Hacking Supercard DS One Review

[kenfrenzy]

So, lots of info out there about clean roms, but not as much about patched games.

I got my scds1 today and tested a few games out patched to see how they performed. I don't care about reset, just trimming, so thats why I did it.

So far, most games I have tried work just fine. Saves are directly to the microsd so there is no delay when restarting, though it does seem to take a little longer than normal to save. Speed in game is fine though. I am currently using a 1gig kingston drive at 3x speed. Below is a list of games I have tried that have worked flawlessly, including castlevaniaPoR. No freezes in the game after playing for about an hour, and I can press select+start without any freezes as well. Only thing that hasn't seemed "perfect" so far is the DoS intro video which skipped a little bit. Otherwise, i'm happy. No issues with saves since supercard released an updated save list.

UPDATE: Now using the new 1.1 OS, and my previous problems are gone. Interesting thing, however, is that the speed test on my Kingston says that it is too slow and that the SC DS will not support it. Funny, since all the games i've tried work fine. The games that people have been having speed issues with might still be there, but im not playing them so it works out okay for me, especially since my kingston card was 10 bucks

. It looks like others here have faster cards and have also had much better performance now.

Working:
- Big Brain Academy
- CastlevaniaDoS (Some stuttering in intro vid)
- CastlevaniaPoR
- Electroplankton
- Elite Beat Agents
- Mario&Luigi Partners in Time
- Mario 64
- Mario Hoops 3v3
- Mario Kart DS
- Meteos
- Monkey Ball
- New Super Mario Bros.
- Phoenix Wright
- Nintendogs
- Pointblank
- Super Princess Peach
- Tetris DS
- Trauma Center
- Warioware Touched
- Yoshis Island
- Yoshi Touch and Go

Working Now!
- Final Fantasy 3
- Kirby Canvas Curse
- Kirby Squeak Squad

 

[nicomaru]

Can you tell me, what band of MicroSD cards that you used? Thanks,

 

[kenfrenzy]

I am currently using a 1gig kingston drive at 3x speed.

 

[ambitous21]

final fantasy doesnt work?? is there a reason?

also if you have time, please test ouendan and animal crossing. thanks

 

[SynGamer]

final fantasy doesnt work?? is there a reason?

also if you have time, please test ouendan and animal crossing. thanksÂ

I would assume the reason is its a new game? Lets hope this is working soon, wouldn't mind playing it

 

[kenfrenzy]

I'm not sure why it's not working... I haven't heard of any reports of it not working so it could be a bad rom or patching it doesn't work. I'll try to use a clean rom/new rom tomorrow on the games that didn't work.

 

[ambitous21]

yeah i think the game worked for others.
try messing with the save type or speed too.

 

[crazyanz]

final fantasy III works great here .... mabey try a other rom

I tried alot of games so far and you can get them all working by just adjusting the sd speed...

 

[H8TR]

It's great to see a review here finally that tested many games. I still think that canceling my order and going for R4/M3 Simply was a better decision though.

 

[shonosuke]

I think im going for m3 simply

 

[ambitous21]

so basically the only thing r4/m3 is better than the supercard DS
is that they dont have to mess with the save settings right?

if so i'm fine. as long as the game works, and it has nice interface, i'll be happy.
main thing is that the games run.

 

[Hanafuda]

I've found the SCDS's performance in its current state to be acceptable only if you have no other options. But compared to the SCLite, it kinda sucks so far. The load times and slowdowns in ACWW/Doubutsu no Mori, as I've mentioned here before, are VERY annoying, expecially when the game plays at 99.99% on SCLite. Same for the Castlevania vid, the jerkies in Metroid Prime Pinball, and etc.

The firmware somehow needs to be optimized for better read speed, if at all possible.

The moonshell-based OS needs to be refined a bit ... no more "transparent" drop menus, y/n option on launching app, etc. But AFAIK, tweaking the OS isn't going to fix the problems ... it'll just make the unit more convenient to use.

Basically, if they can get this thing to run at SCLite speeds, running clean roms, then I will feel it has lived up to their hype. Otherwise, I gained nothing from buying it and they got my $50.

 

[helpme]

Final Fantasy 3 is working for me i played it last nite at work for 40 mins with no problem

i used a clean rom & used my old save from my SD rumble
ive got a transcend 80x card set up to 4x on the speed settings

 

[shonosuke]

I hope they will release firmware upgrade

 

[Hanafuda]

according to Sarah99, there is an update to at least the OS, if not the actual core firmware, and it has improved things ... though I can't say how much cuz I haven't tried it yet. It's up at maxconsole apparently.

also look for Sarah's post near the end of the big SCDS thread in the GBATemp mag/reviews area ... you know the one. I'm too lazy to go looking for the link.

 

[lyte]

wouldn't it be on the supercard site?

 

[ambitous21]

GREAT NEWS for us supercard ds owners!
yay!

 

[kenfrenzy]

updated with os1.1 info

 

[Katalyst]

Yeah, I grabbed a Kingston as well. Not too many reports of it being the fastest, but a 1GB for 10 bucks, I don't care. And, do you mind testing Animal Crossing as well? Ah yeah, I'm sure it's been answered somewhere before but for the games that you do have to manually set the save settings for, do they get saved for the next time you boot the game? If so, I could really care less that you have to do it vs. other cards

EDIT: Scratch that last question, just read it again elsewhere. Still would like to know about Animal Crossing though.

 

[glitchbit]

...umm yea sure a kingston 1gb for $10 yet no link... hmm..

Only way I can see it is if it is retail in stores with rebate.. and/or you're exlcluding shipping from an online dealer

I spent $24 on a Sandisk 1gb microSD, including shipping