Hacking M3 Real vs. DSTT vs. M3 Simply

[Panic101]

Ok Im trying to decide between these three flashcarts...lemme tell you what I want/dont want in a flashcart.

- Decent/Nice-Looking GUI (Also able to change fonts if possible)
- Skinnable(Nice Skins)
- Fast Updates
- Good Fast Support
- Reliability
- Fast OS (Least Lag If Possible Like while scrolling/booting)
- If its defective, I could easily get a new one
- Great NDS Compatability
- I Dont Care For GBA Compatability that much
- SDHC is cool but not of extreme neccessity
- The features it claims to has work to 100%
- Good Homebrew capability
- Minimal freezing (whitescreens/blackscreens)
- Minimal in-game slowdowns

Does the RTS feature on M3 DS Real work flawlessly, or is it buggy?
If it is buggy, is a fix going to be released in the near future?
Thats about all I could think off right now. Thanks.

 

[comtois]

i just got the DSTT a few weeks ago and here are my thoughts:

so far, 100% working with all games.
also 100% with all homebrew.
i use YSMENU which is very fast and gets lots of updates.
i have had NO freezing in about 100 hours of gameplay.
nice skins.
SDHC is great, 4GB of storage on mine.
NO issues with the SDHC reader, though many people have complained.

ok, now here's the biggest con with buying the DSTT and i most likely would not have gotten it if i had known about it previously:

only runs clean ROMs.

this means that the patched version of Jump! Ultimate Stars does not run, and this just happen to be the main reason i bought the cart. so, if you don't care about that game being translated (or others possibly), then get a DSTT because it works and it's cheap!

 

[Sinkhead]

Ok Im trying to decide between these three flashcarts...lemme tell you what I want/dont want in a flashcart.

Please allow me to be of assistance

- Decent/Nice-Looking GUI (Also able to change fonts if possible)
- Skinnable(Nice Skins)

All carts can be skinned however the M3 Simply probably has the most skins at the moment.
In terms of the amounts of skins available it goes M3S > TTDS > M3R, in terms of the amount of skinnable elements it goes M3R > TTDS > M3S. None of the carts have changable fonts.

- Fast Updates

M3S doesn't really get any updates except compatibility fixes. I would say it goes M3R > TTDS > M3S

- Fast OS (Least Lag If Possible Like while scrolling/booting)

M3S > TTDS > M3R

- If its defective, I could easily get a new one

This depends on the shop you buy from.

- I Dont Care For GBA Compatability that much

M3R has built-in GBA support in certain bundles, all the others don't but can use other expansion packs like the Ewin and EZ-Flash ones

- SDHC is cool but not of extreme neccessity

M3R and TTDS support SDHC

- Minimal in-game slowdowns

Only Castlevania: PoR and Tony Hawk's seem to have slowdowns on all cards, to solve them you need a fast MicroSD card like the 'SD-C01G JAPAN' ones.

Does the RTS feature on M3 DS Real work flawlessly, or is it buggy?
If it is buggy, is a fix going to be released in the near future?

The GBA RTS is a bit buggy, it does not have NDS RTS

Thats about all I could think off right now. Thanks.

You're welcome. Oh, and if I missed a point out it's because they should all have this feature and the quote feature breaks if you use it too many times...

 

[Panic101]

thanks sinkhead, i think im leaning towards the m3dsreal even more now. I have another question does the m3real have a-z filesort? or do i have to use a program to sort it alphabetically, if i do which is a good program to do so?

 

[innercy]

- Decent/Nice-Looking GUI (Also able to change fonts if possible)
- Skinnable(Nice Skins)
dstt have a nice simple skin/interface... there are no selection icons in main menu. all setting can be adjusted within rom/rom list...
-m3 real got the worst skin...

- Fast Updates
- Good Fast Support

- Reliability
- Fast OS (Least Lag If Possible Like while scrolling/booting)

|fast| dstt>m3 simply>m3 real |slow|

QUOTE(Panic101 @ Feb 27 2008, 05:15 PM)

- Great NDS Compatability
- I Dont Care For GBA Compatability that much

yes... all card can run all games... nothing to worry about...

 

[ojsinnerz.]

I would recommend M3 DS real, if it wasn't so slow.... It takes very long to load games, and some people says that the M3 Real is made up of cheap plastic. If you're gonna get M3 real, I'm sure the M3/G6 team will fix the major problems, since they did so for all of their products, but for now, it's not so great.

 

[vmkstar99]

I think that one thing that everyone's forgetting is Sakura.

Sure, M3 DS Real is slow, but Sakura is super-fast when run on it.


I'd say get yourself an M3 DS Real "Perfect" bundle which includes M3 Real, Rumble Pack, and GBA/RAM expansion pack (it also comes with a DS-Phat GBA size replacement shell for GBA Expansion Pack)(DealExtreme has this package for $45 and free shipping, but it's a long wait but the better deal if you have no rush). Then download the Sakura/Real/iTouch ENGLISH triple-boot firmware onto it. Do all of this and you've got yourself an amazing GUI (Sakura), nice skins (M3 DS Real has an amazing Vista skin built in, while there's a great library of great skins for Sakura out there), great support (M3 DS Real), a blazing fast OS (Sakura), great NDS compatability (all three firmwares have this), great GBA compatability (Sakura and DS Real, not sure about iTouch, with the GBA Expansion Pack, can run GBA games amazingly), SDHC support (all three firmwares), features work 100%, great homebrew capability (Sakura from the triple-boot is not yet capable of running homebrew, M3 DS Real is and I think iTouch is too), and very few in-game slowdowns (I suppose all games).

All those features in one 45$ bundle and a download.

However, soft-reset doesn't work with triple-boot and the M3 DS Real cartridge does feel a bit plastic-y.


Overall, I think M3 DS Real is the way to go. Just gotta have enough patience to turn off/on the DS yourself when done playing a game, and don't be so rough on your M3 DS Real.

 

[littlestevie]

M3DS real with sakura firmware is the fastest firmware i have seen on any card.... and there is only one game i have had any problems what so ever with and that is DBBX because of the 8MByte save file.... and there are still a few carts out there that have problems with this

 

[gosp]

M3 Real is the best. Use the triple boot firmware so you can use Sakura for normal roms and Real for homebrew. Sakura is an amazing firmware, and Real isn't hard to use. If you go with the GBA expansion for the M3 real, you won't regret it.

 

[ENDscape]

Why would you compare M3Real and M3Simply? The M3DSR is obviously better. Dont know what to say about DSTT.

 

[Bri]

The DSTT doesn't really meet your criteria. Its skin support is quite limited, and its menu is laggy when scrolling. It also lacks many of the basic features found in nearly every other cart in its price range (for example it doesn't sort games alphabetically and doesn't organize games into folders). The DSTT is probably a good cart for smaller kids though.

M3 Sakura might be a good choice, but I don't believe there is an official English version out yet despite the Japanese version having been out for some time now. I don't know if this is indicative of future support or not.

The Acekard 2 would be a good choice, as it probably has the nicest, most responsive, and most customizable menu available.

The Edge might also be worth considering.

If you have the money and feel the extra features are worth the extra cost, the CycloDS is certainly worth consideration.

-Bri

 

[CorruptJon]

You guys do know this topic is 6 months old right?

 

[Bri]

Actually, no I didn't look at the date of the OP (and apparently wasn't the only one)!

-Bri

 

[gosp]

All hail the uber necro.

 

[Satangel]

I'd put my vote on the DSTT flashcard
It's a great card, good support from the team, decent build quality and has SDHC support.

 

[IOwnAndPwnU]

I'd say the DSTT.
From what I've heard, the M3 breaks easily and is kinda expensive-r.