Hardware SMS4 - flashing DS repros?

[jperhac]

So I found a person on Etsy selling fan translations of games on DS cartridges, I was wondering if anyone here knows how I could recreate that myself? I recently bought a Neoflash SMS4 just for fun and I was wondering if it can be used to reflash the rom on DS repros?

 

[Apache Thunder]

Unless you can link me to the listing you found I will guess that it's most likely someone using relabeled R4 clones. Quite a few Pokemon game listings I see are clearly R4 clones. (cart shell has the divots on the sides that R4 clones all have).

There were some bootlegs that used some sort of custom flash based design that maps a 1:1 rom to the console. I have one of those. A New Super Mario Bros bootleg. The other bootleg I have is Dora The Explorer Saves the Snow Princess. that one turned out to be a N-Card. N-Cards are old nand based flashcarts. Very early versions of them came with USB dongle for PC and software was made that allowed customizing the icon the N-Cards show to the console and that's how my Dora bootleg worked. It had a single rom flashed in place of where N-Card's uDisk loader would have been.

In that case I was able to easily modify N-Card's udisk updator to reflash the game the cart had with udisk and transform it into normal N-Card. I could also just replace the Dora game with something else but without the original USB dongle I am limited to 16MB or smaller roms. The Slot-2 USB device seems more limited compared to the older stuff.

I haven't been able to safely alter icon used by N-Cards yet.

Anyways it's highly unlikely the seller has some kind of non R4 type flashcart hardware. Probably just poorly disguised R4 shells.

EDIT: Oh and just recalled the second Dora bootleg I found:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/mystery-flashcart-used-by-dora-bootleg.656146/#post-10425268

Using some flash based hardware like N-Card but using somethign different. The internal loaders flashed to it work in a manner similar to N-Card. The card doesn't present the target game to the console. Instead it's their loader but with the game's icon. Unclear what this card was. I managed to brick it testing N-Card software on it so it seems like this card is somewhat related and is likely reflashable but since the software is a black box I have no way of doing it. I don't know of any other examples of this cart. Kinda of a shame the N-Card stuff bricked it.

YJLoader and YJMenu was the names used for the internal loaders. YJMenu seems be unused and possibly means versions of this card supported a basic menu of some kind. But mine didn't have one as it only had one game on it. YJLoader is probably their equivalent to N-Card's stage1 rom (The rom the console sees). YJMenu being the xmenu/udisk equivalent. No idea if the "YJMenu" cards could have ever gotten the same kind of multigame/usable filesystem treatment N-Cards ended up getting. The hardware design is technically superior because unlike N-Card, The YJMenu card uses a normal eeprom chip for saves and not the battery backed ones N-Cards use.

 

[SylverReZ]

The ones sold on Etsy would be Ace3DS+ flashcarts with the ROM being on the SD card. Many older DS repros used N-Card/DS Linker carts, with the ROM overwritten on the stage bootloader.

Unless you can link me to the listing you found I will guess that it's most likely someone using relabeled R4 clones. Quite a few Pokemon game listings I see are clearly R4 clones. (cart shell has the divots on the sides that R4 clones all have).

There were some bootlegs that used some sort of custom flash based design that maps a 1:1 rom to the console. I have one of those. A New Super Mario Bros bootleg. The other bootleg I have is Dora The Explorer Saves the Snow Princess. that one turned out to be a N-Card. N-Cards are old nand based flashcarts. Very early versions of them came with USB dongle for PC and software was made that allowed customizing the icon the N-Cards show to the console and that's how my Dora bootleg worked. It had a single rom flashed in place of where N-Card's uDisk loader would have been.

Hah, good timing. But you're right.

 

[jperhac]

Unless you can link me to the listing you found I will guess that it's most likely someone using relabeled R4 clones. Quite a few Pokemon game listings I see are clearly R4 clones. (cart shell has the divots on the sides that R4 clones all have).

(can't post links as I'm new here, sorry!)

From the reviews and listing pictures it seems like they are actual bootlegs and not just R4/Ace3DS carts with a slapped on sticker, one thing to note is the seller mentions they only work in DS Phat/Lite consoles, so it clearly can't bypass the security on DSi and up.

Another interesting thing is the screenshot in the listing, which shows a screenshot of the cart being recognised as the actual game title in English. But more than likely he's just got a supplier in China or something, as I can't find any threads on people successfully making their own bootlegs (if you don't count an autobooting flashcart).

Very early versions of them came with USB dongle for PC and software was made that allowed customizing the icon the N-Cards show to the console and that's how my Dora bootleg worked.

Just ordered a fire cart for myself to experience the jank of early DS flashcarts haha, at least the slot-2 dongles for those are still super cheap on ebay, unlike N-cards which are rarer than hen's teeth.

Very interesting to hear your knowledge of bootlegs!

 

[SylverReZ]

Just ordered a fire cart for myself to experience the jank of early DS flashcarts haha, at least the slot-2 dongles for those are still super cheap on ebay, unlike N-cards which are rarer than hen's teeth.

Very interesting to hear your knowledge of bootlegs!

Just remember that you need an original DS or modded DSi/3DS to make it work. If you've got a DSi/3DS without the slot-2 port, you could try and transfer files over with Apache Thunder's GM9NRIO.

If you want, I could guide you through the process.

 

[Apache Thunder]

Just remember that you need an original DS or modded DSi/3DS to make it work. If you've got a DSi/3DS without the slot-2 port, you could try and transfer files over with Apache Thunder's nrioTool.

If you want, I could guide you through the process.

It's mainly GodMode9Nrio for transferring files to/from N-Card. nrioTool currently is mainly for backing up hidden sections of nand and accessing filesystem for booting homebrew from the cart.

View attachment 447401
(can't post links as I'm new here, sorry!)

From the reviews and listing pictures it seems like they are actual bootlegs and not just R4/Ace3DS carts with a slapped on sticker, one thing to note is the seller mentions they only work in DS Phat/Lite consoles, so it clearly can't bypass the security on DSi and up.

Another interesting thing is the screenshot in the listing, which shows a screenshot of the cart being recognised as the actual game title in English. But more than likely he's just got a supplier in China or something, as I can't find any threads on people successfully making their own bootlegs (if you don't count an autobooting flashcart).


Just ordered a fire cart for myself to experience the jank of early DS flashcarts haha, at least the slot-2 dongles for those are still super cheap on ebay, unlike N-cards which are rarer than hen's teeth.

Very interesting to hear your knowledge of bootlegs!

Interesting. Hard to tell what hardware they are using. The photos look stock and the few customer photos don't show the back. Someone should buy one to try and determine what it is.

Might be that YJLoader/YJMenu cart like that 2nd Dora bootleg I have. The fact it doesn't work on DSi/3DS means it's not the 1:1 rom type bootleg that my New Super Mario Bros bootleg is using.

Someone should message him to see if he's willing to devolge how he's making them. If not it would be cool if he posted a listing where you could submit your own rom to be made into a cart. That's something I'd definitely want to try.

The link to the guy's shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RetroPowerPlay

 

[SylverReZ]

It's mainly GodMode9Nrio for transferring files to/from N-Card. nrioTool currently is mainly for backing up hidden sections of nand and accessing filesystem for booting homebrew from the cart.

Thanks for clarifying.

 

[jperhac]

It's mainly GodMode9Nrio for transferring files to/from N-Card. nrioTool currently is mainly for backing up hidden sections of nand and accessing filesystem for booting homebrew from the cart.





Interesting. Hard to tell what hardware they are using. The photos look stock and the few customer photos don't show the back. Someone should buy one to try and determine what it is.

Might be that YJLoader/YJMenu cart like that 2nd Dora bootleg I have. The fact it doesn't work on DSi/3DS means it's not the 1:1 rom type bootleg that my New Super Mario Bros bootleg is using.

Someone should message him to see if he's willing to devolge how he's making them. If not it would be cool if he posted a listing where you could submit your own rom to be made into a cart. That's something I'd definitely want to try.

The link to the guy's shop:

Well, just got a copy of Chibi Robo Clean Sweep from him, it is indeed a bootleg cartridge and NOT an R4! I can post pictures of the back and provide a dump via GM9i if that helps you determine the hardware in any way?

 

[SylverReZ]

Well, just got a copy of Chibi Robo Clean Sweep from him, it is indeed a bootleg cartridge and NOT an R4! I can post pictures of the back and provide a dump via GM9i if that helps you determine the hardware in any way?

Sure, that would be appreciated.

 

[Apache Thunder]

One other person got a cart from them and they are confirmed to be using unique hardware that are not R4 clones. They are simple PCBs with a save chip, asic blob chip and a eeprom or other type of flash chip that contains the rom.

They should be flashable but no idea what software was used for that.

Someone will have to contact that seller and ask them how those carts were flashed.