My Beginner's Guide To M3 Real - Hope its useful

Buying The Card.
First you will need to purchase an M3 Real card for the DS, these are available from a variety of sources use google if you are stuck, you will also need a micro SD card to put the software and Roms on to, these can be 1GB upwards, (a 4GB card will hold about 70 roms).

The M3 cards come in a variety of packs
M3 Rumble pack – this is the M3 card + a rumble pack that plugs in the GBA slot (bottom slot of the DS) and on some games will vibrate to enhance game play. Most Popular and Best Buy.
M3 Rumble Ram Pack, this is as above but the unit will also have a small amount of RAM inside, this allows you to use the DS browser to surf the internet using WiFi – there is not enough RAM to play Gameboy games.
M3 Complete/Perfect, this includes a GBA expansion pack, the expansion pack has more RAM inside but no rumble device, this allows you to play Gameboy Advance Games. If you wish to play Gameboy Advance game roms on your DS you must have an expansion pack – these are available separately if you want one at a later date.

Setting Up The Card
When the card arrives you will see that it looks about the same size as a standard DS game card but with a slot in the top to insert the micro SD. Take the micro SD card and using the supplied (or other) card reader connect it to your computer. Even if the card is brand new it is recommended that you format it, however if the card has been used, even if the files have been deleted the card should definitely be formatted. (FAT32 and a full format not a Quick format).

Once the card is formatted it needs the operating software to be installed, this can be downloaded from
http://www.handheldsources.com/M3DS/Download_M3DSR.html
You need to download the correct region software for your card (if unsure look on the back of the M3 box), store it on the computer and un-zip it by right clicking the file and selecting extract. (Windows XP and Vista will unzip the program without the need for any other specific unzipping program). When unzipped you should find a folder marked “SYSTEM” right click on this and click copy, open the Micro SD card window, right click and paste. The system software is now on the card, to add games you need to make a new folder on the sd card, right click in the micro sd card window (not on the system folder) and go new, folder and you must name this folder NDS (In Capitals) It cannot be any other name or the card will not function correctly.
Double click this folder to open it and put the game roms you want into this folder, (* DO NOT FILL THE CARD – the M3 will automatically generate save files for each game, so you can save your progress, you need to leave room for this to happen, 1MB is required per 2 games, also due to operational limitations no more than 128 Roms should be put in the folder). You can create other folders to add more games, see the instructions on the above website. One thing to consider at this point is, the more games in a folder the longer it takes the M3 software to load at switch on, 70 games in a folder and the software takes about 6-8 seconds.
Once you have put your Roms on to the card it is ready to go, insert into the DS and switch on, the standard DS screen starts (at this point if you have your DS set up to not start the cartridge automatically you will need to select DS cart), then M3 software loads. If all has gone according to plan it will ask you for a language (select yours) and then you should have about 7 (dependant on the software revision) icons, top left is a picture of the DS, double press this with your stylus or highlight and press the A button.

You now have a list of games that are available to play (with icons), move the gamepad control up and down to choose the game and select it with the A button (or double click with the stylus), this gives you another menu with start in the bottom left, click start with the stylus (or press A button) wait a few seconds and away you go. The first time you put the card into the DS (of if you add more games) The software takes a long time to load, this is due to it making a config file – be patient, after this first time it will be much quicker.

Additional Menu Info
On the initial M3 screen there are 7 icons, running left to right – top row first
1) Start the DS game menu
2) Start the GBA game menu - to play GBA roms you need an Expansion pack in the bottom slot
3) File Browser – lets you browse through the folders and files on the card
4) Boot slot – This is where you decide which list of games the M3 card gives you on start up Slot 1 for NDS games, Slot 2 for GBA
5) Multimedia – This is where you start a film or MP3’s if you have them on the card. The films must be encoded in a special format for them to play.
6) PDA – The unit can be used as a basic PDA – not that successful get DSorganise (homebrew program).
7) Setup, the following options are then available.

Boot Icon – currently this can only be set to NO, this option will enable / disable the boot icon on start up
Skin – this is how the M3 menus look when running, colours etc – you can download other skins if you require
Shortcut – Select Main Menu and on start up the unit will start with the 7 icons, select NDS game and it will jump to the game list
System – Selects the language

In the 7 icon menu, if you click the ? in the top right corner – this will tell you which system software is in the card
click the sun icon in the bottom left and you can adjust the brightness of the screen (DSlite only) the higher the brightness the shorter the battery life.

In the above menu’s use the A button to select and the B button to go back to the previous screen

Starting A DS Game Menu The games are shown in a list in the order they were put onto the card, to put them in to Alphabetical order A-Z tap the “name” above the list of games, tap it again and it lists them Z-A this can take several seconds to happen, especially if you have a lot of games on the card. Once you have selected the game to play you will have the following options.
Cheat Switch – In this option you can activate cheat codes, you need to download action replay cheat codes for the game and put them on to the card, this is where you select which cheats to use.
Soft Reset – Rather than switch the DS off and on to change games, you can activate the soft reset, this allows you to press a number of buttons at the same time to return to the game list, however it will work with most games but not all, if the game is not playing correctly or freezing turn this option off
Slow motion switch – You can play the game in slow motion mode if you wish
Slow motion level – If the above option is on – this option determines how slow the game plays.

Also at this point you have the Start button in the bottom right – click to start the game
(Y) Download Play – if you want to join DS units together, or download the program to another DS, Press the Y button at this point, do not press the A button or tap the start icon

Further Bits Of Useful Info
1) For the full info on the card and its properties download and read the Instructions – see weblink above.
2) Soft restart - with this function turned on some games may freeze, if you are having problems with games pausing or running slow - turn this option off and try again.
3) Wifi play, the M3 card does support this and most games work well, for the best chance of trouble free gaming have the same game rom (Same version i.e. European, USA or Japan) in both/all DS’s, then link and play, always use the Y button to start the game.
4) If you do have any issues with games check the SYSTEM software to see if it has already been updated, it is currently updated about every 6 weeks.
5) If problems persist or the unit ceases to function then first try formatting the card and reload clean versions of the system files.
6) If removing a game from your micro card after you have played it, there will be 2 files of the same name one is labelled .SAV this is the save file for the game, if you wish to use the game at a later date then save this to your computer and when putting the game Rom back on to the card add this file as well, if you don’t want to keep your current save position then you can just delete the file.
7) If you start the wrong game DO NOT turn the DS off straight away, allow the game to load then switch it off, SD cards do not like being powered off when downloading information, this can corrupt or destroy the SD card.