M3 Lite Pro for DS

[Franco]

Im thinking of getting a M3 Lite Pro cart for my DS for GBA roms and GBA homebrew, I already have a M3 Simply which will work as a pass card.

Does anyone have a M3 Lite Pro who would like to comment on them? Would you advise getting one or would you recommend another product?

[Rachel]

I got a personal M3 Lite pro for DS a while ago with a few coworkers. We've been using it to take builds from work home to test over a weekend or whatnot. So far i've been very very satisfied. The only problem I've seen is a few people had trouble getting the SD card in right. It has to click, not just look flush with it. The microSD card also feels so insanely tiny that i'm afraid I'll break it if I breath too hard.

[Franco]

Yeah they are pretty freaking tiny! There is one in my M3 simply and i manage with that ok so I should be ok on that front, not having huge sausauge fingers helps! 

Anyone know what console emulation is like on the DS? I cant imagine it being able to run SNES etc games very well but it would be nice to get some NES/Mastersystem games running.

Are the emus for the DS the best ones to go for or the ones for the GBA? I was thinking that because that even though the GBA is less powerful it may still run console emus better as they have had more time for development compared to the DS.

Would a GBA console emulator (eg one that emulates a NES) even work on a DS running off a M3 Simply card?

[KenToad]

I've heard that the M3 Lite Pro is one of the best Slot-2 solutions.  A lot of other sd based cards like the supercards and their clones suffer from slowdown in certain GBA games, for example the Tony Hawk games and Castlevania series. 

Stobe on the forum here seems to be the man regarding sourcing these console items, so I would check with him.  I already asked him about the M3 slot-2 possibility, i.e. what it would cost, etc., but I haven't had the chance to get back to him yet, so I'm not sure if he ever got a line on the M3 slot-2 products.

[Stobe]

I can get them for about the same price as the R4's.  But they have the 32M max support.  They are the "cheaper" versions of the M3 Slot 2 family.

The CycloDS Micro may do everything the same/better??

But let me know if you want one, I can get them for you.

-Stobe

[KenToad]

Well, the CycloDs is pretty neat and has good DS game support, but it doesn't run all homebrew, since it seems to lack DLDI support.  Also, as a supercard clone, it runs a lot of GBA games with noticable lag.

The M3 perfect slot-2 device that runs from micro or mini SD devices is reported to have near perfect GBA/NDS compatibility, as well as DLDI support. I think the big drawback is that they are more expensive than Supercard/CycloDS.

As far as this thread goes, I'll have to double check my information here and look into the M3 Lite Pro device. 

Thanks a lot for chiming in, Stobe, and sorry I haven't gotten back to you yet via PM.  I've been busy with my baby girl and two jobs, which should eventually leave me better off financially, so in the next week or two, I will hopefully be placing another order/making another request for the M3 perfect to be added to your inventory.   

[Franco]

Yeah as far as I know the M3 Simply/R4 doesn't support GBA roms and homebrew very well. I already have a M3 Simply which is why Im after a M3 Lite Pro or similar.

Thanks for the offer Stobe but im in the UK so shipping would be a PITA. The cheapest I have seen the M3 Lite pro over here is £34, it also comes with a passcard (which I wont need, I may sell it on if I get one.)

I have read about them only supporting games <32Mb, are there many games over this size?

According to THIS site you can use GBA Tool Advance (GBATA) to patch games >32Mb. The program can be downloaded HERE if anyone wants it.

[KenToad]

The R4/M3 simply are both slot-1 cards and so they won't play GBA games, but I've heard nothing about them not supporting homebrew.  My R4 has played every hombrew app I've ever put on there.  I thought they had near perfect hombrew compatibility. 

I would be surprised if shipping from Stobe's location would be more of a PITA than getting it direct from some Asian distributor and I've never seen an online outlet that could beat Stobe's prices.

[Franco]

Ah cool, I thought I had read somewhere that not alot of homebrew worked well on the DS, I take your word for it though, it was probably a load of bull that I read.

What homebrew would you recommend? I wouldn't mind getting a couple of emulators running if there are decent.

£34 is about $68 so if Stobe could do me one cheaper than that then that would be great. Probably best to drop him a PM.


Thanks

[KenToad]

I don't have the url's handy, but, so far, SnemulDS seems to be the best SNES emu available for slot-1 devices, although it seems like it may be a few months before it plays most games without too much tweaking.  Also, there is a very good port of ScummVM for the DS.  As far as Emus for Slot-1, those two are the only that I have tried.  Concerning other homebrew, video actually looks pretty good utilizing Moonshell and you can actually download some preconverted Bugs Bunny Cartoons and a few movies from another website that I'm lacking the url for right now.  (I think it's called the DS library project or something.)  Also, I use ReadMoreAlpha for reading .txt files while holding the DS like a book. 

The two best websites for information about these are Ds-Scene and GBADEV, IMO.  I don't really dig GBATemp, since there seems to be too many kiddies on there to get much reliable information.  I do check out their "magazine" and official reviews sections from time to time, though. 

But, I actually spend most of my DS time reading comics using the amazing comic/image viewer, ComicbookDS, which you really should Google.  It's been developed by some French programmers and you can check out a video of the program in action and download some preconverted comics at their website.

[KenToad]

From the GBAtemp official review of the M3 Pro:

Let's address the one difference between M3 "Perfect" and "Professional". Professional is made strictly for NDS use. By reducing the memory size, which cuts costs and is cheaper for consumers to afford, GBA functionality has been stripped away. If you're considering this product, then you're already omitting GBA playback as a deciding factor. This means that GBA ROMs won't be on your day-to-day activities, though the smaller ROMs will still work. One distressing finding was the loss of NDS-GBA Linkage. While few game pairings take a strong advantage of this, it's still a loss that may shy some users away. If GBA support isn't something you absolutely need, then this is a moot subject. You'll find everything on the NDS side to be working and pleasurable.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=39966

That's why I would like to get the Perfect instead.  I really want a slot-2 card for the DS that plays GBA games without any problems.

[Franco]

Let's address the one difference between M3 "Perfect" and "Professional". Professional is made strictly for NDS use. By reducing the memory size, which cuts costs and is cheaper for consumers to afford, GBA functionality has been stripped away. If you're considering this product, then you're already omitting GBA playback as a deciding factor. This means that GBA ROMs won't be on your day-to-day activities, though the smaller ROMs will still work. One distressing finding was the loss of NDS-GBA Linkage. While few game pairings take a strong advantage of this, it's still a loss that may shy some users away. If GBA support isn't something you absolutely need, then this is a moot subject. You'll find everything on the NDS side to be working and pleasurable.

    

I didnt realise the Pro was that bad at all for GBA, aparently so! Well it looks like the perfect is the one to go for, just a shame its even more expensive

Thanks for your info in your other post too, most usefull