Hacking So how good is the GBA emulator?

[Fazermint]

So I already own an R4 clone, but I'm thinking of upgrading and getting the Supercard DSTwo. According to a friend of mine, this particular cart is one of the best ones on the market. The GBA emulator is appealing, because I won't have to get a slot-2 cart. So my question is: How good (or bad) is the GBA emulator? Does it run most games at the right speed, etc?

Also, does this cart still receive firmware updates? My R4 clone can't play Bowser's Inside Story (kind of why I want a new cart lol), so I want to make sure this game runs on the DSTwo.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

The GBA Emulator is...ok. Some games have issues running, some games run fine, and some don't work at all. It's not perfect, but it'll work.


Of course the DSTwo receives updates.

 

[jimmyemunoz]

http://gbatemp.net/t232281-supercard-dstwo-review

 

[trumpet-205]

GBA emulator is okay. There is a lot of glitches even if the game is playable (and this is by setting CPU speed to full and adjusting other settings). Supercard no longer updates GBA emulator and they also refuse to release the source code.

PSP on the other hand has better GBA emulator.

 

[Rydian]

Supercard no longer updates GBA emulator and they also refuse to release the source code.

From what I've read it's not theirs, it's DarkChen's, they don't have control over the source.

 

[jimmyemunoz]

I know one thing. I'll take an EZ Flash 3in1 or M3 GBA Expansion pack over the Supercard DSTwo's DarkChen emulator.

 

[Rydian]

I know one thing. I'll take an EZ Flash 3in1 or M3 GBA Expansion pack over the Supercard DSTwo's DarkChen emulator.

As would most people, but that's not an option on the DSi, DSi XL, 3DS, or 3DS XL.

 

[jurassicplayer]

Everything about the flashcart is...satisfactory. The Supercard team will do only ONE thing, but they do it fast and that is updating the firmware to work on the latest DSi/3DS firmware...though the real uses of that is up in the air IMO (because I can't see why someone IMMEDIATELY needs to access the DSi/3DS store for any reason)...
The flashcart itself has high compatibility with pretty much all NDS games, gba compatibility is generally ok (the few games I have tried had no problems), there isn't much else really special unless you like to play games like a wuss and make use of the In-game menu. There is a small amount of DS2 specific homebrew, though I only particularly like what BAG and Pate have done...though imenu is quite nice as well.

 

[Rydian]

They do update EoS in the rare cases a few games that don't run come out.

The DSTwo's GBA emulator does have some benefits versus slot-2 expansion packs, which I forgot to mention. Save-state, screenshots, and direct-to-microSD saves, cheats, fast-forward, and RTC.
However for speed/compatibility native through slot-2 wins.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

If you're considering the GBA emulator as an alternative to a slot-2 cart on a DS Phat/Lite, a slot-2 cart has perfect compatibility and speed, something that can't be said for NDS-GBA. However, a slot-2 expansion cart can't play SNES games, and doesn't support save states or RTC. If you don't care about those 3 things and don't care about the extra in-game features the DSTWO has over other flashcarts, you're better off getting a 3-in-1.

Other than emulation, the DSTWO has a great feature set, the best of all DS flashcarts, it gets the most frequent firmware updates, the EOS isn't updated as frequently but then again it doesn't need to be. It has pretty much every feature you could want, a nice, simple GUI, and it receives updates when there are games that don't work, which is all the updates it needs really.
So basically, the cart is great, but don't get it if the only thing you care about is the GBA emulation, because a EZFlash 3-in-1 runs GBA games far better.

 

[jimmyemunoz]

I like the responses in this thread, they're all really good. I would like to point out the obvious and say the M3 GBA Expansion Pack does have RTC capability. I just love the M3 Perfect Bundle for a DS/DS Lite. In the case of newer handheld DS systems, as Rydian stated, the SuperCard DSTwo is the way to go for GBA access.

I also wanted to point out that most games when first released will automatically work on the SCDS2, due to their excellent security bypassing hack. Other flashcard manufacturers are catching up with that feature though, like r4ids.com and r4isdhc.com (Silver-RTS Lite). The only difference is their hack requires for you to hold down a button longer to access a second security bypass function, but it works quite well. I'm really impressed with the r4isdhc.com RTS Lite card...now if only that team stopped dropping support for their flashcards in favor of releasing a new card.

Good responses gentlemen.

 

[Fazermint]

Great, thanks for the responses, good sirs. So to sum it all up:

DSTwo:
[+] Can be used on DSi and 3DS models.
[+] Need only one flashcart.
[+] Emulator features (Save states, etc. RTC = pokemanz!)
[-] Lower game compatibility than EZ-Flash.

EZ-Flash
[+] Perfect (or near-perfect) game compatibility.
[-] Can only be used on DS / DS Lite
[-] Need to get another slot-1 flashcart

The DSTwo seems to be my choice. It works with the DSi / 3DS models, which is cool if I decide to get a 3DS in the future. I also fancy save states and RCT support. The only downer is the lower game compatibility (around 80% according to the sticky). That can be remedied by emulating the remaining 20% on my Wii. The DSTwo is a good all-round cart, which is exactly what I'm looking for anyway, considering my focus is not only on GBA games.