Hacking Best DS/DSi Cart

[The Pezman]

Two part question here:

1) I've been tasked with getting my friend a cart for his DS Lite. Which one's the best one and has the most practical features?

2)I, meanwhile, am thinking about getting a DSi. I have not owned any previous incarnation of the system, so I'm not coming to it with any existing hardware or games. Like my friend, I also want to make sure I can get the best cart I can (but with some more specific questions. I'm not certain what features are generally desirable in a cart. I read the Acekard 2i's review, which said it lacked some features of its competitors, but nothing more. It also said that the update hadn't been very significant, with a lot of other options left over from the DS Lite not taken out. I want a cart system which has been (or soon will be) fully updated to take advance of the DSi's new specs. Preferably, I'd also like it to be able to play music, DS/GBA ROMs and other media off the SD card. Which cart either does or will, through a firmware update, fit this description.

 

[gameboymortal]

all current flash carts run in ds mode.this means that theyhave access to none of the dsi's new features .all flash carts that can run homebrew can play music and video altough video must be converted to a ds friendly format,also all can play ds roms.NO dsi flash cart can play gba roms.eventually some may be able to if and only if dsi mode is unlocked.however gba rom support is most likely to come via nintendo a la virtual console.most flashcarts can only update the loader software on the micro sd not the hardware itself.the flash carts that are most likely to eventually be able to use dsi mode are the ones with update-able firmware like the supercard dsonei and ezflash vi.this however is primarily to counter nintendo firmware updates intended to render your flash card useless.the features that acekard left out which are often desired are real time, save real time guide, and real time cheats these are found in scdsonei but others are also incorporating these features.anyway don't hold your breath on gba or other features not available on the ds lite.

edit:in reply to your first question cyclo ds followed by supercard dsone have the most features.the feaures on cyclo and supercard are similar but cyclo is more polished with an in game menu and smaller fonts.which you get is mostly about price 20-25 for scdsone and greater than 45 for cyclo

dealextreme has good prices but they are slow