NDS Flashcart Chips
So my Nintendo DS-Lite finally died (I've actually worn out some of the buttons), and so I got a DSi. Of course, this broke the R4DS I've been using, and necessitated buying a new flashcart that uses one of the new hacks to get around the changes Nintendo made in the DSi. After some research, the new hotness seemed to be the AceKard 2i.
This new chip is much better than the R4. In no particular order:
This new chip is much better than the R4. In no particular order:
- It supports SDHC, and so I can use an 8GiB MicroSD card, instead of the (slightly limiting) 2GiB card previously
- Less buggy. A lot less buggy. The community firmware is still being actively developed.
- Because of better compatibility, the problem-game list is basically empty, and the problem few can be worked-around by using an alternate memory-access mode (non-DMA)
- Management features that support multiple EEPROM files (savegames) per-game
- It maintains per-game preferences
- GameGenie/Pro-Action-Replay style patching, in like 4 different formats, with multiple databases supported and selectable on a per-game basis
- Actual file management of the FAT filesystem, with nice features like automagically copying your save files if you copy/move a .nds game file
- It seems to maintain its state as simple text .ini files, unlike the monolithic 4MiB binary blob the R4DS used.
- Oh, and I actually seem to be able to set a background/theme reliably, which is nice. The R4 required you to overwrite existing .bmp files, with idiotic names, and hope it found them. It rarely did.