Hacking What expansion pack should I buy, if any?

[Extreme Coder]

Sorry for the amount of questions I have been asking lately guys, but bear with me:

I have a few questions:

- If I have a SuperCard MiniSD, I don't need a RAM Pack or a GBA expansion pack, right?

- How important is the rumble? Exactly how many games work with it?

- Which is better, the eWin or the EZ-Flash 3-in-1?

- How much RAM does each of them have?

Thanks a lot guys.

 

[Destructobot]

- If I have a SuperCard MiniSD, I don't need a RAM Pack or a GBA expansion pack, right?
The SC Mini should work as a RAM pack in most cases. As for GBA, that depends on whether or not you are satisfied with the SC's GBA performance.

- How important is the rumble? Exactly how many games work with it?
If you want rumble, get an eWin rumble pack. The 3-in-1's rumble feature is not very good, and you have to manually enable it before it will work. Depending on which slot 1 cart you have, you may not even be able to use the 3-in-1 for rumble without patching every DS game that you want to use rumble with. The eWin rumble pack just works.

The eWin GBA expansion does not have a rumble feature.


QUOTE(Extreme Coder @ Jan 2 2008, 02:43 PM)

- Which is better, the eWin or the EZ-Flash 3-in-1?

IMO, the 3-in-1, simply because it has better compatibility with GBA games (some games fail to run or save properly on the eWin cart). The eWin does have a few advantages though.

The 3-in-1 has 16MB of RAM and 32MB of NOR flash memory. 32MB games must be flashed to NOR before you can play them. The eWin expansion has 32MB of RAM, but no NOR. If you plan on playing through multiple 32MB games at once, the eWin might be a better choice. There aren't many (good) 32MB games though, so this usually isn't a problem.

You have to manually patch most GBA games for use with the 3-in-1. The eWin loader patches the games for you automatically.

The eWin's 32 megs of RAM may make it a better choice if you need it for homebrew like DSLinux. The SC Mini would do the same job though, as it also has 32MB of RAM.

 

[Extreme Coder]

- If I have a SuperCard MiniSD, I don't need a RAM Pack or a GBA expansion pack, right?
The SC Mini should work as a RAM pack in most cases. As for GBA, that depends on whether or not you are satisfied with the SC's GBA performance.

- How important is the rumble? Exactly how many games work with it?
If you want rumble, get an eWin rumble pack. The 3-in-1's rumble feature is not very good, and you have to manually enable it before it will work. Depending on which slot 1 cart you have, you may not even be able to use the 3-in-1 for rumble without patching every DS game that you want to use rumble with. The eWin rumble pack just works.

The eWin GBA expansion does not have a rumble feature.


QUOTE(Extreme Coder @ Jan 2 2008, 02:43 PM)- Which is better, the eWin or the EZ-Flash 3-in-1?

IMO, the 3-in-1, simply because it has better compatibility with GBA games (some games fail to run or save properly on the eWin cart). The eWin does have a few advantages though.

The 3-in-1 has 16MB of RAM and 32MB of NOR flash memory. 32MB games must be flashed to NOR before you can play them. The eWin expansion has 32MB of RAM, but no NOR. If you plan on playing through multiple 32MB games at once, the eWin might be a better choice. There aren't many (good) 32MB games though, so this usually isn't a problem.

You have to manually patch most GBA games for use with the 3-in-1. The eWin loader patches the games for you automatically.

The eWin's 32 megs of RAM may make it a better choice if you need it for homebrew like DSLinux. The SC Mini would do the same job though, as it also has 32MB of RAM.

Thanks for your speedy response, but I still have a few more questions still:

- Which games on the NDS use rumble?(games which were written in mind to support rumble) Other than Metroid Prime Pinball..

- Why can't I use the 32 MB of RAM the SuperCard has in launching GBA games directly from a slot-1 card the same way I'd use the 3-in-1 or the eWin? Hardware limitation? Or is it just because no one has written software to do that?


Thanks a lot!

 

[4saken]

Hotel Dusk, Elf Bowling, Super Princess Peach.. that's all I can think of at the moment, but there are quite a few.

 

[leetdude_007]

If you're willing to, get both. They're dirt cheap.

Of course, the world isn't perfect. I would stick with 3-in-1 if you really, really need an expansion pack now. It's great if you're a coder to play around with all the features and rumble on low is as good as the official rumble (at least to my ears). Otherwise, the convenience of the eWin is nice to have with less compatibility... hopefully with more updates that will significantly improve the eWin's abilities.

I hope the competition heats up and improvements in the budget slot-2 market.

 

[Extreme Coder]

What convenience are you talking about?

 

[noONE]

Just a quick question, the Rumble/RAM/GBA paks that comes with DSTT is the same as the eWin, Right? ( since i won the competition, just wondering)

 

[Destructobot]

- Which games on the NDS use rumble?(games which were written in mind to support rumble) Other than Metroid Prime Pinball.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ninte...k_Support_games

- Why can't I use the 32 MB of RAM the SuperCard has in launching GBA games directly from a slot-1 card the same way I'd use the 3-in-1 or the eWin? Hardware limitation? Or is it just because no one has written software to do that?
This.

Also, the Supercard line is notorious for it's crappy GBA support. This is due to slow RAM, and it would still be a problem if you could use the SC as an expansion pack.


QUOTE(noONE @ Jan 2 2008, 04:20 PM)Just a quick question, the Rumble/RAM/GBA paks that comes with DSTT is the same as the eWin, Right? ( since i won the competition, just wondering)

Yes. Same carts, different sticker.

 

[Extreme Coder]

Ok, last question (I hope):
Do the EZ-3-in-1 or the eWin rumble the exact same way an official rumble pak would?

Thanks a lot.

 

[janitormane]

Ok, last question (I hope):
Do the EZ-3-in-1 or the eWin rumble the exact same way an official rumble pak would?

Thanks a lot.

They're a bit louder.

 

[gratefulbuddy]

Ok, last question (I hope):
Do the EZ-3-in-1 or the eWin rumble the exact same way an official rumble pak would?

Thanks a lot.

They're a bit louder.

Nintendo uses a sliding type of vibe mechanism. Both the ez3n1 and ewin use a weighted motor. The rumble and associated noise are different. Not worse just different.
EZ 3 in 1 review: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=42399#ep
Ewin Rumble review: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=46636

 

[Eyedunno]

I concur that the 3-in-1's vibration sucks. If you get one, get it for GBA and RAM. I tried it once in Picross using Rudolph's loader on the lowest vibration setting, and the thing about tore my hand off.

As my various other posts indicate, I'm partial to the Ewin Expansion Pak, as it looks better, has faster load times, and provides twice as much RAM for homebrew. But yeah, as Destructobot said, saving in certain games is still an issue. The new loader (released a few days ago) at least loads most of the problem saves (if you copy them in from elsewhere), but you have to set them to read-only to keep the loader from breaking them after you play their respective games.

And yeah, I really WANT to like Supercard. I've bought three of their products, but the slow RAM in their Slot-2 devices makes them mostly useless for GBA games, and this would hold even if somebody made a loader for Slot-1. I hang on to my Supercard Mini only for ripping my DS games.

 

[neogba]

I'm a little confused. I got a White Ewin Expansion Pak for GBA and RAM. I like it. My research indicated it would load faster and auto patches clean GBA ROMs on their first run. It's great. The newest loader is slick and even matches the DSTT I am expecting (someday).

Now, I read that it's not supported for DSlinux. Could that be mistaken? It has 32MB Ram of some kind. Why would it not work as good as any other slot-2 with 32MB RAM? I believe it has have several kinds of memory in it but I don't know what or what difference it makes.

I believe it is the exact same as the DSTT Expansion Pak because Ewin is stamped in that Pak. I was thinking it's the same as the M3 Perfect Expansion Pak but logic dictates that it is very similar but something is different. What?

 

[DanTheManMS]

Now, I read that it's not supported for DSlinux. Could that be mistaken? It has 32MB Ram of some kind. Why would it not work as good as any other slot-2 with 32MB RAM? I believe it has have several kinds of memory in it but I don't know what or what difference it makes.

Even if you have the RAM, you can't do anything with it unless you know how to unlock it and read/write data to/from it. Homebrew programs like DSLinux must be specifically coded to support each type of slot-2 RAM. This is similar to how every homebrew program had to specifically support every homebrew device until DLDI came along. In any case, according to one user's report, DSLinux actually does have support for the Ewin pack, which I was unaware of until recently. If you have one, try launching DSLinux and typing "free" to help determine whether it can utilize the Ewin's RAM or not.

 

[neogba]

Hey that's great. I was indeed asking ahead of the process. It's just that the DSlinux site shows it with 32MB RAM but "Not Supported". No explanation is given.

I guess we need to ask that webmaster to state it as supported, define supported, and/or say why or how it wasn't (or isn't).

 

[DanTheManMS]

Hm, you're right, the Wiki does list it as being unsupported. Grargh, now I'm confused, as I don't know whether I can safely recommend it or not to people who want DSLinux support. =/