyone throws out because they don't look for the problems. akaio makes no claims to have 100% compatibility, but i know for a fact that the beta team has tested each rom (right though the good set list) on more than one occasion. with that said i never stated it has perfect compatibility.

1 or 2 roms/homebrew not working is hardly a con. If 50% or more didn’t work, then yes that would be a con. as for that 1 homebrew if you read at the bottom you will see that I tested it on other cards and it continued to fail. It is more probably the homebrew and not the firmware at that point, would you not agree? if it isn’t specific to the card i am reviewing how can it be a con?

as with akaio if you find a game that is not working you join #acekard on the gbatemp irc network and report it with debugging to back it up. by the next public release it will be fixed. so what would the con be? akaio 1.6 rc2 doesn't have 100% compatibility BUT the next release might? an example, which can be a bit of proof about my comment, is that someone reported cheats did not work on animal crossing. norm has spent the better part of a year and a half since that point working on the problem. as of last night both soft-reset and cheats (up to 600 bytes) are working. so again i don't see this as being a con when akaio is the firmware that evolves and fixes problems. i can point out a majority of roms on other kits that were never fixed, while some kits keep up with fixes. its such a grey area middle ground right now it can neither be a pro nor a con.

woot woot!

im really gonna get this!(acekard 2i)

this is really one of the best flashcarts!

this review was for the ak2.1 not the 2i. if you are going to get a 2i do your research, there are numerous complaints (with pics and facts to back it up) over the build quality of the card and the placement of the pcb which causes contact issues for a majority of users. with those problems aside it will function like the 2.1 so part of this review can be used in that context.

QUOTE(Jakob95 @ May 3 2010, 11:09 AM) Nice review just wanted to add in that N+ wifi didn't work is because the company off that game shut down there servers.

i have confirmed that the servers are gone so i am going to edit that in the review as this can not be a fault of the card or akaio.

QUOTE(poipo32 @ May 3 2010, 02:14 PM)

I didn't enjoy that review,
I owned an acekard 2.1 and sold it because of the cons it has.
No real-time save
No in game guide
If this is how you review flashcarts you should just give them all gold as they have no cons if you overlook them.
GBAtemp always has been where I would send people to compare flashcarts as I knew there was real reviews, but that's just a piece of fanboy enthusiasm.

i am offended by your opinion of me, and it is obvious to me that have no idea what i am about or who i am. i am currently looking at 9 different flash kits in front of me. yes i own more than 1 acekard 2.1 but those are not included in my numbers. i have 1 different kit on the way and i am interested in purchasing 2 other kits on top of that. i am, in no way what-so-ever, a fanboy. i do not preach that you should only buy the ackeard. i do not wear acekard shirts. i do not have acekard tattoos. i don't have a collection of acekard e-mails from the team framed up on my wall. i am the person who talked out against the ak2i for more than a year, to the point that people asked me to stop posting because they were sick of reading my complaints against the build problems. so yea.... i'm the stereotypical 'acekard' fan boy!

you should spend some time on irc getting to know me before you throw blind opinionated accusations at me.

======

i hope that everyone can understand from my comments above that i thought through my views of the card before posting them. this is not a review i wrote in a weekend with little to no testing and no facts to back up any of my claims. this was a very well researched review with more than a year worth of testing and question asking.

-another world

 

[Another World]

Nice review there. For the R.P.G, will you be using akAIO or Wood R.P.G?

that is the plan, but to be honest i have a few reviews which should come out before it. i'll get to work on the rpg review when i have the free time. the acekard review was a culmination of 2 years worth of testing, beta testing, fun, research, and 9 8hr days of writing! so i'm taking a short break! lol

-another world

 

[Deleted User]

It seems like this is really the best card for your money. Unfortunately, since I received a fake/faulty December Acekard, I couldn't really enjoy it.

I didn't know some came with a microSD adapter.

 

[Another World]

It seems like this is really the best card for your money. Unfortunately, since I received a fake/faulty December Acekard, I couldn't really enjoy it.

I didn't know some came with a microSD adapter.

if you still have it, the official firmware has released a fix and the akaio firmware with the fix should be out in a few weeks (possibly sooner).

-another world

 

[bennyroger]

Nice review, when I bought the Ak2.1 the main reason was the excellent EZ 3-1 support for playing GBA games on the DS, and that is still the reason why its my prefered cart.

 

[Danny600kill]

Nice review, I've been thinking of getting one of these, my M3i0 is just boring and I don't know how long I will be waiting for me Supercard DsTwo

 

[Jakob95]

Nice review there. For the R.P.G, will you be using akAIO or Wood R.P.G?

that is the plan, but to be honest i have a few reviews which should come out before it. i'll get to work on the rpg review when i have the free time. the acekard review was a culmination of 2 years worth of testing, beta testing, fun, research, and 9 8hr days of writing! so i'm taking a short break! lol

-another world

What is the point of making an Acekard RPG review? They don't sell the flashcart anymore anyways.

 

[thieves like us]

nice review, however I'd make one subtle change. you mention that if the spring stops working that there is an easy fix.

it would be nice if you could document how people can open up and re-clip the spring to get it working again.

 

[SylvWolf]

I think I'm starting to dislike the Pro/Con thing in general. I think a quick "summary" list would work better, stating what the card does and doesn't have when compared to other cards. That would avoid situations like this, where opinions get in the way. "Con" implies negative, and not having extra features like those stated isn't inherently negative, it's just something that I feel should be mentioned in a quick list format.

The official firmware point is moot though, IMO. A bunch of Chinese guys who make a flashcard are probably just as likely to stop working on their firmware as is someone like Norm or anyone else working on AKAIO. We'd also be much more likely to get the source released/passed on with people involved in the community.

 

[Another World]

What is the point of making an Acekard RPG review? They don't sell the flashcart anymore anyways.

i guess because i have one and wood rpg adds new features to the cart? also it is something to do =) i'm sure there are users who would gladly sell off there rpg, just as i've found some people who are willing to sell me a fas1. the fas1 is outdated, no longer supported, etc, but akaio supports gba flashing to it and for that reason i want one to play with. i hope that others think like i do and would find a review of the rpg and the updated firmware worth reading.

but like i said we have other things planned for review, and time will tell if i get to the rpg review or not.

-another world

 

[redact]

...as you mentioned yourself, soft-reset glitches with some homebrew

you realize that cyclo is the only other card to support homebrew soft reset right?
you can't complain about a mostly working feature that is both useful (unlike shitty rts and rtg) and rare in ds flashcards