GBAtemp's EDGE Review

[Urza]

GBAtemp's EDGE Review
Official GBAtemp Review


That new team that came relatively out of nowhere offering another addition to the growing list of budget slot-1 carts. Is it a CycloDS clone? Is it a stinker? Is it awesome ? Read on to find out.

Feel free to leave your comments and questions in response to this thread.

GBAtemp EDGE Review

EDGE Homepage

 

[4saken]

That was quick. Nice work.

 

[Dirtie]

So explain again how this ISN'T a CycloDS clone?

 

[Sinkhead]

Very nice review! Congratulations.

 

[Urza]

So explain again how this ISN'T a CycloDS clone?

I never said that it wasn't, and actually mentioned several times that it was similiar.

 

[Monkey01]

So explain again how this ISN'T a CycloDS clone?

Well a clone would mean it's the same, this cart is more like a wanabe.
From the inside the difference is that the CycloDS has storage for the firmware, the Edge stores the firmware on the MicroSD itself.
Also, feauture-wise CycloDS has more feautures like Real Time Save or something, Slowmotion and the Ingame menu, also the skinning does work.
Also if it was a clone the firmware would be interchangable or something, as one installs the firmware on internal memory and the other just on the MicroSD, they aren't.

So unless your definition of a clone is other then "the same", it's not one.

 

[Hellios]

That's one stylish looking packaging. Also the wrist strap in the promo pic looks nice, too bad it isn't included in the box.

 

[Urza]

Also the wrist strap in the promo pic looks nice, too bad it isn't included in the box.

Thats the elastic/fabric band used to hold the packaging closed. Further testing shows that it fits on the wrist quite nicely, albeit a tad loose.

 

[AndreXL]

No mention of Castlevania DoS Movie playback and Castlevania PoR if hangs or not?
If it's a Cyclo Clone, should be ok. Still, worth a mention, ya?

 

[bomma]

I wouldn't recommend to buy the DS EDGE from Dealextreme.com since they're allready sold out. DX seems to have a lot of problems with stock lately. Also, It's Chinese New Year so orders will take even longer than before to be processed

 

[Urza]

No mention of Castlevania DoS Movie playback and Castlevania PoR if hangs or not?

No recent cart has had issues with the intro movie playback, this one included.

 

[ackers]

They completely ripped the CDSE interface. I mean wtf? Did they get hold of the CDSE source (minus the enhanced features) or something or did CDSE sell them part of the source? Idk...

 

[iritegood]

Sounds good, but the lack of skinning support is a turnoff. MicroSDHC is definitely an advantage over the R4 though. I might be switching over.

 

[ECJanga]

They completely ripped the CDSE interface. I mean wtf? Did they get hold of the CDSE source (minus the enhanced features) or something or did CDSE sell them part of the source? Idk...

We call this reverse engineering.

 

[Costello]

Great review!
I'm actually surprised by the quality of this cart... I'd never heard of it before and it appears to be quite good.
A good, cheap solution; and hopefully they'll continue providing updates and fixes.

 

[Kamgusta]

I wouldn't recommend to buy the DS EDGE from Dealextreme.com since they're allready sold out. DX seems to have a lot of problems with stock lately. Also, It's Chinese New Year so orders will take even longer than before to be processed
ShitExtreme shipped it to me (or I hope so) only after repeated tickets... Typical shop where Buy-and-Forget is the way to go.

They completely ripped the CDSE interface. I mean wtf? Did they get hold of the CDSE source (minus the enhanced features) or something or did CDSE sell them part of the source? Idk...

I think Cyclo GUI is the best, so that's good. Too bad no skinning ability.

 

[cutterjohn]

So explain again how this ISN'T a CycloDS clone?

I never said that it wasn't, and actually mentioned several times that it was similiar.

As far as I can recall, the menu look EXACTLY the same now that I can see them in full English. (I'm still waiting for my replacement Evolution to show up.)

Could you try running dslinux on it? I'd like to know if it works, as I am thinking about picking up a 3rd cart. (I'd go with an Acekard RPG, but I find their price to be too steep for what it is.)

 

[gh0ul]

cool, that was really fast. Thanks for the review yrza

 

[Trulen]

Man. Sometimes I wish I didn't go and fork 60 bucks over for a CycloDS (though I love it to bits).

These new carts coming out just do so much for so cheap!

 

[jenngcia]

The problem with Flash carts, is that since they deal with grey areas of the law, there's no IP protection for them either... So Edge could be reverse engineered, could be rip-off, could be stolen code, could even be from the same (Cyclo) team (who might want to produce a mass market, low margin, but high volume product).

A little off topic Q: Did M3 ever acknowledge that the M3 Simply is a R4 clone (Or is it a rebranded R4)?

Actually, I feel that given that out-of-the-blue, every (new) flash cart is just coming out with 100% compatibility and the like, it might just that the underlying code of all these might be similar and lifted right out of the R4... I know cheat codes and some other stuff are not the same, but the main code for running the DS programs might be similar, with every flashcart producer adding or subtracting as they see fit, to differentiate themselves... Just another conspiracy theory....