Hacking The DS-Xtreme - Information

[FifthE1ement]

Why not just make a version with a microSD card option?

FifthE1ement

 

[DS-X Guru]

Hey hey,

Let's clarify a few things i can talk about....
Remember, if i do not reply to your Question, its not that i did not read it, but i am not allowed to talk about it

Homebrew
The 100% Homebrew Compatible statement was most probably miss-interpretation. It actually means "The guys behind DS-X are fully (100%) supporting the Homebrew Community" - Now i am not saying the DS-Xtreme is less compatible with homebrew then 100%, or more - I simply am saying the compatibility ratio on Homebrew has not been officially announced. However, i will most likely reveal more information on this in the following days.

Which slot does it plug into?
The DS Slot of course.

GBA Support
No GBA support has been announced for the DS-Xtreme. Which doesn't mean it won't play GBA Games forever, its just not been announced.

Can it run Regular regular' DS games like all other cards?
Yes it can, and will not require any patching anymore

Is there a plan for a MicroSD / Bigger Memory Version
Currently DS-X only announced the DS-Xtreme 4Gb package; Wheter a new model with MicroSD or bigger Memory will come out is future talk. DS-X is concentrating on the "now", and tries to give you guys a splendid OS and very unique features that surely will make up for the size. I think holding ~8 Games is enough, so for all those whom want to store their entire collection of Games on it, yeah sorry, the DS-Xtreme is not for you.

Then again, i am sure DS-X is not sleeping either in their hardware department. So who knows what they will do next. Only time will tell...

What does the interface look like? Is it fugly like the G6 or ridiculously simple and ugly like the Supercard.
I think the DS-Xtreme UI looks good from the GetGo

But indeed, a picture would say more then a thousand words

I will look into getting some more of the UI revealed and its looks, and how it is operated

Again, i am not ignoring Questions, but some of them; i cannot answer, and always to reply with a "No comment" or "It has not been officially announced" is kind of annoying for you guys too. I will try to get more info out in the near Future.... Stay tuned

 

[cory1492]

GBA Support
No GBA support has been announced for the DS-Xtreme

well, thats kind of a given considering the GBA mode of the DS hardware has no access to the DS slot...

 

[rkenshin]

Guess a product like this doesn't need firmware updates at all?

 

[DrTek]

If this overpriced product performs any worse than the G6 in

-battery life
-reading speeds (castlevania intro HAS to run flawlessly)
-GBA support (there are some superior GBA games out there)

you can shove it up yours team DS-X
I mean come on 125$ for some plastic a pcb and some eeproms, thats just ridiculous.

Better be a good one

 

[g.crow]

so you dont ignore questions, but you cant answer questions like "why buy this and not ds-linker?" ?
there is only one reason NOT to answer this question...

and what can someone misunderstand in "# Update: 100% homebrew compatible." ? nothing.

Mars

 

[bennyx8903]

125 for new technology is not bad, think how much the old G6 cost? it was like 150+

 

[g.crow]

one more question: is that "no patching EVER required" statement also misunderstood by thinking it means "ALL clean dumps do work by now and will ever work withing any patching or firmware updating"?

mars

 

[enarky]

Homebrew
The 100% Homebrew Compatible statement was most probably miss-interpretation. It actually means "The guys behind DS-X are fully (100%) supporting the Homebrew Community"Â - Now i am not saying the DS-Xtreme is less compatible with homebrew then 100%, or more - I simply am saying the compatibility ratio on Homebrew has not been officially announced. However, i will most likely reveal more information on this in the following days.

Sorry, that answer doesn't satisfy me. Everything was okay till the first hyphen, then you got back into bullshit PR talk. I couldn't care less about a ratio, honestly. I just want to know, as an end user who knows how things work, how you can say that your product is homebrew compatible when it's obviously not? It can't be by design! Of course you can patch Moonshell, DSOrganize, etc. to work with your card - but that's not compatibility. You won't do that with each and every new version.

Just to make things clear, it's the bullshit PR talk that annoys the hell out of me here. I believe you, when you say you'll fully support the homebrew community. I don't have any doubt there. Release the specs, supply a fatlib driver or help chishm program one and we'll all be happy campers. I'll most likely buy a DS-X, anyways. But please, don't take me for a fool. I can't stand that.

 

[Purple]

For the muppets complaining about the price & probable lack of GBA rom support : Shut the F**K up already!

If this product does what is claimed then I would consider it to be like the equivalent of the EZFA cart for the GBA. When the EZFA came out it was the first with the RTC built in (not that I played pokemon!!) and If I remember correctly the first that did not require patched roms. IMHO the EZFA was the best cart for the longest time in the lifespan of the GBA, I am still very happy with mine and it is still used in my DS lite. I have not felt the need to replace it.

One thing the EZFA did not have was support for GBÂ games which the F2A did at the time (if you brought optional 'bridge') but I decided that convenience was more important than GB games.

Sounds to me like a similar situation with the DS-Xtreme : first to offer 'NO patching/flashing/pass devce/Slot2 cart/additional hardware or even pc software required' = most convenient (and for me, and I'm sure a lot of others, most desirable)

How much was the EZFA when it came out? MORE THAN £67!!! but still worth it because it was less than the price of three to four original GBA games. The G6 or any other Slot2 solution is NOT the same thing for less cost as it blocks some of the DS fuctionality (being able to use GBA cart expansions : Rumble-Pak, memory expansion, etc) meaning it is simply not as convenient!!

If you do not mind that downside and really want to play GBA aswell but you don't already have GBA cart then go ahead by a Slot2 solution, but don't whinge and whine in DS-X threads that DS-X doesn't do exactly what you want, for a lot of us it looks like it will.

and mars77, read thread again reason to buy over DS-linker is obvious if you do not want to flash your DS, if your flashed or don't mind risking it then the choice is yours!

 

[loading]

i'd be really interested in the "USB Debugging" feature - the fcact that you can't use the datel trainer toolkit with m3/sc is one of my main reasons i am looking for a slot1 card, so if it had this functionality build in that would be super sweet. Any deteils? Please!

 

[Lily]

For the muppets complaining about the price & probable lack of GBA rom support : Shut the F**K up already!

I agree.

Anyone complaining about the lack of GBA support needs to re-read many other threads in the forum. The DS cannot run GBA code from the DS slot - and even if it could, the DS has a LOWER BANDWIDTH port than the GBA and wouldn't be able to run the games full-speed. The only reason we've had GBA & DS support up until now was because we've been running off of GBA carts - and PassMe/FlashMe/PassCard/etc simply redirect the DS to load DS code from the GBA cart - which the DS CAN DO because of the HIGH BANDWIDTH GBA port. This product is meant to be a DS FLASHCART, obviously not a GBA/DS flashcart. It's funny how so many people post their support of SuperCard, with "GBA support isn't important to me anyway". Well, here's a cart that won't have GBA support, but is aiming for perfect DS support. If you don't want that, don't buy it.

As to the price: for example, KickTrading (Canadian Retailer) sells the M3 Slim & M3 miniSD together with a PassCard 3 for $108.95USD - plus shipping, plus tax for Canadian residents (so approx $134.00USD). That's WITHOUT A SD/miniSD CARD! Just because a product is offered CHEAPER at a WinSunX/Divineo/etc doesn't mean that everyone has the option of ordering from there. There's always shipping and customs charges (for a country like Canada) to deal with when products are ordered out of country. $125USD is a very fair price - who here bought an original G6? Any of the original flashkits? Just because the G6 Lite has brought the expected price down a little, and the 'Lite' versions of other flashcarts are even cheaper because you have to provide your own media, does not dictate that THIS flashcart must automatically conform to some new price level. If the product does what it says it does, $125USD is a steal for not having to purchase any games at all. $125USD is the the cost of three games (based on $39.99CDN/avg, + tax, converted to USD). If you're likely to play three games on this unit, it's payed for itself.

You can quote the cheapest prices at other retailers all you want, but make sure to factor in shipping, taxes, duties, VAT - whatever ELSE applies to your order. There's only a small subset of people in the world that can get away without paying anything extra on top of the cost of the product.

So let's ask this guy some SERIOUS questions shall we? If you want to complain about the lack of GBA support or the price, start a new thread in which to complain about it - leave this thread for questions please. The fact that we're getting somewhat direct contact with a member of one of these teams is a breath of fresh air. Let's not ruin it.

 

[g.crow]

So let's ask this guy some SERIOUS questions shall we? If you want to complain about the lack of GBA support or the price, start a new thread in which to complain about it - leave this thread for questions please. The fact that we're getting somewhat direct contact with a member of one of these teams is a breath of fresh air. Let's not ruin it.

the reason why he is here is mainly for talking pr bullshit

"100% homebrew compatible - oh sorry, that was a missunderstanding"
"i dont say it doesnt play gba games" - of cause it doesnt

they want to sell their product, they dont want to answer question they dont like.
thats the reason of this in my opinion.

mars

 

[apofaz]

what about saving and backing up savefiles? did I miss that part?

a really nice card - compared to f2a cards for example. but imho absolutely useless if ya own a supercard or something similar and like playing classics; I don't wanna miss playing thousands of GB/GBC/GBA/SMS/GG/PCE games on my DS;

 

[roar]

$125 for a flash cart and people are whinning like a bunch of babies? Where were all of you 4 or 5 years ago when 256Mb card cost $200 US? Early adopters pay a price for new technology... so pay the price and leave the crying at the door.

 

[DS-X Guru]

I'd like to thank the majority of the people on these boards, who can understand what the DS-Xtreme offers and its pricing. Alot of people seem to have already a cart of some sort, and look at the DS-Xtreme, want one, but they don't want to pay for it. I have to dissapoint those, it costs money and its not just an add-on for your G6 Lite (or whatever) - It's a fully fledged product.

Sadly i cannot give out any more information on the Save System currently

@mars:

No i am not here to give some PR "bullshit" - Thats what DS-X announcements are for (and i still wouldn't call those "bullshit").

I tried to come forth and actually try to filter out the most important Questions and have them answered out of DS-X's PR; Indeed i will think of the DS-Xtreme better then of other products, i am not saying i am not biased - never claimed so either.

The "100% homebrew compatible" was actually a miss-understanding. Shaun asked me if we would be supporting Homebrew and i answered him "yes we 100% support homebrew". I've understood him as "Will you support the Homebrew community" - While he actually meant "Does the DS-Xtreme support Homebrew?". Sometimes the same phrase means the same (sadly) and i understood him wrong. I apologize officially for that mistake as i should've asked him how he meant that and there wouldn't have been any fuss.

Indeed some people will try to use something like this to bash DS-X, because they love the product they already have (no matter which one they have), or want a DS-Xtreme for free. Sorry guys, i don't think mindless bashing will do any good

mars, i ask you nicerly to stop trying to trash the DS-Xtreme to defend one of the products you bought. Nobody said you should buy a DS-Xtreme ontop of another Cart. If you don't like it, nobody will force you to do so. So please keep it clean and nice here.

And there is no Question i do not like - But DS-X chooses which information to unveil at which time, i have very little influence on that. With time i will be able to answer all questions; Just have some patience.

 

[g.crow]

no, im not here to bash your product.
right now im using a g6 lite and m3 mini sd as i own 2 ds, both are fine, but i will replace the m3 mini sd in the near future with another product.
i have not yet decided which, so i dont have to bash your product to make mine look better.
but one thing is obvious for me: you want to sell your product and you dont answer some of the most important questions.
selling your product is fine, no problem, but i dont like the idea of "hey lets go to gbatemp, its a great community with many potential buyers and lets promote our product there without answering to many questions that will make our product look less good"

questions for me (and many others are)

- what makes your product better than the soon coming ds-linker (besides you dont have to flash your ds, which isnt even proven you have to with the ds-linker)
- will gba games run out of the box (and not "i dont say it doesnt, but maybe it doesnt, but i didnt say that")
- will ALL clean dumps work out of the box and will all future clean dumps work without any patching or updating (cause thats what you claim as a great feature over all other cards, no patching)
- how will saves be handled, are ALL games able to save properly

i didnt say i dont like your product, i didnt say i wont buy it, of cause i would if its the best out there.
but to make a decision we need more infos, we need questions answered with CLEAR answers and no "i cant say" "i dont say" "maybe" or whatever.
see, you dont have to answer these questions, right, but we dont have to buy your product either.
its nice that you are here, but when you are just here to promote your product without letting people know what they want and need to know to make a decision its simply not right.

see, if the ds-linker or the m3 lite comes out first and we know what these cards are able to do by the time they arrive and your product still isnt out and we are unsure what is really able to do, what will most of the people do? right, they will buy another product. sure, some of time will wait, but you are missing a lot of customers.

sorry for my bad english and sorry if some of my post looked like a cheap bash, it wasnt my intention, hope i set this clear.

mars

 

[DS-X Guru]

@mars:

I cannot give you ALL the Answers. I simply can not. I said that in my very first phrases i've written - You should learn to respect that i don't have control over the information flow.

I am not here to actually get the product sold - I am here to give some more insight on what the DS-Xtreme is and what features it holds. I have absolutely no benefit while doing so - i do this in my spare time thank you.

I can absolutely confirm that the DS-Xtreme will be 100% unveiled when you can make a purchase (i'd even say a bit before that). The product SEEMS to be still over a month away from retail stores; so i doubt you would get full information right now.

More information will be coming soon - you just have to be patient like everyone else, you can bash/cry for as long as you want, you will have to wait just like everyone else.

I just tried to collect Questions and push DS-X to give an answer to them in Public, i am about to be Sorry to have even tried to get that done.

 

[g.crow]

i thought you were "Part of the DS-X Team"

see what we have right now is the knowledge of a new product we dont know the most important things about, like will it play all games.

if you are unable to answer these questions thats fine, like i said i thought you were part of the development team, but it seems you are the bridge between them and the end-user. and you do this for free in your spare time.

mars

 

[Extreme Coder]

I guess the reason why the games won't have to be patched is because they are running directly from the DS slot, unlike SC,M3 or other kits, where you had to patch the game to redirect reading to the GBA slot.
And do you know if the DS-X team will release the source code to reading their card so that it could be used in homebrew applications(and could be added as a part of the libfat)?
And thanks for clearing out some info, DS-X Guru. I will definitely be anticipating more info and the release of this great product!