Ds Homebrew

[hessiess]

I have a original fat Nintendo DS and am wondering what I would actually need to be able to run home-brew and emulators on it, and where I could get that in the UK?

Thanks.

 

[Titcher]

You need a flash cartridge. I suggest this one http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15613 and you'd need a MicroSD card to go with it.

 

[Squidge]

http://www.ndshb.com/

http://www.ndshb.com/modules.php?name=Cont...page&pid=38

 

[Ravnos]

I would personally recommend the CycloDS. It's hands down the best of all the flash carts I've come across. I don't know where you would get one in the UK though, as I'm on the other side of the pond from there.

 

[geo12]

You need a flash cartridge. I suggest this one http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15613 and you'd need a MicroSD card to go with it.


Does this really work? That is unbelievably inexpensive.

 

[satanic virus]

You need a flash cartridge. I suggest this one http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15613 and you'd need a MicroSD card to go with it.


Does this really work? That is unbelievably inexpensive.


Yeah I bought one for myself and two for friends - all working no problems

 

[plopperz]

You need a flash cartridge. I suggest this one http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15613 and you'd need a MicroSD card to go with it.


Does this really work? That is unbelievably inexpensive.


Yeah I bought one for myself and two for friends - all working no problems

I disagree, I bought one and it stopped loading games after a week, and the cartridge barely fits into the slot.
Spend an extra $10 on a decent one.

 

[Squirrel61]

I bought several flashcarts for myself and for friends. My favourite is the Acekard2. There has been a bad batch, where the cards break after some hours/days/weeks of playing because of a design fault, but the newest ones are reliable.

I've also tried the Supercard (a super card, but booting takes long), R4DS (don't like the card) and TTDS/DSTT (great card, but the micro-sd slot could be improved, sometimes the micro-sd won't come out and you have to pull it). They all do the job, there's just some difference in details.

If you want to be able to use GBA games too, you should buy an EZFlash 3-in-1 cartridge, also available from Dealextreme. It works best with the original EZFlash flashcart or Acekard2.

Btw. The Acekard team has the most frequent updates of all cards, sometimes 2-3 times in a month. They where the first to create a version of the card that runs on the DSi (Acekard2i, DS mode only), the TTDS team now offer the 2nd (TTDSi).

 

[iprice]

I bought two R4DS's over a year ago for my son and I (from DealExtreme as it happens) and they've given me no problems whatsoever.

I've recommended them to many friends and they've had no problems either. The latest, cheaper R4s are a slightly different to the ones I've bought and seen - (I put some stuff on one for my wife's workmate, bought from a different company) - they don't seem to have a spring loaded mech for the microSD, but they still work the same.

 

[Radio]

You need a flash cartridge. I suggest this one http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15613 and you'd need a MicroSD card to go with it.


Does this really work? That is unbelievably inexpensive.

Works brilliantly and that link is the best place to buy it.
I was recommended this cart by a friend and neither of us have ever had any problems with it. Easy as pie to use. Just download the lastest firmware from here unzip and using your card reader just copy over the files as is.
You can get alternative skins here. You can only have one at a time so you have to copy the new one over the old skin files for it to show up but it's easy to do.
Games you just bung in a folder with the name of your choosing and they'll show up automatically. Some homebrew you'll have to keep in the root folder.
The firmware automatically patches most homebrew so you don't have to worry about messing around with DLDI files.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?act=downloads is the best site for homebrew/emulators. Lots of help and info on the forum so check it out.

You won't find a GBA emulator for the DS. For that you'll need to buy a slot 2 card like this one which will work together with your slot-1 card. (actually you'll need the phat version here.)
You can also use the 3in1 pack as an expansion pack if you want to use a browser for the web.
You can back up your official DS games and saves by using Rudolph's NDS backup tool. (not sure if I can give the link but it's easy enough to Google) and there's also a tool for backing up your GBA game saves and the program needed to run your backups.

Moonshell is the best media player which is also skinnable and plenty of skins available on the link I mentioned previously.

 

[WrongEyedJesus]

I bought a R4DS for my stepson and it is working fine after two months <tempts fate>

 

[satanic virus]

You need a flash cartridge. I suggest this one http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15613 and you'd need a MicroSD card to go with it.


Does this really work? That is unbelievably inexpensive.


Yeah I bought one for myself and two for friends - all working no problems

I disagree, I bought one and it stopped loading games after a week, and the cartridge barely fits into the slot.
Spend an extra $10 on a decent one.


Sorry to hear that - make sure your micro SD is formatted to FAT32, otherwise games will freeze when trying to load them after a save file is created. I also have a R4DS but bought these to use with HD cards - still happy with purchase!

 

[Username]

Sorry to hear that - make sure your micro SD is formatted to FAT32, otherwise games will freeze when trying to load them after a save file is created. I also have a R4DS but bought these to use with HD cards - still happy with purchase!

FAT seemed to work for my supercard MicroSD (slot 2). In fact, I was told to in instructions. Maybe it's different for yours though.

 

[Javacat]

The DSTT that was linked to by Titcher will unfortunately probably be a fake. From what I've heard it'll probably be a problem actually finding anywhere that sells legitimate ones as there are so many fakes around. This shouldn't be too much of a problem, but the latest DSTT firmware has 'fake detection' which apparently wrecks the card so that it can't be used any more.

You might want to also note that all of the R4s and the other versions (v2, SDHC, etc) are all clones of the original cards made and not by the original manufacturers. I personally have an original R4 that I bought a year or so ago that I love, although the interface is showing its age compared to the other cards.

After doing a bit of research I've bought my sister an Edge for christmas, which has good reviews, is cheap and doesn't have a cloning issue atm (so I'll be getting a legit version).

 

[plopperz]

You need a flash cartridge. I suggest this one http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15613 and you'd need a MicroSD card to go with it.


Does this really work? That is unbelievably inexpensive.


Yeah I bought one for myself and two for friends - all working no problems

I disagree, I bought one and it stopped loading games after a week, and the cartridge barely fits into the slot.
Spend an extra $10 on a decent one.


Sorry to hear that - make sure your micro SD is formatted to FAT32, otherwise games will freeze when trying to load them after a save file is created. I also have a R4DS but bought these to use with HD cards - still happy with purchase!

Aha
That's my problem, mine's FAT16. I'll try reformatting it.
Thanks

 

[hessiess]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
All the different options of flash carts is somewhat confusing, especially with the talk of fakes and the like. what should I be looking for? Also, how necessary is the slot2 memory expansion?

 

[quasist]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
All the different options of flash carts is somewhat confusing, especially with the talk of fakes and the like. what should I be looking for? Also, how necessary is the slot2 memory expansion?

For Quake ports (optional for first), Opera Browser Rom and playing GBA games

 

[Javacat]

The forums full of kiddies and can get quite annoying, but gbatemp is a good place for info on DS flashcarts n stuff. They have loads of good reviews available @ http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showforum=99. The stickies at the top are generally the best cards available and most worth paying attention to. Pay attention to the dates of the reviews as well as a lot of them are pretty old now, with the carts no longer being made or the carts firmware enhancing many of the features.

I think that the most popular carts available at the minute are the Edge, SuperCard DS One and Acekard 2.

The slot 2 expansion thingy isn't really that important. I bought an EZFlash 3-in-1 when I bought my R4 which is a rumble pack, memory expansion and GBA flash loader thingy all in one. I never use the rumble feature (is generally more annoying and adds nothing to games) and rarely use the memory expansion mode in it. The opera web browser uses it and I hear a couple of pieces of homebrew use it as well, but that's about it. Its mainly used for launching GBA games stored on the SD card in the R4.

 

[Squirrel61]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
All the different options of flash carts is somewhat confusing, especially with the talk of fakes and the like. what should I be looking for? Also, how necessary is the slot2 memory expansion?

If you want to be sure you don't get a fake cart, get some cart that isn't faked yet. That means, skip the DSTT and R4DS carts. But most fakes just operate normally even when you update the firmware.

The slot2 expansion is only needed for the Opera browser and GBA games. Not all carts support it, however. I have an EZFlash 3-in-1 expansion that adds NORflash, SRAM and rumble to the DSLite. The SRAM is used as browser memory or one-shot GBA memory (that means, you load the game and you can play it, but when you turn off the power, it is gone). The rumble option is just there to add some buzzing noise and drain the battery. The NORFlash is meant for GBA cartridge emulation. You load a game, it is programmed to NORflash and it behaves like a genuine GBA cartridge. It survives power-off.

I've found the ideal combination of flash cart and slot2 expansion is the Acekard2 and EZFlash 3-in-1. It's just working flawlessly without any need to think what you're doing.