Day 4: DS-X

[HBK]

I have a DS-Xtreme, well, had, because it's my sister's now. It fulfills all her gaming needs, but I love my R4. It did in fact give me some happy times last year (the DS-X), but this year it disappointed a LOT. Therefore, I'll vote "It's OKAY".

 

[leetdude_007]

It was always too expensive for me, so I waited for an alternative or a price deduction. It was sad to see the support disappear from the public eye like that...

 

[xalphax]

when the ds-x was first announced i thought it was a promising card with cool features.

but the high pricetag and (while waiting for the price to come down) lack of support killed it for me.

praise the lord for sending us the R4DS (and other good slot1 cards) to the rescue!


edit: if you think about it, its good that the pricetag was so high at first. otherwise even more people would have been stuck with a shitty flashcard now.

 

[PuyoDead]

I also fell for the DS-X. It was my first DS flashcart, and at first, I was pretty happy about it. But, fast forward through all the crap, and when I got my R4, I was just floored at how much better it was. My thing is, is that it's amazing how slow the DS-X is. In a forum post of me explaining just how bad it is, I made this video:

DS-X load time

Looking back, I made some changes, and sped it up a bit, but it's still nowhere near the load times of the R4. All the other crap aside, that's why I don't use it anymore.

 

[Twiffles]

I almost fell for the DS-X, until I decided against it. Hoorah.

 

[hova1]

i never owned a DS-X but i voted "do not like" simply because i feel bad for all the people who are stuck with it

 

[NetShira]

I bought one, and got severly PO'd with who I bought it from.. as it took months to get the cart when it was promised in weeks. After writing a rather scathing letter to the place I bought it from they appologized but said that it kept getting delayed because the manufacturer kept lying about their shipping dates. Not sure who to believe I held this agains the distributer and filed it away. I'd finally gotten my DSX and was pretty pleased with the hardware design and ease of the device. It really is well made hardware comparing it to other cartridges... The only complaint I had (then) was there was no way to stop the bloody lights from flashing on startup. It seemed to do everything I could've wanted until the 1.12 patch when compatibility kinda went downhill. Writing to the DSX team soon showed that they were mainly focused on homebrew support and did not want to focus on compatibility. This seemed the bent on their website until reading all of the bitching and moaning about DLDI, and the total bullstuff of the DSX team in claiming that they didn't need any DLDI because of course their hardware was perfect... it took quite a while for popular demand to make the DSX team put out a DLDI patch file and in the end there was a fix to DLDI required to make it work... the attitude of the DSX team during this exchange really really soured me as this was really the only "santioned" use of the cartidge from the observing the forums and here they were bitching that they had to do an "unneeded" DLDI patch just to satisfy us "whiners". The lack of support from the DSX team (thegame07 has helped more than they ever have) and the completely non-existant updates forced me to look elsewhere and so I bought a G6 DS Real. Oddly enough the G6 seems weak (having to put DLDI homebrew in the root of the cartridge is just lame imho) when it comes to homebrew but strong on compatibility, and easier to skin. I bought 4 and we've had one we THOUGHT went bad... (during which my wife used the old DSX standby.. which was solid if limited in it's compatibility)... turns out the reader was bad and we tossed the reader, reformatted the cart and now it works well again. So I voted "I don't like it" to the DSX despite that it has some uses still.

 

[Anakir]

Bought one and sold it a week after I had it. Too much hassle with all its problems and updates. I got the R4 right after and never regret it even 'til now.

 

[TGBoy]

Too expensive. Good thing i waited for better ones like R4DS

 

[Sinkhead]

I think DS-X could turn into a religion in the end... You know how Christians are waiting for Jesus, and Muslims are waiting for that prophet (sorry, can't remember his name).

Well, some gullible people are still waiting for the DS-X firmware update

- Sam

 

[Way_Star]

Well, i've owned a 2GB from the day it came out and have regretted buying it ever since! To be fair, it does have great potential and why they don't make the firmware open source now I don't know. It's either 2 things holding things back:

1 The development team have reached thier technical limits, cannot handle the hardware or make use of the FPGA which makes the thing so expensive in the first place. This is making it take forever and possibly the firmware will never be done.

2 The development team are pure perfectionists and will not release the firmware until every last feature of modern flash carts has been implemented and works.

I hope the second one is true, but i'm doubting it strongly!! I still use it regularly and it performs it's function albeit slowly and with annoying things like applying the arm7 fix to be done to most new games. I'd never buy one of these over other cards now.

I suppose the one positive thing is if you were stuck in a mass powercut at night, not only would you have some gaming to keep you busy, you'd have an excellent torch in the form of the LEDs!

 

[SaltyDog]

After getting burned on my Flash2Advance GBA cart. I purchased a SuperCard SD as its replacement. Then they miraculously supported the DS. I then bought a NDS lite (really wanted that brighter screen) I was happy to know that the flood of Slot-1 cards at this point allowed for the R4. God forbid that I would have had a DS-X (for once I came out ahead YAY!)

 

[jgu1994]

I weird to see all the people not voting yes, like me, but this is still a solid cart imo.

 

[onispawn]

It really isn't that bad. Sure it would be nice to get a fireware update to fix some issues, but I mean come on. I can still play all the games I want to with a quick arm fix.
Until I cant play the games I want to, I wont be buying a new card.

 

[Rayder]

Well, I've never owned a DS-X, but based on discussions I've read about how they treat people on their forums in regards to problems, I voted "Do Not Like".

I mean, they make a cart to play ROMs and then do an about-face and say, "No talking/complaining about ROMs!" And then they stop bothering to even release any updates. Lame!

 

[ZPE]

I don't think they can allow ROM discussions otherwise ESA or whoever they are get on their back and will close them down. Don't blame them for that but yeah the warranty thing is a bit over the top. Don't like the look of the card either.

 

[Sinkhead]

I don't think they can allow ROM discussions otherwise ESA or whoever they are get on their back and will close them down. Don't blame them for that but yeah the warranty thing is a bit over the top. Don't like the look of the card either.

Talking about ROMs is not illegal... Downloading them is.

- Sam

 

[Mewgia]

I voted "Do not like" because of what I've read about them and the fact that the one I bought for my friend a while back died suddenly. So now he's stuck with a dead flashcart....lame.

 

[Wanted]

I have a DS-X (and never used any other DS flashcart). I have to say the cart itself is cool but the dealings I had with the DS-X team ruin that. They are a joke. I had posts deleted when their firmware "update" stuffed it up and ended up having to fix it myself along with others that wanted support. It took over a couple of weeks and then when a known solution was finally developed they still didn't spread the fix to everyone that wanted help. In my opinion they were to busy counting the $'s they were expecting from the 16Gbit version or whatever it was. There's no way in hell they will ever see another cent from me and I feel like ordering an R4 or something right now talking about it.

 

[JPH]

Too expenive and has too many problems.
R4, Cyclowiz are much better slot1 flashcarts and are less expensive...I'm sure everyone hates this shitty flashcart and the shitty company who makes them.