Hacking DSTWO Owners: Your thoughts so far?

[Kentoss]

I figure anyone thinking about getting the DSTWO, but are hesitant until more solid feedback comes in, can come here and take a look at what people are saying. So if you've got a DSTWO, what are your initial thoughts and opinions on it? How do you feel about the hardware AND the software?

I've been playing with mine for about four hours solid. So far I've found it to be a pretty decent card- that is, in comparison to my original R4 with Wood R.P.G. on it. I find the GBA Emulation to be lacking. I tried Super Mario World on it (Mario Advance 2), and it had a lag from the time I hit the button to the time the action was carried out, so timing was difficult. The frame skip was also pretty bad. The animations looked jumpy and also didn't help with game play. The Sand of Time feature is really nice, though. NesDS had that as well, except NesDS did it a lot better; it was smooth and went back pretty far. But for the SNES, the Sands of Time feature I imagine is a pretty big feat, and works fine, so I'm not complaining. I do wish the speed-up feature had a hotkey, so I could control it with a lot more ease.

The DS games part of the card leaves something to be desired- for me, at least. Korg DS didn't load; it hung until I had to shut it off (Read the Edit below for an update to this issue). The other games I tried ran fine, however, including How to Train Your Dragon. Load times are fairly quick, no complaints there. The in-game real-time menu doesn't always click on with the hotkeys in some games. Specifically, Peggle DS wouldn't recognize the hotkeys, and when I hit start, would only pause the game. This happened a few times, but other times worked fine. I'm not sure what causes it to stop reading the buttons.

Slow-mo made New Super Mario Bros. really glitchy. Bricks were in random places, and the graphics looked washed out. It's difficult to describe, I'll try to get some pictures if needed. Save states are wonderful, and probably my favourite feature. It bugs me when I can't save wherever I want in games, so this is a godsend for me. I haven't really played with Free Cheat, but what I did with it seemed to work just like you'd expect it to.

The actual card itself feels flimsy. I'm seriously afraid to put any pressure on it at all. Putting the microSD card in is nerve wracking because it gets caught on things easily inside the card, and when I take it out I can feel a lot of clicking and what I thought was the spring loader breaking the first time I took it out. I'm not going to be touching it much, anyway, so I'm not too concerned about it, but be careful when handling it.

Overall I'm happy with it. I know it seems like I complained a lot, but those are only a few of the things I found wrong out of the whole card, and most of them aren't game-breaking in any way. The card's OS and features are spectacular, and knowing that there's more to come puts me at ease. I do still recommend getting an SC DSTWO, but wait until there's more out for it. I have yet to try the GBA on any other game, so I'll weigh in more once I've had more of a chance to use it more.

Edit:

I have an update on my comments, and about the Korg DS issue. First, Korg works now. Not sure what happened - may have been a fluke - but it works fine now. After inserting my MicroSD card to add some more files, I noticed the Korg DS had 2 save files named exactly the same as each other. This caused Windows Explorer to treat them strangely, and when I deleted them and ran the game again, it started up fine. So The Korg DS is really a non-issue.

As for the in-game real-time menu hotkeys not working, this appears to be limited to Peggle DS so far. Every other game I have does them fine. Slow-mo mode I tried in Mario Kart DS, and it worked flawlessly, with a tiny little graphical hiccup on the bottom screen that didn't bother me. It also worked great in The World Ends With You. Free cheat works the way it's supposed to, but IS a little confusing because it's not how I'm used to looking for values (and sometimes when I do what I think is correct I end up getting no addresses returned).

Edit 2:

I've had a lot of development in my relationship with the DSTWO. From later in this topic:

I've had almost a good solid week with this thing and I gotta say the card is really growing on me. At first I was kind of stumbling around with it because I transitioned from R4 w/ Wood R.P.G. to this, and a lot of the features didn't seem to work the way I expected and things seemed to be messing up all around. I suppose after such a purchase for me, I was really nervous and preemptively having buyers remorse because it wasn't as smooth a transition as I had hoped. I'm now merrily on my way with the card, and I don't regret buying it at all. I already own a DS Lite with an R4, which was good enough for me, but I wanted to upgrade to DSi. My DS Lite is dated and scratched, and I figure if I was gonna get a new system it should be a step up, however the fact that there was no GBA on the DSi caused me to put off my purchase for months. Then I read about the DSTWO, and was excited that I didn't have to give up a feature to keep up with the times.

So the only reason I actually bought a DSi was for the DSTWO, which is kind of ironic considering that Nintendo wants to ban these cards, yet it's the card that made me give them my $179.99 in the first place. When it arrived I was so nervous that it was all hype and no substance that I suppose I was really looking for stuff that bothered me about it to justify the thought. When you put these things in perspective, and look at the bigger picture, it's really not as bad as it seems. I didn't have the greatest of luck with running Pokemon on the GBA emulator, same thing with the in-game menu glitching out some times, and Korg DS not loading right away, but now all those problems have vanished.

You really need to give it time before you can pass judgment on whether or not it's a good card or worth the buy. Stick with it for a while, and develop your own opinions on it. Heck, even when the DS first came out people said it would go no where because the touch screen was a useless gimmick (same thing with the Wii), and immediately the word was negative. Over time though the system has grown strong and is almost the best selling console of all time. I figure the DSTWO will follow this path. Sure, it's got a rocky beginning, but let them smooth out the bumps and get the card rolling. Given the Supercard's track record for support, I'm not too worried about lack of updates or features. And if the Supercard provides good customer service like Microsoft did with their defective launch 360s (another good example of rocky beginnings), then I don't see a reason to shun this card.

It's also the first card to support GBA Emulation AND NDS Roms at the same time, with a processor, and that's what matters most to me. Most of the games I wanna play on GBA work, and the ones that don't I can use the DS Lite to play. The Rom compatibility for the DS side of it is nearly flawless, and the save states- I love them. I hate not being able to save wherever I want, Zelda, but now doing dungeons is a lot less time consuming. I also love being able to go to the real-time menu, and swap out cheats. And when there's no cheat for what I want (such as permanent 10 dark ore in Zelda), I just use the Free Cheat to lock the value. Makes life simpler.

So, yeah. I suggest giving it time, and stop being so obsessive about minor things.

 

[maxozbarker]

The card seems very flimsy. The front cover on both of my cards (the part with the sticker) moves quite a bit. I tried multiplayer mario party and multiplayer nsmb and neither worked. The slow motion does make nsmb sketchy. All of these can be ironed out (save the build quality). Have not tried snes, genesis, or nes emulation yet.

 

[wanderone]

Methinks I *should* wait until they iron out the kinks and get SNES emulation to a decent level, BUT its a steal at less than $40 now really IMO and once they release a few more updates and iron out the kinks and get most things working well, this is gonna be one *very* in-demand cart. Right now I'd imagine alot of people are waiting on the 1st reviews.

I wouldn't be surprised if the price shoots up to over $50 on some sites over time.

 

[alphanemisis]

i agree in price... 40 is reasonable since the dsone is around 20 and the ez3in1 is around 20.... the ds two is a sound investment....

pricing may change.... either it will come out on top and become more expoensive, or will have tough competition in the future and price drop.... either way still well worth the money

 

[iamthemilkman]

Ugh, sounds disappointing. I shall post my thoughts when I receive mine very soon.

I wonder if it can take the place of my AK2i in my DSi or my CycloDS in my DSl. Hmm...

 

[Spectrum]

I really needed a DS flash cart when my R4 was outta compatibility with any future games and the DSi XL came out.

This is just the fix I needed. GBA games don't play perfectly, but they're damn near close (Dragon Ball Advanced and Sonic Battle are my favorites)

Ill do a full review sometime. It seems really good. I havent run into any issues.

 

[Gamer4life]

come on guys post some pics and videos

 

[R4Liam]

I consider all of your points valid, yet insignificant because they can all be fixed over time hopefully (minus the hardware which i've been told is actually good). I am just looking foreward to sitting down to pokemon again and i know those games wont have lag issues. I hope the skinning isn't too hard because pink is not really my style and the silver skin is also pink basically. Anyway im gonna order one today ive decided. I hope acekard doesnt release one out of the blue a month later...

 

[Saddamsdevil]

I consider all of your points valid, yet insignificant because they can all be fixed over time hopefully (minus the hardware which i've been told is actually good). I am just looking foreward to sitting down to pokemon again and i know those games wont have lag issues. I hope the skinning isn't too hard because pink is not really my style and the silver skin is also pink basically. Anyway im gonna order one today ive decided. I hope acekard doesnt release one out of the blue a month later...

Skinning is likely just as easy as every dard; just make some new images and you're set.

Uhm, can somebody try and copy a skin folder, naming it differently to see if it supports adding skins rather than replacing?

 

[Spectrum]

You're right its all images. I will attempt a replacement later myself and post pictures or vids if I have time (or at least confirm)

 

[Kentoss]

I made a quick update to my post. Also, from the main news topic about the firmware, in regards to theming:

As for the themes: you can add custom ones, and swap the themes at will via the main menu of the card. I have yet to add any custom ones, but I do think you can use the EOS ones already available. I will try this a little later tonight. For customizations, it's as easy as opening photoshop (or your favourite editor) and editing the BMP files found in an existing theme (saving them as a new theme, of course). For the loading screen, which is hard-coded, you can use this tool found over at the English Supercard forums, created by Blastar.

 

[coattails]

Good to know you can get rid of "Enjoy yourself! All pleasure in it"

With the pink background and the suggestive slogan, it kind of looks like a dildo advertisement...

 

[9th_Sage]

Good to know you can get rid of "Enjoy yourself! All pleasure in it"

Actually, I hope this statement is on EVERY skin. If I ever make a skin, I'll probably find a way to work it in somehow (I mean, come on...that's pretty hillarious).

 

[coattails]

Good to know you can get rid of "Enjoy yourself! All pleasure in it"

Actually, I hope this statement is on EVERY skin. If I ever make a skin, I'll probably find a way to work it in somehow (I mean, come on...that's pretty hillarious).

It's not quite as awesome as "It's time to beyond DS"

 

[I am r4ymond]

Please note that the DSTWO still have some Bugs and Issues. This is a MAJOR release from the Supercard Team. They will fix issues and bugs as soon as they can, so ease off of the DSTWO.

After all, it's not perfect, but it will be in the Future.

 

[Chupakun]

Please note that the DSTWO still have some Bugs and Issues. This is a MAJOR release from the Supercard Team. They will fix issues and bigs as soon as they can, so ease off of the DSTWO.

After all, it's not perfect, but it will be in the Future.

True. But a bought product is a bought product so I'd rather that people be brutally honest with their opinions. No-one buys a product waiting for it to become useful or usable at a later date, do they?

I look forward to seeing what the Supercard team have created once mine gets popped through the letterbox but woe betide it if it doesn't work as it was advertised to

 

[I am r4ymond]

Please note that the DSTWO still have some Bugs and Issues. This is a MAJOR release from the Supercard Team. They will fix issues and bugs as soon as they can, so ease off of the DSTWO.

After all, it's not perfect, but it will be in the Future.

True. But a bought product is a bought product so I'd rather that people be brutally honest with their opinions. No-one buys a product waiting for it to become useful or usable at a later date, do they?

I look forward to seeing what the Supercard team have created once mine gets popped through the letterbox but woe betide it if it doesn't work as it was advertised to

True.

Though, I do hope that the SC Team make quick updates for the DSTWO as a fix for issues and bugs.

 

[Saddamsdevil]

Good to know you can get rid of "Enjoy yourself! All pleasure in it"

With the pink background and the suggestive slogan, it kind of looks like a dildo advertisement...

Pleasure yourself! All enjoyment in it.

That's what mine will say

 

[Infinite Zero]

Please note that the DSTWO still have some Bugs and Issues. This is a MAJOR release from the Supercard Team. They will fix issues and bugs as soon as they can, so ease off of the DSTWO.

After all, it's not perfect, but it will be in the Future.

Exactly. No flashcart has been perfect at launch.

There will be always more improvements as time goes by.
Give it time, after all, they are fixable arent they?

 

[Sanderino]

The actual card itself feels flimsy. I'm seriously afraid to put any pressure on it at all. Putting the microSD card in is nerve wracking because it gets caught on things easily inside the card, and when I take it out I can feel a lot of clicking and what I thought was the spring loader breaking the first time I took it out. I'm not going to be touching it much, anyway, so I'm not too concerned about it, but be careful when handling it.

I'm quite scared about this.. Do more people agree with Kentoss?