I purchased a DSTT a while ago, it being cheaper at the shady-computer market I was in than the generic R4-clone I was naively eying, and have since had no regrets for choosing it. Even now I still see the DSTT as a nice flashcart - one which has enough features, a great price, an excellent homebrew firmware that other carts copy and a community willing to keep it updated - and an excellent choice for the price-conscious members of the scene.
However, having taken it home and researched the use of it, I discovered that mine was a fake.
"Oh no!" I thought. "All that money wasted! I have ruined everything!"
And the whole world seemed bleak...
Then I found GBATemp. The helpful and courteous members of this fine community informed me that having a fake DSTT cart has no effect on it's operability. All I had to do was to install the special, user-hacked version of the firmware and the quasi-DSTT would work perfectly.
And once more my frequent teenage mood-swings swept me from despair to joy. I began to work immediately and was soon happily (Top) toying with my new prize.
And herein lies my folly: by purchasing a fake flashcart, I had supported a plauguerising company. These companies exist for one cause (as all companies do): to earn money. They want to take away your hard-earned green paper (or plastic in my home country) and fill their bathtubs with it. They steal the ideas, designs and brand-names of others for this very purpose.
But, life goes on.
Who cares if a few guys steal the wealth of those who work hard to provide us with entertainment? They don't deserve the credit, the money or their jobs. It doesn't affect us in the slightest, does it?
Wrong. Even if you do not have any tears to shed for those having their work stolen, at least think selfishly enough to see what their pain means for you: Less money for them means less incentive to improve, to continue. People often ask on these forums where the DSTT team are, why they aren't releasing updates anymore or why they don't produce a new cartridge.
Would you?
If you were (figuratively) bleeding finances on a project, would you bother spending more time on it?
But think for a minute about the companies making those fake cards. What are they doing about all this? They are making money! What do they care that they are slowly killing the companies, slowing killing communities. And then, sooner or later, one of the bigwigs sitting in an office see the bills for the materials used in making the fake flashcarts.
"What?!" He cries. "6 cents for the metal-plate-bits per game-square?! Forget about it!"
Thus people like me end up with cheaply made, inferior products, and lose all their saved data. And have their brand-new 4 GigaByte MicroSD that their father's gave them destroyed. And lose the only copy of those photos of Aunty Ira's holiday to Hawaii.
Buying fake (or cloned) flashcarts hurts you, the consumer. The DSTT is now dead. The EZ-Flash V? Dead. The classic carts, the ol' faithful M3's and R4's and Ewin's- They are all dead. Even the unnofficial firmware for the AceCard (AKAIO) is now dead thanks to the uncaring, rude community members on other forums who flocked around it like vultures.
Please GBATemp. Care about your purchases. Chose to buy from reliable stores and websites. Help save the communities, the companies and all those who are hurt daily by these thieves.
Because without help one day there will be no more of the flashcart companies and the DS-scene will just be a memory.
However, having taken it home and researched the use of it, I discovered that mine was a fake.
"Oh no!" I thought. "All that money wasted! I have ruined everything!"
And the whole world seemed bleak...
Then I found GBATemp. The helpful and courteous members of this fine community informed me that having a fake DSTT cart has no effect on it's operability. All I had to do was to install the special, user-hacked version of the firmware and the quasi-DSTT would work perfectly.
And once more my frequent teenage mood-swings swept me from despair to joy. I began to work immediately and was soon happily (Top) toying with my new prize.
And herein lies my folly: by purchasing a fake flashcart, I had supported a plauguerising company. These companies exist for one cause (as all companies do): to earn money. They want to take away your hard-earned green paper (or plastic in my home country) and fill their bathtubs with it. They steal the ideas, designs and brand-names of others for this very purpose.
But, life goes on.
Who cares if a few guys steal the wealth of those who work hard to provide us with entertainment? They don't deserve the credit, the money or their jobs. It doesn't affect us in the slightest, does it?
Wrong. Even if you do not have any tears to shed for those having their work stolen, at least think selfishly enough to see what their pain means for you: Less money for them means less incentive to improve, to continue. People often ask on these forums where the DSTT team are, why they aren't releasing updates anymore or why they don't produce a new cartridge.
Would you?
If you were (figuratively) bleeding finances on a project, would you bother spending more time on it?
But think for a minute about the companies making those fake cards. What are they doing about all this? They are making money! What do they care that they are slowly killing the companies, slowing killing communities. And then, sooner or later, one of the bigwigs sitting in an office see the bills for the materials used in making the fake flashcarts.
"What?!" He cries. "6 cents for the metal-plate-bits per game-square?! Forget about it!"
Thus people like me end up with cheaply made, inferior products, and lose all their saved data. And have their brand-new 4 GigaByte MicroSD that their father's gave them destroyed. And lose the only copy of those photos of Aunty Ira's holiday to Hawaii.
Buying fake (or cloned) flashcarts hurts you, the consumer. The DSTT is now dead. The EZ-Flash V? Dead. The classic carts, the ol' faithful M3's and R4's and Ewin's- They are all dead. Even the unnofficial firmware for the AceCard (AKAIO) is now dead thanks to the uncaring, rude community members on other forums who flocked around it like vultures.
Please GBATemp. Care about your purchases. Chose to buy from reliable stores and websites. Help save the communities, the companies and all those who are hurt daily by these thieves.
Because without help one day there will be no more of the flashcart companies and the DS-scene will just be a memory.
