Hacking Slot 1 vs Slot 2

[pacman987]

I just got a DS lite and I am looking into flash carts. I am a noob to the whole GBA/DS flash scene but I am competent with computers so please bear with me.
I have done alot of research on the boards and now I have a few questions.


I want to be able to play both GBA roms and DS roms.
I understand there are two ways to do this:


1.
A slot 1 card with a GB expansion

2.
A slot 2 card with a passcard



Which is the better option, is there any difference, with say speeds and loading times?
Is one slot faster than the other?


Also on the topic of patching, I read that some cards you need to manually patch all the rom files, and some have auto patching, are their auto patching options for both card types or only one of them?


Also finally game saves - I read some of them use a battery back up for them, I would rather have them stored in flash so it isnt volatile and wont erase when the battery dies.




Thanks for your help guys, i will try my best not to be an annoying newb and ask questions that are obvious.

 

[superrab]

In both cases the GBA games will be running off of whatever is in your slot 2 since there is no GBA emulator for slot 1 right now (and probably never will be.) I haven't tried running .nds files from a slot 2 card but I can say that what will probably make the biggest difference in speed is your choice of media if you use a slot 1. For example, some crappy micro SD cards by generic brands usually run a lot slower than higher quality ones like Kingston. You will also find cards like the RPG and G6 (I think,) that implement flash storage which reads at a faster rate than micro SD.

As for auto-patching I am not sure if there are any auto-patching solutions for slot 2. For slot 1 there are definitely a bunch of cards out there that auto-patch which is definitely nice. I used to use an EZ Flash 5 that gives the option of applying auto-patch or just running the roms clean.

For game saves I think most of the cards will store saves with the battery backup on a save chip until you restart your DS when it will write the save to your micro SD card or to the flash and then you don't have to worry about the battery dying and losing your save. I think the battery also charges while you are charging the DS. I haven't ever experienced losing a save due to the battery dying in my 2ish years of using slot 1 cards.

I personally use an Acekard RPG (which is nice because of the dual storage media and open source aspect,) for my slot 1 and an EZ Flash 4 Deluxe (because of the near perfect GBA compatibility,) for my slot 2. For speed in specific the Acekard always offers me the option of running something from NAND instead of micro SD for maximum speed.

Hope that was helpful.

 

[pacman987]

In both cases the GBA games will be running off of whatever is in your slot 2 since there is no GBA emulator for slot 1 right now (and probably never will be.) I haven't tried running .nds files from a slot 2 card but I can say that what will probably make the biggest difference in speed is your choice of media if you use a slot 1. For example, some crappy micro SD cards by generic brands usually run a lot slower than higher quality ones like Kingston. You will also find cards like the RPG and G6 (I think,) that implement flash storage which reads at a faster rate than micro SD.

I was looking at the M3 DS real
http://www.gameyeeeah.com/m3-ds-real-rumbl...pack-p-710.html


"What the GBA expansion for?
Playing GBA ROMs of course! No extra microSD card is required, it boots from your M3DS Real."

This lead me to believe the GBA Roms are loaded onto the micro SD card that is in the slot 1 and that the GBA expansion in the slot 2 boots from them somehow.

Also you said the speed of the SD card is very important for slot 2 solutions. I know they come in different speeds up 6x. Is the speed of the sd card not as important for slot 1?


I appreciate the help.

 

[Bri]

I believe that with a slot1 solution, games save to the microSD immediately. GBA games are stored on the slot1 microSD, and loaded into the slot2 expansion to play them (therefore, a slot2 expansion needs to only have enough internal memory for a single GBA game). I believed that GBA game saves must be stored in the slot2 expansion cart until reboot -- I don't know if there are any slot2 expansion carts that can write the save file immediately to the slot1 microSD (I'm guessing there is some technical reason why this is not possible).

I believe that slot2 solutions always require a passme in slot1 to play DS games, whereas slot1 carts don't require any slot2 cart to play DS games. For this reason, I think most people prefer slot1 carts and most of the newer carts are slot1.

-Bri

 

[pacman987]

Ok, thanks for the info.


I am convinced to go with the slot 1 route.

I like how the m3 has the GBA expansion pack with it (so its guaranteed to work with it) and how all the roms are only in one location, on the SD card in the slot 1. (so that you dont have to load games on there and seperately for the slot 2 GBA stuff)
http://www.gameyeeeah.com/m3-ds-real-rumbl...pack-p-710.html


I am also looking at the Edge and CycloDS, Ive read they are faster than the m3 and have a few more features.


I dont see that they have their own GBA expansion packs however. When looking for an expansion pack thats not the same brand and bundled, how do you check that its compatible?

Are there any GBA expansions for the edge and CycloDS that will load the roms off the slot 1 like the m3 bundled pack does?

 

[DanTheManMS]

A slot-2 device has the advantage that you can keep all your games on a single removable card, but there are a few disadvantages. You'll need to patch all games you wish to play, and you won't be able to make use of most newer features that slot-1 devices have. Slot-2 devices also usually suck battery life. You do need to have a NoPass in slot-1 to boot them into DS mode, though you can eject it at the card's menu to save battery power if you like. Alternatively, you can use the NoPass to install FlashMe, which will automatically boot your slot-2 device in DS mode at boot time, making the NoPass no longer needed.

The expansion pack route works well if you want to have clean roms, though there's only enough room to store a single GBA game at a time. The most popular choice is the EZ-V 3in1 expansion pack. By using Rudolph's GBA ExpLoader program, you can use the 3in1 with any slot-1 device, and you don't even have to patch the GBA games anymore.

 

[Bri]

I think that both the EZ 3in1 and the Ewin 2in1 expansion packs are compatible with most slot1 carts. The EZ 3in1 is more expensive but has a built-in rumble, though I've heard that the rumble is particularly noisy.

The Ewin 2in1 doesn't have a rumble, but you can buy an Ewin rumble as a separate cart (it's dirt cheap). Having the rumble in a separate cart isn't that big of a deal because GBA games don't support rumble anyway, and the Ewin rumble is quieter than the EZ 3in1's rumble (plus, when you get down to it, rumble is highly overrated, only works on a few games, and eats up battery).

The biggest advantage of the Ewin 2in1 expansion is that it has more memory than the EZ 3in1 which helps when using the Opera browser. I don't know if the additional memory is useful for playing GBA games or not.

Rudolph's GBA ExpLoader 5.0 supports both the EZ 3in1 and the Ewin 2in1 if I'm not mistaken.

-Bri

 

[Seina]

Supercard Lite SD non-rumble has DLDI auto-patching, cheats, in game reset, and in game save. It also can hold up to 2 GB of games and has 32 MB of RAM. Most slot 1 cards passme to it.

 

[pacman987]

Thanks for all the info guys.



I have ordered the 4gb Adata class 6 microSD card from newegg and the CycloDS from divineo.com. Should be getting here later this week.

I hope the microSD card reader that comes with the CycloDS is compatible with HDSD, because I dont have any other card readers for that format. I got an old SD reader but Im sure it wont be able to read that using the adapter that comes with the Adata.


I have put off ordering the GBA expansion for now. I will get either the EZ 3in1 or the Ewin 2in1 at a later time. I havent decided which of those yet I want, and I haven't decided where I would order them from yet either. I think I saw RHS has the 3 in 1 for $20, the 2 in 1 someone had for $12 but I forget where I saw it.


Im sure I'll have more questions as I get this stuff going. Just read today for the first time about Rom trimming, though I dont think I will have any need to bother with that with 4 GB of storage.

Thanks again

 

[Bri]

Use Rominator to organize your roms. It will trim them automatically (if you want it to).

-Bri