Hacking Real Time Save Feature

[thorasgar]

I currently have two AK 2is for my boys DSLs. I am happy with the card but I have a problem getting the boys to put the darn things down when I need them to. Boys are 6 and 9 with ADHD. "Pleeeeeaaaaseeee let me get to a save point!!!" 5 minutes later "Just another minute, Pleeeaaaseee"

If I have them just close it we run the risk of the battery draining by the time they get back to it or it getting bumped a little to hard and the Acekard resetting.

So I am considering Supercards as a xmas present (for my sanity) to get the real time save feature. I have done a few searches and can't seem to find and detailed info about how it works, other than it may be a little "buggy" and there are 4 slots.

Can anyone that has experience with the feature comment?

Questions I have:

-Is it 4 save slots for the whole card, or per installed game?
-Is it buggy, does it work most of the time?
-How much storage does each save state occupy. A real concern given that I have 8GB cards and they are filling up fast. Got to at least make all those "educational" games available

-Does it work with the popular kids games like the various Mario Games, Lego, Sonic, Kirby etc.
-Do you think it is worth the $35 to get this card for just this feature?
-Probably a question for another forum, but has anyone heard of a similar feature a soft modded Wii?

Thanks

 

[Rydian]

1 - Four slots per game.

2 - I don't actually think I've had it fail, but I don't use it much at all. When using it there's sometimes a graphical glitch for a second or two, and if there's a sound effect playing when you save, then it may continue indefinitely when you load. It's best to save state when nothing's going on (or something "peaceful" like the pause menu of a game) to avoid audio glitches. It's not like they're killer, but it can be annoying when it happens.

3 - 5MB each save state file/slot.

4 - I'm not aware of the games it doesn't work with (I think there's only one or two).

5 - If you can show them how to use it (L+R+Start, select SAVE, choose a slot), then sure.

6 - No clue.

 

[thorasgar]

Thank you for the details. I will look more closely at the high frequency games they play and see about pause menus. They may need some education.

How long does it take to write the save the card? IIRC the class of the card has to do write speed and may be a factor?

Thanks again

 

[Rydian]

The write speed may be a limiting factor, but it should run fine normally as the bottleneck is likely computational stuff, not disk bandwidth.

Just tested it in Super Mario 64 DS, took about 3 seconds to save, and a tad less to load. This is on a Class-6, so it does seem the bottleneck is somewhere else in my case... but don't take this to mean it'll work speedy on a crappy MicroSD.

 

[thorasgar]

Thanks again Rydian. That kind of save time is very reasonable. My concern was if it took 90 seconds or something like that. Might add the card to the boys Christmas list. Take care.

 

[Rydian]

Oh no, it should only take a matter of seconds even on cheap MicroSDs (assuming they're properly functioning).

And you're welcome.