Hacking Should I get this cart?

[LTizzle]

Alright guys, I'm new here. I'm also new to hacking, roms, translations and all of that good stuff.

I've just heard from my friends that with these carts I can play games from other countries. Then I saw they're making a Soma Bringer translation thing and that's a game I really want to play.

Can someone walk me through what all these carts are for, how to download things on them, which has the best features and walk me through all the terms you guys use (like skinning)?

 

[Toni Plutonij]

In short, you came to M3 forums, which mean, people will probably suggest M3 Real...
It's a great cart, it has best firmware of all carts, however doesn't have all the features that some other carts have..M3 Real is pretty balanced cart one may say..
If you decide to buy Perfect bundle you'll get (besides slot 1 M3 Real) Rumble expansion (goes into slot 2, and it's a dust cover size, so it fits flush in your NDS) and GBA expansion (which is the same size as dustcover too, and it's actually cart with extra RAM, it allows you to play GBA games and run Opera Browser on your NDS)..
To play games you need to download then from the internet (no requesting a links or sites here at GBAtemp, it's prohibited

)..and you simply copy ROM (name for dumped game) to microSD (most of flashcarts use microSD cards as a storage system)..M3 Real is SDHC compatible which means you can get microSD cards up to 8GB in size (32 GB in theory), with biggest NDS game of 256MB, but sizes 32MB - 128MB, you can easily fit over 60 games few music albums, movies (converted to .dpg format), eBooks and pictures..

 

[gosp]

Yes you should.

 

[ENDscape]

This cart is one of the good choices. As long as you stay away from clones you're safe.

 

[9thSage]

How often do they update the newer M3 carts? One of the reasons I personally went with a different company when I upgraded from a slot-2 to a slot-1 card (I have an M3 Perfect MiniSD as well as my newer card) is that they did not seem to update it very often...actually, at this point I don't think they care about the users of slot-2 cards anymore anyway.

 

[Chaorain]

Ok, I only have ever used an M3 real so I'm biased. But I have only had three problems with this. One, it doesn't count because it was the homebrew's fault. Second was with The World Ends With You, there is a topic around the M3 fourms that talks about that but I eventually got it to work and the error is not guaranteed. Last, M3 can not connect to the Wii with pokemon games(like a lot of other cards). Over all I would HIGHLY recommend this cart to every one. It supports all commercial games for all regions. If you get this this is the best firmware. http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=90978 The firmware is being updated less often now but an update is rarely needed.

 

[grayfox_nds]

I've had my M3 DS Real a number of months now and have been happy enough with it aside from a few issues that happened very shortly after getting it.

The spring in the microSD card slot broke so it no longer pops-in/out.

Also the card will sometimes not boot properly, and I need to remove it and re-insert it to the DS to get it working.

It seems to be of cheap build quality but I have no other cards to compare it to. Aside from the spring/boot issues compatibility has been great and with the Sakura firmware it runs very nice and pretty.

 

[Intimidator88]

I got it a like 2 weeks ago and so far no problems with it and everything works just right so i would suggest it but just make sure you buy it from a legit site.

Also my step bro got one too same time i did and his microSD card wont stay locked in the m3 either like grayfox said but thats nothing a little tape cant fix xD

 

[Another World]

LTizzle: welcome to the world of flash kits.

i think you are jumping the gun alittle by asking for the basics right out the gate. i would suggest you google for a few weeks and just read as much as you can about flash kits, homebrew, roms, micro sd cards, skinning, spring loaded, firmware, rsa encryption, flashme, dsbricker, etc.

learn as much as you can by reading what is already out there, including what is contained in this site (a huge wealth of knowledge about the subjects). to take the time to type up a complete guide to where you are at would take a large amount of my night. read the reviews found here for more information. rest assured that a few weeks of good research will put your questions straight and allow you to ask the good questions that are hard to find answers to.

goodluck!
-another world

 

[Sumea]

Pros:
Sakura
relatively cheap
Cons:
Slow Loads
Normal firmware shucks
Homebrew from sakura Shucks
Some games (Hotel Dusk as exsample) have Graphic glitches (when launched from sakura)
Some games do not work well (twewy has been reported, not self tested, Castlevania: PoR crashes)
Not updated often (offical sakura, anyone?)

This was a non fanboi fact list, i can compare when i own two flashcarts now, and half busted DS that is almost 24/7 in repair - by ME. Id say, for sake of sakura, and if you are interested, GET ONE, youll be happy, its not near perfection of jesus christ, but who is and would want to be. Just listed facts from Heard and experienced so heads up on some things.

 

[grayfox_nds]

Also my step bro got one too same time i did and his microSD card wont stay locked in the m3 either like grayfox said but thats nothing a little tape cant fix xD

What I did was tiny flathead screwdriver to open up the card and basically break the microSD slot spring further so that it would just stay seated without popping back out. However doing that compromised the integrity of the case some but its holding up ok.


Also I'm not sure how big of a pro Sakura really is. It is VERY pretty to look at but I cannot find some of the functionality the original firmware had, like multiple save files to a single rom, master soft reset toggle, etc. though I've been meaning to ask in the Sakura thread.

 

[Toni Plutonij]

Pros:
Sakura
relatively cheap
Cons:
Slow Loads
Normal firmware shucks
Homebrew from sakura Shucks
Some games (Hotel Dusk as exsample) have Graphic glitches (when launched from sakura)
Some games do not work well (twewy has been reported, not self tested, Castlevania: PoR crashes)
Not updated often (offical sakura, anyone?)

This was a non fanboi fact list, i can compare when i own two flashcarts now, and half busted DS that is almost 24/7 in repair - by ME. Id say, for sake of sakura, and if you are interested, GET ONE, youll be happy, its not near perfection of jesus christ, but who is and would want to be. Just listed facts from Heard and experienced so heads up on some things.

Hmmm, some of your facts are wrong..
Hotel Dusk works perfect for me on on Sakura, and never encountered any of graphical glitches you talk about, on any game!!
TWEWTY works just as normal as any other game for me....it appears to be some microSD card problem, some microSD cards make it freeze..same goes for Castlevania: PoR, I completed game without any problem, also running Sakura)
Default M3 Real firmware gets updated very often, whenever a game is released, and it's not compatible, new firmware update is released with compatibility update...however, Sakura got only one update, and thats Service Pack 1, nothing after that....but something is really weird with all that situation.....because Sakura was supposed to be released months ago.....

 

[Sumea]

Twewy should have been in glitch area, Por DOES crash even on my fastest cart, only Cyclo can handle it.

Also, i used rom number 1000, european Hotel dusk, these glithes occured during convertations on left side (upper half if you look so that DS is in normal way) and also in opening animation.

And also i have some newer hardware, it does not have chip coming out nor spring loaded µSD slot.

And i said, my experience/heard, and thats just me, i am still happy owning one >.>

 

[Toni Plutonij]

Hmm, weird, because I'm using older one, with the chip sticking out under the label and spring mechanism..and TWEWY works for me, but I never played game more than few hours, didn't liked it..
PoR crashed maybe total of 3-4 times trough the WHOLE game (freezed on teleporter)..and funny, because it freezes more often on my CycloDS..

I played US Hotel Dusk with no glitch whatsoever..

I can tell that dicemaster reported no problems with TWEWY too..He's using the same microSD card as I, SanDisk 4 GB SDHC Class2!!

 

[thedicemaster]

i can also report that for me twewy not freezing wasn't a 1 time lucky shot.
after beating the game i used chapter select to begin at day 1 again, and i passed the freezing movie again without freezing.

 

[Sumea]

Fu** now i remember, i forgot to write:

Opening video lags on both, and TWEWY is one i have only HEARD about, i finished the game on my cyclo.

On Cyclo VS Real, my 2Gb card gets crashing PoR, and on cycloDS it has zero crashing, so... (tested by me, who played the game to half, and friend who FINISHED the game, and not just FINISHED, but made every fkn quest and side stuff you could, and game never froze for him...)

 

[Toni Plutonij]

I completed PoR 100% too...And besides those 3-4 freezings on transport, no problems at all..

 

[Joe88]

TWENY seems to depend on your MicroSD card
if you game freezes at the frog battle (its happened on tons of different carts) mainly happens on sandisk
I never got that problem