I got my new Passcard and M3 combo today, and I am SOOO lovin this.

No more PassMe2 sticking out of my NDS, and I've been able to play Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and Sonic Rush w/o any problems (except DOS's intro being a bit choppy, but this is due to my flash card, which was just something I had lying around). Sonic Rush didn't work at all in my F2A Ultra and DOS would crash if I let it play the intro in full (but the game itself worked).

And the program to patch and upload NDS games is fairly simple to use.

Now to try NSMB...

M'kay, I've ordered everything except a superkey (which is what I want, no passcards etc). The problem is, I don't know of a site (disregarding eBay) that sells the item by itself and also ships it worldwide. Can anyone suggest a good site?

I ordered my stuff from bamboogaming.com, an australian site.

It might be useful since you're in australia yourself. The last time I checked, they sold superkeys/passcards seperately.

Wow, that's extremely convinient, thanks! If only I knew at the start I would have bought more things from this site!

Oh, and yeah they do sell the superkeys/passcards seperately...at very reasonable prices! Thanks for the site.

Yes, the M3 works on both GBA or NDS :)
The MK4 looks quite odd though but I guess it would look nice in a normal NDS. Would probably stick out in a Lite.

Hey guys, i just bought a DS and i'm new to DS homebrew and all
this other good stuff ^_^

@ Best Buy i saw the Max Media Player and it said it can run homebrew,
but there seems to be limiations?

There's also the Max Media Launcher? What does this product exactly
do? I read that it's some sort of NoPass device?

Can anyone shed some light on this product, as i've looked around
the internet but only came upon a lot of DS hacking that i don't
really understand at the moment.

I've read the past posts about the flash carts for GBA and stuff but now I'm bloody confused. So I've decided to post.

I recently got a GBA Micro as a present so I'm going to try to use it to its fullest extent. I am going to get something which allows me to play GBA roms I dl from the net and I want it to have good internal battery life and good memory so I can store a few games in.

What should I get?

(Also from what I've read so far (and been able to conclude in this small brain of mine), theres a cart which allows memory cards (SD etc.) to expand on the memory. Is this correct?)

chaofan, for GBA playing, there's two good choices:

Flash2Advance Ultra
M3

The advantage of the M3 over the F2AU is that you can use Flash Carts which are cheaper and expandable. Plus it is easier to change games and backup saves. And if you go with the M3 you're able to use NDS ROMs (if you get a Passcard). I haven't see the M3 by itself though, just the M3 lite. Look through the newly added links on the first post.

I haven't done much testing with emulators on GBA with the M3 though.

I've been seriously looking at purchasing a Flash2Advance Ultra setup to plug into my DS and be able to play whatever GBA/GB/GBC game I want, but I have a few questions.

- Does the thing actually work in the DS, and provided I wanted to put something like Goomba Color on it to do GB/GBC emulation, would the emulator run fine even though it's on a DS?

- Is there a place that sells the 1G or 2G F2U that has a reputation of actually completing their orders and not giving you the runaround?

All in all I'd like to turn my DS into an emulation monster if I can sometime in the future, because due to certain things happening I'm gonna be using my DS a whole lot more in the future and really don't want to have to spend a ton for a decent portable library.

Is there any specific cart type that'll give me access to GB/GBC emulation (and possibly others in the future) as well as GBA/NDS emulation? The stuff I've read so far seems pretty vague.

I've pre-ordered the DS-X (which is supposed to be an all-in-one cart).
It's supposed to be released sometime in the next 2 weeks!
Hopefully it's as good as it is promised to be and i'll write a review on it.

Good timing. I lost my case with half of my DS games!!!!! ;___;

Now the problem is where to get those elusive NDS roms....?

I haven't done too much with emulation, though Goomba color did work for me on the M3. You can run the M3 or F2A in GBA mode on a NDS. Or if you get a NDS format emulator, the M3 works great for that.

www.linker4u.com I have used several times in the past and haven't had a single problem.

If you want to do NDS games or NDS-format emulators, get the M3 over the F2A Ultra. Though the more I'm using it the more I'm going full for it over the F2AU given the time it takes to load up ROMs and get into playing is much faster. Though the F2AU is faster at loading GBA games in the system itself. However there's an interesting tweak for GBA game playing M3 users at m3wiki.com that creates a border around GBA games if you load the system in NDS mode.

www.dgemu.com (registation required, though the points might be too much for most games w/o donating)
www.mininova.org (i saw some torrents here)
www.demonoid.com (registration required, go sometime on a Friday to be able to register)

I highly recommend http://www.bitgamer.com and http://underground-gamer.com/. They are both private torrent trackers. BitGamer focuses on newer games after 1999 so if you want NDS go here. Underground-Gamer focuses on games before 1999, ideally for NES/SNES and whatever other console is emulated on the DS :)
If you want to dl a whole rom collection in one go these are the places to search.

I've searched this thread and I'm suprised that nobody has mentioned the G6 Lite. I recently purchased one to play DS and GBA roms and it's awesome. It's a slightly greater drain on battery life than playing games normally, but other than that, it's been awesome. The only other drawback compared to other cards like the Supercard is that it only holds 512MB. Still, I can't think of a time when I'd want to play more than 12 DS games anyways as I'm more of a casual gamer anyways. Here's a review of the G6 from GBAtemp which is an excellent resource for all things GBA and DS.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=34239

That's probably because it's the most expensive one available.

You might as well just stick to legit games if you're going to cough out that amount for an illegal tool.

I got mine on sale for 100 bucks including shipping. A small price to pay for every DS and GBA game.

I did a lot of reading but I really but I still got a question: what type of patching should I use for DS roms?

Also (m3wiki.com, compatibility list):
[QUOTE]Note what modes the ROM was tested in (excluding Normal, Direct Copy, and 1xDMA, which will be assumed working)
If there is a special case where it only works in 1xDMA or 4xDMA, make a note!
ONLY add Safe Mode if both 1xDMA and 4xDMA aren't working.{/QUOTE]

What's all this about?

It's about how fast the DS can read the game from the flash cart. The fastest is 4xDMA, then 1xDMA, followed by the others. Depending on the SD card that you have, and on the ROM, some games won't work with DMA modes, so you can't enable them. Read the compatibility notes when patching your ROM to find out what settings worked for other users. Only use the M3Manager to add games.

Jesus christ that G6 Flash looks attractive as hell, I might have to consider getting it. Are there any major drawbacks that more people have experienced with it? It looks like it's fairly well supported and updated.

Well I have an M3 which is essentially the same basic hardware as the G6. The main difference is that the M3 takes a standard SD Card (or CF) and the G6 has internal memory. That much you already know

The only disadvantage that I see is that the internal memory is not upgradable, and that it's not so easy to copy ROMs and saves to and from the device. There are no other hidden disadvantages I see to either the M3 or the G6, other than their addictive nature. ^_^

The memory is not upgradable. You're stuck at 512MB. But copying roms and saves couldn't be more simple as all you do is plug into USB with the connector. Another cool advantage to the G6 is that its menu utilizes the touch screen. G6 also has some of the best GBA support. I've read multiple reviews where people have recommended it over the Supercard's GBA support. The G6 Lite is also good bang for your buck as a package deal from realhotstuff.com gives you everything you need for $109.99. With the M3 you have to purchase the M3 itself, a passcard, microSD memory, and a USB SD card reader if you don't already have one. The package deals including the memory and the card reader are upwards of $140 depending on the brand of SD memory you get.

The M3 is only just OK for GBA, I admit. It depends to an enormous extent on what type of card you are using. I went through three SD cards before I found one that could support GBA mode. Even then, the fourth card was one that I just happened to find left over from an old camera, and it was only 128MB.

I'm looking for another SD card to use with the M3 right now, actually. If anyone knows what I should be looking for, that would help me a lot. I'd prefer if it was one I can pick up on the high street, if possible.

Really, they just need to make a DS-X card that accepts micro-SD cards and we'd have a winner. Get a real GBA flash card if you still want to play GBA games. DS flash cards should be for DS games, homebrew, and media.

Weird, I have had zero problems so far with GBA on my M3. And I nailed it on the first card I tried. There is a media card compatibility list at M3Wiki.com which does list some cards to avoid for GBA stuff. I don't understand why it doesn't work though, but my card works fine (and I already had it before looking at the list as I got it with an old digital camera).

Even GBA cards can be flakey. One of their big problems is usually their battery life, as DS flash cards put their memory onto the flash card (which also makes it easier to backup). I've also had a little problem with my F2A Ultra getting a particular game to flash on it. Not sure the cause though, since other stuff works fine. I'm still investigating it.

Oh please. C'mon dude, this is 2006. I should have a flash card that plays DS, GBA, SNES, N64, and every other video game ever made. I also want it to be a cell phone, scanner, fax, copier, george foreman grill, and I want unlimited texting.

What's wrong with making a flash card that also supports GBA as well as other emulation?