Hacking Upgrading from R4, Can't decide.

[CheatingSoi]

I like the random skin selection on boot. Makes it so I don't have look at the same layout every time I turn it on, that appeals to me.

Yes it is a very nice feature however it does not work with the latest beta firmware 1.5 so if you get it you might not want to install that firmware (however by the time you get it I'm sure they'll have come out with b2)

 

[puddnhead]

I have no opinion on this (or rather, not an informed enough opinion, I'm researching same question myself) so I'm jut going to keep my mouth shut on that. But I simply can't resist pointing out that you have posted your question on the CycloDS board, where CycloDS owners obviously would hang out & SCDS owners would have less reason to. So maybe you should take the 100% response of "I'd get the CycloDS" with the very large grain of salt observation that by defintion the people not only WOULD do it, but HAVE done it. Getting an answer that said "I wouldn't buy it" would be the shocker here

 

[lafleche]

Well hang in there.....here is the shocker..... I wouldn't have bought it knowing it isn't as perfect as people make you believe
- there are problems with microsd cards corrupting (don't give me an answer like "I have no problem" because there ARE people having problems! even with FW 1.4.1)
- 100% compatibility is not true (slowdowns/crashing)
- personally white screens on compatible games (Extreme Space Invaders)
- other thread (was it on cyclo forum?) complaining about battery drainage .. when DS shows red light with Cyclo it doesn't with R4 (yet)

If your the only purpose is playing backups then stick with the R4 and see if they deliver a new fw in september (which should solve some compatibility errors)...if R4 doesn't deliver -which is still very very possible- ask this question again.

Cyclo is good card if you have nothing else yet, but if you have R4 (or other card) already....mhhhh...

 

[Pizzaroo]

If you dont care about your price, then AKRPG is the way to go. SDHC compatible AND 1GB onboard memory *eyes light up*

EDIT: but i guess that's to much, $80

 

[lafleche]

I am not purely speaking out of own experience. Just info from gbatemp and cyclo fora.

On the CycloDS forum there are still people having corrupted cards on 1.4.1
I am using the not-so-crappy Kingston 4Gb (made in Japan) and was disappointed that the 'difficult games' were still problematic on the Cyclo
Personally I had strange situation that that game copied to SD gave white screen, same rom copied again, no problems... never had THAT happening with R4.

Topic starter is already having a R4.. personally I think it's waste of money to buy a Cyclo for the wrong reasons....

 

[puddnhead]

Well hang in there.....here is the shocker..... I wouldn't have bought it knowing it isn't as perfect as people make you believe
- there are problems with microsd cards corrupting (don't give me an answer like "I have no problem" because there ARE people having problems! even with FW 1.4.1)
- 100% compatibility is not true (slowdowns/crashing)
- personally white screens on compatible games (Extreme Space Invaders)
- other thread (was it on cyclo forum?) complaining about battery drainage .. when DS shows red light with Cyclo it doesn't with R4 (yet)

If your the only purpose is playing backups then stick with the R4 and see if they deliver a new fw in september (which should solve some compatibility errors)...if R4 doesn't deliver -which is still very very possible- ask this question again.

Cyclo is good card if you have nothing else yet, but if you have R4 (or other card) already....mhhhh...

Yeah ... well although I said I would not share my opinion, I guess I'm gonna violate that now

This is basically my attitude. I bought the R4 not long after it came out (maybe 18 months ago)? Had three of them, 2 for kids, one for myself. A niece & nephew saw my kids' DS and wanted it too (doh), so passed off the kids' two cards to them & decided to "upgrade" back in May, bought two AK2 for them (hard to resist the $23 shipped DE price, and the menuing is really nice for young kids). Now I'm jealous and want to upgrade from my (remaining last) R4 myself, want to go for top notch: cyclods, AKRPG, SCDS. AKRPG is the natural given I have two AK2 (less to learn), but the recent blowup with bliss is making me worry that if I have to rely on the acekard team I'm screwed (seriously do they EVER update anything ... even when they have open source coders handing a lot of it to them on a plate???). Also the price is a little off-putting, and the issue with multiplay between multiple AKs is worrisome. CycloDS, beside what you say, it's also the price ... as the whole episode with DE seems to prove, Team Cyclops appears obsessed with fixing an artificially high consumer price point on their product. The SCDS price, given the competition, is what attracts me, $28 @ DE (since I want RTS), but there just doesn't seem to be any other obvious plus to it. The RTS might have gotten me to pay $5 more for it over AK2 for my kids if that had been price then, but it doesn't give me enough reason to upgrade from a functioning R4 with 2gb card. Although hte AKRPG and CycloDS give me more reasons to upgrade, they also give me more reasons not to (besides issues, there are the reasons counted in $ signs ...)

So I think I'm just gonna wait until 1) CycloDS prices get more realistic, 2) AKRPG seems more certain to have future support and/or drops in price, or 3) (probably most likely) a new king of the hill emerges a month from now.

 

[SpaceJump]

I "upgraded" from an R4 to CycloDS and never regretted it. It works perfectly and support from the team is great.

 

[kikoexe]

4. Battery drainage, first time posted, it was a defective cart, second time, it was determined to be tied to the MicroSD you use. So if you use Sandisk, Kingston, Transcend, etc you are completely fine. The only people that got screwed are people who use AData 4GB MicroSDHC memory cards (me included), and this "drainage" only happens when you put it to sleep mode, the AData+CycloDS seems to use more batteries than normal in sleep mode. Even so, again I believe this issue has been fixed.

I am using a Transcend Class 6 4GB and with my Black Cyclo DS Evolution, I can only use my DS Lite at 3hrs and 15mins tops after a full charge.. I never put it to sleep mode, and its brigtness level is at 2 (from a level of 1-4, not 0-3).. what's pretty annoying is that, I then use my brother's EDGE cart (same micro sdhc, same brightness level) and the battery LED turns back to green and it stays green even after an hour.. this is the only reason that makes me regret buying a Cyclo.. honestly..

in times like this when a good game is out (I'm referring to ff4), 3hours and 15mins is not long enough and its irritating if you have to charge THAT often in a single day.. and i am about to travel on a bus for 7hours and for the first time, i fear that my fully charged DS Lite will die on me while traveling..

i hope the Cyclo team fixes it because i'm sure that there are other cyclo users out there who are also "battery life conscious"..

 

[Dark^'^Knigh]

I "upgraded" from an R4 to CycloDS and never regretted it. It works perfectly and support from the team is great.

Disregarding why you "upgraded", please advise what part(s) of the CycloDS you find important improvements on R4.
Please note: I'm talking about features/funtions used daily, NOT: rom compatibility / firmware upgrades / manufacturer support.

 

[lafleche]

4. Battery drainage, first time posted, it was a defective cart, second time, it was determined to be tied to the MicroSD you use. So if you use Sandisk, Kingston, Transcend, etc you are completely fine. The only people that got screwed are people who use AData 4GB MicroSDHC memory cards (me included), and this "drainage" only happens when you put it to sleep mode, the AData+CycloDS seems to use more batteries than normal in sleep mode. Even so, again I believe this issue has been fixed.

I am using a Transcend Class 6 4GB and with my Black Cyclo DS Evolution, I can only use my DS Lite at 3hrs and 15mins tops after a full charge.. I never put it to sleep mode, and its brigtness level is at 2 (from a level of 1-4, not 0-3).. what's pretty annoying is that, I then use my brother's EDGE cart (same micro sdhc, same brightness level) and the battery LED turns back to green and it stays green even after an hour.. this is the only reason that makes me regret buying a Cyclo.. honestly..

in times like this when a good game is out (I'm referring to ff4), 3hours and 15mins is not long enough and its irritating if you have to charge THAT often in a single day.. and i am about to travel on a bus for 7hours and for the first time, i fear that my fully charged DS Lite will die on me while traveling..

i hope the Cyclo team fixes it because i'm sure that there are other cyclo users out there who are also "battery life conscious"..

'Fun' is that people still deny that Cyclo has a battery-drain issue... R6 Extreme is Announced ...let's see what this thing can do...Cylods is fine for the moment... but not a 'keeper'

 

[puddnhead]

[reply to my comment snipped]

Anyways thats what I think. You are being a little optimistic.

Err ... all I said was that for it to be worthwhile for me to upgrade from my (fully functional) R4, I would probably need to see one of those things happen. I never said that I expected them to happen, so no "optimism" issue here. If you're right, I just keep going merrily along playing on my R4.

 

[SpaceJump]

I "upgraded" from an R4 to CycloDS and never regretted it. It works perfectly and support from the team is great.

Disregarding why you "upgraded", please advise what part(s) of the CycloDS you find important improvements on R4.
Please note: I'm talking about features/funtions used daily, NOT: rom compatibility / firmware upgrades / manufacturer support.

Realtime Save: Works great.
Random Skins.

Edit: Even if you noted not to mention firmware upgrades and manufacturer support, I'll do it: Support is just great. You rarely need a compatibility fix and I never had to ARM-fix any game. And they are still working on feautures like the recently released In Game Text Reader.

 

[XeroRestraint]

I originally bought the R4DS (two or three years ago?) and the purchased a CycloDS Evo over a year ago. Since having both I have exclusively used the Cyclo and these are my reasons why:

- SDHC support (originally, this was the main selling point for me)
- Better game compatibility
- More frequent / better updates
- *Much* more advanced skinning capabilities (it's kind of a joke to call *just* replacing a background image "skinning")
- Real-time-save (there are some games this is rather useful for)

A few weeks ago my Cyclo broke (dropped it) and I switched back to the R4 until my replacement order is fulfilled by DX (yeah ... wish me luck there). Anyway, it's not *that* big of a deal but I never realized how much faster games save with the Cyclo (using SDHC) versus the R4 (using regular SD). I actually find myself getting annoyed waiting for what seems like 3x as long for games to save.

Yeah, I can get by with an R4 if I had too ... just like I could drive a P.O.S. car if I had to ... but I don't have to and I want to use the Cadillac of flash carts.

 

[Dark^'^Knigh]

RTS seems to be the winner to me. This may seem like a stupid question, but how does it work?

Does it mean that in every game you play, it automatically saves it's current position when the DS is turned off (even if you run out of battery life), or do you need to navigate to a menu to save the game? And does it apply to every single game?

 

[DeMoN]

RTS seems to be the winner to me. This may seem like a stupid question, but how does it work?

Does it mean that in every game you play, it automatically saves it's current position when the DS is turned off (even if you run out of battery life), or do you need to navigate to a menu to save the game? And does it apply to every single game?

Real-time save means you can save at any time in the game (even if it's during a cutscene, the final boss, etc.) and resume your progress instantly.
You need to enter the In-game menu to use Real Time Save.
Yes you can use it on any game, but each save is 4.7 MB large, so I suggest you only use it for games that don't let you save often, like the recent Final Fantasy 4.

 

[Dark^'^Knigh]

OK, thanks

 

[puddnhead]

I originally bought the R4DS (two or three years ago?) and the purchased a CycloDS Evo over a year ago. Since having both I have exclusively used the Cyclo and these are my reasons why:

- SDHC support (originally, this was the main selling point for me)
- Better game compatibility
- More frequent / better updates
- *Much* more advanced skinning capabilities (it's kind of a joke to call *just* replacing a background image "skinning")
- Real-time-save (there are some games this is rather useful for)

A few weeks ago my Cyclo broke (dropped it) and I switched back to the R4 until my replacement order is fulfilled by DX (yeah ... wish me luck there). Anyway, it's not *that* big of a deal but I never realized how much faster games save with the Cyclo (using SDHC) versus the R4 (using regular SD). I actually find myself getting annoyed waiting for what seems like 3x as long for games to save.

Yeah, I can get by with an R4 if I had too ... just like I could drive a P.O.S. car if I had to ... but I don't have to and I want to use the Cadillac of flash carts.

Good for you. So it sounds like the cyclo (or rather, SDHC), loads faster, and you can do real time saves. No one denies that this is something R4 cannot do. You are driving a "cadillac," cool for you. I confess, I don't own a cadillac car. Like with the R4, I suppose I could just park my current car in the garage to gather dust and go out and buy a brand new cadillac to drive instead, and get a "thrill" from how the seat is a bit more cushy on my arse (the "better skin?") as I drive the same places I was alwasy able to drive before I "upgraded." I could swing the cost if I really wanted to. There are many things in life that I don't upgrade to the absolute latest & greatest toy, throwing away a perfectly functional old toy in the process. But because there are many things, and I do not have unlimited wealth, I prioritize what things I upgrade.

You concede in your own p[ost that the only significant difference in your experience between R4 and CycloDS is possibilitity of larger mem cards, RTS, waiting 3 seconds less when you load a saved game, and having the thrill of changing the background all the time (I don't get why people are compelled to do that, I just pick the one I like best and stick with it, but whatever ...). My 2gb card in my R4 holds a ton of games, more than I am playing at any one time (do people really pay 50 different DS ROMs in an average week?), and I spent a lot more than 3 seconds of my life earnign the additional $60 that the cyclods would cost. CycloDS may or may not have "better game compatibility" than R4. But for me anyway it is a moot point, the R4 has played every ROM I have ever tried in it, including POR (what' ROMs are there that don't play in R4 with fast enough card anyway???), so that "upgrade" is meaningless. RTS would be nice, but on the other hand, I understand the cyclods sucks down the ds battery faster than the R4, so I'm not sure I'd take less play time over ability to save more often anyway, all esle being equal.

Again ... yet again ... everyone agrees that the cyclods has more features overall than R4. Why do people keep beating this fact to death when no one is disagreeing with it. The issue is -- the question asked in this thread is -- is this "upgrade" worth paying for if you already have a perfectly funcitional R4?

 

[lafleche]

.....

Again ... yet again ... everyone agrees that the cyclods has more features overall than R4. Why do people keep beating this fact to death when no one is disagreeing with it. The issue is -- the question asked in this thread is -- is this "upgrade" worth paying for if you already have a perfectly funcitional R4?

My point exactly.... I did the upgrade from R4 to CycloDS (in the hope to get a better card)... in the end the 'extra' features are not worth it and the disadvantage (battery drainage) makes it a not-so-good buy.

I will not advise to buy a R4 if you have no card at all, I even will tell you to stay away from Cyclo..problem is I don't know what card to buy either

 

[johnchan]

in the end the 'extra' features are not worth it and the disadvantage (battery drainage) makes it a not-so-good buy.

I will not advise to buy a R4 if you have no card at all, I even will tell you to stay away from Cyclo..problem is I don't know what card to buy either

It seems like your expectations are simply too high - you dont know what card to buy because the current best, Cyclo, still isnt good enough for you

Anyway, as everybody else has been saying - the battery drain depends highly on the type of MicroSD card you're using. Even in the GBATemp review, when using a non-SDHC card they reported that battery drain was not much different than a retail cart. However, various other reports make it clear that if you are using an SDHC card then the battery will be drained much faster. This really isnt the fault of CycloDS and would happen regardless of which device you use. Obviously you wouldnt experience this with R4 as it doesnt support SDHC at all.

 

[lafleche]

It seems like your expectations are simply too high - you dont know what card to buy because the current best, Cyclo, still isnt good enough for you

Anyway, as everybody else has been saying - the battery drain depends highly on the type of MicroSD card you're using. Even in the GBATemp review, when using a non-SDHC card they reported that battery drain was not much different than a retail cart. However, various other reports make it clear that if you are using an SDHC card then the battery will be drained much faster. This really isnt the fault of CycloDS and would happen regardless of which device you use. Obviously you wouldnt experience this with R4 as it doesnt support SDHC at all.

But that takes away an advantage of the CycloDS doesn't it? Use a 1 or 2 Gb Sd-card to keep battery usage in line with a R4? ....but he... I already have a R4 with a 2 Gb SD card ...no need to upgrade? (sorry to be a pain.... )

I still don't think/feel the CycloDS is current best.. When I look at Acekard RPG I think that the concept of including a 1Gb NAND for special highspeed needing games, is just so good. Problem is that the AceKard team isn't doing very well in support...but when they release a fix for Diagasso DX I probably buy this card.... or hope that CycloDS Version 2 will include the NAND memory.... just hoping