Hacking Quick Acekard Review

[sumedho]

Just got my acekard, had it now for 2 days. Thought i would post up a quick review with my thoughts so far. I'm using a sandisk 512mb card.

Cart construction:

In the other reviews they said it was hard to get out of the DS. Mine slots in and comes out no problem. There is no sticking or difficulty in getting the card in or out. The card bulges slightly in the middle but that causes no problems. The microSD card slots into the acekard securely and with a solid click. The cart is well constructed and reads first time, everytime in the DS.


Operation:

No problems with compatibility yet. Using the latest save list, all saves work well. I copied save files back to the computer easily. With the way the file system works (no folders, all files one after another) it can be a hassle to change files on the card or delete anything from the card. Also, if you have a big microSD with lots of little files, the directory will get really messy quickly. I'm hesitant to install moonshell because of this reason. You can delete a file and copy another file of the same size or less into that location. So if you delete a 64MB file you can copy two 32MB files in that place.

Software:

I was supposed to get an english version of the acekard. However, some things are english and some are still in chinese. Most of the acekard manager software is still in chinese so I had to take a few guesses to get it all working. The manual was all in chinese too. It's not too difficult to work out everything but it leaves a poor impression.

Overall:

The software on the computer side really lets the acekard down. Untranslated menus and the dodgy software makes the acekard look more shoddy than it is. If they sorted out the software side of things it would be a good card. So, if you don't want to run homebrew, can live with the file system and dont mind trying to decipher a chinese menu then its not a bad card.

I'm happy with my purchase and have had no trouble at all with it, but i dont want or need lots of extra features. Also its quite a bit cheaper than the DS-X.

 

[jpxdude]

Thanks for sharing your experiences

if you don't mind me asking, where did you purchase your card from? I'm in the UK currently, and will be in the USA from tomorrow. So any option for either of those places would be viable. Thanks in advance!

 

[sumedho]

www.bamboogaming.com .....they can post anywhere in the world...they post from china

 

[putamierda]

Hey, thanks for your review, I also have some questions, how long did it take since you order it till you got it?
And another thing, you say that you are using the Sandisk 512MB, that card in the official acekard website is rated as one of the most slow cards to work with acekard. Have you nottice some sort of slowdowns when playing your games?
Thanks again for your review, and let's hope they release a software in english!

 

[DavePS]

I also bought 3 acekards from bamboogaming, 1 for me and 2 for my kids. I placed the order on a Sunday morning and they were delivered on the Friday (I also ordered a 1gig Kingston Micro SD Card so my delivery was via EMS, speedier delivery, but delivery was still only 12 quid).

All 3 cards worked absolutely fine, I was actually given the English Acekard manager software, so if you would like me to mail it to you, I can. I have asked on Acekards forum if the new 1.02 version of the manager is available in English and they have said they will send me a copy to test.

Also a new verison of the firmware 1.05 is out and i've asked for an English copy of that too.

Given the card cost only 26 quid, I can live with the software gripes, everything I have tested so far have shown no slowdown issues. I can't talk about specific game problems due to forum rules. If anybody has a video showing slowdown in specific things if they post it I can see if I get such slowdown.

If you are a computer n00b and can't live with quirky software and the quirky file system, then this probably ain't for you, but if you are a computer geek and are used to the odd software that came with GBA flashcarts, this card rocks.

I have tried Moonshell, only with MP3's so far, seems fine to me, I think planning what files you are gonna drop onto the card is the way to go with this cart.

Sorry if i've rambled on a bit

 

[Monkey01]

I also have received my AceKard, but can't tell much about it, other then to watch the compatible MicroSD cards carefully. Where the 1 GB Kingston MicroSD is one of the best and the 256MB from Kingston is pretty good also, I bought the 512MB Kingston ( didn't have enough money on my paypal for the 1GB

) and well... with that it's as usefull as a passkey. (which works fine btw, with gba movie player) With an non-compatible MicroSD card everything will be unstable, compatibility will be like 1% and if you put multiple roms on it, the rom chooser will freeze when browsing them...
I'll gonna buy a compatible MicroSD card tomorrow, so I'll be able to say more usefull stuff about it tomorrow.

Ow and my card doesn't go in and out as nice as an original card does. But it's not like hard to get it out or something, so it's not really a problem either. I have the black version btw, don't know if that makes a difference maybe...

 

[DavePS]

Monkey01, ouch! To be fair, it does actually say that 512MB Kingston isn't compatible. Seems real odd though

My 3 cards both eject almost as good a a normal cart, you can remove them easily enough, no scary squeaking or anything like that.

 

[Sinkhead]

Is there an option to format your memory card back into FAT? Only I don't want to have to dedicate a memory card purely for AKFS...

- Sam

 

[Monkey01]

Is there an option to format your memory card back into FAT? Only I don't want to have to dedicate a memory card purely for AKFS...

- Sam

You can format it back to FAT again, in Windows, just open My Computer and try to open the card like normally. It will say it isn't formatted yet and asks you to format it like normally. This will however ofcourse make it incompatible with AceKard again untill you reformat it in AKFS.

Monkey01, ouch! To be fair, it does actually say that 512MB Kingston isn't compatible. Seems real odd thoughÂ

Yeah, I also noticed it wasn't on the list when trying to format, should have looked better before buying.

Ah well, I'll just buy a new one somewhere and use this one for something else.

Bought a Kingston MicroSD 1GB now, and it now seems to work fine and all. =)

 

[alundra]

so does it run castlevania portrait of ruin perfectly?

 

[OSW]

so does it run castlevania portrait of ruin perfectly?

apparantly so, with the right cards such as most kingston, kingmax, PNY, apacer (i think those are the most reccomended brands. there is an official list)

 

[DavePS]

I see that Kingston 512MB is supported in version 1.02 of Acekard Manager, I hope you didn't throw yours away Monkey01

 

[Monkey01]

I see that Kingston 512MB is supported in version 1.02 of Acekard Manager, I hope you didn't throw yours away Monkey01Â

I didn't.

But I don't think the akm 1.02 is working correctly for me, the menu is missing, so I can't format the MicroSD card.

 

[DavePS]

If you post your email (disguise it to avoid spam), I will send you the English 1.02 beta that acekard sent me. Seems to work OK on my machine, should be ok for you I would guess. Or you can wait for it to appear on Acekards site.