Mr Buckshot
April 25th, 2008, 01:36 AM
One of my school friends, who's a hardcore Nintendo fan, has been writing reviews for rom-storage cartridges for the DS on this website:
http://www.dsdatabase.org/current.html
He needs funding, so please donate via PayPal if you can. But that's not the point of this thread.
I am recommending reading DSDatabase reviews to anyone who owns a Nintendo DS and would like to be able to carry multiple games in a single cartridge. My friend and I have worked together to write unbiased reviews of various devices we dub as "flash carts." These "flash carts," for either Slot 1 or Slot 2, allow the user to boot downloaded DS or GBA roms, and to play movies and music. Pretty nifty devices in all regards.
I was first introduced to this site after my friend managed to get it up and running. He (and his review) successfully persuaded me to purchase an R4DS, one of the first Slot-1 cartridges of this class.
These carts either work on micro-SD slots (roms stored on a micro SD), or they feature built-in memory (they come with USB readers). Those with built-in memory boot faster than the SD-based ones.
The technology behind these cartridges is remarkable. Most Slot-1 carts have built-in passkeys to bypass the DS firmware and go directly to a menu where the player can select from a list of DS roms. Previous-generation carts required the DS to be short-circuited (to erase its firmware) in order to operate. Now, Slot-1 carts can be inserted and removed without disrupting the original functions of the DS.
However, Slot-1 cartridges cannot boot GBA roms, as the DS's architecture requires the GBA game to be read from Slot 2. That is where the passkey function comes in once again - a Slot 2 cart cannot (yet) simply plug-and-play like a Slot 1 card. To boot a Slot 2 cart, the DS must either have a Slot 1 cart (with a passkey) inside, or it must be modded.
The two carts that I own are the R4DS, and the Supercard Mini SD (slot 2).
I highly recommend these carts to those who like the DS and tend to bring their DS outdoors a lot. The SD-based carts cost arond $40-$60 USD without the SD, while those with built-in memory can break the bank at $90. Obviously, the SD-based carts are a better buy although they do suffer the disadvantage of slower loading times.
So if you have time, hop on to dsdatabase.org and check out the reviews there. Also, note that using a flash cart can remove the download-play capability for some popular games - that is, if you have the game on a flash cart, your friend cannot download the MP data.
Note: It is illegal to download DS roms without owning the real game. If you have like 10 games and you want to have them all in your pocket at once, simply acquire a flash cart, download the respective roms, and you now have 10 or more games in a single cartridge. The same goes for GBA roms. Respect copyrights.
http://www.dsdatabase.org/current.html
He needs funding, so please donate via PayPal if you can. But that's not the point of this thread.
I am recommending reading DSDatabase reviews to anyone who owns a Nintendo DS and would like to be able to carry multiple games in a single cartridge. My friend and I have worked together to write unbiased reviews of various devices we dub as "flash carts." These "flash carts," for either Slot 1 or Slot 2, allow the user to boot downloaded DS or GBA roms, and to play movies and music. Pretty nifty devices in all regards.
I was first introduced to this site after my friend managed to get it up and running. He (and his review) successfully persuaded me to purchase an R4DS, one of the first Slot-1 cartridges of this class.
These carts either work on micro-SD slots (roms stored on a micro SD), or they feature built-in memory (they come with USB readers). Those with built-in memory boot faster than the SD-based ones.
The technology behind these cartridges is remarkable. Most Slot-1 carts have built-in passkeys to bypass the DS firmware and go directly to a menu where the player can select from a list of DS roms. Previous-generation carts required the DS to be short-circuited (to erase its firmware) in order to operate. Now, Slot-1 carts can be inserted and removed without disrupting the original functions of the DS.
However, Slot-1 cartridges cannot boot GBA roms, as the DS's architecture requires the GBA game to be read from Slot 2. That is where the passkey function comes in once again - a Slot 2 cart cannot (yet) simply plug-and-play like a Slot 1 card. To boot a Slot 2 cart, the DS must either have a Slot 1 cart (with a passkey) inside, or it must be modded.
The two carts that I own are the R4DS, and the Supercard Mini SD (slot 2).
I highly recommend these carts to those who like the DS and tend to bring their DS outdoors a lot. The SD-based carts cost arond $40-$60 USD without the SD, while those with built-in memory can break the bank at $90. Obviously, the SD-based carts are a better buy although they do suffer the disadvantage of slower loading times.
So if you have time, hop on to dsdatabase.org and check out the reviews there. Also, note that using a flash cart can remove the download-play capability for some popular games - that is, if you have the game on a flash cart, your friend cannot download the MP data.
Note: It is illegal to download DS roms without owning the real game. If you have like 10 games and you want to have them all in your pocket at once, simply acquire a flash cart, download the respective roms, and you now have 10 or more games in a single cartridge. The same goes for GBA roms. Respect copyrights.