<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.
<b>Side by side with other DS cards</b>
Old neopass. ISMM. Original EZ5. Advance Wars DS.
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmcartcomp.JPG" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>PCB shots</b>
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>
<b>Packaging and extras</b>
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" />
<b>Software/menu</b>
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.
<b>Base/initial menu</b>
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmbasemenu.JPG" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>DS menu</b>
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmdsmenushot.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>DS rom options</b>
<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).
<b>DSi XL</b>
<img src="http://pix.gbatemp.net/32303/ismmdsixlvideo.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>DS original</b>
<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><b>NDS Homebrew Compatibility:</b><ul><li>AlienDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>AngunaDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Animanatee - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Apple Assault - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>AtariDS (StellaDS) - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>BGMFiler - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Blocks Mania: Another Dream - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>BombjackDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Caverns Of Kalte (LoneWolfDS) - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>ChaosDS: The Battle of Wizards - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Clirc - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Colors! - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>ComicbookDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>DetectiveDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>DS 1942 - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>DS 1943 - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>DSDoom - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>DS Goo: Celebrity Edition - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>DSNotes - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>DSPack - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>DSx86 - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Element DS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Fire on the Water (LoneWolfDS) - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Flight From the Dark (LoneWolfDS) - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>GBA Exploader - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b> (unable to boot GBA mode after 3in1+ NOR write with v.58b, v58b0 works fine)</li><li>Inside the Machine - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>jEnesisDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>JNKPlat08: Platdudes Happy Endings - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>JNKPlat Xmas - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Knytt Stories DS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Lameboy - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b>/<b><font color="blue">Problems</font></b> (Rumble does not work, rumble test black screens)</li><li>Manic Miner in The Lost Levels - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Mario Paint Composer - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b>/<b><font color="blue">Problems</font></b> (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 - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b> </li><li>Moonshell - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b> (Reset requires dsi2.nds, or launch ismart.nds)</li><li>Mr. Do! DS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>NeoDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>NeoPlatDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>NesDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>NitroTracker - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>OpenTyrian DS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>OperationLibra - <b><font color="RED">Fail</font></b> (Black Screen, does not load)</li><li>PocketPhysics - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>PowderDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>QuakeDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Quake2DS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Red Temple - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>REminiscenceDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Ripholes in Rubbish - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Rise of the Triad DS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>S8DS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>ScummVMDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Sexy Blackjack Trainer II featuring Maria Ozawa - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Shadow on the Sand (LoneWoldDS) - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Shooting Watch DS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>SNEmulDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Snow Bros. - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Solomon DS. - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>StarquakeDS. - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Still Alive DS. - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Take the Eggs! - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Tetris the grand masters - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>The Chasm of Doom (LoneWolfDS) - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>UAPaint - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>Video Game Hero - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>WarhawkDS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></li><li>World of Sand DS - <b><font color="green">Pass</font></b></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.
