Hacking Advice for a noob

[rkidmike]

Hi, I'm new to this scene (obvious since this is my first post). I understand that since the DS-X is slot 1 only that it can't support GBA games through the normal way. But couldn't it run an emulator that plays GBA games? Or is that impossible?

I'm considering getting a DS-X, but I'm hesitating because of the lack of GBA support. I'm debating between the DS-X and the M3 combo. Maybe some of you can give me some advice as I've never had a flashcard before. In your opinion, is the extra hassle of patching roms and having to upgrade firmware regularly with an M3 worth it for getting more storage and GBA support? I'm interested in some GBA games, but I can imagine that I might find them lacking compared to DS games. I don't plan on playing multiplayer much, but of course it's nice that the DS-X apparently has high compatibility with that. Thanks for your help!

 

[FAST6191]

The DS slot is too slow for GBA so an emulator/interpreter is not going to happen.

Having never seen a DSX let alone used one I can not say either way, use of memory cards is not something I would give up though.
Also the DSX is barely released and has yet to prove itself (while I do not believe a cut an run approach is going to happen here many promising GBA cards had just this happen).
Patching roms and the odd upgrade is childs play too.

For what it is worth my advice is both will be equally functional DS wise but the memory card usage and GBA support (the GBA has some very good titles among the collection as well as some very nice homebrew (I am mainly talking about emulators here)) would bias me towards an M3 or some other GBA slot based card.

 

[Konamix02]

Well since getting the DSX is $120+ It would be pretty expensive to get a flashcart to, but since DS carts have come up on the scene they can get pretty cheap. I see that you live in America so I suggest that you look at Jandaman for their GBA kits since they're cheap and that'll leave you some money to get a DSX

 

[jokester]

i have a question that is along these lines...

i am somewhat new to the DS scene and have just purchased a nintendo ds from ebay. I am pretty familiar, however, with gba homebrew, emulators, games, and things like that. I've had a EZF Advance 256mbit RTC gba flashcart for a while and used it to play every game boy advance game perfectly. Now that the DS-X has been released and reviewed it is very attractive to me. I can use my DS-X for all DS homebrew and games and my ezfa cart for all gba homebrew and games. like rkidmike said, gba games probably won't be that important but i would still like to have gba support. That being said, in my case, which would you recommend? Should i get the DS-X or get an M3?

 

[jokester]

can i get anyone's insight into this question?

 

[mthrnite]

i have a question that is along these lines...

i am somewhat new to the DS scene and have just purchased a nintendo ds from ebay. I am pretty familiar, however, with gba homebrew, emulators, games, and things like that. I've had a EZF Advance 256mbit RTC gba flashcart for a while and used it to play every game boy advance game perfectly. Now that the DS-X has been released and reviewed it is very attractive to me. I can use my DS-X for all DS homebrew and games and my ezfa cart for all gba homebrew and games. like rkidmike said, gba games probably won't be that important but i would still like to have gba support. That being said, in my case, which would you recommend? Should i get the DS-X or get an M3?

Hey jokester, I've got an EZFA too, and it fills up pretty quick with the newer GBA stuff (like the bit generation stuff is huge) so I'd say go with the M3 for the space. I've got a G6 Lite and keep around 8-10 NDS and 4-8 GBA games on it at once. Love it, best of all possible worlds, but then I don't do video which would demand removable storage like the M3 or a Supercard or something.

 

[SectionX]

if you're a noob I would recomend the DS-X card. It's drag and drop. Good card to start with.

 

[natkoden]

M3 all the way

Good product, big storage

 

[macismonchen]

M3, no doubt, even if you are a noob, there are lot of infos and faq everywhere to help you. However, reasons for M3:

- best possible NDS and GBA-Game-support at the moment
- Scumm works without Problems (best homebrew for me, i LOVE the old adventures)
- enough space to store ALL the games you maybe want to play (however, you can buy additional SD-Cards and change them easily)
- fast updates with firmware

Maybe if you dont care about GBA-Games, you can go for a SC too. The only reason for DS-X would be that it is easy to use, BUT the big cons are that the support is questionable, maybe some NDS-Games will not work and space is (very) limited (to me)

 

[g.crow]

m3. you need to update firmware every now and then, buts thats fairly easy, no matter how n00b you are.

mars

 

[macismonchen]

Maybe the BEST solution would be to wait for acecard and the firmwareupdates for the DS-X to see if they can be perfect ... but you need to be patient, dont preorder or buy DS-X now, wait some ... well ... weeks till they are updated and tested by the community

If you cant wait, buy M3 now since it is the best at the moment

 

[deathspawn999]

ds-x has given me no problems. if you are looking for a pure slot1 device with no fuss, get it. if you have no problems screwing around with settings, patching roms, waiting for firmware updates, then go ahead and get the m3.

there are 4-5 games the ds-x doesnt work with right now, and thats with no firmware updates. it is also slot one and works with the ram expansion that is out and will probably be needed for some games later on in the systems life.

your call

.

 

[CacheSyntax]

ds-x has given me no problems. if you are looking for a pure slot1 device with no fuss, get it. if you have no problems screwing around with settings, patching roms, waiting for firmware updates, then go ahead and get the m3.

there are 4-5 games the ds-x doesnt work with right now, and thats with no firmware updates. it is also slot one and works with the ram expansion that is out and will probably be needed for some games later on in the systems life.

your call

.

Single cart multiplayer with the DS X is a bonus too.

 

[Hypnotoad]

If those were the only two choices I have to choose from, I would personally get a M3. The main reason for that is because GBA support is much more important than mutliplayer. The extra room over ds-x 512mb will come in handy too. I have a G6 cart at the moment, and 512 is very easy to fill. I even trim my roms through the G6 software so I can fit a few more of them on that 512. To do that with the ds-x you'd have to trim your roms manually with another 3rd party program (not too easy to do for some people). I wouldn't worry about rom patching too much, as it's very easy and takes next to no time to do. The same can be said for firmware updates.

Another option is to get an M3 and flash your DS. Then you'd get the best of both worlds: GBA support and multiplayer.

 

[deathspawn999]

except there is a problem from flashed to non flashed. and flashing is something a lot of people dont want to do.

GBA support to me doesnt mean too much. there arent that many games that i want to play on the GBA, given the choice of those or DS games.

 

[macismonchen]

I am curious about the next Slot1-Cards because they maybe can be better than the DS-X in at least 2 points:

1. storage (micro-SD?)
2. NDS-compatibility (however, DS-X maybe never support Pokemon or other upcoming games with big save-files in the future - worst case)

 

[rkidmike]

Thanks for all of the input...this board has a really great community. As for my flashcart of choice, I'm gonna go with the M3 Lite since the DS-X seems to have it's share of shortcomings and I don't want to wait to see how that turns out...cos I want to play with a flashcart NOW!!!

 

[thefoxhole]

Thanks for all of the input...this board has a really great community. As for my flashcart of choice, I'm gonna go with the M3 Lite since the DS-X seems to have it's share of shortcomings and I don't want to wait to see how that turns out...cos I want to play with a flashcart NOW!!!

Man i know how you feel.. I just about order a flash cart every day, i get to the checkout and then i wimp out.

But, I know I will eventually accidently hit checkout as I did when I bought my xbox mod, and let me tell you that was worth 450 USD that sucker is amazing.. we still play the snes daily.. So yes eventually I will buy a flash cart. I am really interested in the M3 and SC but I want to see where these slot 1 cards are going..

 

[SectionX]

however, DS-X maybe never support Pokemon or other upcoming games with big save-files in the future - worst case)

it's already solved now.