Alright, I've been through the wiki now... (Thanks for that page name btw... Somehow, I hadn't found that page before... VERY informative & useful!
)
Updated my loader and cheats file... No change.
Tried all three loading methods (DMA on off quick, etc [blue/red/green "Loading" text])
- both green and blue text resulted in the same dual-black screen freeze.
- red text made it freeze even earlier... (while creating the save file, instead of immediatley after)
"Patches" I assume are what is found under the ROM settings in properties...?
I turned everything I could off (download play, rumble, soft reset, cheats, etc) and low and behold, it worked with a regular load (single "A" button press, no DMA mode selection.)
So,
for anyone else having trouble with Juiced 2 - Hot Import Nights, turn off all the "Patches" and it should work. Hooray.
EDIT - Interestingly enough, once the save file has been created and you've played a race, seems as though you can go back to the ROM Patches and switch them all back to Default/On if you like, and the game will continue to run. (Just FYI, if you wanted rumble, download play, etc (I'm actually not sure if any of those options are even available in Juiced 2, but anyways...)
(BTW, totally off topic, but I noticed you can change icons for .nds apps, etc... Is there any way to change the default Folder Icons?? And also, is there any way to set a specific default directory? (I want the card to auto-open the SDCard, instead of asking me Slot 1 or Slot 2 at the begining. I'm not interested in the "autobootlastdir" option..)
Thanks.