Hacking The DS-Xtreme - Misinformation

[doodad]

Carrying on from the closed thread (What, we can't poke fun at Mr. Public Relations now that he's done here?):

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

What about Compatibility?
DS-X is currently hard at work to get 100% Compatibility - If there would be any issue with one or the other Game i am pretty sure DS-X would be releasing a Firmware update for the DS-Xtreme to get those Games working.

Am I alone in preferring the system current flash carts use? The patching process is completely passive to the user, and in the rare circumstance a new game has problems, an update of the PC or "patching" software is all that's necessary (firmware updates are usually to add new features). I don't look forward to having to flash the DS-Xtreme's firmware every time a new release doesn't work.

 

[Hellfenix]

. I don't look forward to having to flash the DS-Xtreme's firmware every time a new release doesn't work.

I don't think you get it. It runs from the DS slot so it doesn't need to be patched at all. What patching does is it changes the addresses in the rom so it points to the gba slot instead of DS. Now it's gonna look in Ds and find what it needs. So no more patching and better compatibility technically, but lets see it in action before saying anything.

 

[doodad]

Thanks pal, I get it. However, running from the DS slot does not mean instant 100% compatibility.

 

[DS-X Guru]

I think you taken that phrase wrong.

They are hard at work for 100% Compatibility - However, if there was to be a bug that removes some Games from the Compatibility list, i am quite sure that DS-X would update the Firmware accordingly.

This means, in other words. "Even though DS-Xtreme announced full compatibility - if there was to arise a problem with certain Game, they would not be stubborn and not listen to their customers - but fix it instead"

I noticed that on these boards i have to be very carefull on how to word things, some things were taken out of context, others are being miss-interpreted. I wish people wouldn't try to read between the lines. I am only human....

 

[doodad]

I have not misinterpreted anything. The DS-X team get around their "no patching" clause by instead offering firmware updates for non-working games. Please, do point out any inaccuracy in my first post and I will attempt to clarify.

 

[Renegade_R]

If you take a look at the half assed attempt of the 512Mb UltraFlash Pass card with poor compatibility, then it makes you worry about this one too.

 

[Jefklak]

Geez guys, yust wait and see is it that difficult?

 

[apofaz]

yep. I think it's very nice he came to this board to announce what he allready knows. I've never read something official about my F2A or my SC before it came out.
Let's just wait 'til it's out and I'm sure there will be a good review at gbatemp that has answeres to all our questions.

 

[Lily]

No existing carts have 100% compatibility, though some come close. Lately just about every new release hasn't worked on one kit or another.

Stop busting DS-X Guru's balls. Obviously English is not his first language, but he writes it very well - you almost can't tell! He came here to give us some information, limited of course to what his team would let him say this early in their product's lifecycle. They have some ambititious goals, and it's unfair for people to keep busting his balls - he didn't have to come here to give us information at all, he could have gone to maxconsole, yyjoy, dualscene, or any other community that deals with the same things we do.

If you have real questions, please, ask away. If you just want to bust his balls over what he's already said and attempted to clarify (as there is obviously a bit of a language/interpretation barrier here) already, then I won't be happy. I don't like to see any of our members ganged up on, and we're not going to use the guise of bashing the cart/team as an excuse to actually harass DS-X Guru.

I don't even know anything about the product or the team, but I'm grateful that a member of a flashcart team has joined our forum. Imagine if a member of the M3/SuperCard/G6/EZ Team were here to answer questions/assist/put is in the know about their new products. It would be pretty cool, so let's not harass DS-X Guru away.

--

All that being said, it seems some people still misunderstand why roms need to be patched to run on the DS - the patching process modifies the DS rom to redirect saving to the GBA slot rather than the DS slot. If the flashcart ran out of the DS slot, the patching would no longer be necessary, hence running clean roms with 100% compatibility. It's not rocket science. Those of us with Ultra FlashPasses/NinjaPass DS Flash's can see that if the save system worked like it was supposed to, the compatibility with every 64MB and below rom is perfect, because they all boot, and most of them can be played except for some (like Harry Potter for example) that die after booting because the savetype is not what it wants. It's not a stretch to think that this DS-Xtreme cart could eliminate that problem. Updating the DS-Xtreme firmware could become necesssary if a game writes a security check (ala Iridion 3D (GBA), Juka & The Monophonic Menace (GBA) etc.) or if they didn't take into account a certain type/sized game, whatever. However, if that became the case, so what? New firmware is the order of the day for the existing carts, and they need the roms to be patched.

It seems to me people will complain about ANYTHING. Perhaps we should wait for a bit for some solid information before actually giving DS-X Guru or his team a hard time over what they're attempting to do.

/my 10 cents

 

[Opium]

Lets see the DS-Xtreme in action first before we get our knickers up into a bunch

What DS-Guru said was correct, no patching required. Upgrading the firmware is not patching the DS roms, where did he tell you anything to get worked up about?

Please think a bit more rationally.

 

[beedog19]

Wow, I really thought that the guru was indeed a native english speaker! Good to see that there will be english support for this thing.

 

[doodad]

Qrayzie, it is not my intention to discredit any person or organization. I am not unwaveringly devoted or loyal to any particular product, unlike some here, and will absolutely buy and recommend the DS-Xtreme if it ends up being the best solution on the market. Having said that:

I don't even know anything about the product or the team, but I'm grateful that a member of a flashcart team has joined our forum. Imagine if a member of the M3/SuperCard/G6/EZ Team were here to answer questions/assist/put is in the know about their new products. It would be pretty cool, so let's not harass DS-X Guru away.
Imagine if a member of the M3/SuperCard/G6/EZ team were here to sell their new products, is more apt. It's no coincidence this guy showed up at this forum. And let's be honest, after his whopping day long Q&A session, are we really any better off? I'd rather the official support/marketing spiel stayed where it belongs -- the respective official sites.

Updating the DS-Xtreme firmware could become necesssary if a game writes a security check (ala Iridion 3D (GBA), Juka & The Monophonic Menace (GBA) etc.) or if they didn't take into account a certain type/sized game, whatever. However, if that became the case, so what? New firmware is the order of the day for the existing carts, and they need the roms to be patched.
Hence my original post, which, might I add, would have been lost in the depths of the appropriate thread, had it not been locked.

What DS-Guru said was correct, no patching required. Upgrading the firmware is not patching the DS roms, where did he tell you anything to get worked up about?

Need I quote myself from five posts up? Evidently: "The DS-X team get around their 'no patching' clause by instead offering firmware updates for non-working games."

Opium

Please think a bit more rationally.

Let me give that a shot: Oh, my, praise the lord almighty for this heavenly gift of XTREME Non-Native English speaking tech support gurus from above! No patching you say? Why, I would give my own life for such a thing! Team DS-X, you are indeed a true credit to humanity, and I am but a mere insect in your glorious presence.

 

[Lily]

Oh geez.

It still doesn't require you to patch the actual roms, now does it? The only reason roms needs to be patched now is for the save aspect. If a rom were protected/not working in the future, (which is highly unlikely at this point, if the RSA encryption has already been broken, which Nintendo/third parties rely on for adequate protection, like CSS on DVDs..) the Xtreme team is not discounting offering a firmware upgrade to correct the problem.

I think you need to get over yourself and the semantics of the language barrier, it's silly. No patching means no patching. A firmware upgrade corrects something that is outside the original design of the product, and that's not their fault. The roms still don't require patching.

Imagine if a member of the M3/SuperCard/G6/EZ team were here to sell their new products, is more apt. It's no coincidence this guy showed up at this forum. And let's be honest, after his whopping day long Q&A session, are we really any better off? I'd rather the official support/marketing spiel stayed where it belongs -- the respective official sites.

The announcement was broken here first, there's obviously a relationship in place between GBAtemp & the Xtreme team by shaunj66. It's a service to come and provide information - it's not as if the other teams do that. If M3/G6/SuperCard/EZ sent a representative here to talk up their upcoming products, people would worship the bytes the thread was posted on because of the high level of support for those teams by various people. There's no need to slag these guys off before they even get started over misinterpretations. He's here trying to drum up some hype for his teams product. Everything he's said has been clarified, so at the moment it's pretty much beating a dead horse.

QUOTE(doodad @ Aug 13 2006, 11:11 PM)Carrying on from the closed thread (What, we can't poke fun at Mr. Public Relations now that he's done here?):

The original thread was closed so people wouldn't needlessly flame him. If a new one is opened that ends up the same way..the same thing will happen.

 

[doodad]

This isn't a language barrier, as you keep putting it. DS-X-Guru has no problem communicating. His posts read like a dodgy political campaign, and he gets away with this, why? Because "I only know the talented DS-X team," and "I do this in my spare time, thank you very much... honest!"

Regardless, I'm bored -- and done. XTREME FTW. SO XTREME!

 

[retrohead]

Im afraid to say that if gbatemp want to jump in bed with DS-Xtreme then you will have to put up with this sort of crap from your members.

If the Ultra flash team gave GBATemp exclusivity rights to information about that product, we would've been hearing the same sort of comments about that aswell! No arguement!

Please give me my sample, please, please, please hahahahhaha, hilarious.

 

[Opium]

excuse me, GBAtemp is not biased in any way and I find it insulting that you claim we are. We are merely reporting with the information we have at hand, we are not singing praise from the bell tops for the DS-X but just reporting the features that we have been told. We can't do any more or any less than that can we?

So some team wanted to give us a bit of exclusive information, whoop dee do da. If this is how people react to us presenting you with exclusives I guess we'll have to let you go elsewhere for your information. I don't recall people complaining when all the staff put in so much effort over E3 this year, presenting you with some exclusive reports/pics etc.

 

[retrohead]

Please read again, i did not claim that you are biased one bit. My claim is that usually the moderators would be the first to jump on the flame band wagon when the community is skeptical about whether it can live up to it's promises yet in this instance you all defend it as if it was your own for reasons only known to the staff. I agree the members should be a little more lenient about it but is this not a place for people to air thier views?

I am sure the members would like to hear what you really think about it rather than your current replies which sound like they came from DS-X themselves.

Please dont get upset about it

 

[Opium]

Okay, point taken. Well what do I think about the DS-X?

I think it sounds promising, I mean a true DS flashcart that doesn't have the horrible write times of something like the Ninjapass/Ultra Flashpass. It sounds like it'll be a good cart but I'm not convinced of anything till I start seeing some reviews and hands on with it. It may end up having compatibility issues I don't know. A lot of people thought the ninjapass or Ultraflash pass was going to be great when they first heard about them but look at them now

So yeah, I'm cautious about the DS-X, it sounds good but I want to see it in motion.

 

[retrohead]

I think that this could really stand out above the rest should it live up to the expectations that have been made. Should you be able to add roms without patching them then this does 3 great things:

1. Quicker upload times from your PC to your flash media (No messing with patching)
2. Alot less hassle to actually get a game to work (We are currently swamped by "I use this method of patching" and "Which software are you using". This will greatly reduce the scope
3. When a new firmware is released, you do not need to worry about re-patching that old wifi game that used to hang when quiting from WiFi mode, just update the firmware and you are away.

Now I see alot of people claiming that this new feature will not work and you are right to be skeptical as nothing to date has lived up to the promises made by the manufacturer. I for one would certainly like to see all these glorious features in action.

Of course something that is growing ever more important today, is the ability to skin the menu. Without reading through all the flaming and stuff, i can't see that this has been answered. If it is not planned, I suggest that this could hinder sales slightly. Whereas the opposite (making the meu skinnable) only promotes the product more by the fact that people make specific "Skins" threads on forums which in turn promotes the product.

Another question of mine is that it is stated to be 100% compatable with homebrew. Does this mean the likes of moonshell and Doom (amongst many others) will be able to be played that require a file system to work? With saving features? If so how will the card be formatted?

It will certainly be interesting to see some hands on comments for sure.

 

[jigaboo]

I really don't know why everyone is getting hot under the collar here. Given that the product DOES NOT EXIST anywhere but in DS-X's factory/garage/livingroom, anything out there wrt info about it is two steps above speculation. It might be a dud, it might be the best thing since sliced bread. Who cares?

Anyone who preorders a product from a company with absolutely NO track record deserves whatever they get. My advise is, ignore the hell out of it until someone actually reviews it (hopefully GBATemp, given the relationship) - that is, unless you have so much money that $125 is chump change, and you need to be the first on the block to find out.

J