Make a old R4 and a old M3 DS work again

[TheClue]

Good evening and merry Xmas to all

I've just got these two very old flash carts without SD and I'm trying to make them work again. I tried both to a stock DSlite (not the DSi you may see in the photo obiously )

- R4 v1.4 (a clone, I guess) with Wood R4 firmware > always an hopeless, white screens of death

- M3 DS Real with official kernel (this looks a genuine one), it boots perfectly but freezes when i try to launch a random game, just after the "create save data" screen.

SD is a freshg FAT32 one.

How can I try to debug and to have at least one of those working?

Post automatically merged: Dec 25, 2023

Well...I was able to solve half of the issues R4 works now, it was just to find the right kernel for that particular clone cart from flashcart archive.

Switching on the M3DS Real now, then I'll try to make GBArunner working

 

[Apache Thunder]

I have a M3 DS Real. Don't recall having issues. As I recall the M3 Sakura loader tended to be more stable. The other loader is pretty old and outdated. There's a button combo you hold on boot to go into a menu for selecting which to use. I forget what it was at the moment. You can give my config a try:

https://files.catbox.moe/nyizw0.rar

This contains SYSTEM folder configured to load M3 Sakura. It's a reskinned Moonshell basically and is able to launch retail games. Mario Kart is the only one I took the time to test. Don't recall what it's compatiblity is at the moment. There might be a build of WoodR4 for it.... maybe... otherwise M3 Sakura is probably the only decent one. That or YSMenu which I'm not sure has a build for this cart or not either.

You can find the stock firmwares for this card over at linfox like most of the other archived flashcart firmwares if you want to try other copies.

If you still have issues you might need to reformat MicroSD to Fat16....Fat32 can cause issues on some carts maybe? I generally try to stick to FAT16 when I can.

As for your R4 try and use a build of WoodR4 on it. The one you are showing above is the really old outdated original loader and you won't see good compatibility with that one as it's really out of date last I checked. As with the M3 I'd recommend making sure the MicroSD card is formatted to FAT16.

 

[SylverReZ]

Good evening and merry Xmas to all

I've just got these two very old flash carts without SD and I'm trying to make them work again. I tried both to a stock DSlite (not the DSi you may see in the photo obiously )

- R4 v1.4 (a clone, I guess) with Wood R4 firmware > always an hopeless, white screens of death

- M3 DS Real with official kernel (this looks a genuine one), it boots perfectly but freezes when i try to launch a random game, just after the "create save data" screen.

SD is a freshg FAT32 one.

How can I try to debug and to have at least one of those working?

View attachment 410248

Post automatically merged: Dec 25, 2023

Well...I was able to solve half of the issues R4 works now, it was just to find the right kernel for that particular clone cart from flashcart archive.

Switching on the M3DS Real now, then I'll try to make GBArunner working

View attachment 410262

Looks like a job for me. I've had no issues using the M3 DS Real on my end. These older carts were blacklisted on later system updates for both the DSi and 3DS, and therefore you need Unlaunch to bypass the cartridge blacklist.

M3 Sakura is none other than a re-skinned MoonShell v2 with some minor changes to the interface. I recommend that you install TWiLight Menu++ as a replacement to the old kernels, since you get better compatibility and customization. R4i-Advance and M3 DS Real carts are compatible with TWLMenu++.

https://wiki.ds-homebrew.com/twilightmenu/installing-flashcard

And also, make sure that you upgrade your microSD card to smth larger such as 8GB if you want to put larger games on there. The SD card must be formatted to FAT32, 32kb cluster.

https://dsi.cfw.guide/sd-card-setup.html

 

[Apache Thunder]

Ahh yeah Twilight can do games off flashcards (now at least certain ones at least) It's too bad that Twilight can't be used on N-Cards...just about every menu SRL and their bootloaders would have to be recompiled to use an alternate libnds with 32KB DLDI support due to the large DLDI driver those cards use. So not really sure you can use it on those carts...not that it would be better. Xmenu's compatability is actually really good given it's age with only 512MB games not working.

As for the M3 DS Real...I thought it's driver was over 16KB too? Surprised Twilight supports it. I do recall I couldn't use the driver with GM9i at least...

 

[SylverReZ]

Ahh yeah Twilight can do games off flashcards (now at least certain ones at least) It's too bad that Twilight can't be used on N-Cards...just about every menu SRL and their bootloaders would have to be recompiled to use an alternate libnds with 32KB DLDI support due to the large DLDI driver those cards use. So not really sure you can use it on those carts...not that it would be better. Xmenu's compatability is actually really good given it's age with only 512MB games not working.

As for the M3 DS Real...I thought it's driver was over 16KB too? Surprised Twilight supports it. I do recall I couldn't use the driver with GM9i at least...

Yes, N-Cards have troubles trying to run Twilight due to how the DLDI driver works. Maybe in the near future once the DLDI is figured out, then it can be implemented. But for the time being, we currently have XMenu which hasn't been updated for over two decades, and compatibility is mixed. 512MB games do not seem to be working from my end, such as Pokemon Black and White.

The M3 DS Real iirc uses a 16KB DLDI driver, can't believe that TWLMenu++ supports that.

 

[Apache Thunder]

Yes, N-Cards have troubles trying to run Twilight due to how the DLDI driver works. Maybe in the near future once the DLDI is figured out, then it can be implemented. But for the time being, we currently have XMenu which hasn't been updated for over two decades, and compatibility is mixed. 512MB games do not seem to be working from my end, such as Pokemon Black and White.

The M3 DS Real iirc uses a 16KB DLDI driver, can't believe that TWLMenu++ supports that.

It's Black 2/White 2 that don't work. The first ones are 256MB roms and run fine provided you AP patch them. That's really the only other thing xmenu lacks compared to newer cards is the AP patches. You have to manually patch them.

 

[SylverReZ]

It's Black 2/White 2 that don't work. The first ones are 256MB roms and run fine provided you AP patch them. That's really the only other thing xmenu lacks compared to newer cards is the AP patches. You have to manually patch them.

That's correct. If I'm using a flashcard with Wood R4, then I'd have to manually patch them with DS-Scene ROM Tool to be able to play them, since the Wood kernel barely has any AP bypass unlike AK2i.