Hacking M3DS Real with Sakura

[Skyline969]

So let's see if I have this correct BEFORE I buy my M3DS Real....
I have downloaded the Sakura firmware from here (this one) and I have the SYSTEM folder ready to rock on my SD Micro card. I even created a skins folder in the SYSTEM folder and loaded it with 2 or 3 .SKN files.
I have my NDS folder with my backup ROMs ready to be copied once my archive is fully complete. Should take me another hour or so of free time.
A MEDIA folder has been created and I have my MP3s in it. I intend on converting a few videos I have downloaded into the proper format with the video conversion tool provided with my Sakura download and throw those files into the MEDIA folder as well.
Homebrew? Screw it - I don't have a single file. However, I wouldn't mind it IF SNEmulDS or whatever it's called (the SNES emulator) was fully supported. Someone please look into that for me?

Anyways, I have all that ready to be copied to my SD Micro card, and I'm placing an order for my M3DS Real card in a week or two. All I have to do is copy those files over to the card root, stick the card into the M3DS, put it into my DS, and play, right? If not, someone please let me know what else I need to do. I'm an advanced computer user (programmer in my free time), so if some advanced preparations are required, don't hesitate to go into detail.

Thanks in advance,
Skyline969

EDIT: The SD Micro card is one I purchased from eBay. It doesn't seem bad for a 2 GB, but the class isn't stated. Take a look for yourself.
EDIT[2]: I am purchasing my M3DS Real from DealExtreme. I'm gonna get the rumble set, but chances are I'll throw away the rumble pack as I don't even want it.

 

[Joe88]

you got everything good to go
just stick it in
the triple boot would be better though

anyway for the microsd card
its unbranded, bad specs looking at reviews elsewhere, way to slow for ds use
get one for a reliable retailer and not ebay, 4GB+ is recommended, you might kick your self later on if you dont go SDHC

now the actual m3 real I suggest getting the perfect bundle, with gba and rumble + the m3 real
that way you can take full advantage of the special built in gba functions(GBA RTS, RTC, CHEATS), and faster loading and such for sakura
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14165

 

[Intimidator88]

I agree with joe88 if your getting the m3 real then you should get the perfect bundle pack so you get the gba exp pack with it to play gba roms and maybe a bigger microsd card cause in the ends it worth it and from a better site then ebay.

Btw SNEmulDS aint worth using IMO cause not alot of games work and the ones that do the bottom of the game is cut off.Also i suggest using triple boot system file instead of Sakura too cause it gives you the default system file,Sakura and Itouch all in 1 so its the best of both worlds of you know what i mean.Heres a link to it

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=3620

If your looking for more homebrew then i suggest Lameboy for gb and gbc games,nesDS for reg nes games and jEnesisDS for sega games, link to a topic that gives links for them and links for other emulators you might want.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=70364


Also dont forget the 1st time you put your microSD card you need to format it,I forgot to do that when i got my m3 real few months back xD

 

[Skyline969]

Thanks, all. Embarassing to note, I don't have that much money to invest in the M3 Perfect bundle, and from some forums from another site (I forget the name... had Max in it though) the GBA Expansion pack bricked a few DS Lites. I don't want that. Besides, the only GBA games I play I either have an emulator for on my laptop or I will play the games on my GBA SP.

Why should I use the triple boot? iTouchDS, Sakura, and the original M3 Real firmware? Meh, I'll stick with Sakura because I'm not gonna be using homebrew, and the original M3 Real firmware is slow as hell. I've never even HEARD of iTouchDS before....

I'll definitely be formatting my SD Micro to FAT32 before I put anything on it, that's a given. In the future when I acquire some extra cash I will probably upgrade my SD Micro card to an SDHC, maybe something in the 4th-6th class range. But for now the $10 one I already bought will have to do. And as for the capacity, 2 gigs will be enough. I've estimated it to be around 5-10 ROMs and enough hours of music for a DS. How much space would a 700 MB AVI movie take up once converted though?

And Joe88, are you a Half-Life fan? If so, perhaps you would like to face me in a one-on-one match on Half-Life online. Not number two, not Counter-Strike, but the first ever Half Life. It's all my computer can handle, but it's incredibly fun online.

 

[Joe88]

you mean maxcounsle?
never heard of the gba pack bricking, no cases here
there was very few cases when the m3 real was just released that the cart it self bricked ds's
it seemed to be a problem with a certain ver though, its long gone though
my gba pack has been working fine since I got it way back in april

for the triple loader, it nice to have the other firmwares if you need them at hand
certain games may only work with the normal firmware, thats where the triple loader comes in
by default it boots sakura, if you X when your turn it on it boots m3 real firmware, if you hold Y it boots the iTouch firmware, and if you hold nothing and just turn it on, it loads sakura
it for convenience, I just stick with the normal regular firmware, because of NDS RTS

my microsd already came with FAT32 preformated so just had to drop roms on it
im not sure about the movie conversion, I never bothered with that, have a PSP and a Zune for portable videos and such
I will say to use a rom trimmer, can reduce the size of roms with no problems
the m3 rom trimmer batch worked fine for me
http://down.gbalpha.com/GBalpha/Softwares/...l_V1.00beta.zip
I could fit 97 NDS roms, 43 GBA roms on my 4GB and still have 200MB left using that

 

[Skyline969]

So I wouldn't have to worry about the GBA Expansion in the Perfect bundle bricking my DS? Sounds good. Would that allow me to download and use the DS Opera Browser? And yes, MaxConsole is the name of the site, thanks for reminding me.
I just downloaded the ROM Trimmer and cut down all my ROMs to size. I imagine all it does is remove dead space and other stuff, huh?
If all you really use the original M3 DS Real firmware for over Sakura is RTS, I'll stick with Sakura as I don't use RTS. I assume, of course, that RTS is Real-Time Save, the equivalent to a save state using an emulator. Yeah, I never use that in emulators. Ever.
I used the movie converter on a video I downloaded from YouTube and it did the video fine, but the video playback tool that comes with the converter made the sound all garbled. I wonder if that's directly from the converter being a piece of crap or if it's because my computer is only a Pentium III 600 MHz with 256 MB RAM. Or maybe it was some faulty settings. In any case, videos work... halfway.
Regardless if the SD Micro comes preformatted or not, I'm still gonna reformat it just to make sure it's wiped clean. It could be possible to have a hidden file on there that could wreck something. eBay, y'know, can't FULLY trust it.

Thanks again for all the help. I'm ready to rock! Next payday I'm putting in an order for a M3 DS Real. I think I'll make a very lengthy (10-15 mins), in-depth review of the whole shebang, from unpackaging to the insertion and removal of the card from the DS to messing around with Sakura once booted. My name on YouTube is Skyline770, so look for it in a month or two!

 

[Joe88]

yes it also doubles as a ram pack as well
you just have the patch the ds browser with the m3 browser patch tool once so it picks up the ram pack as a normal DS ram pack
I think other think like the SNES, quake, ds linux also can use the pack to increase performance

all the trimmer does is remove space that is empty, dummy data just pushed the final file size to a certain limit, like 8MB, 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, 128MB ect...
the trimmer just finds that data and gets rid of it giving you smaller roms, so far havnt had 1 problem with it

when converting stuff on the comp, make sure your not doing any else and close any extra programs
this way the cpu power is just going to the converting program, it should give garbled sound or videos that mess up

 

[Skyline969]

When converting the video, I didn't have anything else open. Only a folder, and that was the file converter folder. Still, the sound came out crappy. I'll just try it on my friend's computer.

Can't wait to test the trimmed ROMs on my M3. Should be good. I guess all to do now is go to DX and order the M3. I think all I do is add it to a cart, go to checkout, login to paypal, and pay. Don't need to create an account I don't think, but I could be wrong. I'm totally new to online shopping, so I haven't the foggiest idea how to purchase the M3 from DealExtreme.