Ds Supercard Question

[iignotus]

I was wondering, just how bad is gba support/compatibility with the supercard? I don't mind long loading/booting times for the games (heard it has to load the games to the slow built in ram of the supercard), but how about game performance? Is it as bad as something like say gba emulation on xbox (slowdown here and there with most games)? And does it affect majority of the games? (games I'm interested in are the final fantasies: tactics and dawn of souls, zelda minish cap, metroid games and fire emblem series).

It all depends on how complex the game is, and sometimes, judging complexity can be very deceiving. Around 90% of GBA games run full-speed on Supercard Lite (lite is marginally faster than SD and CF). About 8% have moderate to major slowdown, some being unplayable from it. About 2% don't work, flat-out.

Some notable games that run full-speed: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance; Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, Circle of the Moon, and Harmony of Dissonance; Zelda A Link to the Past, The Minish Cap; Fire Emblem 1 and 2; Advance Wars.

Some notable games that run with slowdown: Final Fantasy IV, V, VI; Tekken Advance; Super Mario World.

Some notable games that don't run: Super Mario World 2; Advance Wars 2.

All in all, I am very pleased with my Supercard Lite. However, I am looking to upgrade to an M3 lite in the future just because I am overly picky -- but it's not at the top of my to-do list.

 

[georaldc]

I was wondering, just how bad is gba support/compatibility with the supercard? I don't mind long loading/booting times for the games (heard it has to load the games to the slow built in ram of the supercard), but how about game performance? Is it as bad as something like say gba emulation on xbox (slowdown here and there with most games)? And does it affect majority of the games? (games I'm interested in are the final fantasies: tactics and dawn of souls, zelda minish cap, metroid games and fire emblem series).

It all depends on how complex the game is, and sometimes, judging complexity can be very deceiving. Around 90% of GBA games run full-speed on Supercard Lite (lite is marginally faster than SD and CF). About 8% have moderate to major slowdown, some being unplayable from it. About 2% don't work, flat-out.

Some notable games that run full-speed: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance; Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, Circle of the Moon, and Harmony of Dissonance; Zelda A Link to the Past, The Minish Cap; Fire Emblem 1 and 2; Advance Wars.

Some notable games that run with slowdown: Final Fantasy IV, V, VI; Tekken Advance; Super Mario World.

Some notable games that don't run: Super Mario World 2; Advance Wars 2.

All in all, I am very pleased with my Supercard Lite. However, I am looking to upgrade to an M3 lite in the future just because I am overly picky -- but it's not at the top of my to-do list.

Thanks for the quick reply. Supercard lite? Is that the same as the supercard ds lite, the one with rumble? Coz a friend of mine was selling one, as well as the regular supercard, and was thinking about which one to get.

EDIT:
Sorry, I think I mixed the 2 products up lol. What my friend had was a supercard with rumble, which I believe does not support GBA right?

 

[iignotus]

I was wondering, just how bad is gba support/compatibility with the supercard? I don't mind long loading/booting times for the games (heard it has to load the games to the slow built in ram of the supercard), but how about game performance? Is it as bad as something like say gba emulation on xbox (slowdown here and there with most games)? And does it affect majority of the games? (games I'm interested in are the final fantasies: tactics and dawn of souls, zelda minish cap, metroid games and fire emblem series).

It all depends on how complex the game is, and sometimes, judging complexity can be very deceiving. Around 90% of GBA games run full-speed on Supercard Lite (lite is marginally faster than SD and CF). About 8% have moderate to major slowdown, some being unplayable from it. About 2% don't work, flat-out.

Some notable games that run full-speed: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance; Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, Circle of the Moon, and Harmony of Dissonance; Zelda A Link to the Past, The Minish Cap; Fire Emblem 1 and 2; Advance Wars.

Some notable games that run with slowdown: Final Fantasy IV, V, VI; Tekken Advance; Super Mario World.

Some notable games that don't run: Super Mario World 2; Advance Wars 2.

All in all, I am very pleased with my Supercard Lite. However, I am looking to upgrade to an M3 lite in the future just because I am overly picky -- but it's not at the top of my to-do list.

Thanks for the quick reply. Supercard lite? Is that the same as the supercard ds lite, the one with rumble? Coz a friend of mine was selling one, as well as the regular supercard, and was thinking about which one to get.

EDIT:
Sorry, I think I mixed the 2 products up lol. What my friend had was a supercard with rumble, which I believe does not support GBA right?

Correct. Supercard Lite Rumble (SCLR) does NOT support GBA games, nor a lot of homebrew, due to the lack of ram. You want the Supercard Lite (SCLite).

 

[georaldc]

Ok, found a good compatibility list here:

http://gba.vltava2000.cz/shops/7000/html/SCGBAlist.htm

Only thing is, it just says whether the games work or not, no notes or whatever regarding issues like slowdown. Guess I'll just stick with the list and test them out myself.

Oh yeah, last question. GBA games need to be converted/patched as well right, with the same tool used for patching DS games?

 

[georaldc]

Ok, I think I'm going to back out from getting a supercard and instead, get a m3 lite since i read that the m3 has pretty much perfect nds/gba compatibility.

 

[iignotus]

Ok, I think I'm going to back out from getting a supercard and instead, get a m3 lite since i read that the m3 has pretty much perfect nds/gba compatibility.

Supercard has perfect NDS compatibility too. If you feel justified spending almost $30 more just for 10% better gameboy advance speed/compatibility, then go ahead.

 

[andius]

Ok, so apparantly the Ds lite is sold out everywhere here in my area, whats going on? I didn't even think this thing was too popular. Everywhere has a surplus of Psp's Not even very large online shops have it in stock, I would just resort to amazon, but for some reason their Ds prices are 160 usd, which is way too much even in this time of shortage.

 

[Orkie]

Ok, so apparantly the Ds lite is sold out everywhere here in my area, whats going on? I didn't even think this thing was too popular. Everywhere has a surplus of Psp's Not even very large online shops have it in stock, I would just resort to amazon, but for some reason their Ds prices are 160 usd, which is way too much even in this time of shortage.

What planet have you been on for the past year? The DS outsells the PSP hugely pretty much everywhere.

 

[andius]

I've been at school My school must be some alt. universe or something, cause i've seen like 1 person who has a DS and like 25 or so with a psp, I haven't been keeping up to date on console wars at all for several years now.

 

[ste_167]

Even the GameGear is currently outselling the PSP

 

[Shikaku]

Even the GameGear is currently outselling the PSP

Ouch.

 

[telegramguy]

If you get the M3 Simply, you will be able to run SNES and NES emulators (NDS is not emulated, it is actually *run*). However, you should know now that the emulation scene for the NDS is not nearly what it is for the GP2X, and that SNES emulation is very lacking right now. This is the same with all cards, as it is a fault of the NDS's power itself.

Yeah, DS emulation isn't quite so great. Even when the emulator runs fast like NES, the screen's resolution isn't has high as a real NES. Here's a video of NES emulation split screen with the GP2X vs. DS vs. GBA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FudRkevL1wk

The M3 is great and is highly recommended. But even if you find an old MoviePlayer v2 for dirt cheap you can run homebrew and NDS backups also. Here's a video of the DS running a backup with the cheapest possible hardware for the DS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpO1HoUwlYA