iSmart MM first impressions

FAST6191 · Dec 1, 2010

iSmart MM first impressions
Enhanced flash cart in house at GBAtemp

A few days back the iSmart DS team sent us a couple of iSmart MM devices to review. A full review should be coming up within the next couple of weeks but in the meantime Another World and I did some quick testing to allow us to give you all our first impressions of the device.

For those that missed the announcements the iSmart MM is a flash cart with extra onboard processing capabilities from the relatively new iSmartDS team.
Featured touted by the iSmart MM include an onboard video player supporting RMVB, RM, AVI, FLV, MPG, WMV, MOV, 3GP (you might note most of those are technically containers for video) and audio in MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, WAV, AAC, OGG, RA and M4A.
Rom support does feature in this and given the nature of the cart it rightly aims for much more than the basic “plays roms” and is said to feature high grade savestates, real time guide and real time cheats as well as the usual cheats, slow motion and countermeasures for games with anti-piracy features.
Another benefit to this enhanced processing capability is that GBA games can be emulated with no need for things like a GBA slot expansion pack.

All these features will be pushed to breaking in the review proper but for our first impressions we gave them a quick spin. Full write up after the jump.

First impressions

Discuss

FAST6191 · Dec 1, 2010

<div class="reviewbreak"><a name="a"></a>GBAtemp iSmart MM first impressions.</div>

For those who have not heard much about this device yet the iSmart MM is the newest of the “enhanced flash cards” to be released- depending on how you look at it most flash cards have some level of enhancement/hardware assistance but this is the third true enhanced flash card and only the second after the DSTWO to support commercial roms.
What this means to the end user (other than a bit less battery life) is the ability to watch videos, have an onboard GBA emulator (originally you would have to get a GBA flash card/expansion pack) which is doubly nice for those on a DSi or DSi XL that otherwise lack any GBA capabilities and while it is a bit lacking at this point in time enhanced features for homebrew.

*it is a new device and the SDK is still to come- mirroring some of the earlier DS flash cards it will make some homebrew/plugins cart specific.

The hardware itself as some may have seen is a copy of the iplayer but this is no knockoff/clone like we have seen countless times in the R4 world though. The iSmartDS team much like many others in electronic and technology license designs or partner up with established companies for hardware and then provide the software and support for the device. This software and support in flash cart world more so than most other technology arenas is what ultimately makes or breaks a device.
Before we get onto that though the hardware itself is good- a spring loaded top facing slot, the plastic case which is made from nice enough plastic is held together with a screw and some slide/locking tabs, the chips are a bit raised and that caused it to slowly slide out on both an original DS and a DSi XL although by no means could it be considered to have got stuck. Fish Tycoon was the icon on a DSi XL and an original DS.
The contacts themselves are an interesting arrangement of plastic spacers and clear gaps (in the past it was said Nintendo somehow managed to get a patent on the idea of having plastic spacers between the contacts) with them at the edges and the middle (see also picture below) which is good as those are usually the trouble ones in slightly broken slots.

Side by side with other DS cards
Old neopass. ISMM. Original EZ5. Advance Wars DS.
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmcartcomp.JPG" border="0" class="linked-image" />

PCB shots
Apologies for the bad quality, some scans will appear for the final review. Click to enlarge them.
<a href="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmbackPCBlarge.JPG" target="_blank"><img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmbackPCBlarge.JPG.tn.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmcartfrolarge.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmcartfrolarge.jpg.tn.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>

Packaging and extras
The box itself is a simple shiny cardboard box wrapped over a high quality foam/expanded polystyrene type container. This version at least has a SDHC reader in keychain/USB drive type form factor that aside from the silk screened text is the same as the one that shipped with some of the EZVi cards- it probably will not replace a true high quality reader but for throwing things around you could do far worse.

<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmfrontcase.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/issmmbackcase.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Software/menu
Upon launching the menu you are presented with a 5 icon menu you can switch between, here is where you select DS mode, GBA emulator or video mode (and presumably other plugins later in life).
Touchscreen is supported here but the only icon you can click on is the currently selected one (arrows and a scroll bar option site at the bottom of the screen). The plugins will be covered in later sections but there is something of a UI disconnect between the three standard ones- they all work well enough/do what they need to do but it can be kind of jarring switching between them.
It is not the fastest from power to game but it is by no means slow.
Select switches between full size icons and straight up text (no mini icons)
Start opens (skins, languages, brightness (no change on original DS), expansion pack settings and languages)
Pressing X when a commercial rom is highlighted gains the options menu.

There are a few quirks to work out like the scrolling once it gets going being very rapid (touch screen and the dpad make that something of a non issue depending on how you look at it), there is no memory of last launched rom and the ordering of files and directories seemingly takes note of the case of the the letters (not random but after a lifetime of simple ordering it can take a bit to get used to).,

Cart updates are automatically detected but you may well have to manually remove the update file once it is done.

Base/initial menu
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmbasemenu.JPG" border="0" class="linked-image" />

DS menu
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmdsmenushot.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

DS rom options
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmdsoptions.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<div class="reviewbreak"><a name="c"></a>Video</div>

For most the important question is “does typical scene xvid grade video work” for which the answer is it works very well- films, cartoons and TV shows on the way to the daily grind are more than possible (even better it has a resume function- the card makes 16 byte isk files to do the deed). H264 (youtube 480x360) did manage to decode but stuttered a lot.
The anime crowd might have trouble with complex softsubs (substation and vobsub- idx and sub files) and MKV not to mention the general shift of that world to H264 video but it is not hard to convert and unlike other video options for the DS it can be done easily on any platform with simple/common tools.
The officially supported formats are RMVB,RM,AVI,FLV,MPG,WMV,MOV,3GP but on top of that we have been able to get MP4 working by renaming to .mov (MOV and MP4 are very similar- indeed a common trick is to rename mov files to mp4 not to mention m4a over on the audio player is MP4 by any other name) so maybe in the future it will be added, as of yet we have not had chance to test some of the more exotic real, quicktime and WMV encodes which traditionally can trouble hardware/third party decoding.
Quality of all this is not quite PSP grade but if you have been able to watch a video on the DS in the past this is top range of that. The DSi XL (which scales up the screen by itself) works well too.

Audio wise it is a functional player (we have yet to get down and dirty with formats and try exotic/high end profiles and otherwise push limits)- it lacks the volume boost of moonshell which might trouble some people (although the moonshell volume boost tends to result in clipping) and the niceties of something like LMP-NG. The screen turns off (and stops updating) after a short pause, closing the lid is supported too. Similarly during the AVI tests 5.1 AC3 audio (common in DVDs and DVDrips of TV shows) played back and at first blush appeared to downmix as well (proper tests are still to come for that one).

DSi XL
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmdsixlvideo.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

DS original
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmdsvideo.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<div class="reviewbreak"><a name="d"></a>GBA emulator</div>
The GBA is an interesting point for flash cards and the like- unlike the NES, SNES and other cards of the era very little was ever done that made flash cards difficult (the NES had many mappers, the SNES had all sorts of onboard chips) not to mention they were probably the first true mass market flash cards. This means that good GBA capable flash cards (which are seeing something of a resurgence these last few months) can play just about everything that is out there without issue beyond maybe having to apply a simple patch. The enhanced DS flash card emulators while providing a more than workable option have so far failed to live up to this legacy- <a href="http://gbatemp.net/t232281-supercard-dstwo-review#g" target="_blank"><a href="http://gbatemp.net/t232281-supercard-dstwo-review#g" target="_blank">http://gbatemp.net/t232281-supercard-dstwo-review#g</a></a>
Frameskip is a must although it is not really noticeable (mario advance titles, kirby and megaman battle network 5 attest to that one). Compared to other emulators the lack of a touchscreen in the emulator settings does make things a bit annoying (curiously you can set the touchscreen to awaken the emulator options in a game)but when it comes down to it all it is all about the games.
Cheats, savestates, screengrabs and fastforward are available as is the ability to remap controls.
The trouble games (even with most of their ranks being titles like the classic nes that are better off being emulated by a NES emulator) and homebrew (which as you can see above was a big failing of the emulators still need to be tested).

<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmgbaemu.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<div class="reviewbreak"><a name="e"></a>DS Code</div>
While there are flash cards without rom support they almost always win or lose on compatibility and when that is not enough the extra features on top of that. The iplayer notably does not support commercial games so this is a change in direction. Between the EZFlash hardware/software the team used in their iSmart premium and the supercard team (who were behind the iplayer) this device has a lot to live up to as both of those teams are among the top tier names in DS flash cards. Seen as at time of writing there are about 5400 unique roms available testing is always going to be a pick and choose type affair and what was zero day two months ago is old hat today.
The usual selection of cart fillers and roms worked, testing is very much ongoing but it looks to have good compatibility at this stage.

From the product literature
ROMs Support:

* Four Slots Real Time Save, Real Time Guide (text and BMP image) and Real Time Cheat (.DAT format).
* Multiple languages: English, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Korean)
* Built-in NDS/GBA emulator
* Hardware supports Slow Motion (4 speeds)
* Anti-Piracy, no patches needed for anti-piracy built-in games.

In addition to this you have a cheat finding mode which is great fun to use although it is limited to your basic search/fuzzy search type cheats (if you have ever used an action replay on a console or followed a basic guide) rather than some of the more elaborate methods that can be/are used to create some of the high end cheats (indeed if you were to try it against some of the more elaborate anti cheat measures (mirrored values and whatnot) it would probably hold up but it would not be pleasant).

Cheats by and large are there to poke memory into something else and can have a few run conditions. The recent trend (although some older firmwares and carts defied it) has been towards having cheats there from the game launch. Having them activate later can allow for cheats that might otherwise crash a game (often right away), cause it to do very odd things on certain levels or possibly even break the game- in RPGs how many times have you needed to lose a battle to advance the plot, while you can work around such things it often takes a far more complex to implement hold buttons/tap the screen to refill health type of arrangement or venturing into the realms of full on game hacking.

As is standard for this sort of thing soft reset is available.
Slow motion is the standard flood the CPU with time wasting instructions (although it is better than the rapid press of the start button) that has been around for a long while which varies depending on games (some games can take all it can throw at it without blinking and others might crash)- there is a nice selection mode for it though which is useful for games that just need to have the edge taken off rather than outright slowed to a crawl.
Four slot savestates is nice too- even better it has time and date stamps.
As well as four savestates slots there are also four regular save banks which might be useful for some.
Game guide works well enough, the BMP image option goes some way to offsetting the full on markup format the EZ5i sports and is quite useful by itself.
Clean mode (forgoes extra features and the like to often enable unfixed roms to work) and patched mode (might trip anti piracy but allows cheats and other fun extras) is available.

The extra processing power at this stage in life appears not to have any real effect on the stability of these extra features so much like other devices with these features it is still best policy to wait for a slow point in the game to use savestates and otherwise play around with such things unless you already know a game will take it.

The first menu you see on launching the IGM.
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmigmbase.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

The cheat search options
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmcheatsearch.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

The slowdown section
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmigmslow.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Save state loading
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmssload.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<div class="reviewbreak"><a name="f"></a>Homebrew</div>
Gone are the days of just having a functioning DLDI patch- today to be a true homebrewers cart you need ARGV support (presently lacking in this) and be able to function with expansion packs all while providing a reasonable write/read speed. DLDI still needs to be pushed a bit but Another World did a lot of homebrew testing in addition to a few choice bits of homebrew.

NDS Homebrew and NDS retail ROM dumps were tested on a DS Lite and a DSi XL using a 2 GB Japanese Kingston microSD card, an 8 GB Class-6 Transcend microSD card and two 4 GB Class-4 Taiwan Kingston microSD card, formatted with the Panasonic Formatting Tool v2.9.0.5.

Each result is listed below by Homebrew or NDS ROM name followed by a color coded phrase. Green colored phrases mean the file performed as expected with no problems. Blue colored phrases mean the file performed with some problems. Problems could include speed issues, compatibility problems, graphical issues, in-game menu issues, etc. A generalized listing of encountered problems was added next to each appropriate section. Red colored phrases mean that the file failed. Failed files were additionally tested on either an Acekard 2.1, Acekard 2i, SuperCard DS2, R4DS, or an M3 Lite.

I attempted to test the latest revisions of Homebrew projects. For popular Homebrew projects I tested the most downloaded revision and not the latest BETAs. In regards to NDS retail ROM dumps I tested only N. American dumps verified by CRC against the NDS Good-set listing. When a N. American dump was not available the European (E) or Japanese (J) dump was tested instead.

<a name="g1"></a>NDS Homebrew Compatibility:<ul><li>AlienDS - Pass</li><li>AngunaDS - Pass</li><li>Animanatee - Pass</li><li>Apple Assault - Pass</li><li>AtariDS (StellaDS) - Pass</li><li>BGMFiler - Pass</li><li>Blocks Mania: Another Dream - Pass</li><li>BombjackDS - Pass</li><li>Caverns Of Kalte (LoneWolfDS) - Pass</li><li>ChaosDS: The Battle of Wizards - Pass</li><li>Clirc - Pass</li><li>Colors! - Pass</li><li>ComicbookDS - Pass</li><li>DetectiveDS - Pass</li><li>DS 1942 - Pass</li><li>DS 1943 - Pass</li><li>DSDoom - Pass</li><li>DS Goo: Celebrity Edition - Pass</li><li>DSNotes - Pass</li><li>DSPack - Pass</li><li>DSx86 - Pass</li><li>Element DS - Pass</li><li>Fire on the Water (LoneWolfDS) - Pass</li><li>Flight From the Dark (LoneWolfDS) - Pass</li><li>GBA Exploader - Pass (unable to boot GBA mode after 3in1+ NOR write with v.58b, v58b0 works fine)</li><li>Inside the Machine - Pass</li><li>jEnesisDS - Pass</li><li>JNKPlat08: Platdudes Happy Endings - Pass</li><li>JNKPlat Xmas - Pass</li><li>Knytt Stories DS - Pass</li><li>Lameboy - Pass/Problems (Rumble does not work, rumble test black screens)</li><li>Manic Miner in The Lost Levels - Pass</li><li>Mario Paint Composer - Pass/Problems (No <a href="http://devkitpro.org/wiki/Homebrew_Menu#ARGV_Protocol" target="_blank">argv</a> support, <a href="http://filetrip.net/f22886-Homebrew-Menu-1-1.html" target="_blank">HB Menu</a> Required)</li><li>Meteora - Pass </li><li>Moonshell - Pass (Reset requires dsi2.nds, or launch ismart.nds)</li><li>Mr. Do! DS - Pass</li><li>NeoDS - Pass</li><li>NeoPlatDS - Pass</li><li>NesDS - Pass</li><li>NitroTracker - Pass</li><li>OpenTyrian DS - Pass</li><li>OperationLibra - Fail (Black Screen, does not load)</li><li>PocketPhysics - Pass</li><li>PowderDS - Pass</li><li>QuakeDS - Pass</li><li>Quake2DS - Pass</li><li>Red Temple - Pass</li><li>REminiscenceDS - Pass</li><li>Ripholes in Rubbish - Pass</li><li>Rise of the Triad DS - Pass</li><li>S8DS - Pass</li><li>ScummVMDS - Pass</li><li>Sexy Blackjack Trainer II featuring Maria Ozawa - Pass</li><li>Shadow on the Sand (LoneWoldDS) - Pass</li><li>Shooting Watch DS - Pass</li><li>SNEmulDS - Pass</li><li>Snow Bros. - Pass</li><li>Solomon DS. - Pass</li><li>StarquakeDS. - Pass</li><li>Still Alive DS. - Pass</li><li>Take the Eggs! - Pass</li><li>Tetris the grand masters - Pass</li><li>The Chasm of Doom (LoneWolfDS) - Pass</li><li>UAPaint - Pass</li><li>Video Game Hero - Pass</li><li>WarhawkDS - Pass</li><li>World of Sand DS - Pass</li></ul>
<div class="reviewbreak"><a name="g"></a>Closing thoughts</div>
With that we end our first impressions and seen as we have not had time to do a review no conclusion will be given at this point beyond noting that it is certainly not your standard flash card clone, it has nice features and will make for a good piece of hardware to review.

RupeeClock · Dec 1, 2010

On the surface, it really just appears to be a modified DSTwo, but relying on a dated version of NDSGBA...

Kiekoes · Dec 1, 2010

Holy.... That looks a lot like the SuperCard DSTWO.

Costello · Dec 1, 2010

in a nutshell: a knock-off of the SCDSTWO (CPU less powerful), with less features (no SNES emu, worse GBA...)
... sold at the same price?

wtf are they thinking?
who would buy the IMM over the SCDSTWO?

Mbmax · Dec 1, 2010

I repeat again, this flashcart is based on the iPlayer hardware, not on the dstwo !
I made some battery drain test on my first impression review and the iSMM got better result than my dstwo.

Another World · Dec 1, 2010

it’s actually really nice, especially compared to the scds2. more information about the origin of the design and who coded the menu will probably come out in the final review. i think to steal the scds2 dominated market they need to have the price drop a bit. users are going to be reluctant to pick this up for a few dollars less than the scds2. with that said, i do really like this card so far. it fits a bit snug, the in-game menu has a few minor issues, but compatibility seems to be high. ismartds worked really hard to make the video player something a bit special. i was told by their rep that it should be better than the scds2 video player, something we still really need to test for the full review. there is a public sdk planned, as fast mentioned, so their remains the possibility of some sfc emulation and perhaps ports by alekmaul.

great job with the hands-on impressions fast =).

-another world

Warrior522 · Dec 1, 2010

...it's just a DStwo/iPlayer knockoff...

Costello · Dec 1, 2010

Mbmax said:
I repeat again, this flashcart is based on the iPlayer hardware, not on the dstwo !
I made some battery drain test on my first impression review and the iSMM got better result than my dstwo.

though you're not exactly impartial when it comes to EZ stuff (extend that to iSmart, for some reason)

anyway i wouldnt get this over a SCDSTWO for a few more minutes worth of battery, but thats just me.
waiting to see the improves on the video player like AW said, THIS could be a true addition, and also we shall see what people do of the public SDK.
even though some will say the release of a public SDK is just an excuse for the team not to support their cart (or rather to have it supported by other people, free of charge)

Killermech · Dec 1, 2010

I wonder how long it'll be before we get R4 SUPAH with a processor now.

Another World · Dec 1, 2010

Warrior522 said:
...it's just a DStwo/iPlayer knockoff...

its not a knockoff, and while i appreciate your opinion its based on an outside perspective. it is OEM. supercard coded the menu. will anyone ever admit to that in public, probably not. but i have my sources and i'm confident about what i've just typed.

think of this project as fixing the 4mb homebrew limitation of the iplayer, adding a revamped video player, and adding commercial rom support. instead of doing all of that for free as a homebrew project for the iplayer they created a business plan to make a bit of money. buying tested designs and official support is an excellent business plan that requires little "know how" from those who are investing. pretty much the way all business plans work. you can’t fault them for that. its not a clone, its not reverse engineered, its not a knock-off, its not fake, etc.

i would appreciate it if everyone stopped classifying it as such. ismartds is not the next “r4” company.

with that said, let the full review speak for the quality of the card when it is published.

-another world

Mbmax · Dec 1, 2010

Costello said:
though you're not exactly impartial when it comes to EZ stuff (extend that to iSmart, for some reason)

Well no. The iSMM is not tied at all to ez team. And really not.

Ps : 25 minutes is a "few minutes" for you ? Well, not for me.

Rydian · Dec 1, 2010

He meant extend the fact that you're not impartial to iSmart.

Mbmax · Dec 1, 2010

I'm not a reviewer, you get the point now guys ?
So, stop talking about be impartial or not.
Thanks.

RoMee · Dec 1, 2010

you guys have to understand, a new comer to the scene will see this as a dstwo knock offs
I believe you guys when you say it's not a clone, but just look at it, iplayer hardware with what looks like modified dstwo software, most people(with less knowledge of the scene) will call it a dstwo/iplayer knock offs, and move on
And I too think the price is too high for a slower cart, if priced around $20 to $25 is would be a great alternative to the DSTWO, but I doubt anyone would pay this kind of money when they can get a better cart in the dstwo..the only advantage this cart seem to have over the dstwo is a few minutes

I will pick one up out of curiosity. but I don't see it getting much use, I hope I'm wrong
I see this cart getting fade out when the cycloDS iEvo is released

I also think the iSmart team is relying too much on outside coders..Seems like they're hoping someone come and make their flash cart great like what normmatt did for acekard or YWG did for R4

shakirmoledina · Dec 1, 2010

at first i thought "why are they praising it so much? Isnt it basically SC?" and then Ahhh.... its as i think
will it be much cheaper than SC? thts the only selling point

midnightshinigam · Dec 1, 2010

I would like to see a comparison review between this and the SCDS2, just because I'm curious about their differences.

I'll be honest and admit I don't know much about homebrew or programming, so from what I can see it does look like a clone/fake/whatever. That was my initial reaction to seeing those screens. I'll trust you guys that it's not and move on with that. That being said, I think this cart is graphically nicer than SCDS2 and to me looks a little more polished. That's the one area where I think the SCDS2 is lacking in. Their menus need work. The extra bit of battery life is a plus, but it being a slower cart isn't.

How's the support from the iSmart team? Better or worse than Supercard?

Etalon · Dec 1, 2010

If it's the same hardware as the iPlayer: Why can't iPlayer users use the iSmart MM firmware then?

Killermech · Dec 1, 2010

Etalon said:
If it's the same hardware as the iPlayer: Why can't iPlayer users use the iSmart MM firmware then?

Obviously it's pretty hard to tinker with some minor things of its hardware so the source code won't be entirely compatible.
But if you want the comprehensive short version: $$$
Pretty much the same reason why you don't have the DSTWO Snes emulator working off the bat on the iPlayer, as it would've probably required minimal tweaking for it to work on iPlayer as well.
After all, you want the old iPlayer owners to buy a new DSTWO.

Etalon · Dec 1, 2010

Killermech said:
After all, you want the old iPlayer owners to buy a new DSTWO.

Yes. I know. But we iPlayer owners will NEVER buy a DSTwo. I'll better buy a CycloDSi, just because we HATE Team TS.

iSmart MM first impressions

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