Hello everyone,
I hope the title would attract people who are considering of buying a SCDS one, because maybe you can get a better idea on what you are getting before you spend your hard earned cash. Before I start, I would like to say that I am fairly happy with the card, taking into account of the price, the shipping speed, and how well it matched my expectation, but I believe that there are people will think differently.
First, a little bit about my ndsl and my first flash card, it's about 2 years that I had my white ndsl with my previous flash card m3 perfect. Yes, it is the one that sticks out of the slot-2 quite a bit (for it's slightly larger than the regular gba card) and yes, it needs a passcard which drain the battery power to no end, and finally yes, I live with this for 2 years. It just seems that every time when I'm ready to upgrade my flash card, something new will come out. Since I couldn't quite decide which to choose, I end up staying with my m3 perfect. Until 2 weeks ago, a game I must play gave me white screens (AFAIK m3 team hadn't fixed it yet), and then I know for sure that I need a new card.
When I tried to decide which card to get, only m3ds real, Acecard RPG, and Cyclo Evo are on my list. I believe I will not regret by getting any one of those cards, but unfortunately those cards are either too expansive, out of stock in most online store, or is shipping from HK. Since the order I put on dealextreme, where I was planning on get my m3ds real from but gave up eventually, around the same time as I order SCDS one still shows no sign of arrival, I think I made a right choice. The fall back choice SCDS one, does not gain nearly as much attention as the other cards base on forum activity, correct me if I'm wrong,except the recent "Realtime Save" fuss, which honestly I think sooner or later most of the cards will have this function. The official review on GBAtemp doesn't look too good at the first glance either, not only the score is mediocre but also the list of cons is actually longer then pros.
However, due to hardware modification (SDHC) and software update (V3.0). Most problems are solved (as stated in here), except maybe #1 and #8. I can accept #1 since it's common for clean rom supported cards and most cards deal with the problem with patching either the rom or directly on the memory, which relies on official updates and I don't consider that to be a long term solution. Plus nowadays you can get a Kingston 2GB micro SD (Japan) with less than $20 (AR) in the US, shouldn't be a big problem. As regard to #8, I'll post a alternative solution in the supercard section shortly, please check it out.
Even with all those problems fixed, SCDS one is still far from perfect, first thing every user will notice this the non-user friendly interface, the card come with a piece of paper which tells you petty much nothing other than go to the Official Website to download the newest software and how to enter selftest mode. The website has a whole page of hot keys for you to memorize, which I just skip through. Once you start up, you may want to do some settings, the first task is to open the menu on the top screen (by the default setting), after figuring out R+direction key opens the menu, I have the toughest time finding which key checks the setting due to the slow response of the menu (still not entirely sure to this day
, I think is Y or R+Y, but sometimes I can't uncheck for some reason.) Well, if you are lucky and figure out that L+A switch the top and bottom screens so you can use your touch pen, you still need to remember check on "Save menu option" after you're done. If you remember that my ndsl is 2 years old and it's touch screen is a bit off, and try add this to the problems above, the process is very frustrating for me to say the least.
Fortunately, I don't have to change my setting everyday, and if I need to change something, I will try global.ini first. The real serious problem for me is that there is one setting for all games. I only need in game guide for one game (mainly just to try out the function anyway), and real time save for 2 maybe 3 games, why should I have to change the setting every time I play a different game or else the system create a SCI file for every game that I played? It would be so much better if each game could have independent setting, including which cheat codes to use, I mean, what's the point to ask you which cheat code to use before playing the game if you can turn the them on/off during the game, just remember your last setting is enough! This is the only problem that I can't find a way around it, and I believe it's very possible to fix with software update.
Since this is not a "professional" review, I choose not to include pros in the end, it's not because I can't think of anything good to say about this card, otherwise I won't buy it at the first place, it's because I believe if you can except the flaws then you can further appreciate the unique features of this card. Also, it makes sense to the topic "Why shouldn't you get a Supercard DSone?"So, here it goes, Italic Text is how I deal with the problem:
-The card's performance is highly microSD dependant.
Buy a high speed microSD card
-Save system relies on a database (ndsinfo.dat) for official website, which is constantly outdated.
http://sccheats.co.uk/
-8+3 save file names
solved, check out the supercard session for detail
-non-user friendly interface
Edit global.ini
Get use to the hot keys
Great deal of patient for try & error
-one setting for all games
Hate this, turn everything on for now
Pray for update
-In game guide won't save position after reset/no search function
Don't get a super long guide
-Multi-Save can take a while to figure out
Don't know how fast everyone get this, the copy function is copying the default to selected slot. I originally thought it to be from the selected slot copy to the next slot selected. Once again, my old touch screen didn't make this any easier.
-Real time save WILL crush after consecutive uses
Use it with care
Last word: There is a lot of things I ignore/simply don't care but might be important to you. If the SCDS one owners can contribute their questions and possible solutions that you think are important in the forum, you might like this card a lot better.
I hope the title would attract people who are considering of buying a SCDS one, because maybe you can get a better idea on what you are getting before you spend your hard earned cash. Before I start, I would like to say that I am fairly happy with the card, taking into account of the price, the shipping speed, and how well it matched my expectation, but I believe that there are people will think differently.
First, a little bit about my ndsl and my first flash card, it's about 2 years that I had my white ndsl with my previous flash card m3 perfect. Yes, it is the one that sticks out of the slot-2 quite a bit (for it's slightly larger than the regular gba card) and yes, it needs a passcard which drain the battery power to no end, and finally yes, I live with this for 2 years. It just seems that every time when I'm ready to upgrade my flash card, something new will come out. Since I couldn't quite decide which to choose, I end up staying with my m3 perfect. Until 2 weeks ago, a game I must play gave me white screens (AFAIK m3 team hadn't fixed it yet), and then I know for sure that I need a new card.
When I tried to decide which card to get, only m3ds real, Acecard RPG, and Cyclo Evo are on my list. I believe I will not regret by getting any one of those cards, but unfortunately those cards are either too expansive, out of stock in most online store, or is shipping from HK. Since the order I put on dealextreme, where I was planning on get my m3ds real from but gave up eventually, around the same time as I order SCDS one still shows no sign of arrival, I think I made a right choice. The fall back choice SCDS one, does not gain nearly as much attention as the other cards base on forum activity, correct me if I'm wrong,except the recent "Realtime Save" fuss, which honestly I think sooner or later most of the cards will have this function. The official review on GBAtemp doesn't look too good at the first glance either, not only the score is mediocre but also the list of cons is actually longer then pros.
However, due to hardware modification (SDHC) and software update (V3.0). Most problems are solved (as stated in here), except maybe #1 and #8. I can accept #1 since it's common for clean rom supported cards and most cards deal with the problem with patching either the rom or directly on the memory, which relies on official updates and I don't consider that to be a long term solution. Plus nowadays you can get a Kingston 2GB micro SD (Japan) with less than $20 (AR) in the US, shouldn't be a big problem. As regard to #8, I'll post a alternative solution in the supercard section shortly, please check it out.
Even with all those problems fixed, SCDS one is still far from perfect, first thing every user will notice this the non-user friendly interface, the card come with a piece of paper which tells you petty much nothing other than go to the Official Website to download the newest software and how to enter selftest mode. The website has a whole page of hot keys for you to memorize, which I just skip through. Once you start up, you may want to do some settings, the first task is to open the menu on the top screen (by the default setting), after figuring out R+direction key opens the menu, I have the toughest time finding which key checks the setting due to the slow response of the menu (still not entirely sure to this day
, I think is Y or R+Y, but sometimes I can't uncheck for some reason.) Well, if you are lucky and figure out that L+A switch the top and bottom screens so you can use your touch pen, you still need to remember check on "Save menu option" after you're done. If you remember that my ndsl is 2 years old and it's touch screen is a bit off, and try add this to the problems above, the process is very frustrating for me to say the least.Fortunately, I don't have to change my setting everyday, and if I need to change something, I will try global.ini first. The real serious problem for me is that there is one setting for all games. I only need in game guide for one game (mainly just to try out the function anyway), and real time save for 2 maybe 3 games, why should I have to change the setting every time I play a different game or else the system create a SCI file for every game that I played? It would be so much better if each game could have independent setting, including which cheat codes to use, I mean, what's the point to ask you which cheat code to use before playing the game if you can turn the them on/off during the game, just remember your last setting is enough! This is the only problem that I can't find a way around it, and I believe it's very possible to fix with software update.
Since this is not a "professional" review, I choose not to include pros in the end, it's not because I can't think of anything good to say about this card, otherwise I won't buy it at the first place, it's because I believe if you can except the flaws then you can further appreciate the unique features of this card. Also, it makes sense to the topic "Why shouldn't you get a Supercard DSone?"So, here it goes, Italic Text is how I deal with the problem:
-The card's performance is highly microSD dependant.
Buy a high speed microSD card
-Save system relies on a database (ndsinfo.dat) for official website, which is constantly outdated.
http://sccheats.co.uk/
-8+3 save file names
solved, check out the supercard session for detail
-non-user friendly interface
Edit global.ini
Get use to the hot keys
Great deal of patient for try & error
-one setting for all games
Hate this, turn everything on for now
Pray for update
-In game guide won't save position after reset/no search function
Don't get a super long guide
-Multi-Save can take a while to figure out
Don't know how fast everyone get this, the copy function is copying the default to selected slot. I originally thought it to be from the selected slot copy to the next slot selected. Once again, my old touch screen didn't make this any easier.
-Real time save WILL crush after consecutive uses
Use it with care
Last word: There is a lot of things I ignore/simply don't care but might be important to you. If the SCDS one owners can contribute their questions and possible solutions that you think are important in the forum, you might like this card a lot better.
