DS flash card

[Kohan]

AceKard isn't a clone. A lot of them do have very similar OSes, but the community is pretty quick at determining which are clones and which aren't.

[Yuri-G]

To clarify, you MUST have a GBA adapter that fits on the bottom slot on the DS to be able to play GBA ROMS. No DS Cart will be able to play GBA games. I learned this when trying to figure out where I was going to play Mother 3

Yeah, I asked around and was rather disappointed to find this out. I don't know why it couldn't just be built-in. It'll be worth the splurge for Fire Emblem 6 on my DS Lite, though.

[Yuri-G]

Got it in the mail today, in case anyone's wondering, realhotstuff.com comes highly recommended from me. Extremely fast shipping for the price I paid.

Total spent on this was $80 or so including shipping and everything, plus the GBA adapter, but it was all worth it. I already have a slew of games on my DS and the only one that was even a bit of a hassle to get working was Chrono Trigger - some of the patched versions don't run very well on a flash card, for some reason. I got one that does though, so the anti-piracy lock is no longer a problem, sweet.

Getting the GBA adapter to work, on the other hand, was hell. I thought for sure I was going to have to return it and that it was broken. Apparently the company that makes it randomly changes which chip they use when they run out >_> So a lot of the homebrewed stuff that enables you to run GBA games through the adapter (you can't put them directly on the adapter, they still have to be on the flash card) is outdated randomly when this happens. Luckily after hours of googling and trying many different things, I finally found a program that works. It was totally worth it to see Fire Emblem 6 and Mother 3 boot up on my DS Lite in English, though... I never would have dreamed I'd be able to do that.

So yeah, CycloDS Evolution is pretty sweet. I dunno what else is out there but this one is working extremely well for me. And if I ever want to get a bigger SD card, I could even use my DS as an mp3 or movie player. All in all not bad for an $80 investment ($50 with the SD card if you don't want the GBA adapter, probably even cheaper if you get it without the SD card).

[fantasticdan]

I paid like $30 a while back for an ezflash4 lite (gba slot one), and around $15 for a passme to flash my, and a bunch of other ds's. Never had a problem running any gba or ds games.

[Draylo]

So can anyone provide a link that sells everything you need? That link that was posted said it does not come with an SD card so does that mean it won't play the games or what?

[Vandole]

mine is just an old m4 that uses a passkey and plays off the gba slot.

No complaints here, just get one. they all work lol

[Kiarax]

just get one. they all work lol

For now, the problem is with the R4 is that it's not officially supported, so whilst you wont have any problems at the moment or probably for quite a while thanks to community-made firmware updates and cheat codes to bypass piracy blocks (see: Chrono Trigger, FF:CC, PS0, etc) it's just not as future proof as the other products. When you can get currently still supported (and better) cards for the same price, there's absolutely no reason to buy an R4 now. It's certainly no reason to upgrade from an R4, but recommending one to someone now is just bad advice.

[Draylo]

Yes I would like to just get one lol but I need a link to the current one that most people use, which im reading is the cycloDS? Where can I buy it and does it come with everything I need?

[Kiarax]

You need the cart (in this case, the CycloDS Evolution) and a microSD card. You get a USB card reader for transferring files with the Cyclo, so that's all you need. That realhotstuff site that Yuri-G recommends does 2 bundles with both items that you need, one being the Cyclo bundled with a 2 GB SD card and the other with a 4 GB SD card. Although it doesn't make much difference, the Japanese produced Kingston SD cards are supposedly considered the best, which is what the 4 GB card is. Apparently some SD cards have slowdown with very few games (one of them being the Castlevania series, though I've never used any other card but a Kingston to confirm), but for the most part it shouldn't make any difference.

Both seem to be very good prices, you can generally fit 25~30 or so games on a 2 GB card, which is more than enough imo, considering you can take off and swap games around in minutes if you have access to a computer.

[Draylo]

Nice thanks for the links, what is

EZV 3 in 1 Expansion Pack

and

Memory Card for? There are options to add these.

[Kiarax]

Nice thanks for the links, what is

EZV 3 in 1 Expansion Pack

and

Memory Card for? There are options to add these.

The 3 in 1 lets you have rumble in games that support it (from my experience with my friends rumble expansion thing, it's awful and just drains your batteries), play GBA games and helps support a few apps (DS Browser, SNEmulDS (SNES emulator), QuakeDS are the only ones I'm aware of, but afaik the DS Browser is the only one that requires it). No idea what the memory card is, but it's not necessary.

[Doombear]

I got my Cyclo at Realhotstuff as well, though i definitely think you could find a better place for the memory cards. I had read that the Transcend MicroSDHC card worked very well with the Cyclo so that is what i went with, and have never had a single slowdown issue (tested the Castlevanias). You can get a 4GB on Newegg.com for $7.25 vs $25 for the 4GB Kingston addon on RHS. Just throwing that out there.

With the Cyclo you are already paying more than any other DS Card out there so saving a bit on a memory card can't hurt right? I would definitely recommend a Transcend though, or a Japanese Kingston.

[Mosquiton]

I am needing to replace my DS now and I have the R4, I am wondering if I should hold off and get a DSI or just get a Lite, I heard rumors that flashcards wouldn't work on the DSI but I do not know if there is any truth to this or not, has anybody else heard anything one way or another?

[bebeci]

Acekard claims to have a flashcard that works on the DSi.
Personally, whenever my DS Lite breaks (the left trigger is very wonky), I'll probably get another DS Lite, and ignore the DSi.

The DSI is more expensive (about $170 USD), with 2 very shitty built in cameras, doesn't play mp3s (it plays AAC), and you lose your GBA slot 2.
It's got a bigger screen, but meh ;X
Coming out in April, I believe?

[Boyiee]

There are alot of options... which do you guys think the best are for the lowest price?

I'm trying not to spend too much here, <100$. I just want to get more use out of my ds.

[fantasticdan]

Depends if you want to play gba roms/homebrew or not.

[Boyiee]

My main focus is downloading DS games onto it and plaything them. Imports, games my gamestop never has in stock, trying out a game instead of buying it to find out it sucks. I don't know how much I'd use the gba emulator, I'm not too familiar with any good gba games... can you transfer pokemon from the gba rom to diamond/pearl and such?

[Kohan]

Cyclo with the GBA adaptor (if you decide you want it) for sure. Yuri and Kiarax's posts should tell you all you need to know.

[Kiarax]

My main focus is downloading DS games onto it and plaything them. Imports, games my gamestop never has in stock, trying out a game instead of buying it to find out it sucks. I don't know how much I'd use the gba emulator, I'm not too familiar with any good gba games... can you transfer pokemon from the gba rom to diamond/pearl and such?

You wouldn't be able to transfer Pokémon from the GBA games if you were playing a downloaded copy through the flashcart, I'm uncertain if a legitimate cart in the GBA slot will allow you to though, as I didn't get the bonus in FFTA2 by having FFTA in the GBA slot, though I had an American copy of FFTA2 downloaded and the European FFTA game so that could have been the problem.

My earlier post with the 2 GB/4 GB bundles on realhotstuff would be all you need to get playing DS games. And according to Draylo it gives you the option to add the EZ 3 in 1 (which allows you to play GBA games) if you desire that too. Alternatively you can save a little bit by getting a different cart. The M3 Real is generally considered the best after the CycloDS, so if you do decide to go the slightly cheaper route I'd suggest that one.

[Yuri-G]

My main focus is downloading DS games onto it and plaything them. Imports, games my gamestop never has in stock, trying out a game instead of buying it to find out it sucks. I don't know how much I'd use the gba emulator, I'm not too familiar with any good gba games... can you transfer pokemon from the gba rom to diamond/pearl and such?

You can always get the GBA adapter later if you like. It doesn't have much functionality with DS games as far as I know, it's just for playing GBA games on their own.

For what it's worth, though, the GBA library is absolutely fucking fantastic:
Pokemon
Final Fantasy IV-VI
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Super Mario Bros. 2, 3, World, and Yoshi's Island
Classic NES series
Fire Emblem series (6 has been translated by the way)
A whole fuck-ton of Mega Man games, ranging from platformers to the psuedo-RPGish Battle Network games
Kingdom Hearts CoM
Zelda: LTTP
Zelda: Minish Cap
Donkey Kong Country series
Golden Sun 1 & 2
Mother 3
Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland
Kirby: Amazing Mirror
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Castlevania series
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Advance Wars
Metroid series

And those are just off the top of my head, there are a lot more, it was a pretty fantastic little console.