Hacking M3 Lite

[czw]

Form http://7mc.org/2006/08/m3dslink.html

 

[Dery1990]

Hope its coming soon! Looks nice, the micro sd card loads from the side.

This pic was also on that site, what is it?

 

[XeNoGeaR]

dslink

 

[maduin]

the m3 lite better come out soon, or I may have to just get a supercard lite...

 

[galaxykidgamma]

Hope its coming soon! Looks nice, the micro sd card loads from the side.

This pic was also on that site, what is it?

ignore that, forget it exists

 

[baz8755]

Black, yipeee!!!!!!!

When does this baby hit the UK

 

[Kyro]

anyone notice this description on winsunx about m3 lite

"Higher Speed than M3 before any version "

so m3 lite with micro sd will be faster than m3 minisd. Has it also been anounced elsewhere?

Seeing supercard micro faster than supercard minisd on the castlevania, animal crossing & tony hawk lag tests

the m3 team has to be equal or better than the sc team...

 

[rkenshin]

it already fails due to side loading

 

[midigear]

Umm… where is the golden finger from the cartridge?
Does that mean the PCB still under construction?

 

[CatScam]

it already fails due to side loading

I have to agree, I like the M3 but they always find a way to piss me off.
From high price to side loading to splash screens to slow clunky menus.

 

[meangreenie]

Once you experience taking the mem card out without removing the cart, you never want to go back. Shame on M3 for not realising this, and the probability that they can never manage to write saves straight to the mem card like SC so as to make the user feel like he/she is runnning a real DS cart... but you never know ???


But maybe M3 will get it right this time and drop that PDA crap... as that is fooling no-one.


edit.. so can M3 manage the saves as well as SC..that is the big question for me, as SC manages to make every game feel like the real cart. C'mun M3 we demand you do at least as much as the cut/price competition, what is the problem with writing saves straight to mem card ???

 

[Thorisoka]

I'm not sure, M3 method seems quite more logical

saving in real time in SRAM then restoring it at next booting makes me feel like the save is more authentic...

but after all, both are good saves and it's just a matter of a 1sec waiting screen :/

 

[ron555]

If Supercard had better GBA support, life would be good.

 

[Quay Cur]

it already fails due to side loading

That failure could allow for it to have a GBA sized case just like the G6 Lite. If it loaded from the top there would be no way to do this.

 

[ceraphis]

meangreenie you bring up a good point with your thought on the fact that M3 never really feels like the real cart. It really makes you wonder if the supercard writes directly to the removable storage every time you make a choice or physically save like in advance wars, or whether or not somehow it does it at a specific time like the M3 but the M3 just happens to always take longer.

If that is the case, maybe the reason for the delay is behind the M3's ability to have more than one save even for NDS carts. However, I don't think that is the reason.

I think the reason is because the M3 copies the save to a single SRAM slot when it loads a game. It needs a battery in order to keep this data alive for one reason or another after you turn off the DS without going through a saving process. In order to utilize this single SRAM slot for another game, it needs to copy it back from the SRAM, and then load the SRAM with another set of data for your next game. The only time the M3 can do this is if you tell it to (soft-reset), or when you turn the DS back on, because a DS turned off is without function. The M3 probably can't do this at any time the SRAM is changed, because then it would be using it's resources to so a simple copy/paste job and you'd notice it in game, such as when you fail that Warioware minigame because the M3 decided to copy the save at that time. This would also defeat the purpose of the SRAM entirely and more, screwing up your gaming in the process.

What the supercard probably does is patch the game ROM to direct it's saving to the CF card. This is great and everything when it works, but it's probably been this fact that caused me to lose my meteos savefile when I was told I needed to use the SRAM in a real DS Cart to play Tetris DS when it first came out. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but this has been a problem in other DS games as well such as the recent Rockman ZX.

You ask why can't the M3 do what the supercard does for saving games, and I might ask why can't the supercard do what the M3 does? But I don't ask... because I know the answer: it doesn't have SRAM because the company that makes it wanted to cut costs and price for their consumers.

If the M3's SRAM works so well, why would it's creators want to hack every DS Rom to save to a different memory type? There's probably craploads of tough programming involved that probably isn't worth their time considering the only hiccup of the SRAM saving is the couple seconds of waiting you have to do every time you boot up. The entire time they'd be programming new saving method patches into their software for every DS game, they would actually be hurting their cause because they would be making their use of SRAM and rechargable batteries obsolete. They might then, after doing all that programming, decide they could cut costs by removing the battery and SRAM entirely. This might even hurt their GBA compatibility, and then maybe they'd change their name to the SuperM. Then Nintendo would file suit against them for implying the word "SuperMario" Then they would be out of a job or worse, go to prison and get the wrong side of buttsecks every night, without the common courtesy of a reacharound. Tell me, why would they want to start this chain of events?

I think the M3 can save to the memory card, but it chooses not to. The Supercard, however, can't save to it's own SRAM because it doesn't have any.

edit: I apologize for my extremely long posts

 

[Madrigal]

WTF is taking them so long to release this thing? It's always "in two weeks". Last I heard it would be out on the 15th, but that doesn't look like it will happen now. I've always went with SC, but I was planning on trying the M3 this time. If they don't get the damn thing out very soon, I'll just go with SC again. I doubt it will be an international release like the SC as well, so it will probably be a month or so after the initial release until we see an English version. Damn, this company is slow. Still no English PDA either.

 

[ceraphis]

Yeah you can bet that this m3 version will be pretty popular. SC Lite is more like the affordable, really surprisingly GREAT card for the money, but I feel like lots of people really like what M3 and G6 have to offer, so those will always be the hottest products. I don't even know if anyone other than divineo.com is selling preorders now anyway, and having dealt with their G6 Lite preorder, I can really not recommend them any less. You're much better off getting an SC Lite if you don't mind losing the benefits of the G6 Lite or M3 Lite. Although,....I see exactly what you mean about wanting to try M3 this time. But remember, M3 lite will probably cost just as much as G6 Lite (maybe more with the added microSD card you'd need to buy), and G6 Lite is undoubtedly better in my opinion, it's like "trying" the M3 but with even more perks. You wouldn't even notice the "lack" of space with there only being 512 MB. I have like 20 GBA games and 15 NDS games, and I think thats a great amount. And, just like you, I have a miniSD 1 GB as a sort of "backup" although mine's an M3 so I use it for mainly as many GBA games as possible. Eh whatever, but suffice it to say I can't see any reason why M3 Lite would be "better" in any way than G6 Lite other than the storage space. English version of G6 Lite came to me with white, ice blue, and black cartridges (all my favorites) and the GBA cartridge, and as long as you're careful you'll never corrupt it like alot of people have done it seems. It also gives you the "feel" of trying a real "flash card" instead of removable storage, and I like that too.

 

[Madrigal]

Yeah you can bet that this m3 version will be pretty popular. SC Lite is more like the affordable, really surprisingly GREAT card for the money, but I feel like lots of people really like what M3 and G6 have to offer, so those will always be the hottest products. I don't even know if anyone other than divineo.com is selling preorders now anyway, and having dealt with their G6 Lite preorder, I can really not recommend them any less. You're much better off getting an SC Lite if you don't mind losing the benefits of the G6 Lite or M3 Lite. Although,....I see exactly what you mean about wanting to try M3 this time. But remember, M3 lite will probably cost just as much as G6 Lite (maybe more with the added microSD card you'd need to buy), and G6 Lite is undoubtedly better in my opinion, it's like "trying" the M3 but with even more perks. You wouldn't even notice the "lack" of space with there only being 512 MB. I have like 20 GBA games and 15 NDS games, and I think thats a great amount. And, just like you, I have a miniSD 1 GB as a sort of "backup" although mine's an M3 so I use it for mainly as many GBA games as possible. Eh whatever, but suffice it to say I can't see any reason why M3 Lite would be "better" in any way than G6 Lite other than the storage space. English version of G6 Lite came to me with white, ice blue, and black cartridges (all my favorites) and the GBA cartridge, and as long as you're careful you'll never corrupt it like alot of people have done it seems. It also gives you the "feel" of trying a real "flash card" instead of removable storage, and I like that too.

Thanks for the advice. Thing is I already picked up a 1GB MicroSD card when I preordered the SC Lite from Divineo. I canceled the order when it became clear it's going to be forever before they ship them though. So now I have a 1GB MicroSD and nothing to use it with

. Plus my 1GB MiniSD is barely enough, so there is no way I could get by with 512MB.

Word is still a release on the 15th, but I still find that highly unlikely.

 

[leoedin]

I have just been told that the 20th will be the release date by danny (M3 guy)

Heres hoping!

Leo

 

[Madrigal]

I have just been told that the 20th will be the release date by danny (M3 guy)

Heres hoping!

Leo

About time. Thanks for the news