i'm saving up my money after my ez flash v died on me, and wanted a community input on which card (in the general public's opinion) is the best/easiest to use
I've been happy with my DSTT. No issues on running any games so far, menu is simple, but it works perfect. It only cost $5 too, so that's a plus.
Where from-that's TOO cheap... Acekard 2.1 has never let me down-just wait for update to firmware and relax... The 2.i is dsi compatible The cycloDS can only run on ds phat or lite-but it's said to be one of the best.
I've heard great things about the Acekard. The DSTT however, has MANY MANY incompatibilities, ESPECIALLY with homebrew. The Waldo game is totally unplayable,,, On the FEW homebrew games it plays, it will LOCK UP the menu when you pick them, if your battery is low on your DS. It sucks up batteries badly. Avoid the DSTT. Speaking from Experience.
The homebrew thing makes sence. But for the batteries..might be the ds and not the card that casues that... Unless they made a fake dstt that sucks badly
If you have a DSi the only flashcard I could recommend would be the Acekard 2.i. If you have a DS lite get a Cyclo DS for sure. There are some other cheaper alternatives for the DS lite such as: EDGE, TTDS and Acekard 2.1 but they just can't beat Cyclo DS. The reason I can't and will never recommend the Supercard range of products is because they are too freaking slow. And I personally don't like the EZ Flash products because the GUI feels like some sort of unfinished BETA. Believe me get a Cyclo DS. You hardly ever get games that don't work on it and when you do get games that don't work on it t Team Cyclops promptly releases an update.
I'm pretty happy with my Acekard2i. It's skinnable, and unlike most DS flashcarts, it won't drain your battery (be careful about that!). It's also got multiple firmware options, whether your preference be official firmware or unofficial (best choice). Also, its got auto patching for Homebrew, and Rom trimming for removing those little tiny bytes you get from downloading. Of course, these are only the sprinkles on the sundae, and are totally optional and set to off by default. Its also skinnable, and has an easy interface, comparable to a combination of the I-phone navigation combined with Windows, start menu and all. They've also added native MP3 and DPG (Ds Video) support, and support for Text Files and Images. (official firmware only) It also supports WiFi, and download play. Just yesterday morning, my brother and I were playing a Metroid Prime Hunters deathmatch, no slowdown, and the day before that, a Mariokart DS wifi battle, no slowdown. And when a game doesn't work, you can bet your bottom either the official workers will release an update to the firmware, or the unofficial firmware makers will get right on it, especially the AKAIO team, who supplies the best firmware. They're also sold pretty dirt cheap. On realhotstuff you can buy one by itself for a mere 29 dollars, of course, bump it up to having it supplied with a 4 gig micro SDHC and you'll find yourself only having spent 42 clams with 3 day shipping, which is a good deal considering that a 4 gig micro SDHC by itself is 30 dollars. Do these resellers even pay attention to their own prices? They ship from New Jersey if you get it from the store I mentioned, so delivery is pretty fast, especially for me since I live on the same coast (paid for 3 day shipping, only got 2!), but even so there are places that ship from Canada, or its native China. Haven't had a problem with mine yet, and making skins are a blast. Only bad thing is there's no GBA support, but the Acekard when using AKAIO firmware serves as a passme for slot 2 devices, so no gigantor-bulky passmes for your 3-in-1!
dealextreme.com has them for $5.50, free shipping, which takes around 2 weeks. I haven't had any incompatibilities on any homebrew apps. I'm using Moonshell, DSReader, jenesis, & the SNES emulator. Battery life problems, I've never heard of before. My launch day DS phat gets around 8 hours with normal play, which is about what I've always gotten. As for all the bells & whistles NamoNakamura mentioned on the AceKard2i - yeah, it does those too. You can reskin the menu, play Wifi or local multiplayer, it has auto-DLDI patching, in-built ActionReplay, & supports a Slot 2 device for GBA emulation. You can trim ROMs with Miharu's TokyoTrimmer. The only cons are that it displays your ROMs in the order you add them, not in alphabetical or any other logical order. This might be a pro actually, you can see what you've had on the longest versus new games easier. *shrug* The official firmware hasn't been updated in a few months, but unofficial support continues for it. Most games that come out with piracy prevention are bypassed by a cheat code anyway, not new firmware. Related, kind of - when buying a SDHC card, don't skimp on the card's speed class. The higher the class (believe they go Class 2 > 4 > 6), the faster the card. This is what determines how fast a flashcart loads your game list, scrolls through it, & loads games - NOT the flashcard. When people complain 'so & so card is soooo slow', they're being retarded & using some no-name card from Hong Kong or something. The best brand imho is Kingston, followed by SanDisk. Better, name brand cards are much less likely to corrupt as well. Also, I'd get a 4 or 8gb - the 16gb will work, but the DS doesn't handle that high of a capacity well. On my 4gb, I have around 50 DS games, with the aforementioned homebrew apps - that's plenty for me. Ultimately, I see flashcards as a matter of price versus name recognition. I'd rather get the cheapest card, then get a nicer SDHC card. Look for one on eBay from a reputable seller, I payed $10 with shipping for my SanDisk 4gb.
