The Official NDS Homebrew Thread


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My R4 is being shipped from Hong Kong for 50 with a 1GB microSD, once it arrives ill go ahead and purchase my onyx NDSL immediately and enjoy my spring break. Hope BEUP works in my university network

It won't boot without the micro sd card in, but after it loads up you can take the card out and passme, or you could just passme and then take the card out. Or you can flashme the ds. I know most people don't recommend flashme, but I use it along with my R4 for download play and to get rid of the health and safety screen.

As far as a cheap slot 2 goes, I'd say the ez4 would be what you are looking for.

thanks bfoos... yeah...will only be looking to use the slot 2 for gba backups...so doesnt need to be 100 % compatible with everything...

So when I get my key. What do I do with this DLDI... Thats the only thing thats confusing me

Do I need it? LOL, I sound so uhh noobish :p

Here is what DLDI is. Before DLDI, homebrew developers would have to develop thier software, test it on whatever card they have, and then release it. People would try the app, then report back that there are bugs on thier cards or it's not compatible. The developer would then have to try and fix compatibility with every card that is out there and make it work perfectly on every card. A daunting task. Developers were spending as much time trying to fix compatibilty as developing the actual software.

With DLDI, the developer only has to develop with DLDI compatibilty in mind. If it is DLDI compatible, it will be compatible with all cards. This frees the developer to just develop his software and not have to worry so much about compatiblity and fixing it for every card that is out there, thus making the DS a much easier and more applealing platform to develop for.

What it means for developers: As stated above, they can just develop their software and not have to spend so much time on compatibility.

What it means for users: Homebrew software should work on all cards. You won't have to wait for developers to release a version for your card or fix issues with your card. The con is that you have to get the DLDI patcher software and DLDI driver for your card and patch the homebrew file with it before it will work, but this only takes a few seconds and is well worth it for better compatibility and to keep developers happy.

So basically what you would do is you would download whatever homebrew you want to try, and if it is DLDI compaitble, you grab the DLDI file for your R4 and the GUI patcher here, and patch the homewbrew with the DLDI file and it will now work perfectly on your R4.

Edited by Ji@nBing

Hey guys I thought I would post this here. It isn't my site but I've contributed a few times.

http://wiki.scorpei.com/index.php/M3_DS_Si...patibility_list

It's a list of game compatibility with the M3 DS Simply, it also has a list of MicroSD cards and which suffer "freezing" in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.

You can also use the wiki to find lists for other cards.

Sup fellas. I'm back with seeking suggestions.

I've narrowed it down to M3 Simply, and R4DS. I know these cards are both the alike if not the same. I know R4DS gets patched/updated a bit faster and or more frequent.

Besides that, is there really an advantage one would have over the other? I read somewhere about the R4DS having a switch or something making it an M3.

Lastly, give me a great Slot 2 cart to go along with the suggested M3/R4DS. I figure it's either the M3 Perfect or G6 Lite.

Besides that, is there really an advantage one would have over the other? I read somewhere about the R4DS having a switch or something making it an M3.

this was only true for some versions of the R4DS (the earlier ones I think?)

I just got my R4DS yesterday, my DS today and will be getting my microSD tomorrow; and my R4DS does not have the switch.

If you want to turn the R4DS into the M3, all you need to do is pop open the cart and add 2 solder points (youtube has tonz of videos that show how to do this)

Ok guys...

Big blonde moment on my part :blush: ...I ordered the R4 but decided it would be cheaper to get micro sd memory locally...BUT none of the stores in my neighbourhood carries them...

Could someone put up a list of online stores that sell cheap micro sd memory...?

Thanks in advance.

Sup fellas. I'm back with seeking suggestions.

I've narrowed it down to M3 Simply, and R4DS. I know these cards are both the alike if not the same. I know R4DS gets patched/updated a bit faster and or more frequent.

Besides that, is there really an advantage one would have over the other? I read somewhere about the R4DS having a switch or something making it an M3.

Lastly, give me a great Slot 2 cart to go along with the suggested M3/R4DS. I figure it's either the M3 Perfect or G6 Lite.

Only the 1st batch of R4/M3 were able to be hacked to put each other's firmware on them. This ability has since been disabled. Your are correct that they are the same card, but R4 has faster updates so far.

If you want a slot-2 cart for GBA, you can get an old GBA cart such as the EZ-Flash 3 for very cheap. The only thing to keep in mind is that it was designed for the GBA so it will stick out from the DS Lite. If that's a problem, the M3 Lite is still a great little card (actually that's what I'm still using. I haven't upgraded to the slot-1 cards yet).

to play both gba and nds roms would i just need a passcard and a slot 2 cart, or something like m3 simply in slot 1 and another cart in slot 2?
Correct. You would need a passme device (such as Superkey, ect..) in slot-1 and a slot-2 cart, or any slot-1 card (they act as a passme device as well) and a slot-2 cart. This may change with the M3 Real though as it is rumored to be a slot-1 cart that has an expansion that goes in the slot-2 allowing you to play GBA.

Thanks for the responce. I ended up getting both the M3 Simply & M3 Lite.

Figured since me and my wife both have a dsl, i'd toss her the one i would less use/like. ;)

Also picked up a couple Kingston 1GB "Assy in Japan" MicroSD cards. Those should run well.

Thanks to all you guys that responded to my nub ?'s. :p

Cheapest place I now of right now is http://meritline.stores.yahoo.net/kingston...ro-sd-card.html. I got mine at newegg for for $17 shipped and it was a Japan.

I actually got that exact same one off Newegg. It was $12 at the time (today I saw it went down to $8 :( )

but yeah.. it's a 1gb Kingston. Not sure if it's a Japan or not.... I don't get it till Friday (tomorrow)

btw:

how do I tell if it's a japan card or not??

I thought the following post wont be read in the original Opera DS thread so I will repost it here

if you install DSLinux, it actually has a web browser. I haven't used it my self, since I don't get my sd card until tomorrow, but by Saturday I can tell you if it works

source here

To any of you trying to make their minds up about the M3 DS Simply vs the R4.. It really doesn't matter. There's been two software updates to the R4 since I purchased my M3 DS Simply, and those updates appeared on the M3 site the same day.

So if you're concerned about getting slower updates and less support for your M3 DS Simply, don't worry. M3 and R4 work together and the software is always released in a very quick time period. Also the support from the M3 forum is very impressive, and you'll get answers to any question/issue you have.

I actually got that exact same one off Newegg. It was $12 at the time (today I saw it went down to $8 :( )

but yeah.. it's a 1gb Kingston. Not sure if it's a Japan or not.... I don't get it till Friday (tomorrow)

btw:

how do I tell if it's a japan card or not??

Yeah, I saw that they lowered the price. I'm not bothered by it in the least. I only payed $12 for mine.

If it's made in Japan it will say Japan next to the model number on the card as well as on the UPC on the package.

yeah... my microSD card is Japan ('assy in Taiwan' next to the UPC)

but everything seems to be working perfectly fine.

moonshell, image viewer, games - even DSLinux - all I need to test is videos

I am 100% satisfied with R4. Load times are super fast too (but that is 'cause of the microSD) - best purchase I could have ever made for the DS!

to my understanding, there are cards from korea, taiwan, and japan. 'assy in japan' is what an original card should read.

The best way is to look on the back of the MicroSD packaging, it should read above the barcodes "SDC/1GB or SDC/1GBCR". It will also say ASSY in Japan.

There seems to be a big misconception that games like Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin need the fastest MicroSD cards. But that Kingston 1GB Japan card is not the fastest MicroSD card, in fact I've used some that are faster and they freeze/glitch in a variety of games. I think it's more of a stability issue, and the manufacturing process of the card. I've already used two Japan Kingston cards, and they both were perfect.

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