Anyone using Super Cards in their GBA's or DS's?

[somunny]

Do these enable you to play .gba files or do the game files need to be in a different format?  Just wondering how well they work.

Steve

[crashwg]

I have an EZ-Flash II Power Star and putting roms on it is as simple as (1) opening a program "EZclient" and (2) clicking "rom" then (3)"open GBA file" (4)selecting a file (ending in .gba) and then (5) clicking the burn button.

Of course you can go through steps 2, 3 and 4 to add multiple roms to a single cart.

All in all, it's friggin easy and pretty awesome if you ask me!

[somunny]

Nice!  Sounds like a great way to carry around a few dozen games.  Especially if you have all the roms to choose from.  Thanks!

Steve

[pointdablame]

The M3 is considered the "best" flash device for the Nintendo DS right now, at least by many people.  I believe it works in the GBA as well, but I am not sure.

With the M3, you can play GBA and DS games, as well as some emulators as well.  It also uses SD or CF cards (depending on the model you buy), so it's much cheaper to add more memory when compared to other flash cards.  The M3 itself, however, is a bit expensive.... but worth it IMO.

[somunny]

PTB,

I looked in to the M3.  Nice unit.  Is the choice between CF and SD memory merely that of preference or are there performance or cost factors to take into consideration?

Steve

*I also assume you need a CF or SD memory card reader for your computer, as well, right?

[spiffyshoes]

The CF cards are much larger than the SD cards physically so they will stick out from your DS more.  Also CF cards come as large as 8GB where as the largest SD card right now is only 4GB.

If you only plan to play Nintendo DS games then the Super Card should work just fine for you and is much cheaper than the M3.  The Super Card only has problems with the GBA games not the NDS ones.  If you plan on playing both GBA and NDS games then get an M3.

Also if you have a DS Lite you might consider waiting for the new G6 card that is going to be comeing out soon.  It looks just like the Dust Cover on the DS Lite so you wouldn't even know it was there.  It holds 512MB of highspeed flash Memory so unless you plan on watching movies or listening to alot of MP3's it should be large enough to hold most of your NDS and GBA games.

[Hoagie_one]

there have been minor compatibility issues with teh SD verison of the M3 for homebrew and some DS roms, but overall, they are about the same

[NIVO]

supercard(sd card model) works like a champ with micro as well. Playing original NES games on it is fantastic.

[somunny]

Nivo,

How does the GBM play NES games?  Is the emulator on the Supercard?  Sorry for all the noob questions.  I just picked up a DS Lite and found out that these types of cards & carts existed.

Steve

btw - Thanks to everyone for the info.

[spiffyshoes]

You can download the emulator to any of the flash cards to play NES games.

[somunny]

Here's a very well-written and indepth review of the CF version of the M3.  I definitely think this is the model I want to pick up.  Just haven't decided between CF and SD yet.

http://www.emuparadise.org/reviews/M3/

The article also says you can play SNES games via emulation. 

Steve

[somunny]

Okay, another question.

What's the difference between the Pass Key and the Passcard?

Steve

[NIVO]

yes the emulator is already on the supercard as part of the firmware. You simply put the .NES rom files on and simply select one from the menu and it boots. Not all are perfect and some have glitches but that improves as new firmwares are updated.

Also to make it much more organized I simply put all roms in alphabetical order in their own folders. Makes choosing much faster.

[Dizzle]

Here's a very well-written and indepth review of the CF version of the M3.  I definitely think this is the model I want to pick up.  Just haven't decided between CF and SD yet.

http://www.emuparadise.org/reviews/M3/

The article also says you can play SNES games via emulation. 

Steve

SNES emulation unfortunately isn't possible through any of the cards on the market.  I've got an M3 and while it works perfectly for me with everything I throw at it, it doesn't have SNES emulation even though it claims it on the box.  There are SNES emulators you can download for the DS, but they've got a little way to go.

As far as the difference between the Passkey and Passcard:

The Passkey is a dongle that sticks out of the NDS that allows you to boot in NDS mode from the GBA slot.  You'll need to plug an original NDS game card into the Passkey for it to work though.  It's worked fine for me, and it's so light that you don't notice it's there, but I'm growing a little tired of the thing sticking out of the top/back of my DS Lite.

Passcards do the same thing, but they actually plug right into the NDS slot like a regular game would.  Makes things look a lot cleaner.  They just released the Passcard 3.

www.gbatemp.net has excellent reviews and side-by-side comparisons of all the hardware.

Hope this helps! 

[coasternuts]

I also heard on a forum (sorry, no link) that SD was not as power hungry as CF.

FYI.

[somunny]

That's good info about the SD cards.

And thanks for the Pass card/passkey rundown.  It sounds like the passkey is the way to go.

Still looks like a little bit of research left.  Hopefully I'll be in the know enough to make a purchase by Sunday.  Yes, I'm very impatient. 

Steve

[pointdablame]

That's good info about the SD cards.

And thanks for the Pass card/passkey rundown.  It sounds like the passkey is the way to go.

Still looks like a little bit of research left.  Hopefully I'll be in the know enough to make a purchase by Sunday.  Yes, I'm very impatient. 

Steve

You don't really need the passkey for more than 5 minutes.  You can upgrade the firmware on your Nintendo DS by using the passkey, and from that point on, you will no longer need to have it inserted into your DS.  You just put the M3 in the DS's GBA slot, and you are good to go.  It's a fairly simple process from what I've heard, and my roommate was able to do it to his DS in a few mniutes.

IMO, the nicest setup is a flashed DS (to get rid of the passkey/card), and the new SD model of the M3 which is much smaller than the others.  Even on the new DS Lite, the new SD version barely sticks out of the system.

That new card that sits totally flush may turn out to be good too, but I'd like to have the option to expand beyond 512mb of storage if I wanted to.

[Stingray]

Here's a very well-written and indepth review of the CF version of the M3.  I definitely think this is the model I want to pick up.  Just haven't decided between CF and SD yet.

I have the CF version and it's really fantastic. Plays GBA & DS games, plus any emus you can track down. There's nothing like being able to carry a few dozen games around with you. Like PDB pointed out, you only need the passkey long enough to flash the DS and then you can toss it in the junk drawer.

-S

[spiffyshoes]

The DS Lite is harder to Flashme though.  I've heard of allot of people bricking their systems.  The Passcards aren't very expensive and they work just fine.

[ptpeter]

ayone know a good message board for DS related topics like this?

[somunny]

"I've heard of allot of people bricking their systems."

Yes, that would be bad.  I did buy the extended warranty however, so hopefully I could sneak a bricked unit through Gamestop's alert staff if the need arose.

I do like the size of the SD flash unit, although the mini SD unit is even smaller and fits the GBA slot to a 'T'.  Pretty sure I'm going to go with the SD version/ passkey combo.  Total price looks to be about $110.

Steve

[Dizzle]

Just flashed my DS Lite... easy as pie.

There's a great guide on gbatemp.net going over how to flash one -- even includes a video.

[ptpeter]

which flashing device did you use?

[dabone]

I've got 2 supercards sd and 1 m3 mini sd.

All the cards work great for nds games, and the m3 is perfect in gba mode, but the supercards are much better bang for the buck.

After I got my dslite and m3 perfect (I've got a passcard2 but I went ahead and flashed my dslite anyway), I've used the gba mode maybe 20 times compared to hundreds of time for nds mode.

The supercard does a good job on 70% or more of the gba games I've thrown at it, and it's cheap.

Later,
dabone

[Dizzle]

which flashing device did you use?

For the passthrough device, I used my Passkey 2.

For the actual flashing tool, I used a toothpick covered with aluminum foil and insulated with scotch tape.  Worked perfectly!  I'm so glad to be able to get ride of the Passkey... now all I need is a perfect SNES emulator!   

If you have any q's on flashing, lemme know and I'll help as much as possible.

[somunny]

If you have any q's on flashing, lemme know and I'll help as much as possible.

Yeah, do you prefer a long trenchcoat with nothing on underneath or do you just pull your pants down?

Seriously though, what I gather here is that if you use the passcard 2 or 3, you don't have to manually flash you DS.  Is that right?

Steve

[Dizzle]

If you have any q's on flashing, lemme know and I'll help as much as possible.

Yeah, do you prefer a long trenchcoat with nothing on underneath or do you just pull your pants down?

Seriously though, what I gather here is that if you use the passcard 2 or 3, you don't have to manually flash you DS.  Is that right?

Steve

That depends.. are we talking summertime, wintertime??  There's a myriad of determining factors! 

Seriously though, there are a lot out there who will say that flashing is the ultimate solution.  I don't know what the compatibility is like with the Passcard 2 or 3, but if I had a Passcard 3, I wouldn't be anywhere near as inclined to flash my DS.  I am told that with the pass devices, you're still vunerable to malicious code out there.  I guess the flashme firmware gives you more protection.  I think that's why there are a lot of people out there who say Flashme is the way to go.

The passkey/passcard devices will also draw more from your battery.  I've heard of varying degrees of extended battery life when going to the flashed firmware.

[spiffyshoes]

I am told that with the pass devices, you're still vunerable to malicious code out there.

What malicious code?  The only Nintendo DS virus I could find through google was a Trojan that posed as Flashme software and intentionaly bricked your system when trying to update the firmware.

[Hoagie_one]

If you flash your firmware, it has a built in recovery code incase someon tries to brick you ds.

[stellarola]

Just got my Supercard mini SD version in the mail today. I am extremely happy with my purchase. It sticks out a little out of my DS lite, like any other gba cart. I'd rather have it look like that than carry 40 games on me. 

[somunny]

How's the movie playback?

[stellarola]

How's the movie playback?

Dunno yet, I'll give it a go later.