Hacking DS-Link Review

[neojei]

I think for battery life, its always best to compare to a stock DS/DS Lite. But how? I'm not too sure, I think running a game on both is alright, just let them run until they die or something. I'd suggest something that doesn't run a demo maybe or a demo that doesn't change randomly. People use mario kart, but I don't see how that works because mario kart runs demos at random, so even if you started both at the same time, the first demo to show wouldn't be the same as the other, making the test kinda invalid because they weren't exactly the same. The only difference should be what media is being used, real game vs rom. I think that would be a good test. Maybe use the lowest setting on the DS Lite. To me just seems like the longer it runs the more accurate the result should be. Just my opinion.
Also, I'm not sure about this, would the sleep mode battery times be different?

 

[KINGOFNOOBS]

Do you OWN a DS-Link? 4 Hours seems... impossible.

 

[r1cky]

he said he got it directly from the ds link team so unless youre saying that the unit itself only completed its production 4 hours ago...

 

[SpaceJump]

DeVS, great review

Good you tell us how saves are handled and if they can be backupped?

And ScummVM should work with the Flashcart method (put the games in a zip and compile the rom).

Btw, DSLink should get its own subforum.

 

[neojei]

I wouldn't understand why the DS Link would only have 4 hours, it's running from slot 1, so shouldn't the battery life last as long as a normal game? Normal games last for like a long time, especially on the brightness of 1 or 2. This is kinda stupid to ask, but don't you think they can update the firmware and somehow integrate a passme somehow? Lol.

 

[DeVS]

When you patch the rom it creates a .sav for the game and puts it into a sav folder on the microSD. You can backup this folder as needed.

 

[lenselijer]

I heard the chip that handels the microsd access uses alot battery power.

well i'm using my g6 lite and to be honest, battery times are better then with supercard...

 

[DeVS]

well i'm using my g6 lite and to be honest, battery times are better then with supercard...

Not to get off subject too much, but damn dont you just love the G6 Lite! For me it's gonna be hard to dethrone the G6 Lite as top dog. I have a M3 Lite coming (should be here monday) and I will post the review for it too.

 

[Zythie]

If you have a MK4 and a DS Link, could you boot up the DS link with the MK4 and then run flashme? If so Im getting one, If not I'm probably getting one anyway

. Great review!

 

[martin88]

Are there any reasons to get this instead of DS-X?

 

[ron555]

martin:

Uh, microSD support?

 

[IxthusTiger]

Can you test Big Brain Academy multiplayer?

 

[dirtyweasel]

Not to get off subject too much, but damn dont you just love the G6 Lite! For me it's gonna be hard to dethrone the G6 Lite as top dog. I have a M3 Lite coming (should be here monday) and I will post the review for it too.

Just a heads up... Monday is Labor Day, I don't think the USPS works for on the holiday. Not sure if yours is being deleivered by the United States Postal Service though.

http://www.usps.com/communications/news/uspscalendar.htm

 

[DeVS]

Not to get off subject too much, but damn dont you just love the G6 Lite! For me it's gonna be hard to dethrone the G6 Lite as top dog. I have a M3 Lite coming (should be here monday) and I will post the review for it too.

Just a heads up... Monday is Labor Day, I don't think the USPS works for on the holiday. Not sure if yours is being deleivered by the United States Postal Service though.

http://www.usps.com/communications/news/uspscalendar.htm

Doh your correct, thank you for the heads up!

 

[yee]

4 hours of battery life only?

What gives? I was actually very close to ordering one from PSXBox as well!

 

[neojei]

I don't beleive its 4 hours, that is way to friggin short. I hope its at leastl ike 9 hours, lol.

 

[yee]

As long as it gives me more battery life than my current Supercard, I'm sold.

 

[Tir]

Damn that battery time really put me off, I guess nothing can touch the G6L in that regard since it doesn't use power reading from a card. But still I thought it'd be better than SC and what have you.

 

[neojei]

Just remember we don't know if its 4 hours. That's just gossip, someone "heard" it lasts for 4 hours. Until someone can provide test results we don't know.

 

[kobewan]

martin:

Uh, microSD support?


Not to mention pricetag.

And also, even if it is 4 hours, that seems like a lot less than it is. I believe that a full brightness DS Lite running an original cart runs for only 5 hours and a few minutes, while a SuperCard runs for about 4 hours 30 minutes. Let me look up a post by Fifth1Element .....

QUOTEOk did a proper test this time with all the same settings.
And it clocked in at 4hrs 22Mins.
So in summary so far:

All using the same SuperCard MiniSD and the same battery leaving SuperMarioKart
Full Brightness and max vol through headphones:

UnFLashed DS
Orginal Cart: 5hrs 10Mins
SuperKey in DS Slot: 4hrs 15Mins
SuperKey Removed: 4hrs 22Mins

FLASHED DS
DS Slot Empty: 4hrs 20 Mins
DS Slot with Cart: 4hrs 24 Mins
Using SuperCard Lite: 4hrs 24 Mins

So I conclude that having a flashed ds or superKey makes bugger all difference to battery life during normal play...for my DS.
I'm quite sure it makes a difference to the sleep mode though.
Not sure how I'm going to test that unless the difference is significantly different.....

KK

edit - Not as controlled as I would like, but I guess I could put the DS in sleep mode over night and then see how long the battery lasts coming back to the game in the morning.

The results are from ImmortalNinja on scdev forum.

For anybody not following his posts, Fifth1Element is a pretty big SuperCard fan, so I'm pretty sure that we can safely assume that with full brightness and sound, the battery life of SCL will not go higher than this (no offense, F1E). It is quite possible that what you 'heard' about 4 hours was 4 hours and some change, tested on a flashed DSL with full brightness and sound.

In other words, don't worry yet. I doubt that the battery life will be more than half an hour off from anything else.