Hacking Best Flash Cart For Me?

[aavx]

As of October 30th, which flash cart is considered the best?

I'll be using this to play DS games, GBA games, as well as third-party emulators. (with legal roms that I own)

I just bricked my SuperCard MicroSD Lite, and was disappointed with it.

The software was buggy and the firmware updates were dangerous. (hence it got bricked.. my DS hanged during it.)
I used a SuperKey in SLOT 1. Also, the support for emulators and other software was very poor. It plays GBA and DS games flawlessly, however.


So, here I am looking for a new flash cart. Preferably one that can be flashed, but I don't mind purchasing a PassMe if it's necessary for the 'best' performance and compatibility.

I like the idea of removable media so I can add more to my collection at a later time, but I realize the brand and speed of the MiniSD card greatly influences the overall performance.

I looked at all of the reviews on this site, which were very helpful in giving me a general idea, but I thought it'd be best to directly ask the community.

Price is not a factor, and if I left anything out let me know and I'll present that information =D.

I'm eager to hear your opinions guys.. Thanks!

 

[Nevin007]

If performance and compatibility are all you care about then I can tell you I've had 100% performance and compatibility with my G6 lite that I bought a year ago. They just came out with an update too so it is being updated. Doesn't have removable media but I fit 10-15 DS games on it at a time depending on the size. Can fit a lot of GBA roms. I don't have experience with the other carts so listen to what everyone else has to say first.

 

[iritegood]

I'd usually recommend R4 or CycloDS but since you need GBA support....
Of course both could be used as PassMe's to be used with a slot-2 card.
Personally, I'd wait for the M3 DS Real. It comes with a slot-2 ram expansion card. It's supposed to have perfect compatibility with DS and GBA. It sounds pretty cool because it treats GBA roms just like regular DS roms. Just press on it and it'll boot the game.

I'm not so sure about the G6 Real, I haven't read anything about it so far. But it shares a firmware with the M3 Real so I suspect the two teams are cooperating.

 

[aavx]

Is slot2 required for emulators / homebrew?

I really don't play GBA games all that much, but I play quite a bit of homebrew.

 

[iritegood]

Is slot2 required for emulators / homebrew?

I really don't play GBA games all that much, but I play quite a bit of homebrew.

Any cart that has DLDI will support newer (2006+) homebrew. You don't need slot2 for homebrew, slot1s work fine.

 

[aavx]

Alright thanks guys. I'll be purchasing the R4.

I'm weary of the CycloDS because of the mass shortage.. some sites have even stop taking orders on them because they don't know if they'll even get another shipment =P.

Much

 

[aavx]

Oh, and one more thing. Do I want the English or Japanese version? I'm order from DealExtreme.com and they list quite a few packages. I want to make sure the MicroSD card is fastfastfast =)

Here's the link! http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.r4ds

 

[DanTheManMS]

Just a few points:
iritegood, DLDI was introduced Christmas 2006, so really it would be more accurate to say that anything compiled in 2007 or newer is DLDI-capable.

Secondly, it's most likely possible to recover your Supercard Lite while you wait for your new device. The first thing you can try is formatting the card and putting just the firmware update on it. Boot up, wait a few seconds, and press A. Sometimes it will still boot the firmware update even if you can't see it, and you can update successfully. If that doesn't work, you'll need to run the FlashMP program some other way and pak-swap to the Supercard to restore it (though this is difficult since reinserting the Supercard often resets the DS, and it's hard to prevent this).

If you go to the SCDev forums and go to the Marketplace forum, you'll find a stickied topic where a guy named bitblt will restore your Supercard for free if you cover the cost of shipping.

 

[Eyedunno]

Oh, and one more thing. Do I want the English or Japanese version?

It doesn't really matter. Both have the same guts and can therefore use the same firmware in whatever language you want (just download it from the site instead of loading from the CD). I live in Japan, so the Japanese one was cheapest for me, but the only real differences are that the instruction manual is in Japanese (it's a cheap photocopy) and the label of the R4 has a circle J indicating it's a Japanese market R4. Even the box is the same as that of the English version.

Edit: Oh, and you can always play GBA games with a slot-2 RAM cart (which is much cheaper than a dedicated slot-2 cart). I recommend the Ewin Expansion Pak because it looks the best (sits flush and you can choose colors), is better than the 3-in-1 at booting the Opera browser (it's possible to use it with the real browser release, and not just with a ROM, though you still have to use your R4 to patch the ram itself), and has a full 32MB of memory (which not only means more expansion RAM for homebrew, but also means quicker booting of GBA games of any size). The 3-in-1 works, but when I got it, I was a little disappointed with a few things that the Ewin remedied (though I'm still waiting for an Ewin loader update that will support 512 byte GBA saves). I don't know how the new M3 RAM Pack compares to these other two, but it's probably pretty nice (though I think it's only available in black).

 

[nds_gamerz]

I'd usually recommend R4 or CycloDS but since you need GBA support....
Of course both could be used as PassMe's to be used with a slot-2 card.
Personally, I'd wait for the M3 DS Real. It comes with a slot-2 ram expansion card. It's supposed to have perfect compatibility with DS and GBA. It sounds pretty cool because it treats GBA roms just like regular DS roms. Just press on it and it'll boot the game.

I'm not so sure about the G6 Real, I haven't read anything about it so far. But it shares a firmware with the M3 Real so I suspect the two teams are cooperating.

i'm lookin forward to this but does anybody have an ETA ?

 

[DarkAura]

Oh, and one more thing. Do I want the English or Japanese version? I'm order from DealExtreme.com and they list quite a few packages. I want to make sure the MicroSD card is fastfastfast =)

Here's the link! http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.r4ds

If you still want to play GBA games, I'd recommend that you get an EZFlash 3-in-1. It's like 20 bucks, and has Rumble, GBA support and RAM expansion for browsers.

 

[moggymatt]

R4 (and a Ez Flash 3in1 if you afford it)

R4 is a great DS solution

For more info

http://www.r4ds-forums.com/portal.php

IRC server = irc.rizon.net
Channel = #R4Forum

 

[KINGOFNOOBS]

Get a cyclo and a EZ IV delux.

 

[scandal_uk]

G6 Lite - perfect compatibility with homebrew, gba and nds.

I have many, many flash carts....