Hacking Got my DS-X today

[skylerj]

Point blank: gbatemp verified high compadibility and quality for the dsx. So yeah, that is what I expect when it arrives. If the quality is only the same as the g6lite, I will have been ripped off in my opinion, because I already owned that but was informed that the dsx was better.

Another humble suggestion: fanboyism is very unprofessional. I thought the point of this website is to inform and protect the flashcart consumer. What I see instead is alot of people, even higher ups, acting like corporate employees: taking the company line, blaming the victim, making excuses, and repeating promises.
But if you were on our side, these issues would have been meet with concern and at least some skepticism of company claims.

 

[Dirtie]

Just as a side-note, I'm interested to know if any of these non-working games that people have are related to bad dumps, as there has been quite a few redumps/size fixes that largely go unnoticed, not to mention corruption that may occur when transferring the rom to the card (it's a possibility).

So grab a no-intro NDS dat (join up on their forums or get the OfflineList one from http://nointro.free.fr ) and check if your particular non-working roms are in fact good dumps, and also take a look at the CRC on your verified good dumps and check that the roms on your DS-X are the same.

The reason I say this is because there seems to be conflicting reports about stuff working perfectly for some which doesn't for others.

 

[outphase]

Point blank: gbatemp verified high compadibility and quality for the dsx. So yeah, that is what I expect when it arrives. If the quality is only the same as the g6lite, I will have been ripped off in my opinion, because I already owned that but was informed that the dsx was better.

Another humble suggestion: fanboyism is very unprofessional. I thought the point of this website is to inform and protect the flashcart consumer. What I see instead is alot of people, even higher ups, acting like corporate employees: taking the company line, blaming the victim, making excuses, and repeating promises.
But if you were on our side, these issues would have been meet with concern and at least some skepticism of company claims.

Mods are people too. People like to go "oooh shiny" when something new comes out. Given what the original reviewer tested, it's reasonable to assume the DSX has high compatibility. No one has the time to go through every game, much less every game they don't want to play.

If you sheepishly follow what someone says, you're just as liable in taking "false" information as that someone is in giving it. You should know the risks involved with being an early adopter of anything. Especially when it is the first of its kind. Blaming GBATemp for making "false claims" is rash and uncalled for. I read their review, and no one bitching and moaning about the card has had substantial evidence that the review was misleading.

If you have a problem with this, don't buy flashcarts anymore.

 

[Opium]

How about everyone just sits tight and waits for a firmware update from DS-X that resolves the rest of the compatibility issues?

The cart just came out geez, name one other cart that worked this well upon it's release. The G6 didn't even play non-GST patched roms for crying out loud!

 

[skylerj]

I never said "false claims" anywhere, or even the word false, so I don't know why you are using quotations. I said there might be some bias. The "ohh shinny" effect that you mention falls under the "bias" that I've been talking about all along.

I know there are risks inherent with being an early adopter. That's why I waited for the review, and didn't pre-order a dsx until then. I also didn't "sheepishly follow" the review; I even commented in the review before I ordered one that I detected some potential bias. After consideration of all the factors, I did decide to trust gbatemp's review. You can call me a fool for that, but I assure you it won't be a mistake I will make again if I get burned, nor will many others.

And no, every game cannot be tested. However, the reviews can be improved substantially with the suggestions I have made in previous posts. For example, compadability testing is probably the number one concern we all have, yet it is a review item that is inconsistently tested. There should at least be a standardized benchmark. I would much rather time be spend in this area than in photographing and describing the packaging, and overly detailed descriptions of the software.

Even if my fears turn out to be false and my dsx turns out to be fine, I still think improvements could be made in order to help avoid misleading loyal gbatemp members.

 

[Opium]

I never said "false claims" anywhere, or even the word false, so I don't know why you are using quotations. I said there might be some bias. The "ohh shinny" effect that you mention falls under the "bias" that I've been talking about all along.

I know there are risks inherent with being an early adopter. That's why I waited for the review, and didn't pre-order a dsx until then. I also didn't "sheepishly follow" the review; I even commented in the review before I ordered one that I detected some potential bias. After consideration of all the factors, I did decide to trust gbatemp's review. You can call me a fool for that, but I assure you it won't be a mistake I will make again if I get burned, nor will many others.

And no, every game cannot be tested. However, the reviews can be improved substantially with the suggestions I have made in previous posts. For example, compadability testing is probably the number one concern we all have, yet it is a review item that is inconsistently tested. There should at least be a standardized benchmark. I would much rather time be spend in this area than in photographing and describing the packaging, and overly detailed descriptions of the software.

Even if my fears turn out to be false and my dsx turns out to be fine, I still think improvements could be made in order to help avoid misleading loyal gbatemp members.

What would you suggest to use as a benchmark for testing games? Aside from a random selection and also games that have troubles on other flashcarts?

If you have a good idea for a benchmark other than that then we can implement it in future reviews.

 

[skylerj]

Well, I'm just spitballing here, but I think there should be a set number of games that are always tested in the benchmark. These should be the most popular games such as mario kart, metroid, castlevania. That should remain the same, and have more to do with popularity. Perhaps the popular games list for the benchmark can be updated once a year to reflect the most popular games. The test should have a standarized lst of actions, such as a certain number of minutes of playtime, saving a game, etc. We would also need criteria for popularity.

Then maybe we can have another benchmark for "flagged games," or rather games that are obscure, or that aren't on the popular games list, that have been noted to cause the same or simular problem on more than one flashcart.

Just off the cuff ideas. If anyone is serious about implementing something like this, I would be happy to discuss and brainstorm further, either here or through aim/pm.

 

[outphase]

I have a proposal for skylerj. You write the next review on the DSX. Hopefully yours will be better than the current one. I hope you appeal to every demand you've given out.

 

[skylerj]

I have a proposal for skylerj. You write the next review on the DSX. Hopefully yours will be better than the current one. I hope you appeal to every demand you've given out.

Send me a free unit, and I'll be happy to do so.

 

[shtonkalot]

Point blank: gbatemp verified high compadibility and quality for the dsx. So yeah, that is what I expect when it arrives. If the quality is only the same as the g6lite, I will have been ripped off in my opinion, because I already owned that but was informed that the dsx was better.

You are saying that compatibility and quality are two separate things but you don't say what you mean by either of them. You mention the quality of the G6 Lite is not as [good? / high?] as the DS-Xtreme according to what you were informed of by (presumably) GBAtemp. Where were you informed of this? I can't see any mention of that in the review.
If you get a problem cart from DS-Xtreme due to say a manufacturing fault does that mean GBAtemp (which is a website not a reviewer, company or online retailer) has ripped you off because they have misled you on the (undefined meaning) quality of your particular cart?

Even if my fears turn out to be false and my dsx turns out to be fine, I still think improvements could be made in order to help avoid misleading loyal gbatemp members.

Are you suggesting that GBAtemp or it's review staff are intentionally or otherwise misleading readers of this site? Can you point out exactly how and where? I'm not wanting to doubt your suggestions but it is hard for me to see what you mean. You have obviously taken exception to some parts of the review or possibly other forum posts but I can't see where you've stated exactly what the problem is.
I have read the review and found two things that I think could be misleading if you were to "sheepishly follow" every word in the review. Both are in the summary of pros and cons.
Pro "Amazing 99.9% ROM compatibility" is incorrect but that is made evident in the review.
Con "1 unsupported game so far" is leaving out the fact that the statement is true only of their sample of games in the review.

I have a proposal for skylerj. You write the next review on the DSX. Hopefully yours will be better than the current one. I hope you appeal to every demand you've given out.

Send me a free unit, and I'll be happy to do so.

Now as far as reviewing goes, you seem quite able to write fairly well and believe that you have an ability to 'design' a review that is fair and unbiased. Stop me if I'm wrong there, that's the opinion I've formed reading your posts in this thread.
You are receiving a retail unit of the DS-X that is not being supplied by the manufacturer directly. This means you will have a 'common' sample rather than one that would be (presumably) checked for flaws beyond normal QA routine, specifically being sent out for review.
This leaves you in an excellent position to review the DS-X, assess its quality (maybe you can define what you mean by that in the review

) and compatibility in your preferred style of review.
You can also eliminate any suspected bias by GBAtemp though perhaps not any of yourself.

I honestly think that is the most constructive thing you could do about your displeasure of the DS-X review / GBAtemp. If you do a good critical review it may help many of us "loyal gbatemp members" decide where to spend our money.

Only doing it for a free flashcart when you've stated you have one coming suggests to me you may not be serious about helping the GBAtemp community. I hope you were joking on that point.

Anyway skylerj and all other GBAtemp members (loyal or otherwise) I really think this sort of dialogue is quite healthy for the community as long as it doesn't descend into pointless argument (which it hasn't IMHO). Opium has showed me again that this site has some real integrity to it. Rather than blindly defending the review procedure he has tried hard to draw some positives from a disgruntled (I can call you that can't I, skylerj?) members opinions.
I wish more forums showed this attitude.

Rock on!

**edit for spelling/punctuation**

 

[skylerj]

I've been waiting for an intelligent response to my concerns. However, I do think I need to clear some things up. Please don't take it as being combative.

You are saying that compatibility and quality are two separate things but you don't say what you mean by either of them.

Just the opposite, I'm equating compadability with quality. Notice that in that selection you quoted, I was using the two terms almost interchangably.

You mention the quality of the G6 Lite is not as [good? / high?] as the DS-Xtreme according to what you were informed of by (presumably) GBAtemp. Where were you informed of this?

9.5 vs. 8.5

If you get a problem cart from DS-Xtreme due to say a manufacturing fault does that mean GBAtemp (which is a website not a reviewer, company or online retailer) has ripped you off because they have misled you on the (undefined meaning) quality of your particular cart?

Nope. But I can blame them for letting companies off the hook by repeating that excuse.

QUOTEAre you suggesting that GBAtemp or it's review staff are intentionally or otherwise misleading readers of this site? Can you point out exactly how and where?

No I can't, because for the 100th time, I'm not accusing them of intentionally misleading anyone. What I'm saying is that they have bias. That's not bad or unusal because everybody has them. But alot of publications have standards and practices to reduce bias in a systematic way. Examples for GBAtemp are inconsistent compadability testing and using "future updates" as an excuse. Like I said, If you are still confused about what my position is, despite my previous lengthy forum posts, I will be happy to discuss them in PM or chat.

QUOTE

This leaves you in an excellent position to review the DS-X, assess its quality (maybe you can define what you mean by that in the review tongue.gif ) and compatibility in your preferred style of review.

Of course I will post my impressions on the ds-x once I recieve it, but what possible good would posting a full fledged review do?

1) No admin has yet expressed an interest in any of my ideas.
2) Thus, it would be posted here, and nobody but the few people who read this thread will find it.
3) Half of those people dislike me because I am criticizing gbatemp (for their own good), and will slam my review on principal.
4) My proposals, such as a compadability standard and a compadability log, would require a team effort including someone with admin access to this site.

Last, I can't really call myself disgruntled, because I haven't recieved it yet. Call me potentially disgruntled. (sounds like a good screename)

 

[CacheSyntax]

I've been waiting for an intelligent response to my concerns. However, I do think I need to clear some things up. Please don't take it as being combative.

You are saying that compatibility and quality are two separate things but you don't say what you mean by either of them.

Just the opposite, I'm equating compadability with quality. Notice that in that selection you quoted, I was using the two terms almost interchangably.

You mention the quality of the G6 Lite is not as [good? / high?] as the DS-Xtreme according to what you were informed of by (presumably) GBAtemp. Where were you informed of this?

9.5 vs. 8.5

If you get a problem cart from DS-Xtreme due to say a manufacturing fault does that mean GBAtemp (which is a website not a reviewer, company or online retailer) has ripped you off because they have misled you on the (undefined meaning) quality of your particular cart?

Nope. But I can blame them for letting companies off the hook by repeating that excuse.

Are you suggesting that GBAtemp or it's review staff are intentionally or otherwise misleading readers of this site? Can you point out exactly how and where?

No I can't, because for the 100th time, I'm not accusing them of intentionally misleading anyone. What I'm saying is that they have bias. That's not bad or unusal because everybody has them. But alot of publications have standards and practices to reduce bias in a systematic way. Examples for GBAtemp are inconsistent compadability testing and using "future updates" as an excuse. Like I said, If you are still confused about what my position is, despite my previous lengthy forum posts, I will be happy to discuss them in PM or chat.

This leaves you in an excellent position to review the DS-X, assess its quality (maybe you can define what you mean by that in the review tongue.gif ) and compatibility in your preferred style of review.

Of course I will post my impressions on the ds-x once I recieve it, but what possible good would posting a full fledged review do?

1) No admin has yet expressed an interest in any of my ideas.
2) Thus, it would be posted here, and nobody but the few people who read this thread will find it.
3) Half of those people dislike me because I am criticizing gbatemp (for their own good), and will slam my review on principal.
4) My proposals, such as a compadability standard and a compadability log, would require a team effort including someone with admin access to this site.

Last, I can't really call myself disgruntled, because I haven't recieved it yet. Call me potentially disgruntled. (sounds like a good screename)

I just wanted to say that your links for both reviews (9.5 and 8.5) both go to the same page.

 

[skylerj]

Thank you for that. The links are:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=37100
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=38174
At least I know someone was paying attention ;-)

 

[shtonkalot]

skylerj (the potentially disgruntled) your opinion is being heard by some and at least two of us are trying to pay attention

I'm not going to discuss all the points now (it's late here and I'm sleepy) but the one thing I did want to point out is that no cart is better than another.
What I mean by that is all carts are different and have strengths and weaknesses that make them appealing or not to some people.

I think the reviews score is fairly pointless but obviously others don't.
I mean just cause a movie gets 5 stars doesn't mean I'm going to like it.

If game compatibility is the most important thing to you then that is the main area of the review necessary to look at. I can then understand that the DS-X review may have (potentially) disgruntled you.
It certainly could have been a larger sample to test.
I guess that you can't expect too much within 12 hours of the reviewer getting the cart.
I believe there is a second opinion review going up soon though. Read that in another thread.

To me quality means much more than compatibility. I don't really like supercard products, nothing to do with their compatibility I just don't like their client software and user interface. On the other hand they seem to be made quite sturdy and I've been impressed with their build quality.

Anyway I'll check this thread tomorrow and discuss some of the other points further.
Goodnight all!

 

[MR_COW]

Skyler, those reviews you were comparing(9.5 vs 8.5) are by two different reviewers. I can understand if Shaun did both reviews and said that, but he didn't. The DS-X also had many other things above the G6. For one, can you go into a IRC chat and talk to the developers and ask some questions? Nope.

 

[skylerj]

This won't be a complete reply, because I'm rapidly loosing interest in this topic. But...

It certainly could have been a larger sample to test.
I guess that you can't expect too much within 12 hours of the reviewer getting the cart.
I can expect that those 12 hours could be used more productively. For example, I do not care about the packaging. It could come wrapped in a shopright paper bag for all I care, as long as it has high compatability. I care only slightly more about the software interface. As long as it's servicable and gets me to a game efficiently. Much less could be written on it.

QUOTETo me quality means much more than compatibility.

And to me, quality is compatability.

Like I said, I'm bored with this topic. Nobody cares, I have bigger fish to fry, and I haven't even recieved my unit yet. I'll post my brief impressions when I get it.

 

[skylerj]

nm

 

[deathspawn999]

ds-x does not work with the 2 pokemon games, worms open warfare, and 1-2 other games. they have not released an update yet, but when they do, it will probably fix those issues. everyone doubted they could do what they said, and they did a pretty damn good job of it. why are people STILL doubting the ds-x crew? how long did it take to get other companies as far as they are now, with multiple offerings? this is the first offering from them, and if anything, it proves they will be a powerhouse if they stick around.

the ds-x also worked with tony hawk downhill jam while other people had to wait for an update. oh noz right?

 

[shtonkalot]

This won't be a complete reply, because I'm rapidly loosing interest in this topic. But...

It certainly could have been a larger sample to test.
I guess that you can't expect too much within 12 hours of the reviewer getting the cart.
I can expect that those 12 hours could be used more productively. For example, I do not care about the packaging. It could come wrapped in a shopright paper bag for all I care, as long as it has high compatability. I care only slightly more about the software interface. As long as it's servicable and gets me to a game efficiently. Much less could be written on it.

To me quality means much more than compatibility.

And to me, quality is compatability.

Like I said, I'm bored with this topic. Nobody cares, I have bigger fish to fry, and I haven't even recieved my unit yet. I'll post my brief impressions when I get it.

Just about all flashcarts (neoflash, you may leave the room) have very high compatibility so I don't see what the point is fussing about the few games that are not working properly. I understand that it is important to you though.
A product review generally talks about as many aspects of the product as possible. I think in the

 

[skylerj]

Your comment of "I have bigger fish to fry" may warrant some clarification though, it does sound a little inflammatory to me.

It means I have other much more interesting things going on in life than convincing gbatemp that they need to improve their reviews.