Hacking Best alternative?

[RoD131]

So, considering the obvious, I may need to choose an alternative card in a few weeks, if one of mine would eventually stop working.
Now, I know that there are many posts about this issue ('WHICH CARD IS DA BEST??!!!!'), but assuming that we all think that acekard's software is the best, and assuming that everyone who bought an Acekard2 will accept that I'm not going to buy a CycloDS for the price of a second-hand DS (or about an 1/8, here in Israel), what you'd recommend me getting in the worst-case scenario?

I know that the SCDS1 is good, but I heard that it has a problematic patching/cheating system.
There's also EDGE, but the SD is sticking out of it.
MARS, which is probably a R4 clone, and M3Real, which I don't really consider (selling a new over-priced card with the firmware that was intended for a still-selling one? I don't want an abandoned card [aka DS-X, and yes, that's kinda ironic, that I stated that I won't get a cyclo because of the price]).
iTouch seems also OK, considering the triple boot patch (but it seems that the M3 team are working against it, right?).
I said in another post that I'd consider getting an AKRPG, but then again, the price is just too high.

Thanks in advance, everyone.

 

[chiseen]

DSTT would be a great choice. But from my personal experience the flash cart itself may be difficult to eject from the DS.

 

[dib]

The price is too high...for a one time investment in a card that plays infinite games. I mean, it's not like you have to rent the card @ $60/mo. That's like what, a few hours of work? (unless your job is manufacturing the Acekard, in which case its probably a couple months salary) Skip a couple meals at dine-in restaurants. Buy a few less dvds this month. Don't go to that concert and catch the next one.

Have you really sat down and considered that maybe its a failure on your part, not the price tag?

 

[cracker]

If you are a programmer or want a cart that has the potential to be updated indefinitely (let's face it flash cart companies won't be providing support forever) then the AKRPG is your only choice. It runs games great and I haven't had any problems aside from ones I caused with my own code.

If you just want a reliable cart that will last you a while then the TTDS is probably your best bet. I would have said R4 but lately they have been the primary target of Nintendo's 'War on Piracy' and the status of their operation is unknown AFAIK.

 

[louiek]

Well how about the best alternative for kids. I got one for my 7 and 5 year olds because it looked to be the easiest to use. Select the kart, go straight to a list of games with their pictures next to them. Can't go wrong. If my replacement acekard2 that I got today screws up, what would be the next most kid-friendly alternative.

 

[Swip]

The DSTT boots straight to the list of games with icons and only shows the games in 1 list no matter where they are placed. So that would be one of the most "kid-friendly" alternative.

 

[Bri]

The DSTT is great for kids, but not so good for adults. It doesn't sort the ROMs alphabetically, it doesn't show folders (all the roms on the microSD are shown in a single list which is why it's good for kids), and its menu gets a little laggy when scrolling with a lot of ROMs in the list. All of those things combine to make the ROM list a little unwieldy if you fill up even a 2GB microSD card.

The Edge is probably the closest alternative to the AK2 in a similar price range. SCDS1 is also in the same price range with lots of features, but the menu system is a little sluggish and non-intuitive. M3 Sakura has a flashy menu but is a little more expensive. The iTouch is also made by M3 if I'm not mistaken, so it's possible that they won't disable Sakura for that cart (although they might since the cart is a lot cheaper than the M3 Sakura). AKRPG has basically the same menu system as the AK2 and has more options than the AK2, but the price is a bit higher. CycloDS is more expensive still.

Or you could just wait for Acekard to get their **** together and get another AK2.

-Bri

 

[RoD131]

The price is too high...for a one time investment in a card that plays infinite games. I mean, it's not like you have to rent the card @ $60/mo. That's like what, a few hours of work? (unless your job is manufacturing the Acekard, in which case its probably a couple months salary) Skip a couple meals at dine-in restaurants. Buy a few less dvds this month. Don't go to that concert and catch the next one.

Have you really sat down and considered that maybe its a failure on your part, not the price tag?

I'm a teenager, I don't have a job.
Before telling me to get one, I'm trying. Unsuccessfully.
I'd like to keep my money for the next DS (yeah, I know big N said they won't announce it on E3), or something more useful than a flashcart, which I was proven that the amount of money you spend on it won't necessarily make it more reliable.

I was also asking this because I've bought one of the AK2's to a friend of mine (which bought a DS-X, disregarding my warnings, and got a defective one).

One more: I've bought it from DX. No cyclo on DX, if I'm not mistaken.



And most important: Almost no concerts at Israel. When there is one that's worth it, I'd rather go to it than buying a cyclo.
(Opeth ftw.)


So no one knows about MARS?

And up till now all I've heard about DSTT were things like what Bri wrote, and I'd rather have menus with more advanced options.
I'm pretty sure the M3 team isn't happy with iTouch running M3Sakura (btw, its like the dldi version, or on the iTouch it can run also games?), the question is how hard they'll work against it.

To sum-up, I think that if I'll need to choose an alternative card it'll be either EDGE or SCDS.
Anyone has a picture of a SD inside the EDGE? Or can specify more about the SCDS cheating/patching system?

 

[Bri]

The review of the Edge on this site has pictures: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=74099

My understanding is that most of the time the microSD doesn't stick out quite as much as the one in the review.

-Bri

 

[ROM Troll]

That's like what, a few hours of work?This is a favorite reasoning factor of mine as it makes my buying decisions easier. It really puts things in perspective when I look at the cost of an item vs the hard work I would have to invest to obtain it!

the AKRPG is your only choice. It runs games great and I haven't had any problems.
QUOTE(louiek @ Jul 2 2008, 10:40 PM)

Well how about the best alternative for kids. I got one for my 7 and 5 year olds because it looked to be the easiest to use. Select the kart, go straight to a list of games with their pictures next to them. Can't go wrong. If my replacement acekard2 that I got today screws up, what would be the next most kid-friendly alternative.

Just last night I was considering upgrading my nephews(age 7 and 11) to the AKRPG should their AK2 fail. I have the AKRPG for myself and the menu system is near identical so there's really no additional learning curve. The only addition is at the "storage selection screen" where the AK2 shows SD card(slot-1) and Cartridge(slot-2) the AKRPG shows the built in Flash as well. There's an increase in cost and hopefully you and I won't have to make the decision(meaning our AK2s keep working) but you won't lose the ability to swap backups and saves easily and in fact it will be easier because you can copy from SDcard to the Flash. And the AKRPG has two more advantages you'll get, i) faster load times when using the flash and ii) a better housing; stiffer and there are plastic ridges to help prevent accidental touching of the AKRPG contacts.

 

[Minox]

If you haven't noticed, there's been no official firmware update for AK RPG for a while now.

 

[seren]

CycloDS is probably the best alternative now, seeing as it will be available from DX for $35.90.

 

[cracker]

If you haven't noticed, there's been no official firmware update for AK RPG for a while now.

True that there hasn't been an official firmware for a while but the fact that all the games are working fine w/o an updated firmware makes even a better case for the AKRPG IMO. Not to mention that the unofficial firmware has a lot of nice features that most other carts lack.

 

[ROM Troll]

Is AKMenu409 release the latest official firmware and by unofficial are you talking about Acekard betas or third party releases such as Bliss?

 

[rubaducky]

Well, I got my first ROM card (AK2) around 3 months ago and have found no problems with it.
I have hosever, recently switched to a CycloDS, simply because I love the convenience of being able to Real-time save. Great for games like Hulk< Contact and Rocket Slime, as I commute a lot and save points are few and far between in those games.

I would recommend that if you were to spend (I'm in Australia) $55 on an Acekard 2, then it's no big deal spending another $25 and getting a Cyclo DS. Game compatibility is (so far) perfect, and the support team actually want to hear from you with recommendations, unlike the stiff Acekard people.

Anyway, that's just my 2 cents.

 

[lewjay]

CycloDS is probably the best alternative now, seeing as it will be available from DX for $35.90.

wow, no kidding, especially when acekard rpg is 65.90 at dealextreme.

 

[Swip]

Yea, I feel like selling my AK2 to someone at school for $60 then buying a cyclo at DX.

 

[seren]

I wouldn't sell the Ak2 if it works just yet.

Remember that it's going to be available in ~10 days time, and it'll be extremely popular and I have no doubt there's going to be a tonne of resellers grabbing bulk amounts of these. We don't know if DX has enough supply to meet these demands. So who knows when this card would reach your doorstep.

 

[RoD131]

Well, I got my first ROM card (AK2) around 3 months ago and have found no problems with it.
I have hosever, recently switched to a CycloDS, simply because I love the convenience of being able to Real-time save. Great for games like Hulk< Contact and Rocket Slime, as I commute a lot and save points are few and far between in those games.

I would recommend that if you were to spend (I'm in Australia) $55 on an Acekard 2, then it's no big deal spending another $25 and getting a Cyclo DS. Game compatibility is (so far) perfect, and the support team actually want to hear from you with recommendations, unlike the stiff Acekard people.

Anyway, that's just my 2 cents.

But there's a difference between 25$ and 55$.
It's like saying that there is no difference between 20$ and 25$, no difference between 25$ to 30$, 30$ to 35$, and you can go like that forever.
(And DX is shipping to Australia, btw. So you could've got it for about 25$.)

When DX stated that they'll sell CycloDS for 36 bucks?
Of course, for that price, I'd give it a thought.

 

[jabjab]

go and type in cyclods - simple as

says will start shipping on the 12th of this month.