Hacking DSL - M3i vs M3 Real??

[Ender519]

Tried searching the forum, I am sure this has been asked so please accept my apologies if this is a repeated question:

I have a white DS Lite from 2006ish. I believe I understand the fundamental differences between the M3i and M3 Real, in that M3i is required for DSi.. M3i is also able to be flashed and the difference in price between the two is pretty negligable.. around $5 on dealextreme.com

I do not have plans right now to upgrade to the DSi, but if anything ever happened to my DS Lite, it'd be really awesome to have a card that was compatible with DSi. It would also be nice, for time being, to be able to use the slot-2 GBA expansion if I decide to do so. Also M3i appears to be "latest and greatest"

So all this being the case, should I get the M3i or am I better off just getting the M3 Real? Does the M3i on the DS Lite give me anything over the M3 Real? Is the M3i compatible with the GBA expansion slot on DS Lite?

Thanks!

 

[xDarkAngelx]

M3i Zero is compatible with the GBA expansion pack on the lite, yes. For now I think it's better to be safe and go with the 'Zero. I think the only real thing the 'Zero has over the 'Real is that it has DSi support. I myself don't have a DSi (proud lite owners FTW) but I do have the M3i Zero for the same purpose.

Although if you're patient then you should probably wait for the SCDSTWO to come out and see how that works out.

Btw, just to be safe...the M3i SDHC (which comes in a red box) is a clone of another card, (forgot which) the M3i Zero (which comes in a dark blue one) is real. Watch out for that, I've seen it happen tons of times.

 

[Ender519]

Thanks for the info.. yeah I am aware of the clones LOL I am sticking with the real deal.

So I see that the Supercard DS two has the ability to play GBA games off slot 1, which is pretty awesome.. wonder if that is too much to ever hope for from M3i, but since it's being done in emulation for DS Two (read: in software) I'm sure M3i can figure it eventually.. I think they would kind of have to in order to keep pace. I'm not too keen on the Supercard series, have heard about problems with slower microSD cards and that the interface kinda sucks. And I'm looking at the other features, for the most part I think that M3i has most of them.. the only killer feature I see is GBA from slot 1



The other thing I'm trying to decide is, if I go with the M3i Zero, where to purchase it from...

DealExtreme has it for $21 and free shipping but this comes from China and takes forever.. 3-4 weeks from what I see, and a lot of complaints about how slow and unresponsive they are.. others saying it's great.. so who knows..

GameByGame has it for $40 and free shipping, almost double.. but it's stateside.

I'm not itching to have the cart in hand before Christmas even, just want to get one eventually. Trying to figure out if it's worth almost double to purchase from USA retailer..

 

[BoxShot]

You can try 0ShippingZone or 4coolday for better support in China companies or HK keep forgetting. So far from what we have seen for the supercard dstwo gui is that it is very much much better than the ds one so you might want to check it out still.

 

[ZeWarrior]

http://www.realhotstuff.com/zero-free-shipping-p-474.html

RHS has it for $39 with Free Shipping.. They're in NJ and are pretty fast. When I ordered my M3 DS Simply (like in 07) I ordered on a Sunday, the following Monday it was at my house. They ship with EMS IIRC, oh and I used to live in NJ too, so thats why it came real quick.

 

[Ender519]

The DSTwo is interesting to me pretty much only because it plays GBA without a slot 2 solution, otherwise there is nothing groundbreaking - or am I missing something? I guess my only issues with the DS Two are that nobody knows when it's going to be released.. and when it does get released will it be great or will it be a buggy piece of crap that will require several firmware updates before it works well? DSone (like most cards) had it's fair share of issues out of the gate.

On the other hand, M3i is available now, has had several updates and fixes, and has perhaps the most kickass firmware (sakura) available. I am not sure how much I would end up playing GBA roms anyway.

You guys are great BTW, lots of useful information... so if I can beg one more question..

If I do decide to get the M3i and decide I would like to play GBA games, where is the cheapest slot 2 gba expansion available from? I'm finding they cost around 20 bucks and that's almost as much as the M3i itself.

 

[Joe88]

buying the gba expansion pak alone is $20
http://www.realhotstuff.com/expansion-pack-real-p-266.html


buying it with a M3 Real (and included rumble pak) will only cost $5 more then a M3i zero
http://www.realhotstuff.com/real-rumble-ex...pack-p-258.html

 

[Ender519]

Yeah I know but the M3 Real is on the way out in favor of the M3i... ugh, decisions...

 

[jackryan]

ConsoleSource carries them for $34.95 - their shipping is pretty fast as well, for a Canadian company to the US.

http://www.consolesource.com/ecomm/catalog...ite-p-2970.html

 

[Joe88]

Yeah I know but the M3 Real is on the way out in favor of the M3i... ugh, decisions...

well technically there is no official plans to discontinue it

m3i zero is really a just m3 real that works on DSi
they both use the exact same firmware