Hacking How does the M3 Real compare to the M3 Simply?

[Rurik]

I've had an M3 Lite, and currently an M3 Simply. I've been watching the release of the M3 Real and am considering purchasing one to replace my Simply. However, the Simply is working 100% perfectly for me. The Real looks interesting for the SDHC support and real time saving, which seem to be the only real additions, but I have read a few complaints of games not working 100%, or freezing during saving, etc.

Is it worth the upgrade from the Simply to the Real?

 

[4saken]

The Real cards do not currently have Real Time Save, though I have been told it has been worked on for a while.

EDIT: Unless you mean GBA real time saving, which is nothing different over the M3 Lite saving.

 

[Doggy124]

not until your M3S broken

 

[roadbusta]

I've had an m3 real for over a month now, and have had no problems. You should only "upgrade" if you have an SDHC/ want more space card, or if you want rumble, RAM or GBA support. Otherwise, stick with the simply.

 

[Rurik]

I must've mistaken the RTS for GBA RTS. I may end up getting one anyhow, for GBA usage again. I was worried about compatibility issues, but the few reports I've seen have been very few and sketchy.

Thanks!

 

[Toni Plutonij]

As for Simply - Real debate (if you're not looking for SDHC support and you're interested in only NDS games) you should stick with the Simply..It has MUCH faster menus and (for me) it actually looks better (the main reason is simplicity of menu and navigation through the card)..But right now I'm using Real for games (because of it space) and Simply for movies and multimedia (Moonshell is working much better on simply for me)..
But in the end, M3 Real is pretty cheap and worth every dollar it cost..So you could buy it just for an option (to have a possibility of switching cards), and of course there are Rumble and GBA expansions, wich are VERY useful..

Cheers..

 

[Rurik]

Just because I don't like leaving threads unresolved, I did end up buying the M3Real that day. I've now had a month to play around with it extensively (lots of business trips). The menu system, as mentioned above, is horrible. Timing it, it took 25 seconds to boot to some carts from power-on, and at some times it's just completely unresponsive. That just drives me nuts (like Touch Detective, where you have to wait to get out of bed for 10 seconds EVERY TIME you turn it on).

Slow motion just doesn't work for me, too. It's a shame. And the default sort order makes no sense at all (and I can't find a way to change it)

GBA works excellent! So, I'm content in buying the whole package for that functionality. All of my homebrew apps run fine with no problems.

I'm on Firmware 2.9 now, and anxiously checking regularly for an update to fix the menu system. There's a saying, if it ain't broke don't fix it!

 

[xJonny]

The two biggest points are probably the SDHC capability and the expansion packs for slot-2.

 

[Chedderknight]

IMO I would buy the M3Real as a back up cart, as for now there pretty cheap, who knows later down the line

 

[naes]

I highly recommend the M3 Real.

 

[chr0m]

I have both and for me there is no contest, the Real is horrible. I stopped using it and went back to the Simply.

 

[Hogmeister]

I've had an m3 real for over a month now, and have had no problems. You should only "upgrade" if you have an SDHC/ want more space card, or if you want rumble, RAM or GBA support. Otherwise, stick with the simply.

what he said stands true to the core, i had the m3 simply for a long time.. recently purchased an m3 real perfect bundle and i was only really doing it because i wanted something new.... as for NDS its about the same but if you're interested in rumble/ram/GBA support you'll like the real. another plus is SDHC (going from 2gb to 6gb is quite nice

).

if you're just interested in NDS then i'd say stick with the simply, if youw ant the other things than you can't really go wrong. Its a fantastic chip, both my GBA pack and RAM pack work well. as has been stated in a response earlier the menu is a bit slower and takes about all of oh i dunno 5 minutes to figure out. it's no worse or better of an interface in my opinion as it does stuff differently it needs more options and what not so it works well.

i vote get the real if you want the GBA/ram/rumble experience. which is what i wanted, and i love it for it

 

[Brainy142]

I have the m3 real and the only big difference is the "expansion packs" they are worth it just make sure you have a ds lite

 

[Doggy124]

only big different is SDHC

for GBA, there are other expansion that M3S can use
ewin/EZ3in1

 

[llatnik]

I had a simply and I "upgraded" to the Real its just a matter of what matters more to you

A) Ease of use, and no problems
B) SDHC & GBA support

Me? I'm thinking of buying another M3 since the 100% Download play compatibility doesn't work. and while I thought I'd play lots of GBA games, there's that many DS games I don't have time to play I never will.
As for the SDHC support, it would be great for music if the card didn't make moonshell (the best media player) buggy and not work

so unless you find a GBA game that you just HAVE to play on the tiniest screen in the house (GBA emulation is perfect now, VisualBoyAdvance FTW) stick with your M3 Simply,

At least until they fix the slow/buggy firmware, media player, game compatibility, hardware failure rate, truly AWFUL interface and a few other problems. The card is still fairly new and those things are forgivable up until it isn't new-ish and just becomes old and badly supported^^

 

[naes]

I had a simply and I "upgraded" to the Real its just a matter of what matters more to you

A) Ease of use, and no problems
B) SDHC & GBA support

Me? I'm thinking of buying another M3 since the 100% Download play compatibility doesn't work. and while I thought I'd play lots of GBA games, there's that many DS games I don't have time to play I never will.
As for the SDHC support, it would be great for music if the card didn't make moonshell (the best media player) buggy and not work

so unless you find a GBA game that you just HAVE to play on the tiniest screen in the house (GBA emulation is perfect now, VisualBoyAdvance FTW) stick with your M3 Simply,

At least until they fix the slow/buggy firmware, media player, game compatibility, hardware failure rate, truly AWFUL interface and a few other problems. The card is still fairly new and those things are forgivable up until it isn't new-ish and just becomes old and badly supported^^

The firmware isn't slow and buggy. The game compatibility is at 100%.

 

[FaRReR]

I'm not getting a new slot-1 solution until my M3DSS is broken

to the M3 Simply!

 

[chr0m]

I had a simply and I "upgraded" to the Real its just a matter of what matters more to you

A) Ease of use, and no problems
B) SDHC & GBA support

Me? I'm thinking of buying another M3 since the 100% Download play compatibility doesn't work. and while I thought I'd play lots of GBA games, there's that many DS games I don't have time to play I never will.
As for the SDHC support, it would be great for music if the card didn't make moonshell (the best media player) buggy and not work

so unless you find a GBA game that you just HAVE to play on the tiniest screen in the house (GBA emulation is perfect now, VisualBoyAdvance FTW) stick with your M3 Simply,

At least until they fix the slow/buggy firmware, media player, game compatibility, hardware failure rate, truly AWFUL interface and a few other problems. The card is still fairly new and those things are forgivable up until it isn't new-ish and just becomes old and badly supported^^

The firmware isn't slow and buggy. The game compatibility is at 100%.

Yeah as long as you have a very specific microSD.
As I've said, it's awful for me, mine is gathering dust while I have gone back to using the Simply.
It seems to be way too picky about microSD cards whereas the Simply is great with anything I've thrown at it.

 

[Nottulys]

Its pretty cool....I just got my M3 Real, and I like it except, the Menu is pretty slow, it ALWAYS stops for options before you can boot any game(unlike the M3 Simply), and I think there might be some slowdown on some cutscenes, but I havent got my M3 Simply back to test this.

On a side note, the GBA Emu for the PSP is better than the regular GBA expansion pack included(my opinion)(also cant wait for the Ad-Hoc on the gpSP EMU). I enjoy homebrew on BOTH!!!

 

[llatnik]

The firmware isn't slow and buggy. The game compatibility is at 100%.

Let me clarify, by "buggy" I meant to highlight the problems people are having. I, like quite a few others have found the media player stalls for upwards of 40 seconds while loading a large folder of songs in the inbuilt media player, which also does not play the better type of DPG videos, then there's the people who have changed skins and had the firmware stop working when they try to revert it, after that there's one or two other things, it is buggy but not terribly. it should be noted as well that there are even reports of the Real Bricking DSs so while isolated and apparently rare, there are also some more serious bugs

And that should all also be put in context, the M3 Simply/ R4 have been on the market for a while and have had their bugs ironed out in that time, as to whether the bugs will be ironed out in the Real is yet to be seen, but it is too soon to pass a comparative judgement on the final status, for now yes the simply does have some advantages so does the Real, and for me personally the Real fits better due to my using it for Music playing, so while I need only a gig or so for the games i play, I like to have a big playlist on there as well so SDHC for me is still essential regardless of how few game i need

And the compatibility is 100percent with the games as far as i know, it is not however supported by some homebrews, case in point i arguably one of the most popular and important of those is Moonshell, which does not work properly on the Real's at all

Now as for saying the interface is slow, well it is slow. not just the amount of unnecessary steps needed, but the fact it wont let you turn off things like the options page that loads up every time you select a game

But in the end what i was trying to mainly illustrate is that no one can offer a definitive comparison for someone else at all anyways, different people want different things form their cards, I wanted music and megaman games so the Real gives me SDHC for playlists and added GBA support for those shameless cash-ins of the megaman series on the GBA, but if someone just wants to play DS games then you should get a simply, for simply that

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