GBAtemp's Acekard R.P.G. Review

[shaunj66]

GBAtemp's Acekard R.P.G. Review
Official GBAtemp Review
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The GBAtemp.net Review of the Acekard R.P.G. is now online!

After a ten month hiatus the Acekard team are back with their latest creation - the Acekard R.P.G. (R.P.G. standing for Real Play Gear). The Acekard R.P.G. is the first DS flash kit to offer both 1GB of internal flash memory and support for Micro SD/SDHC cards and is also the first commercial flash cart to go open source. The team's first effort, the original Acekard, was not received very well due to some limitations and bugs. Have the team learned from their mistakes? Is the Acekard R.P.G. worthy of your attention? Read on to find out.

Please leave your feedback and comments in this thread. I hope you enjoy the review!

GBAtemp Acekard R.P.G. Review

Official Acekard website

 

[xcalibur]

I was suprised to see this. To be honest i completely forgot about the acekard RPG.
Good review shaunj.

 

[4saken]

Are you sure about the download play?

EDIT: I'm just fairly sure that there complaints about it needing to be fixed (to an unflashed DS)

 

[DjoeN]

Nice Review.

I think the biggest problem is the lack of updates of the open source compared to there latest release (it's not equal updated)
Also the lack of advertisment and the lack of handing samples to homebrew programmers / ppl with knowledge to customize the kernel

 

[shaunj66]

Are you sure about the download play?

EDIT: I'm just fairly sure that there complaints about it needing to be fixed (to an unflashed DS)

I was testing it from flashed DS (host) > unflashed DS (receiver). Every game I tried so far worked fine

 

[DjoeN]

I wonder how many ppl still flashme there DS ?

If today new DS generation users don't flash there ds, cause there's really no need to, then the whole download play compatibility between flashed DS and non flashed DS get's pointless.

I still have my DS flashed, but i really don't know why, to lazy to unflash maybe

 

[Maikel Steneker]

I wonder how many ppl still flashme there DS ?

If today new DS generation users don't flash there ds, cause there's really no need to, then the whole download play compatibility between flashed DS and non flashed DS get's pointless.

I still have my DS flashed, but i really don't know why, to lazy to unflash maybe

Because unflashing is dangerous and FlashMe doesn't have any negative points other than bricking the DS while flashing?

 

[jidan1]

how about linkage with wii? geometry & pokemon

 

[martin88]

Wow this card seems great! Better than the G6Real I'd say.

I think I'll get one. Anyone know any Canadian site where I can buy one?

 

[azotyp]

I didnt liked that cheap looking sticker so i riped it off

, but now with soft reset this is quite good cart, but not the best one in the market.

 

[IBNobody]

Thanks for posting the review. I've been waiting on it to decide on what card to buy next. It sounds like I'll be passing on this.

Where is the description of the star awards you are using now?

 

[OSW]

After updated your loader, keep your SAVELISTEX.BIN !!!

also download play is currently not perfect! close, but there are one or 2 problems reported in the acekard forum.

savetype detection is not quite 100%, rather around 98%

 

[Raisingod]

I have to comment about the open source :

1) there is some modification to the loader ( integrated 3 In 1 Loader seem to be something thats in the works/ has been done)
2) The reason why most dev wouldn't code for the flash cart seem to be that they aren't really intersted in doing so( GBADEV post about it was mostly full with " nice but why should I change the code {except for removing commercial rom support}")

Also the source code is commented in an understandable english its just under commented for begginer ds coders also the code is "update friendly" as the GUI seems to be built like modern GUI engines ( For me it looks like a low featured QT) .


P.S.

There is a release of a forum user in the AK forum that allows you to run GBA through the loader WHEN THE EZV 3IN 1 IS CONNECTED

 

[amptor]

Ugh a big fat Hynix chip, that always screams bad quality to me. But Hynix does make some good chips I'm sure. Overall I'd say gold for the review, not sure why you guys put silver

Maybe I should test m3 real with the slowdown tests and see why. I heard m3 real eliminates those problems but it remains to be seen.

 

[recover]

I am soooooo getting this and selling my R4.
I don't need the features that don't exist yet and I'm confident they'll ship sooner or later

 

[saxamo]

I feel like i'm in the stone age with my loyal passcard and G6 lite. I was going to get a g6 Real out of brand loyalty, but this cart blows it out of the water. I mean, onboard AND expandable memory. No rom patching (i'm on linux and this was a pain to set up) is beautiful.

Probably the thing that takes the cake is the open source. All aformentioned problems could be potentially worked on by third parties.

My only question is if it reads .0 save files like those used in G6...?

 

[h8uthemost]

Wow, finally. It took a long time to get the review, but it was worth the wait. It's very informative.

And yeah, I think this is going to be my next cart. I'm kind of impressed by it by now. As long as some US retailers will carry, then I'm going to get one.

Thanks for the review.

 

[leetcakes]

I recently got my acekard, and i have encountered one problem. i trimmed the rom with tokyotrim, and soft reset doesnt work , 100% doesnt work. and acekard have not released a trimmer that is compatible with their soft reset, the built-in might work, but its too dam slow

and the cheats are hard to use, and its not all that fast : ( i recommend waiting for more updates before you buy it, you never know

 

[OSW]

Ugh a big fat Hynix chip, that always screams bad quality to me. But Hynix does make some good chips I'm sure. Overall I'd say gold for the review, not sure why you guys put silver

 Maybe I should test m3 real with the slowdown tests and see why. I heard m3 real eliminates those problems but it remains to be seen.

i've never heard of Hynix chips being used before... do they have a bad reputation?

If I were to rate the rpg right now, i'd agree with the silver rating. But i think it is getting very close to gold, and could be there in the next few updates.

 

[shaunj66]

If I were to rate the rpg right now, i'd agree with the silver rating. But i think it is getting very close to gold, and could be there in the next few updates.

I'm glad you agree with the review score. I'd also have to agree with you that it's very close to getting a Gold award but is just a few _hopeful_ updates away.