[DS] Universal DS Homebrew thread. Fucking cheapskates.

Whether or not Castlevania will work seems to be more dependant on what type of MicroSD Card you are using instead of the flashcard itself.

Videos are converted either with the converter that comes with the CD or through other programs, as long as it converts to a .dpg I think.

I believe a new version of ScummVM DS recently came out... supposedly it supports DLDI (which is what the Slot-1s use to run their homebrew)

New batches of the Simply were made, they can't be soldered to R4s anymore, although not sure why you would really want to (aside from R4 getting their firmware update two days before M3).

Really enjoying my Simply, for once I'm actually playing my DS for more than one day =o

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Most likely someone will say Kingston or a SanDisk Ultra II since they appear to have the best record of playing all the DS games without any errors (aside from download play, that's more of a flashcart issue).

With the proper formatting supposedly the Kingston 1GB (Made in Japan vers.) will experience no crashes at all. Proper formatting is FAT16 and 64k Clusters.

Most of the crashes seem to be issues that the original cart had as well though, they are just more apparent on the rom due to running off the sd card.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I don't play Castlevania since I own the original cart, but I'm using a 2GB SanDisk, formatted at FAT32 w/ 16k clusters.

Although with the release of v1.02 FINAL I might go back to FAT16 @ 64k, since the issue I had with the beta was random crashing due to the slow speed of regular SanDisks trying to run at a faster speed (FAT16 gives more speed at the cost of some megabytes)...

I'll probably reformat it right now and try it out on campus to see how it works.

How ya doing, buddy?

Sometimes it seems more like the rom dump than the card...

Before 1.02 Final:

Picross DS w/ FAT16 @ 64k - 40second load time
Picross DS w/ FAT32 @ 8k or 16k - 40 second load time.

After upgrading to 1.02 Final:

Picross DS at either file system with any cluster setting - Instantaneous load.

These were tested with two Kingston 1GBs, one Japan and one Taiwan.

When in doubt, upgrade firmware?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Elixir

I updated to 1.01 and then 1.02, and I'd recommend updating step by step instead of jumping to the latest firmware. It might cause problems.

It's funny because the M3 team stands by the notion that you can just go straight to the latest firmware and nothing will ever go wrong with any M3 product you use, although I suppose that really only applies to the R4 DS and M3 DS Simply ...since there is no "installation" going on with those products compared to the Slot-2 stuff, where there is actual installation process going on within the cart.

Anywho, I've been playing since my previous post where I mentioned possible reformatting my card, and so far it has been great. In the beta release I would have had a few crashes or slowdowns on some games, but final really cleared those issues up.

Of course there are a few games that won't support the soft reset (L+R+A+B+X+Y, enable by tapping the top right or hitting R when you are selecting a game), but that's just a minor inconvenience.

I was speaking idiomatically.

ROM Trimming is the best thing ever.

It's gay for a few of the latest roms where only like 2MB gets removed, but for some stuff like Final Fantasy 3 where ~31MB gets shaved off that's pretty awesome since it's enough for a ~32MB rom if you trim that too.

I've managed to trim my 24 ROMs from a combined 1.600GB to 1.324GB

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Supposedly the DS-X Trimmer is the best one to use, but I dunno.

It has a feature that analyzes the rom to see if it was overtrimmed or not. The difference is only a few bytes but some people report it is enough to mess up some games.

It does batch trimming though, so maybe that's a plus.

FELIPE NO

Ah, other rom trimmers supposedly.

Sometimes they overtrim, because apparently some files will have 31.58MB or so of actual file and the rest is empty space to make it 32MB. Then when trimmed it will drop down to 31.something (not 31.58) so it could create an error.

The ds-x manager analyzes it and basically gives you a color coded system
Green = Smallest it can be
Yellow = Can Trim more
Red = Overtrimmed

Although I'm not sure how it actually determines the exact file size, but it pretty much tells you how small it will become, how much of the cart is actual data, and how much is crap.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well the only versions I've found are kind of lackluster compared to what the original was, but I haven't been able to find that anywhere so eh. It seems the "how much is actual data" thing was removed due to sometimes getting false information due to bad reading on the header or what not. Anywho:

The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher is required.

Since it was originally designed to directly transfer onto your DS-X, to put it on the hard drive is easy if you know where it has to go. Just make an apps folder in your C drive or whatever you're going to store them in (it goes based on drive only), and then when you trim it will copy it there.

DS-X Manager v0.2.4

I think the only function that works on it is ROM Trimming, since the creator wanted to focus more on batch trimming and trimming at the proper safe size instead of dealing with other things. It's good at what it does though.

How ya doing, buddy?

Hay Samus is dat a metroid on ur hed.

Man all of these skins are so awesome; it is becoming kind of hard to decide on one

There's nowhere I can't reach.

A 185MB Episode of Negima!? got compressed into a 58.3MB dpg file after using the included conversion software that comes w/ moonshell.

I haven't bothered with moonshell yet so I cannot comment on how it looks, but I think the tools are designed to make it good enough to watch on the DS screen, which is fine by me.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Elixir

I very very highly doubt the DS could play quality video at full screen.

It does, you just need to have the correct settings when you are converting.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

No, it all comes down to how you encode it, fullscreen or wide won't have an effect on the filesize oddly enough.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Well, it's mentioned but isn't given a little mini-review like the others. Maybe one day I will get a Slot-2 as well, so I can put that silly "Slot-2" option on the Simply to use (Which is not intended for GBA use apparently, but rather booting up the Slot-2 devices.)

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Changing products wouldn't produce a better result, since it's all based on your moonshell version + micro sd card speed + encoding method.

FELIPE NO

I figure I will see what all the Kingston hype is about, so I decided to order two 1GB Kingston MicroSDs from Newegg for about 32 dollars w/ shipping. I guess later this week I will test to see if they are really the superior DS Homebrew Media Card of choice.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Honestly 32 dollars w/ same day shipping on a 2 day shipping method isn't that bad for two 1gb microsds (12.99 each).

Besides, meritline's shipping methods have issues with my location for some reason. I never get a package >_>

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Sakabadger

People only make a ruckus about the Japan-manufactured ones.

Taiwanese ones are to be scoffed at. Or something.

I don't see why.

They are pretty much the same like the Japanese version, except they have like 30mb less of space (what, like maybe one game at the most?), and a slightly slower read speed.

The read speeds are still faster than any other card.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

my cellphone only goes up to 1gb which I think is retarded since an older model somehow supports 2gb.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

It was a bug with the firmware, since it tries to bypass the loading screens. However the patching messed stuff up so the game would just go to the moogle screen. (Remembered it was not in the credits, it's part of the game data left behind for demo purposes)

Recent firmware changed it.

CycloDS has the advantage of almost never needing updates to get games running 100% when they are first released.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

It was something about the carts not sending enough junk data to fool the DS. The Nintendo DS has a 4 microsecond response time to discern whether or not you are playing a real game or a rom. Some devices were unable to send enough junk data to trick the 4 microsecond response time, and some were sending it improperly, which led them to the Moogle Screen of Death.

An Action Replay code was released that fixed that problem entirely, and later an IPSPatch come out, and then finally firmware updates.

Most amazing jew boots