Hacking Okay, hands down, what card to buy?

[pesaroso]

Okay, I guess I'm not not the only one in here with my head upside down, wondering what card to buy. R4, M3, Cyclo, DSTT, Acekard, SuperCard.. sigh..

I will try to narrow it down, if you want to help me

It's for my gf, she's not the super-number1-tech-girl, so.. basically:
- High rom compatibility, with DS downlod play etc.
- Easy OS, hopefully with drag-and-drop (I thought SuperCard was a winner untill I read about all the stuff you had to apply to get certian games to work..)
- Not too expensive
- Good build quality

Doesn't really matter if it supports SDHC etc, I think she's good with a 2 or 4GB card, so..

Anyone got a good tip? And why would you pick the card you're suggesting?

Thank you for all your help

 

[Curley5959]

Well the R4 is good for easy use, for me anyway but is very old and not much capability with all the new features of the new flashcarts..

The Cyclo is meant to be fairly easy to use and has been voted one of the best flashcarts on GBATemp.. Not sure about drag and drop, because i dont have one..

M3, I believe is good but not the best out there

DSTT, maybe but it might be a bit more complicated than the others.. Not sure though..

Acekard, Heard it was good, but again, compatibility issues

Supercard, is obviously out of your books because of all the patching that you have to do..

I only have an R4, so I believe it is good, but it is much more expensive and outdated then the rest of these flashcarts... I think its good but you will have to wait for other people to reply because my short descriptions of the other flashcarts may and probably are, a bit hard on them and I wouldnt know what they are like.. Im just giving my impression on them from other users that have them on GBATemp...

Hope this helps a bit, and I hope I dont get flamed for my opinion and impression on some of these flashcarts..

 

[mong]

I have a cyclo and got an acekard2 for a friend of mine and both of them are pretty much drag and drop. Basically, unrar the firmwire, and drop it on the microsd. Then all you have to do is drop the game on the microsd card.

If you are willing to spend a little more, the cycloDS is now at around 36$ at dealextreme which is the cheapest I've ever seen. The acekard2 is ~23$ at dealextreme if you are going the cheap way =P

 

[krazykirk]

R4's suck. Don't get one

They're outdated, and no longer continuously updated.

The cyclo is the top of the line cart, it has features unrivaled by any other cart.

The Supercard One is also good, with plenty of features.

If you're looking for a budget card which will still do the job well, get a Acekard2.

All of these choices have drag and drop compatability (you're thinking of old old old carts which need roms to be patched), have good build quality, and are reasonably priced.

Keep in mind that the cyclo is a top of the line card, and is priced accoringly.

So to fit your needs, I recommend the Acekard2, with the combination of price, ease of use, and quality.

 

[Hanafuda]

Supercard, is obviously out of your books because of all the patching that you have to do..


Hope this helps a bit, and I hope I dont get flamed for my opinion and impression on some of these flashcarts..

well, not meaning to flame ya, but I use the Supercard DSne and it's just drag and drop raw roms straight onto the card. Doesn't get much easier than that.

 

[ShortFuse]

I initially bought a DS-X which was great for the time, but the development team abandoned it.
CycloDS has a very very active development team. I made the choice to get a CycloDS because of Team Cyclops' speed in releasing their CycloWiz updates (one of the first to get Super Mario Galaxy working and Brawl's DVD9s). It's a group I trust and the CycloDS hasn't let me down. It certainly beats other with it's in-game savestates, brightness adjust and ability to go back to the CycloDS menu w/o rebooting. And the firmware upgrades are always good.

They also include a USB MicroSDHC reader, so if you have a usb port, you're good to go. You can get a 4GB MicroSD card on Amazon or $20 (maybe less now)

 

[pesaroso]

Thank you so much for your replies! Really means a lot

I think I'll narrow it even more down to the CycloDS, SuperCard One and Acekard 2..

Since it's ~13USD seperating them, I don't really care which card, I can afford to buy the most "expensive" one

I've heard lots of good things about the CycloDS, but I don't know anything about its OS and if it's easy-to-use. I've read about the SuperCard and Acekard 2, and I think they're very solid candidates as well.

Is there any chart where I can compare'em or something? Since I'm only going for an easy OS and good compability with ROMs, maybe the Acekard 2 is the way to go? Or...?

Thanks again!

 

[R2DJ]

I would recommend the DSTT because it matches most of your needs:

- High rom compatibility, with DS downlod play etc.
In my experience, everything works well without a hassle. Except for Bomberman. It lags when you go to Wi-Fi.

- Easy OS, hopefully with drag-and-drop (I thought SuperCard was a winner untill I read about all the stuff you had to apply to get certian games to work..)
Just make a folder for the files and voila, you're done!

- Not too expensive
Definitely!

- Good build quality
Well there is a new batch now. The microSD doesn't show that much unlike the past batch.

 

[Curley5959]

Supercard, is obviously out of your books because of all the patching that you have to do..


Hope this helps a bit, and I hope I dont get flamed for my opinion and impression on some of these flashcarts..

well, not meaning to flame ya, but I use the Supercard DSne and it's just drag and drop raw roms straight onto the card. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Thats alright.. That was just my first impression from some of the people that have been having problems around GBATemp.. Ive never thought to actually look at the good points..

 

[pesaroso]

Okay, so with the DSTT, I'm now comparing 4 carts.. Sigh, I wish the compare-site here at GBAtemp was still active..

Anyone knows where else I can look to see what ppl are writing about the carts? With their personal opinion? Not that GBAtemp is not good; it's the best, but I can't really compare the carts here.

Thank you so much for your answers so far! I've filtered out some carts due to your posts, now I only need to filter it even more..

 

[Minox]

Actually you can use the DSTT's firmware on a Scds1 so you could skip DSTT.

 

[Koekje]

I would recommend the DSTT because it matches most of your needs:

- High rom compatibility, with DS downlod play etc.
In my experience, everything works well without a hassle. Except for Bomberman. It lags when you go to Wi-Fi.

- Easy OS, hopefully with drag-and-drop (I thought SuperCard was a winner untill I read about all the stuff you had to apply to get certian games to work..)
Just make a folder for the files and voila, you're done!

- Not too expensive
Definitely!

- Good build quality
Well there is a new batch now. The microSD doesn't show that much unlike the past batch.

I agree with this, i have also a DSTT.
Just create a folder called Games, pop your games in there and you're ready to go! (Don't forget the OS!) This card has the fastest loading times of all cards.
"Except for Bomberman. It lags when you go to Wi-Fi." Didn't experienced this, maybe slow connection?
The build quality is excellent, i have seen a few R4's which just teared apart into 2 pieces after a few days, the spring slot is also very good, if you don't handle it as Godzilla or The Mighty Hulk.

 

[ojsinnerz.]

Supercard, is obviously out of your books because of all the patching that you have to do..


Hope this helps a bit, and I hope I dont get flamed for my opinion and impression on some of these flashcarts..

well, not meaning to flame ya, but I use the Supercard DSne and it's just drag and drop raw roms straight onto the card. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Thats alright.. That was just my first impression from some of the people that have been having problems around GBATemp.. Ive never thought to actually look at the good points..

I think you were thinking about the Slot-2 cards. The SCDS1 SDHC does not require any patching.

It's also better than the DSTT, because it can use the firmware to use it as a DSTT.

So, what's the point of having just one thing, when you can have 2 different things in one?

 

[Minox]

Supercard, is obviously out of your books because of all the patching that you have to do..


Hope this helps a bit, and I hope I dont get flamed for my opinion and impression on some of these flashcarts..

well, not meaning to flame ya, but I use the Supercard DSne and it's just drag and drop raw roms straight onto the card. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Thats alright.. That was just my first impression from some of the people that have been having problems around GBATemp.. Ive never thought to actually look at the good points..

I think you were thinking about the Slot-2 cards. The SCDS1 SDHC does not require any patching.

It's also better than the DSTT, because it can use the firmware to use it as a DSTT.

So, what's the point of having just one thing, when you can have 2 different things in one?

3 if you count Ysmenu.

 

[Koekje]

Supercard, is obviously out of your books because of all the patching that you have to do..


Hope this helps a bit, and I hope I dont get flamed for my opinion and impression on some of these flashcarts..

well, not meaning to flame ya, but I use the Supercard DSne and it's just drag and drop raw roms straight onto the card. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Thats alright.. That was just my first impression from some of the people that have been having problems around GBATemp.. Ive never thought to actually look at the good points..

I think you were thinking about the Slot-2 cards. The SCDS1 SDHC does not require any patching.

It's also better than the DSTT, because it can use the firmware to use it as a DSTT.

So, what's the point of having just one thing, when you can have 2 different things in one?

3 if you count Ysmenu.

YSmenu is 10 times slower then the official DSTT menu, it also doesn't have any options, no backlight settings (so your games will always be in the darkest option), no reset, nothing. My official DSTT menu does have alphabetically sorting and all, no need to use YSmenu.

 

[rubaducky]

If you have no quarrels about price, then the CycloDS is your best buy. Simple interface as hell, very high game compatibility, and it just feels solid and sturdy like a real DS cartridge.
The firmware is stored on the card also, so you can update your microSD card and not have to "reinstall" the OS with it.

Life lesson for you - Due to the budget price and rave reviews,I bought my gf an Acekard2 a few months back, as she's learning Spanish. I got her "My Spanish Coach" and after about a month of solid playing (she made tons of progress) the Acekard decides to corrupt the save file without warning. Restarting the game just caused the game to delete her profile, stating it was corrupt.
Luckily I upgraded her microSD card that previous morning, so I had her latest save on my laptop.

I copied the uncorrupted save into my CycloDS and it's worked perfectly, so I gave my Cyclo to her, and ordered another for myself. I'm now her hero, she's happy, and needless to say, I got my reward

Bottom line is that since our gfs are not that tech-savvy, don't skimp out on quality, as the smallest inconsistencies and problems may be enough to put such people off new technologies - and after all, we all want our partners to see us as their heroes!

 

[Swip]

YSmenu is 10 times slower then the official DSTT menu, it also doesn't have any options, no backlight settings (so your games will always be in the darkest option), no reset, nothing. My official DSTT menu does have alphabetically sorting and all, no need to use YSmenu.

You tried going through a list of about 40 items with the DSTT's official firmware?
No backlight settings? try tapping the top left corner on the bottom screen
No reset? Look at the bottom screen


And why would someone buy a supercard just to use the DSTT's firmware. If your going to use the DSTT's firmware buy a DSTT its cheaper than the SCDS1.

If your girl friend just wants to play games with a firmware that's easy to use, high compatibility and reliable get the DSTT. If she wants features such as RTS get a cyclo or a SCDS1

 

[Koekje]

YSmenu is 10 times slower then the official DSTT menu, it also doesn't have any options, no backlight settings (so your games will always be in the darkest option), no reset, nothing. My official DSTT menu does have alphabetically sorting and all, no need to use YSmenu.

You tried going through a list of about 40 items with the DSTT's official firmware?
No backlight settings? try tapping the top left corner on the bottom screen
No reset? Look at the bottom screen

Bottom screen only shows a grey background with 1 box with some info about the current folder/file in it.
Top left corner on the bottom screen? Nothing's there, only a grey background like the whole screen.
And yes, i have 67 games (8GB card) on my DSTT, and i have managed to let it scroll without any kind of lag while scrolling, alphabetically sorted, and all that stuff. With the official menu.

 

[NotAgOat]

I didn't read the entire thread, but I own/owned a DS-X, R4, and Cyclo DS. Cyclo DS wins hands down.

 

[Sir-Fritz]

I don't know about any other card as all i've owned is a cyclods but i have to say that it works wonders. Also you should probably know that Team Cyclops have the best support i've seen out of any Flashcart team with English speaking people as well as official forums where the team it self answers questions and gives support.