Hacking Should I keep my R4 or DSTT?

[jweaver]

I have had an R4 for many months and am very happy.. its a bit dull and I wish it took 4gb cards, but it works perfectly.

A number of friends wanted a similar card, so I bought them "M4 Reals" and they are horrible... REALLY horrible.. But for one of my friends I got them a DSTT and I really like it.

Its missing a number of the 'multi media' features from the R4, but I don't use them anyway.. You can't put ROMs in folders.. But other than that, its ideal... And it takes SDHC cards....

I have only had a quick play, but it seems very good and stable.. So the burning question is whether to stick with my R4 which is proven, or swap it for the DSTT?

Has anyone had both and can give an unbiased view?

Jon

 

[Deleted User]

I have had an R4 for many months and am very happy.. its a bit dull and I wish it took 4gb cards, but it works perfectly.

A number of friends wanted a similar card, so I bought them "M4 Reals" and they are horrible... REALLY horrible.. But for one of my friends I got them a DSTT and I really like it.

Its missing a number of the 'multi media' features from the R4, but I don't use them anyway.. You can't put ROMs in folders.. But other than that, its ideal... And it takes SDHC cards....

I have only had a quick play, but it seems very good and stable.. So the burning question is whether to stick with my R4 which is proven, or swap it for the DSTT?

Has anyone had both and can give an unbiased view?

Jon

I think you mean M3 Real, and they are epic.
...
But I haven't had both DSTT and R4, I've only had an R4, BUT I have played with a friend's DSTT and I have to say that DSTT is better for your needs.
Also the whole Multimedia thing, although you don't use it, you can just download Moonshell.

 

[jweaver]

I think you mean M3 Real, and they are epic.

Oh yes.. You are right.. I must I have 4 on the Brain.. M4.. R4..

Thanks for the feedback on the DSTT.. I hope people don't think I am being lazy asking.. I am really interested in the 'stability' of it and you can only get a feel for that, after many hours of use.. Where as on the R4 I have played 100s of games and tried even more.. I simply don't have time to fully test out the DSTT before making a decision..

Jon

 

[sepinho]

I have both an R4 and a DSTT and I must admit I prefer the DSTT for my gaming needs.

I've kept the R4 though, which is now used exclusively as a homebrew / emulator card. I figured that, with its huge user base, it will continue to see support should problems ever arise. Plus I like to keep my stuff sorted in folders (HB-Games/HB-Apps/Emulators/Emu-ROMs), which the DSTT can't do at present.

So to make a long story short: For gaming (and gaming only) I prefer the DSTT, for everything else, I like the R4.

 

[Shad0wguy]

I don't know what DSTT your using, but mine is able to use folders. I have a folder for roms, and a folder for homebrew. It has no problems accessing the files in these folders.

 

[Sephi]

I have both cards, DSTT and R4DS.

I love both of them, but if I could only have one I'd take the DSTT since I have an SDHC card- plus Yasu's custom firmware works without any problems (it gives you a file browser similar to the R4 and the game loader is exactly the same as the default firmware)

 

[Psyfira]

I don't know what DSTT your using, but mine is able to use folders. I have a folder for roms, and a folder for homebrew. It has no problems accessing the files in these folders.

He means being able to see and navigate the folders while using the cart, which the TT cannot do (it pulls all the files out into one long list)

In my opinion the DSTT is a good card, but moving from an R4 to a TT is daft (you might want those extra features later) and just a waste of money. So you can only carry 2GB of roms at a time, big deal. MicroSD's are dirt cheap, shove a second one in your pocket and you're good to go.

 

[Swip]

Keep the dstt, with yasu's firmware you'll have a r4 with sdhc.

MicroSD's are dirt cheap, shove a second one in your pocket and you're good to go.

Its annoying to have 2 micro sd's, its a lot easier to have it all on 1 card.

 

[arsehat]

Keep the dstt, with yasu's firmware you'll have a r4 with sdhc.

MicroSD's are dirt cheap, shove a second one in your pocket and you're good to go.

Its annoying to have 2 micro sd's, its a lot easier to have it all on 1 card.

MicroSD cards are dirt cheap, and so is the DSTT... so I'd suggest keeping the R4 and getting a DSTT - and using YSMenu on it. Why? because it's fun to play with both and figure out their foibles, and it means that you won't need to worry so much about the latest piece of homebrew you're messing with eating the FAT and screwing up the saved games for whatever you're currently playing.

One of the things that people tend to forget about the R4 is that it's one of the more usable carts out there - what it does, it does very well indeed. Psyfira makes an interesting point about extra features that the R4 has over the stock DSTT menu, but YSMenu makes up for most of that and actually gives one feature that many R4 owners have been bitching about for ages - the option to disable the X-button delete.

An R4 with SDHC support is something that many people would like to see, and in terms of functionality that's close to the experience a DSTT with YSMenu provides. Mind you, the SCDS1 isn't that much more expensive than the DSTT, and can apparantly be triple-booted with its own menu and the DSTT's and YSMenu...

 

[Ice Cold]

In my opinion, DSTT is very ideal for someone who wants a no frills kind of flash cart. You can always put YSmenu on it to have that R4 interface that you must be rather used to. DSTT definitely gives the bang for its buck, although there have been some quality issues with some. I recommend you get a DSTT. A great cart for a good price.

 

[m-p{3}]

From what I read several days ago, it seems the DSTT is an hardware close, or at least very similar cartridge of the R4, in addition of the SDHC support (Source: Wikipedia).

Would it be possible to take the DSTT firmware and the R4 firmware, compare them and try to implement the SDHC support on it ?

 

[arsehat]

From what I read several days ago, it seems the DSTT is an hardware close, or at least very similar cartridge of the R4, in addition of the SDHC support (Source: Wikipedia).

The trouble with Wikipedia is that its entries can be, and frequently are, edited by any old idiot.

The R4 and M3S are different versions of the same hardware - the difference is one solder bridge, for those who are interested.

The DSTT is a completely different piece of hardware.

Grrr... never felt moved to edit wikipedia before, should do something about that...

 

[jweaver]

Just one question about all this, can you confirm that the R4 and DSTT saves are 100% compatible?

I expected to convert them, but using the online converter, it showed R4 and DSTT as the same.

I tried a couple of games and the Saves work. But are they 100% compatible? At the end of the day, I only have 50 or so games that I have played to the point where I have saves for them.. It won't take too long to confirm that they work, but it would be nice to hear peoples findings.

Jon

 

[Swip]

Yes they are 100% compatible with the dstt. They are also compatible between the SCDS1, EDGE and AK2.

 

[Panzer Tacticer]

Keep the dstt, with yasu's firmware you'll have a r4 with sdhc.

MicroSD's are dirt cheap, shove a second one in your pocket and you're good to go.

Its annoying to have 2 micro sd's, its a lot easier to have it all on 1 card.

Oh come on, that is likely as lame an argument as I can imagine. It's a micro sd card. Are they weighing down your pants?

 

[Bri]

They're pretty easy to lose.

-Bri

 

[Psyfira]

True. Thinking about it 4GB is a tad overkill for this user anyway. The OP stated that he has no interest in Multimedia, so without video files there's really no need for that much space. No-one can play that many games at once.

 

[Swip]

Talking about overkill check out this thread
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=82780