Hacking Any problems with EDGE flashcart?

[Minox]

Having used both carts myself, I'm pretty sure the EDGE is using a reverse-engineered copy of the original CycloDS Evo firmware. The look and feel of the menus is identical, skins are interchangeable, they use the same structure for their cheat database. If they didn't have different logos on them, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

Here's your proof:

http://www.monroeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12255


I like this line from your link:

QUOTE

hmmmmmm...NOW do you believe that this is truly a clone? Just wanted people to know and to steer clear of this card. Its just and overpriced CycloDS.

If it's a clone, why doesn't the Edge run the CycloDS firmware (and have the slo-mo and other goodies)?

-Bri

Because it's a budget flashkart

 

[Bri]

If they were going to steal the firmware, they should have at least stolen a later version of it that had all the features. Unless you're saying that the Edge is actually made by Team Cyclo, and they just put it out under a different name with a different price point and more limited features in order to sell a budget cart.

-Bri

 

[Minox]

If they were going to steal the firmware, they should have at least stolen a later version of it that had all the features. Unless you're saying that the Edge is actually made by Team Cyclo, and they just put it out under a different name with a different price point and more limited features in order to sell a budget cart.

-Bri

I think it is the latter.

 

[Bri]

If the manufacturer of the Edge is the same as the manufacturer of the CycloDS, wouldn't the two carts be identical inside except for some minor modification to prevent the firmware from one running on the other?

And if they are made by the same company, then there's no ethical reason not to buy an Edge (it wouldn't be a cheap knockoff of another cart, it would simply be a repackaging of another cart with some features removed and sold at a lower price).

-Bri

 

[sk3tch]

If they were going to steal the firmware, they should have at least stolen a later version of it that had all the features. Unless you're saying that the Edge is actually made by Team Cyclo, and they just put it out under a different name with a different price point and more limited features in order to sell a budget cart.

-Bri

If you read the post at monroeworld you'll see that they simply used all components of the CycloDS *except* the 16mbit flash. This was done to save money on producing their "clone" (if you want to get into semantics, I guess because it is not completely identical you can't call it a clone...but for all intents and purposes it has all CycloDS features except the ones that are likely to utilize the flash which they omitted for cost reasons).

The EDGE is a 85% copy of the CycloDS.

 

[Bri]

So do you agree with Minox_IX that the Edge is made by Team Cyclo under a different name or do you think another company cloned the hardware (except for the 16mbit flash)? The former might make more sense, but again there wouldn't be anything unethical about buying an Edge in that case.

-Bri

 

[sk3tch]

Oh, there's no way that Team Cyclops is behind the EDGE. It's definitely a rip off of the CycloDS.

 

[Bri]

So what features of the CycloDS would the missing 16mbit flash prevent from being implemented?

-Bri

 

[sk3tch]

No idea. My guess is real-time save since that's not available on the EDGE.

 

[heliuscc]

Forgive if I'm wrong but the 16mbit flash on the cyclo holds the os, you don't have the os on the sd card with a cyclo. EDGE does have it's os on the sd card.

If I'm wrong feel free to flame me to death

 

[sk3tch]

Forgive if I'm wrong but the 16mbit flash on the cyclo holds the os, you don't have the os on the sd card with a cyclo. EDGE does have it's os on the sd card.

You are correct.

We're just trying to figure out what would be missing because flash is gone. You would think they would have copied the real-time save feature (since everything else is ripped)...but maybe the lack of that flash somehow makes it difficult?

EDIT:

Here are a couple pictures of the cards. The CycloDS is on the left and the EDGE is on the right.

My guess is that Team Cyclops had the CycloDS manufactured in China (like any other company). Somehow, a good portion of the OS/GUI/PCB was copied/stolen/reverse engineered and that was how the EDGE was born. It's very, very similar.

 

[Urza]

The in-game menu itself requires the on-board flash.

This means no in-game brightness change, RTS, slow-motion, etc.

 

[Saylient_Dreams]

So.... if the Edge is a reversed engineered clone, using almost all the same parts (except for the 16mbit flash for os), then the Edge would have pretty much the same compatibility of the CycloDS, and just be missing the fancy features a CycloDS has, meaning that it's most likely the best budget cart, since CycloDS is most likely the best flash cart? Lol. Either way, if it is proved that Edge is a clone of the CycloDS this would work better for Edge, probably not so much for CycloDS, but for the people buying the Edge, it would be good to know that it might have the same reliability of the CycloDS, just maybe not with support though.

 

[Bri]

So could the CycloDS still have RTS and slo-mo, etc. without the 16mbit flash, just not in-game menu?

@sk3tch: Thanks for the pictures. Interesting that the ridges on the right are similar, but not exactly the same. Do any other carts have those ridges? Also, the CycloDS microSD doesn't appear to stick out like the Edge does. Another poster earlier in this thread said that the CycloDS microSD sticks out, but I'd never heard that. Anyone know anything about that?

-Bri

 

[sk3tch]

Regarding the microSD sticking out on CycloDS', it really depends on what batch you have. The newer ones (post January for the most part) are fine. Mine doesn't really stick out at all (as you can see). I bought it in March.

EDGE cards are a roll of the dice. I've heard of some people having them flush and then there's people like me that have it sticking out nearly a half CM.

It's not a big deal, though.

 

[Urza]

So could the CycloDS still have RTS and slo-mo, etc. without the 16mbit flash, just not in-game menu?

It may be "possible", but incredibly unlikely (assuming you meant EDGE).

 

[Bri]

I'm just wondering what the incentive would be for Edge to clone the CycloDS given that they probably had to reverse engineer the CycloDS hardware and firmware anyway. It doesn't seem it would have gained them much to actually clone it rather than just designing a new cart with a menu that happens to have the same look and feel as the CycloDS. If the Edge could actually run the CycloDS firmware (as the N5 can run the R4 firmware), it would make more sense because they wouldn't have to write their own firmware.

-Bri

 

[Urza]

I'm just wondering what the incentive would be for Edge to clone the CycloDS given that they probably had to reverse engineer the CycloDS hardware and firmware anyway. It doesn't seem it would have gained them much to actually clone it rather than just designing a new cart with a menu that happens to have the same look and feel as the CycloDS. If the Edge could actually run the CycloDS firmware (as the N5 can run the R4 firmware), it would make more sense because they wouldn't have to write their own firmware.

They didn't have to write their own firmware.

 

[Bri]

Could you elaborate? It sounds like they would have had to reverse-engineer the CycloDS firmware, which would essentially be the same thing as writing your own that emulates the functionality and look-and-feel of the CycloDS firmware (minus the functionality that the Edge can't reproduce due to the missing 16mbit flash).

-Bri

 

[Urza]

Could you elaborate? It sounds like they would have had to reverse-engineer the CycloDS firmware, which would essentially be the same thing as writing your own that emulates the functionality and look-and-feel of the CycloDS firmware.

Definitions of reverse engineer on the Web:

* means to dismantle a computer program, product or algorithm in order to determine how it works.

Essentially, the goal was to get the CycloDS firmware to run natively on new hardware, which they did.