Hacking Getting Started with the M3?

[Rangent]

I haven't personally tried playing gba games as of yet so I don't have a "I tried it so etc etc" answer.  But from what I've heard, fat16 in 64k cluster size will run your gba games fine, only difference is that you may have to use start instead of A to launch the games.  But it will work just fine, lakersfan earlier confirmed this and many others are confirming it on m3-forums as well.  It's just that you may have a longer loading (a couple more seconds) when starting the gba game with start instead of A.  This does not affect the actual gameplay @ all, just startup.  And to IZA, the increase in speed is for DS games, on gba games it makes no difference.

Whats the difference between starting with 'start' and 'a'? I know it's "demo" vs. "game", but what is the technical difference?

 

[Samutz]

I just got a M3 Lite and have a couple of quick questions that I can't seem to find answers to. First, where do I install DS and GBA games? Do they just get transferred to the root of the SD card or do I need to make folders? Also, do I need to manually create the NDSSAVE folder? Any other directories I need to create?

Thanks!

You should use the M3 Game Manager:
http://www.m3adapter.com/Download.htm

It will patch the roms and generate the folders and saves you need automatically.

 

[tama_mog]

I haven't personally tried playing gba games as of yet so I don't have a "I tried it so etc etc" answer. But from what I've heard, fat16 in 64k cluster size will run your gba games fine, only difference is that you may have to use start instead of A to launch the games. But it will work just fine, lakersfan earlier confirmed this and many others are confirming it on m3-forums as well. It's just that you may have a longer loading (a couple more seconds) when starting the gba game with start instead of A. This does not affect the actual gameplay @ all, just startup. And to IZA, the increase in speed is for DS games, on gba games it makes no difference.

Whats the difference between starting with 'start' and 'a'? I know it's "demo" vs. "game", but what is the technical difference?

hitting start adds a certain loading header to the game automatically, that's all it does.

 

[iza]

the only time you need to hit start is if it doesnt work with A...mostly homebrew

 

[xDRONEx]

Yeah, GBA games freeze up on fat 16 [64 k] unless you hit START to start/load the game.

Also watch out for lame roms by Mode7 with the INTROs... it froze up the system for me even if I ran the game with start. So I had to get a program to cut the intro, and then write the rom [now without the intro] to the system.

 

[xDRONEx]

"I just got a M3 Lite and have a couple of quick questions that I can't seem to find answers to. First, where do I install DS and GBA games? Do they just get transferred to the root of the SD card or do I need to make folders? Also, do I need to manually create the NDSSAVE folder? Any other directories I need to create?"

Like someone said before, install the M3 Game manager. You COULD make a folder for the NDS roms - or just flash them to the root of the card - I don't think it makes any difference, so its up to you. I would just flash it to the root myself though.

The NDSSAVE [for NDS games] and GAMSAVE or whatever [for GBA games] are automatically created by the M3 Game manager the moment you write a nintendo ds or gameboy advance rom to your card I believe - thats what it did for me.