Nintendo DS

[stephenp1983]

So I think I'm finally going to pick one of these up today at lunch, and wanted a little info about it and some game recommendations.  Right now I think I'm going to pick up the castlevania games and the mario bros one.  I was curious what are the emulation capabilities on a ds as far as like nes and backups?  Is it like a gba where you have a flashcart or whatever? 

Also what other games should I look at.  I like old school 2d platformers if that helps

[AtomSmasher]

Some games I enjoy on the DS are Zelda, Puzzle Quest, and Advance Wars.

[stephenp1983]

Ok cool I found one I think I might get.  its a cyclods or something like that.  Is that a good one or should I go witha  different brand.

[Franco B]

Ive got a M3 DS Simply and can't fault it.

Im glad you are getting NSMB, its awesome. It still gets 80% of my DS time, I must have been through the game at least a dozen times

Anyone know if there are any plans for a NSMB2 or similar?

[big daddy]

Ok cool I found one I think I might get.  its a cyclods or something like that.  Is that a good one or should I go witha  different brand.

Yes, cyclods is one of the better ones.  Tad more expensive than some alternatives, is the only drawback, but its support and compatibility are 2nd to none. 

My 2 work flawlessly.

[fjl]

I kind of like the puzzle games for the DS. My favorite is Tetris. It's an awesome new installation of the game that is way addicting. Good luck finding a copy though. The Brain Age games are fun at first but then they suck. At least for me. I only have Brain Age 2 and the only reason I keep playing it is for the Virus Buster/Dr. Mario mini game in it. It's really fun. That and Sudoku. It's only $20 bucks so its worth it. I hear Picross is a lot of fun as well. I plan to get that. Also the DS version of Bust A Move.

A new game that just came out for the DS and got a lot of hype was a game called, The World Ends With You. I plan to get that as well. Of course MarioKart is a lot of fun as are the CastleVania games. I only played the first, I still want to get Portrait of Ruin. Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, Zelda Phantom Hourglass Worms: Open Warfare, Advance Wars. Remember the DS has Wi-Fi capability which makes it a lot of fun.

Elite Beat agents is also a blast to play.

[stephenp1983]

picked a black one up with mario bros at lunch.  I'm going to look into the carts and probably ask a few more questions before I buy one of them.

I wanted one of the castlevania games but walmart didn't have it.  I'll probably have to find it at gamestop

[Red]

I have a Black Nintendo DS Lite System with a CycloDS MicroSD 2GB Card for sale in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum here if anyone is interested.  Thanks.

Red

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=81388.0

[420]

Remember - CycloDS will require a flashed BIOS or a PassMe to play .nds files off of it.

No it doesn't. 

...and yes Cyclods is one of the better cards for your money.

[jfunk]

Yeah, the CycloDS doesn't require any PassMe or flashed BIOS..  Mine worked great right out of the box 

And, as was suggested to me, MarioKart DS is AWESOME. 

[shardian]

Remember - CycloDS will require a flashed BIOS or a PassMe to play .nds files off of it.

No it doesn't. 

...and yes Cyclods is one of the better cards for your money.

Odds are you are both talking about different cards. There are slot 1 cards and slot 2 cards. Since the OP was talking about GBA emulation, Jim was probably referring to the GBA front slot of the DS. In this case, the guy would need a ds game slot card, or a PASSME, or a flashed bios.

Most people simply buy the ds slot card - the CycloDS Evolution. This card does not support GBA emulation.

In summary, CycloDS is not enough info. You need to follow CycloDS with Mini, Micro, or Evo.

[Hoagie_one]

I got my DS on launch day...loved it...haven't really played it in over a year though.

[big daddy]

Remember - CycloDS will require a flashed BIOS or a PassMe to play .nds files off of it.

No it doesn't. 

...and yes Cyclods is one of the better cards for your money.

Odds are you are both talking about different cards. There are slot 1 cards and slot 2 cards. Since the OP was talking about GBA emulation, Jim was probably referring to the GBA front slot of the DS. In this case, the guy would need a ds game slot card, or a PASSME, or a flashed bios.

Most people simply buy the ds slot card - the CycloDS Evolution. This card does not support GBA emulation.

In summary, CycloDS is not enough info. You need to follow CycloDS with Mini, Micro, or Evo.

To be clear, CycloDS IS enough to play nds roms, and NO flash is required for that.  I know as I have 2 of them that worked right out of the box.   Now to play GBA emulation, I believe you're correct in that you need something else to do that(expansion pack?), but I haven't done that so can't comment. 

I don't know what the other poster is talking about in regards to cyclods versus cyclods evolution?  If I search google for cyclods all the hits returned are for the evolution.  Is there even any other thing? 

[shardian]

Is there even any other thing? 

As I said, yes. The Micro and the Mini both go in the front slot of your DS. The Evolution has no way to interact with the GBA side of the DS. IIRC, you can play some actual DS games on a Micro or Mini w/o the extra pass card, but you are limited to a very small game file size.