Which flashcarts do you own?

[Space_Goddess_Samus_Aran]

rn i have is the DSPico and an R4i 3ds or something like that xD

 

[JORGETECH]

What reasonably priced GBA is to go to these days? I only have an original Flash2Advance and EFAII. Both of which are quite awkward to use these days

I recently bought two Flash2Advance carts (one of them was sold as broken) as a historical curiosity. Yes, they are very awkard to use nowadays, but some of them should work with the GBflash so that's something worth trying, I was able to flash stuff to my 256M cart.

As for a reasonably price flashcart, the Superchis Prime is among the best for it's price.

 

[Kwyjor]

I recently bought two Flash2Advance carts (one of them was sold as broken) as a historical curiosity. Yes, they are very awkard to use nowadays, but some of them should work with the GBflash so that's something worth trying, I was able to flash stuff to my 256M cart.

Seems to me that being able to use it with a regular GB using the GB Bridge would be a useful selling point. Did the GB Bridge just not work very well?

 

[reimolaev]

I only have one flash card at the moment. It's an R4i SDHC HappyBox 1.41. I'd like to get the very first versions of PassMe.

 

[JORGETECH]

Seems to me that being able to use it with a regular GB using the GB Bridge would be a useful selling point. Did the GB Bridge just not work very well?

I didn't know about the existence of the GBbridge, seems like an interesting concept, the part about having the ability to play GBC games on GB is specially interesting to me. Can anyone explain how this would work?

 

[Kwyjor]

I didn't know about the existence of the GBbridge, seems like an interesting concept, the part about having the ability to play GBC games on GB is specially interesting to me. Can anyone explain how this would work?

It's not that fancy – if you load GBC ROMs on your Flash2Advance, then the GB Bridge will let you use it on a GBC. This is normally impossible for standard GBA flashcarts as they operate at completely different voltages than the GB/GBC. So, no you can't somehow use GBA or GBC games on a GB using this technology.

(Someone did, coincidentally, just announce a new and completely unrelated software solution, also called GB Bridge, for playing GB games on a GBA.)

 

[spectral]

The main downside to the GB Bridge other than it being cumbersome to write to a F2A cart on modern systems is that its very bulky.

 

[SylverReZ]

I didn't know about the existence of the GBbridge, seems like an interesting concept, the part about having the ability to play GBC games on GB is specially interesting to me. Can anyone explain how this would work?

The GB Bridge works by using logic shifters to do 8-bits, turning the F2A into essentially a GB/GBC cartridge.

 

[Alfombra]

I own a 32GB micro SD card, does that count? lol (DSi)

 

[TVL]

Currently I have an R4i (or whatever, it's a DS flashcard I use in my 3DS to play DS games), I also have an old R4 card that's in my DS (only ever used when it's a game that needs the GBA slot for an accessory, which is the paddle controller, that's my only reason to ever power on my DS, but what a good reason, that should have never gone out of style, that type of controller should still be around, and if you don't know about it (I didn't, I just got it because I love useless accessories) it's close to the best thing that ever happened to gaming, plenty of concepts being possible apart from pong, space invaders and puzzle bobble.

I also have an EverDrive for my Famicom... That's it, I hardly ever play anything else, I have loads of other consoles though (most with HDDs) I just never return to them and see no reason to connect them to the TV or power grid.

I used to have a flash cart for my GBA, before that I don't think they existed, don't know what happened to it, but the handheld broke, so I probably gave it away. Those were good times.

 

[Hwongfish]

pico is the best!

 

[izy]

I own a acekard 2i from 2007 the back of the shell is gone but i square shaped electrical tape to keep the shape has made it work in my og 2007 dslite ( the gold one)

 

[gh5tbusters]

If I'm not mistaken, I have an R4i-SDHC. I got mine for my DS in February.

 

[Ghost-Babel]

none.

what would be a good one and done flash cart for a 3ds?

 

[Kwyjor]

what would be a good one and done flash cart for a 3ds?

There are a bazillion other threads on that particular subject at this point, sir. Depending on your needs, a flashcart may be entirely superfluous.

The Ace 3DS X would probably be fine for DS games. There was another thread suggesting that Stargate clones aren't so bad for 3DS games, but they're still kind of expensive.

 

[Ghost-Babel]

id like to be able to play my gba and gbc collection on my 3ds mainly. some of them i bought on the eshop, like links awakening, but others like ghost babel arent available.

figured id ask here instead of searching through a "bazillion threads."

There are a bazillion other threads on that particular subject at this point, sir. Depending on your needs, a flashcart may be entirely superfluous.

The Ace 3DS X would probably be fine for DS games. There was another thread suggesting that Stargate clones aren't so bad for 3DS games, but they're still kind of expensive.

 

[Kwyjor]

id like to be able to play my gba and gbc collection on my 3ds mainly.

Then you definitely don't want to use a flashcart. GBA games are best played using open_agb_firm, which uses the native 3DS GBA functionality. This functionality is inaccessible using a flashcart.

figured id ask here instead of searching through a "bazillion threads."

If you can't be bothered to do a little research on your own, then at least start your own thread rather than posting somewhere only tangentially related.

 

[Ghost-Babel]

Not that worried about it. Just saw this thread and haven't had much use out of my 3DS since I got the Switch.

 

[shin0225]

So glad I stumbled across this thread! Just wanted to leave my mark here, but honestly, I'm mainly here to learn from all of you guys and see if there are any amazing flashcarts out there that I've missed. Hopefully, sharing my own journey can help someone else out too.


Since I stuck to legit retail games for a long time, I actually got into the flashcart scene pretty late—but man, it’s a beautiful rabbit hole. A long time ago, a friend gave me my very first taste of it: an R4i-SDHC Dual Core (yep, the infamous "timebomb" cart).

When I randomly decided to tinker with it later on, I looked up how to actually run the damn thing and realized it was still sitting on kernel V3.6. Luckily, I tracked down the official V4.3 kernel with the timebomb stripped out.

I used it for a long time, stuffing it with as much homebrew and modern tech as possible to beef it up. It served me well, and it's got that RTS feature which I rarely use but it's nice to have. Though let's be real, the stock kernel compatibility is kind of garbage lol.


Shortly after that, luck struck again. A colleague from my real-life job happened to be into this stuff too, and passed his DSTWO down to me for dirt cheap—a legendary piece of premium hardware I’d been hearing about for over a decade.

I was hyped because I knew it’s still widely considered the ultimate NDS flashcart. Even though I later found out it eats battery life like crazy (so it’s now my backup cart), some of its exclusive features are just absolutely killer!


Around the same time, another great product, the dspico from the LNH-team, gradually started to blow up as the next big thing. For... certain necessary reasons, I needed to get my hands on one, and I lucked out by snagging it for about $1, though I hear the prices have jacked up since.

From that moment on, the dspico easily became my absolute favorite cart. That transparent injection-molded shell is pure eye candy, and it finally let me dive deep into DSi Ware (RIP Myrient though, it's such a pain to find rare ROMs now).

To this day, even if I don't always have time to sit down and play my DSi XL, I pretty much take it with me everywhere I go—just like the old days of carrying a 3DS around for StreetPass! It's an incredible experience you just can't get on a 3DS.


Since then, I’ve been lurking on awesome forums like GBAtemp, digging through old community archives, and absorbing all the flashcart lore I can find. I realized I have a weak spot for those "prestige" carts that used to have dedicated dev teams and earned a legendary reputation back in the day. That led me to pick up an original R4DS and an Acekard 2i.

Both are incredibly reliable and unique in their own ways. I love them both, but the AK2i (HW-81 version) feels amazing. Running a triple-boot setup with AKAIO, BL2CK, and YSMenu gives it absolute god-tier game compatibility.

I ended up updating its firmware to support DSi V1.4.3, mostly because I heard the latest two firmware versions make the menu loading speed painfully slow.

Though, maybe because of the firmware update, the stock AKmenu barely even works now... but whatever, who cares. It's kind of like how original R4DS users never actually touch the stock kernel anyway, even though I still have it installed alongside YSMenu and Wood OS just to keep it in active duty on my DS Lite.

But going back to the AK2i, I love this thing so much that I'm genuinely thinking of replacing the R4i-SDHC with it as my second main cart, even though it lacks RTS.

Oh, by the way, I also recently picked up an R4i SDHC V2.0 "DS Happybox" Upgrade 1.4. I haven't really had enough time to thoroughly test it out yet, but it's probably nothing special—looks like just a basic version with no timebomb and no RTS.


Of course, my wishlist is still huge—I'm currently hunting for an M3i Zero, a Supercard DSONEi, etc. They are incredibly hard to come by nowadays, so I'll definitely need plenty of patience.

I've even started converting my girlfriend to the DSi / flashcart cult, got her her own dspico and R4i-SDHC!

Funny enough, unlike my original white shell, the R4i I picked up this time is a black version with "RTS LITE" printed on it. My girlfriend actually preferred my white one, so I handed it over to her. Now we literally have a matching couple's set, and she gets to experience the exact same joy I do!


But like I said at the start, I still have a ton to learn. So guys, tell me—what other hidden gems are out there that are absolutely worth picking up?

How are carts like the CycloDS iEvolution, iEdge, EZ-Flash Vi, EX4DS, Ace3DS X, or maybe those r4ids.cn ones with proper RTS support? Let me know!

 

[Kwyjor]

what other hidden gems are out there that are absolutely worth picking up?

Instead of accumulating more flashcarts, have you considered, y'know, actually playing games..?

The vast majority of these things function practically identically for the vast majority of titles.