Hacking CycloDS site and forums down for extended period. Now what?

[sYndrome13]

Warning: The following questions may elicit cries of "n00b," but I suspect that at least a few others are wondering the same thing.

With the Team Cyclops web site and forums down and no official response from TC, CycloDS Evolution owners (myself included) are wondering whether we should start researching alternatives to the CycloDS Evo or hold out hope.

Now that we have the context, here are a few questions:

1a. Is it possible to take an existing firmware for a different flashcart (say, Wood 1.13) and port it to the CycloDS? If possible, is it likely?

1b. How old (and decrepit) is the iEdge firmware? If the iEdge is allegedly a clone of the CycloDS Evolution but is still maintained, would it be difficult to simply port the iEdge firmware to the CycloDS Evo?

2. Is there any way to directly contact Team Cyclops now that their web site and forums are down? For example, would it be possible to get a contact name from a reseller? Someone somewhere must have the name of a bank account tied to TC. If all else fails, follow the money. Even if we obtain the contact information and TC refuses to reply, we can at least know that we tried.

3. Team Cyclops posted no firmware source code before disappearing. Is it possible to reverse engineer the firmware for the CycloDS Evo using only publicly available files? I'm not suggesting or advocating such activity; I'm just asking because I'm sure the thought crossed at least one other person's mind. (I'm guessing the answer is a stern, "No.")

4. Has there been some official word from TC and I (and others) have just missed it? I'd feel a bit silly posting this having just overlooked an existing article or thread elsewhere on the internet, but I'd also feel silly not asking any questions.

Chances are very good at least one of my questions is dumb. It's entirely possible all of them are. But I've used my CycloDS Evolution for a long while now, the DS lifecycle is (gradually) coming to an end, and I'm cheap. I don't want to shell out another $35 or even $15 for a new flashcart.

If the questions are dumb, at least be as polite as possible when telling me they're dumb. I imagine question #1 (both parts) will inspire a few forum users to roll their eyes, but I'm completely unfamiliar with firmware code (and programming, for that matter), so I don't know how silly the question is or isn't.

If nothing else, take pity on a poor soul that bought a great flashcart (at the time) and slowly watched as it faded into obscurity.

 

[Gariscus]

1a. Perhaps. But it'd be extremely hard.
1b. Team Edge is likely Team Cyclops under another name, have you noticed that whenever the CycloDS got an update the iEdge/Edge got one soon after? I don't know how easy it'd be to port the iEdge firmware to the CycloDS but I don't think it'd be worthwhil as Team Edge haven't released any updates since Team Cyclops' 1.59/B.4.
2. It might be possible to get a contact name from a reseller.
3. It'd be exremely hard. From what I've read the firmware is encrypted.
4. No.

None of your questions are stupd.

 

[RupeeClock]

1a. Probably not, since the CycloDS relies on flashing the firmware to its internal NAND, and only a small portion to the microSD itself.

1b. The Edge firmware is probably not worth using since it is a depreciated version of the CycloDS firmware anyway.

2. Maybe through a reseller, but contacting a team that may have disbanded would be impossible.

3. Reverse engineering it would be painfully hard.

4. No official word, they just upped and vanished.

Realistically the CycloDS can be considered dead and the last of continuing updates will take it down the same path of the R4DS and the DSTT.
It's time to buy a new flashcart.

 

[DespizingU]

I can't believe they pulled this(again). They could have at least made an announcement instead of just vanishing.

I mean, we're lucky it's so late in the DS's lifespan. If they were going to grab their earnings and run, it's better now than two years ago. But still, if they really are gone, I will never buy another product of theirs. This is extremely unprofessional of them. I'll stick with products from more dependable teams from now on...

 

[Rayder]

The forums are back up!

 

[Frog]

...they're not up for me.

 

[RupeeClock]

Well well, maybe it's not dead after all.
But being down for so long is still a bad sign.

 

[personager]

All I want from them is a fix/patch for Last Window....

 

[thegame07]

Let me explain what might have happened. Nintendo comes along "we are sueing you" etc, they have the address of the top dogs and all the info they need. The team runs away shitting themself and stays away from their site no announcements or anything, They just let their domian die to show Nintendo they took their threat seriously and have gave up. Afaik they are from Europe which makes what I said even more possible.

Obviously what I said isn't fact but it's possible.

Also alot of people need to understand this type of stuff happens when you play the piracy game, It's illegal after all you can't expect a smooth run. You have to take risks when you buy a product that it can get abandoned. If you can't take a team running away from products like flashcards just stay away.

 

[zombymario]

...they're not up for me.

For me either

 

[WiiUBricker]

They're indeed up for me http://www.teamcyclops.com/forum/

 

[XtremeCore]

Let me explain what might have happened. Nintendo comes along "we are sueing you" etc, they have the address of the top dogs and all the info they need. The team runs away shitting themself and stays away from their site no announcements or anything, They just let their domian die to show Nintendo they took their threat seriously and have gave up. Afaik they are from Europe which makes what I said even more possible.

Obviously what I said isn't fact but it's possible.

Also alot of people need to understand this type of stuff happens when you play the piracy game, It's illegal after all you can't expect a smooth run. You have to take risks when you buy a product that it can get abandoned. If you can't take a team running away from products like flashcards just stay away.

That's sounds scheming, but classic. I like

QUOTE(WiiBricker @ Oct 10 2010, 09:52 PM) They're indeed up for me http://www.teamcyclops.com/forum/

That, will give you the domain error/rebound back to the homepage ... at lest it's for me.
If you have this problem, add a index.php at the back, like this:
http://www.teamcyclops.com/forum/index.php

 

[zombymario]

YES! Finaly I can acces the forum!

 

[grubbymitts]

Have you lot never noticed that Team Cyclops quite regularly either exceed their bandwidth or forget to pay their hosting bill? It's happened a fair few times in the past. Chill, baby.

 

[DespizingU]

What thegame mentioned is very possible. But it wouldn't have killed them to tell someone(a mod, a vender, whoever the fuck) what is going on. Even a "we're being pursued right now by authorities, so we're ditching the project" would have been great. Leaving all their loyal users in the dark like that is just disrespectful in my opinion.

 

[Stevetry]

they made enough money so they split

 

[Hidenozuke]

I am able to access the forums now. The site (well, cyclopsds.com) is still not up. Looks like they missed a spot.

 

[Jan1tor]

Cool!! TeamCyclos fourms are back online ...at least as of 8:00pm Sunday October 10.
I feel a little better now.

 

[sYndrome13]

None of your questions are stupd.

Realistically the CycloDS can be considered dead and the last of continuing updates will take it down the same path of the R4DS and the DSTT.
It's time to buy a new flashcart.Gariscus, RupeeClock: Thank you both for your answers (and politeness). I expected as much, but I wanted to either find reason to hope or let my hopes die gracefully.

QUOTE(personager @ Oct 10 2010, 08:24 AM)

All I want from them is a fix/patch for Last Window....

Same here.

I really enjoyed Hotel Dusk and was looking forward to Last Window with great anticipation. There's been no word of a US release and imports range from ~$45 to ~$60. I'd be willing to drop $20 or $30, but not double that.

There are some other titles I'm looking forward to as well, including Okamiden and Ghost Trick. I doubt that cracks for those games (if the US releases include AP) would take a month to produce, but then I never expected to be sitting here without an AP crack for Last Window 3 weeks after release.

And the forums are still down for me. Not that I'm doubting anyone, but could someone post a screenshot of a Team Cyclops public forum thread from the last 24 hours as proof?

EDIT: Better yet, could someone post a link to the TC forums with the domain name replaced with the IP address of the server? That way, users can circumvent DNS (which sometimes takes a while to propagate) and see the forums for themselves.

 

[Eon-Rider]

Have you lot never noticed that Team Cyclops quite regularly either exceed their bandwidth or forget to pay their hosting bill? It's happened a fair few times in the past. Chill, baby.

This time it was neither of those cases.