Intro and need info

[xone]

Hello to all..

I'm new to NDS and the whole gaming world.

Bought my daughter an NDS lite and a couple of games for xmas and while at a party with other kids who also had the lite consoles (there were about six other kids who had them, to my surprise, just then I realized how popular this game console was), one if her games (about hamsters) was lost or misplaced. We asked the other kids but no one had seen it.

Because of the size and portability of the cartridges I guess this could happen specially in a large gathering.

My search to protect against future unwanted incidents above led me to this site. Hoping you folks can help me:

Here is what I know so far from reading here and other sites: Correct me if my understanding is wrong.

1) To be able to run homebrew software I need to buy a passkey (goes into slot1) and a memory card adapter (goes into slot2), or update the firmware by running flashme and shorting the SL1 contacts.

Here is what I need to know:

1) Can I backup/copy game cartridges and use it the same way as homebrew software? If so, how? or please provide link.
2) If I need to buy the passkey and the card adapter to accomplish the above, which brand will be the most compatible and safest to use?

Thanks in advance for any help...
xone...

 

[tama_mog]

1) you are correct if you are using a slot2 flashcard device (usually it's a device that fits into the gba slot 2 and has an interface to take flash media (SD, CF, and variants of SD...the exception is a g6/g6lite, they have fixed amount of onboard memory that's not expandable). Now there are slot1 cards that has passme included and among the top of those are the r4 and m3 simply (identical product, different badging). If you flashed your firmware as you've read, you will not need the passkey that goes in the slot1 anymore, since the DS will now boot straight into slot2 in NDS mode.

2) Yes you can, you would need a dumping tool for games. I'm not sure of an exact link but you can search around these forums, I'm sure someone has mentioned it. You would need your DS flashed because you are dumping the contents of slot 1 into your slot 2 device. If you own the game already, you can resort to finding places on the internet to download the rom as a backup, I cannot mention links because it is against the rules but it is not hard to find if you do some google searches.

3) If you are buying a device to run homebrew AND to dump games on your own, I can only recommend 2 cards, and that's the supercard lite and m3 lite.....The m3 lite gets the nod from me since it's got true 100% compatibiity with DS roms (perhaps updates are a bit faster than supercard team) and better compatibility when running gba games (assuming you don't get the professional version, which limits gba compatibility as well as homebrew). If you just want to download roms that you own the games to on the internet to run them, I suggest getting a r4 or m3 simply since it's very easy to setup and to get games running. Plus you'd just purchase that device and a micro sd card and you're ready to go (assuming you have prepared roms).

Good luck to you and I hope your daughter enjoys her new toy.

 

[xone]

Hey thanks for the quick and detailed response Tama mog.

I will be doing more reading regarding the backing up of the games. From the quick search I did there is mention of R4DS and other codes that does the actual backup. Not sure yet what they are but will continue my searching.

As for searching the net for links of the rom as backup, i've had zero success on that so far. Still need to get used to the words to use for a proper search.

I will look into the supercard lite and the m3 lite products you mentioned.

Again, thanks for your help...