Hacking Acekard Multiplayer (Adhoc) Issues

[Peter Hacke]

Hi!

I've recently bought some Acekards 2.1+ from DX. While Singleplayer works fine for all of them, multiplayer (Adhoc) gives me some trouble.

The Setup:

NDSL-1:
------------------
Acekard 2.1+
Kingston microSD 2GB (Japan) FAT16 formatted
FlashMe V7
Acekard Loader: AKAIO 1.2 + AK 4.09 20080929 in the ak2loader-folder

NDSL-2:
------------------
Acekard 2.1+
Kingston microSD 2GB (Japan) FAT16 formatted
Default Firmware
Acekard Loader: AKAIO 1.2 + AK 4.09 20080929 in the ak2loader-folder

Tested Games:
------------------
Mario Kard DS
Clubhouse Games

both trimmed with savetrim by rominator


Now the issue:
When i try to setup an adhoc connection with both NDSL and AKAIO1.2 as default loader, they find each other and can join groups/rooms, but as soon as the game starts, the connection breaks off, as if one NDSL had been switched off.
Changing the Acekard-Loader within AKAIO1.2 to AK4MENU4 (AK 4.09 20080929) resolves the problem for Mario Kart DS, but Clubhouse Games still crashes due to the unfixed error.
I haven't tried WI-FI, other Multiplayer(Adhoc) games or Download-Play yet.

Anyone else got weird multiplayer issues with AKAIO 1.2 ?

Thanks in advance for any help or effort to resolve the problem!

 

[Giovannin]

Try to activate the "Download Play" option for that game.
To enter this option screen, highlight Mario Kart DS, press Y and Y again

 

[Another World]

aye make sure you have download play turned on either globally or per rom.

also you do know trimming can and does break download and wifi play. you didn't debug without trimmed roms?

also akaio 1.2 is based off the 4.07 loader. those games are older so those issues should be resolved. my guess i that its the trimmed rom, but i don't have another person here to test dl play with. i can tell you that on my rpg i have been doing alot of mkds wifi. sometimes i get the "connection dropped" message, when i have full bars. usually its playing with someone who has stolen wifi, so i can't debug if its my flash kit or the wifi on their end.

-another world

 

[DaMummy]

newer trimming apps dont remove the wifi options anymore, so unless youre using an old crappy trimmer, you should bi fine in that area(use ndstokyo) and wifi is still just plain buggy for some stuff for some people on the akaio, many people cant even update cheat database

 

[Another World]

the cheatdb update is wifi through the wifilib - which is very buggy. a game would only need AKAIO's loaders to load DMA patched on ak2 and run. the wifi would be handled by the code in the cart and have nothing to do with AKAIO at that point.

 

[Minox]

I wouldn't recommend trimming roms with Rominator due to the fact that some people seems to get issues when they do that. If you want to trim a rom you should use a dedicated rom-trimmer such as NDSTokyoTrim.

 

[BrianTokyo]

Yep, try that trimmer, it's 100% reliable

 

[Moose13]

aye make sure you have download play turned on either globally or per rom.

How do you turn download play globally? I have 2 units for the kids, and this would be a much easier option so it's set for every game.
I'm having the multiplayer problem in Mario Kart as well, disconnecting after joining the group.
I'll try to have download play turned on for that specific game anyway, as a 1st try. I assume once you set it, you don't have to set it again, every time you start the game?

 

[Another World]

start > patches are the global settings.

highlight a rom hit "Y" for properties then "Y" again to ge to the patches section of a per rom basis.

cheers,
-another world

 

[dewback]

Tested Games:
------------------
Mario Kard DS
Clubhouse Games

I have found that Clubhouse Games will lock up with using the new loader when trying to save.
I use the loader Version 4.11 have to hold down A to when loading the game or will freeze when it tries to save.

 

[Moose13]

OK, I've tried this multiple times. I have 4 different AK2 cards, all 2.1, two with black pcb's and two with green pcb's. I'm running AKAIO 1.2 on all of them.
I enabled download play on all of them including enabling it on the rom (which shouldn't make a difference if it's enabled globally).
I'm trying to run Mario Kart DS.
It connects about 10-15% of the time and is playable, but most of the time it gives me a communications error right when it connects.

Is the new official AK2 firmware more stable for multiplayer?

 

[ROM Troll]

Are you attempting multiplayer with other AK2s? If so then that's your issue with Mario Kart. We can play Mario Kart multiplayer between an AK2 and an AKRPG but once two AK2s get involved, forget it!

 

[Moose13]

Yes, it's two AK2's. That sounds like a bummer. With the price of the RPG being 5x the AK2, it doesn't make much sense for me to spend that $ just for a few multiplayer games. Maybe I'll think about it.

I assume that it's not the specific game either, and I'll have this problem with all multiplayer games.

 

[Another World]

I have found that Clubhouse Games will lock up with using the new loader when trying to save.
I use the loader Version 4.11 have to hold down A to when loading the game or will freeze when it tries to save.

instead try the eruo release #0580. i have no saving issues on my ak2 or rpg with it. if you are using akaio don't use the 4.11 loader, use the akaio loader which is 4.07 (or use an older loader). you can simply rename them and akaio will let you pick 1 out of what you have in the akloader folder on your ak2.

QUOTE(ROM Troll @ Oct 30 2008, 04:47 PM) Are you attempting multiplayer with other AK2s? If so then that's your issue with Mario Kart. We can play Mario Kart multiplayer between an AK2 and an AKRPG but once two AK2s get involved, forget it!

10:08 pm • i just ran a complete race on mkart between 2 ak2s w/no probs...dl play has to be enabled on both, and i turned off all other patches just to be safe.
10:08 pm • i figured it would work -=)
10:08 pm • can i quote you on the forum?
10:09 pm • of course

^both were running akaio 1.2

-another world

 

[ROM Troll]

I didn't get specific since Moose13 had mentioned, "playable" multiplayer between two AK2s but sure if we're lucky we can get through a race or through one round of shine runners between two AK2s. However, shortly after it will hit communication error. Who wants to put up with that; we would go at least 10 rounds of shine runners between AK2 and AKRPG before moving on to another game.

So I don't hurt anyones feeling, I cannot confirm this with any AKAIO versions as we only switched to AKAIO a couple of weeks ago and haven't revisited Mario Kart.

Moose13, there are games where multiplayer works fine between two AK2s but then there are games where AK2 and AKRPG may have an issue. Multiplayer is a gray area with Acekard products.

 

[Moose13]

I havn't treid any onthers yet. I will give a few tries on other games and report back when I can

 

[Moose13]

OK< so I tried New Super Mario Brothers, and it worked fine, 5 times in a row. I didn't have any other games on there that had multiplayer, but a bunch that had download play. All the download play worked, but in that case, it's just bypassing the AK2 all together on one of the machines, so that doesn't help much. I need to install other multiplayer games, and do more testing.

Maybe it's just Mario Kart that will give me a problem?

 

[ROM Troll]

Nice to see someone interested in AK2s multiplayer support.

 

[Moose13]

I was able to do more testing. It seems that Mario Kart DS is the only game that is giving me a problem. I tried New Super Mario Bros, Lego Batman, Lego Star Wars, Lego Indy. All work without a hitch, every time.

At this point I have to assume it's only Mario Kart. Maybe it's the dump I have? I doubt it, because it seems that others have problems with this one as well.

Are there any other games that people are having a problem with as well?